T1B

Willie McGee wrote:Rack this tsunami for assplundering Japan on a FRIDAY, 3/11 right during the conference tourneys. Seeing the footage tonight while eating a club sub and Doritos was uplifting and really put things into perspective. Hopefully there will be even more fallout including nuclear meltdowns to really keep the momentum going.

BSmack wrote:

Willie McGee wrote:Rack this tsunami for assplundering Japan on a FRIDAY, 3/11 right during the conference tourneys. Seeing the footage tonight while eating a club sub and Doritos was uplifting and really put things into perspective. Hopefully there will be even more fallout including nuclear meltdowns to really keep the momentum going.

Good point. Seeing Japan get annihilated did take the edge of SU choking against the cheaters from Storrs.

Carson wrote:Only jizzmopper and FUK STK 2 could turn this thread into a political discussion.

OCmike wrote:I went to two years of Navy Nuclear Power school. Is that good enough?

So you're left with two options: Open relief valves and release highly-irradiated steam into the air (pretty much a cancer cloud) or wait until a welded seam or pipe joint bursts and release ALL OF IT in one big uncontrolled KA-BOOSH! of radioactive steam and water. In case you haven't figured it out, option #2 is really fucking bad.

(CNN) -- An explosion at an earthquake-damaged nuclear plant was not caused by damage to the nuclear reactor but by a pumping system that failed as crews tried to bring the reactor's temperature down, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said Saturday.

The next step for workers at the Fukushima Daiichi plant will be to flood the reactor containment structure with sea water to bring the reactor's temperature down to safe levels, he said. The effort is expected to take two days.

OCmike wrote:Saltwater from the Pacific is about 60 degrees +/-. What do you think happens if you splash 60 degree water into a condenser that's 200+ degrees? See: Uncontrolled KA-BOOSH! above.

LTS TRN 2 wrote:Think solar! :wink:

Carson wrote:Looks like Fate made the call:

(CNN) -- An explosion at an earthquake-damaged nuclear plant was not caused by damage to the nuclear reactor but by a pumping system that failed as crews tried to bring the reactor's temperature down, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said Saturday.

No, that means a politician or a dumbass made the call. They teach rookie operators on any type of steam plant on day one what not to do with a hot condenser.

So the explosion you describe is this:

What do you think happens if you splash 60 degree water into a condenser that's 200+ degrees? See: Uncontrolled KA-BOOSH! above.

Screw_Michigan wrote:

Carson wrote:Only jizzmopper and FUK STK 2 could turn this thread into a political discussion.

B-B-B-But The Seer started it!

OCmike wrote:Now their problem is this: Does Japan have any heroes like those FDNY firefighters that went up the stairs of the towers knowing they weren't coming back? Because someone's going to have to strap on a radiation suit and walk into that glowing reactor control room to manually release a shitload of steam, all while absorbing a bazillion rads and punching his own ticket. He'd be dead man walking on the way out, if he makes it that long.

Dinsdale wrote:God DAMN, you should see what it's like on the Left Coast.

The small surge in Hawaii is good news.

Since they revamped the warning system (since the old one didn't work, and Evil W was pretty adamant on fixing it after Indonesia), this is the first time it went off. Apparently, it's a success, since it woke every non-deaf motherfucker on the Coast up. And a few of them might even be able to get out of town after the lines at the gas station (not too many 24 hours stations at the Coast), and then the lines to get on the hiway out of town.

I have a feeling we won't be hearing from Q, West Coast for at least a few hours -- they were predicting the biggest waves down south, right around his neck of the woods... assuming he's not a heavy sleeper.

The NOAA is building their new HQ in Newport ($20 mil of your tax dollars at work, to claim global warming is causing _______ this week). They just had someone involved in the construction on the local news (the building sits on pilings in the water, just inside Yaquina Bay), and dude says it's the exact wrong point during the construction to deal with a tsunami, since they just got pilings/piers in, and they're not secured. If that does come to fruition (there seems to be a formula -- whatever the dickweeds predict for carnage, multiply it by a factor of 0.3 and it's probably in the ballpark.

Been 47 years since anyone died in a tsunami in Oregon (and they were californians, so they don't count for full value), and hopefully by the end of this morning, that streak stays intact.



City Hall could be burning to the ground right now, and the newsies wouldn't know it... it'a allll tsunami, all the time. Which has already produced some priceless moments...

One local channel has a reporter right on the boardwalk in Seaside (right above the beach... GOOOOOO DARWIN!!!!!). After being asked if there were any signs of the tsunami (30 minutes after the NOAA said it would hit, based on the always-accurate computer models, that also said two adjacent beaches would get hit 12 minutes apart... funny stuff) he said something to the æffect of... and you can't make this shit up..

Dude responds "well, I've been watching the surf for about two hours, and noted some landmarks on the beach. The tsