[srishiva]

I was really laughing when I saw news reports quoting Indian officials saying our nuclear reactors have better safety.
This when the U.S is wondering if this can happen with the Japanese who are known to be technologically advanced and very stringent in following norms.

Its also interesting to note that everyone in the world are not rushing to help since they know they cant do anything more than what the Japanese could do themselves. Hoping the issue gets resolved very soon

[CPH]

Originally Posted by srishiva

I was really laughing when I saw news reports quoting Indian officials saying our nuclear reactors have better safety.
This when the U.S is wondering if this can happen with the Japanese who are known to be technologically advanced and very stringent in following norms.

Its also interesting to note that everyone in the world are not rushing to help since they know they cant do anything more than what the Japanese could do themselves. Hoping the issue gets resolved very soon

This is not quite true. Japan is as backward as most other countries in this world. You only need to go to the international patent office and you will see that they just buy every patent they might be able to use, which have been worked out by individuals like you and me.

Toyota has a development centre in Germany established because they had so badly fared on safety and not be able to develop cars on par with European safety standards. Then things are being diluted. Other Japanese companies have places in other parts of the world doing the same.

In 1995 when the Kobe earth quake struck it took the Japanese 3 days to come to terms with what happened. 24 hours after the quake the Technisches Hilfswerk had already heavy equipment in operation despite covering 9250km. The Japanese authorities even delayed the search dogs of the THW coming in. A couple of hours later the Australian teams wer working alongside the THW and the same day the French, British and organisations from other countries were following within hours.

The Fukushima reactors are designed by General Electric, which is American.

And you might want to read this link regarding the quality of the reactors.

Fukushima Reactor Flaws Were Predicted

[vb-saan]

Originally Posted by CPH

This is not quite true. Japan is as backward as most other countries in this world. You only need to go to the international patent office and you will see that they just buy every patent they might be able to use, which have been worked out by individuals like you and me.

Toyota has a development centre in Germany established because they had so badly fared on safety and not be able to develop cars on par with European safety standards. Then things are being diluted. Other Japanese companies have places in other parts of the world doing the same.

In 1995 when the Kobe earth quake struck it took the Japanese 3 days to come to terms with what happened. 24 hours after the quake the Technisches Hilfswerk had already heavy equipment in operation despite covering 9250km. The Japanese authorities even delayed the search dogs of the THW coming in. A couple of hours later the Australian teams wer working alongside the THW and the same day the French, British and organisations from other countries were following within hours.

The Fukushima reactors are designed by General Electric, which is American.

And you might want to read this link regarding the quality of the reactors.

Fukushima Reactor Flaws Were Predicted

Completely disagree on the opening line. Japan is much more advanced in infrastructure (in comparison with many of the European nations), and their attention to detail is immaculate. I have been to Japan many times, and I can vouch for this from my personal experience.

They are always prepared for natural calamities like earthquakes, and the calmness they display in these kind of situation is amazing. They have learned it in the hard way, from each of the disasters happened in the past (include the Kobe quake, which was 15 yrs back). Their methodical and measured reactions to an incident may look like lack of activity, but they very well know what they are doing.

And another thing to note is that, they are always atmost careful of their population and the population around them. Whatever they do with the reactors, they will try to ensure to the maximum that the life around them (including the marine life) is not impacted.

On the cars, I agree to what you said. Japanese cars are normally light and compact, and there is no harm in getting technological know-how from Europe on the safety standards. It is indeed a give & take business.

What the Japanese population were not really prepared for this time was the Tsunami, and I am sure they'll emerge stronger from this experience.

[maddy42]

Well CPH has a good point of view. This damage has happened to Japan and lets stick to that topic. The indian pov will lead to arguments but i just feel india should kiss its nuclear plants good bye. The amount of opposition which will be faced will be too great to counter.

An article on tehelka also talks about the same and have taken live examples from TN where incidents of leaks and accidents have occured.

My prayers with you Japan. I hope you quickly bounce back

[lohithrao]

Our scientists are making statements that our nuclear reactors are safer but the facts come out when such calamities strike, though i pray that we never see such day.
none knows what will happen when a earthquake measuring 9 or more magnitude hits we can just assume and make some guess, until nothing happens its good but if something does then we are on are way towards ruins!

Hope our government and scientists give a deep thought on this and atleast make sure that we dont build new once, Jaitapur is concerning!

btw came across this, if its true cant get more disgusting!
Cong paid MPs to vote for N-deal: WikiLeaks - India News - IBNLive

[chevelle]

Potential Earthquake in Northern California. (Mar 19- Mar 26).

YouTube - Earthquake Prediction 2011 Jim Berkland - A Major Earthquake in North America Imminent

Earthquake Prediction California, San Francisco, Los Angeles, recent, earthquake, San Diego, Eureka, San Bernardino.

Is California Due for a Big Earthquake? - FoxNews.com

Suppose to hit bay area. Dates given - Mar 19-26. I urge members to share this and alert friends and relatives.

Since i come in the same zone, i will be preparing emergency kit today as a precautionary measure.

A couple of bridges near my home have been closed down for this period. Read yesterday on notice board it was because of maintenance work, but today, i realized its because of earthquake prediction.

[Rahulkool]

Originally Posted by srishiva

I was really laughing when I saw news reports quoting Indian officials saying our nuclear reactors have better safety.
This when the U.S is wondering if this can happen with the Japanese who are known to be technologically advanced and very stringent in following norms.

Its also interesting to note that everyone in the world are not rushing to help since they know they cant do anything more than what the Japanese could do themselves. Hoping the issue gets resolved very soon

Its really true that our nuclear reactors have better safety standard, at least the ones we are building right now. I was talking one of my relatives who is working on two them as a scientist, told me that the newer ones are lot better and have better safety standards. ie. the generators are fitted on 3 floors high structures, it was very expensive to fit them at higher level. There are many such things .....

[CPH]

@ vb-san - I have plenty of experience with the Japanese and so has my family. And we are not impressed with their kind of organisation in comparison with other countries.

It was reported that emergency pumps were brought in because the equipment there was swept away. But they finally run out of fuel.

The THW is the worlds best organised emergency organisation. They had to travel over 9000km bringing in heavy equipment in less than 24 hours after the incident occurred. The THW is working all over the world helping out when natural disasters happen. The THW is a part governmental and part private organisation in one European country.

I wonder what is easier: Organising some equipment within the country or getting transport planes special equipment volunteers, flight permissions, thousands of kilometers covered and touching down less than 24 hours after the incident occured?

The reality is that many people died because the precautions made were not sufficient. This is part of being organised. Thousands of people are being stranded and they can't get enough food. Where are the emergency contingents? There is a lot more to it.

[anjan_c2007]

Was reading on a German website that they are checking the Lufthansa planes returning from Japan, for radioactivity. The result is negative.
As Indians we are very sympathetic and feel very sad at the turn of events in Japan. During our lifetime we have never seen such a catastrophe in Japan ever! The Hiroshima tragedy took place when nearly all of us on this forum were not born.
I had worked with the Japanese for a few weeks on two occasions (here in India) and found them much to be better human beings as compared to many other foreigners who look down upon us as a race.The Japanese are quite humble, have dignity of labour (do all sorts of menial jobs if need be), are very, very hard working and are great nationalists.They are great businessmen too. Their love for their motherland is to be seen to be believed.
Restoring the country to normalcy will be their priority. They will do so soon. Their resilience is terrific! The Hiroshima bombing reduced Japan to ashes in the 1940's and by the 1990's they had become the second largest economic power in the world after the US. Its only in 2010 that China has emerged as the no. 2, displacing Japan to no. 3 due to the global recession and low demand for their products worldwide.
We are also talking about the tsunami-quake disaster's effect on our market and the cars. Well I read that even the Alto has a few components imported from Japan.The Fortuner, Camry, Kizashi and many other models are made with nearly fully imported kits or as CBU's as we all know.
Suzuki's Hammamatsu plant is safe but they say the ancillary industries are spread out over long distances. The Suzuki headquarters was to review the situation and come out with facts.
Perhaps by next week the picture will be clearer for most automobile manufacturers.
But lets all pray that the impending nuclear catastrophe will get away causing the least damage to a ravaged nation.Our heartfelt sympathies are on a 24 X 7 basis with the Japanese!

[vb-saan]

Originally Posted by CPH

The reality is that many people died because the precautions made were not sufficient. This is part of being organised. Thousands of people are being stranded and they can't get enough food. Where are the emergency contingents? There is a lot more to it.

Not for an arguement here. Your points are well-taken. I feel that if this disaster was in any other place (maybe with an exception of Germany or Switzerland), the damage could have been 10-fold.

Just read online that THW folks are being deployed in Japan. That should further speed up the rescue operations.

Extract from THW website:
Acting on the instructions of the Federal Government, the THW is deploying a 40-strong team from the Rapid Deployment Unit Search and Rescue Abroad (SEEBA) to Japan tomorrow, Saturday. The SEEBA operatives are specialists in search and rescue operations in disaster areas. Additionally, four THW experts are already on their way to the affected area to assist the Germany embassy in Tokyo with situation assessment and fact-finding operations to determine which further relief measures could best be offered.

Originally Posted by anjan_c2007

I had worked with the Japanese for a few weeks on two occasions (here in India) and found them much to be better human beings as compared to many other foreigners who look down upon us as a race.The Japanese are quite humble, have dignity of labour (do all sorts of menial jobs if need be), are very, very hard working and are great nationalists.They are great businessmen too. Their love for their motherland is to be seen to be believed.

Restoring the country to normalcy will be their priority. They will do so soon. Their resilience is terrific! The Hiroshima bombing reduced Japan to ashes in the 1940's and by the 1990's they had become the second largest economic power in the world after the US. Its only in 2010 that China has emerged as the no. 2, displacing Japan to no. 3 due to the global recession and low demand for their products worldwide.

Yes, I am so amazed with the calmness they're showing during this grim situation. On Tuesday I was speaking to a friend there, and she said it took hours for her to reach office, but she took the pain because the payroll run for her company was her duty. And she said no way she can delay the payroll because at this time employees are more in need of money. Truely amazing folks!

[myavu]

What about other manufactures? Is there any cars shipped directly to India from Japan?

Nissan scanning vehicles for radioactive material - CNN.com


Nissan scanning vehicles for radioactive material

From Kyung Lah, CNN
March 18, 2011 -- Updated 0710 GMT (1510 HKT)


Nissan Motors' pickup trucks line up for export to the Middle East area as a freighter approaches to the Nissan pier at the Yokohama port, Kanagawa prefecture, 15 September 2006.



Tokyo (CNN) -- Nissan has started scanning vehicles made in Japan for traces of radioactive material, a company official said Friday.
"Looking ahead, we will continue to implement all appropriate measures to reassure the public that all products from our company remain within globally accepted safety standards and until we are confident that any risk of contamination is completely removed," said Simon Sproule, corporate vice president of marketing for Nissan Motor Company.
Sproule said the monitoring began this week.
Sources inside the company said there is virtually no risk of contamination from a car and no potential health risk to customers, but testing began because of public concern.
Production at several Nissan facilities remains suspended after a 9.0-magnitude earthquake damaged plants and equipment on March 11, the company said in a statement Thursday.

[sgiitk]

Originally Posted by navpreet318

Lets take for example the tehri dam.The THDC say that this dam was made with 8.4 magnitude earthquake........

What some have predicted is that if the dam falls, there will be a 40 foot high wave sweeping down haridwar and you can imagine this will take the whole of UP, Bihar and West bengal with it.

Remember Koyna. Also, I hear cement becomes fragile after prolonged exposure to water. So what about Bhakra. when it was made earthquake engineering was in its infancy, and also has been full for five decades.!

Of course 'God is an Indian' but then ... someday even he may forget. One thing though in the Bhuj quake, oen set of buildings which survived were the Govt ones, very conservatively designed with large pillars, which even our greedy contractors could not mess up as much.

I think few will doubt that the construction / real estate industry is arguably the most corrupt in the country.

[navpreet318]

About the Bhakra Dam.I guess you might be knowing that there already has been a deflection of about 1.5 inches in the structure.
About the cement i don't know about it getting fragile on general.But if the mixture set is not made properly then it crumbles easily.Another issue is curing.These people just do not do the curing while construction which is an absolute must.I have personally seen what these govt engineers do at the project site.They simply have a regular pay package from the private company working at the site and they are not concerned with anything.
There were instances when we had to slam the files on the table and call the head of the department and tell them we cannot work with these kind of demands.They demanded we make a weak structure and pay them the money saved.As much being in a private company we would like to earn there is something known as conscious also.Our souls were just not permitting us to do what these guys wanted.Heads rolled multiple times and only we know how we completed the 304 MW project.Even then i'll give you another example of gross corruption and overlooking major things.

I won't give too many details as this is an open forum.So this project was supposed to have a head of X meters.But the water level is X-5 meters till now.The project has been commissioned 3 years ago but its still the same.It is costing the govt. 200 crores annually as losses.
Why?---Because the other company which has built the dam conveniently forgot to build a protection wall on the two sides of the dam so that flooding of the surrounding inhabited areas does not take place.
So lets see who all forgot the work-Company,Engineers at the site,Engineers at the department in charge of the project.Everyone.
And guess what? they had already paid the company for building the wall without a trace of the wall.

Now what do they do?

They can't stop the pond or release the water.It will put too much pressure on the dam that follows it.
So they will now grot the Sides of the pond and build a wall over it.
Also they will Relocate the nearby people to a better place which will cost us taxpayers crores of rupees.
All for the greed of black money.

So now where do we stand?If these companies can do things like these then forget about build quality.

[lohithrao]

This is the reason why Indians have so much faith in god! the more we learn about such facts them more we feel disgraced!

We are lucky till now but am not sure for how long!!!

Originally Posted by navpreet318

About the Bhakra Dam.I guess you might be knowing that there already has been a deflection of about 1.5 inches in the structure.
About the cement i don't know about it getting fragile on general.But if the mixture set is not made properly then it crumbles easily.Another issue is curing.These people just do not do the curing while construction which is an absolute must.I have personally seen what these govt engineers do at the project site.They simply have a regular pay package from the private company working at the site and they are not concerned with anything.
There were instances when we had to slam the files on the table and call the head of the department and tell them we cannot work with these kind of demands.They demanded we make a weak structure and pay them the money saved.As much being in a private company we would like to earn there is something known as conscious also.Our souls were just not permitting us to do what these guys wanted.Heads rolled multiple times and only we know how we completed the 304 MW project.Even then i'll give you another example of gross corruption and overlooking major things.

I won't give too many details as this is an open forum.So this project was supposed to have a head of X meters.But the water level is X-5 meters till now.The project has been commissioned 3 years ago but its still the same.It is costing the govt. 200 crores annually as losses.
Why?---Because the other company which has built the dam conveniently forgot to build a protection wall on the two sides of the dam so that flooding of the surrounding inhabited areas does not take place.
So lets see who all forgot the work-Company,Engineers at the site,Engineers at the department in charge of the project.Everyone.
And guess what? they had already paid the company for building the wall without a trace of the wall.

Now what do they do?

They can't stop the pond or release the water.It will put too much pressure on the dam that follows it.
So they will now grot the Sides of the pond and build a wall over it.
Also they will Relocate the nearby people to a better place which will cost us taxpayers crores of rupees.
All for the greed of black money.

So now where do we stand?If these companies can do things like these then forget about build quality.

[chevelle]

Video: Japan driver films his car being engulfed by tsunami - Telegraph

a video of car being hit by tsunami. Luckily the driver survived.

Driver's word - "When I turned the corner I could see the wall of water. At that moment I could do nothing else but keep driving.
"Water came up and the car was floating in the water. I was panicked, the water was probably two metres high. If I came out of the car I thought I would be caught in the water as well so I thought I would wait until it had come down."


God Bless Japan.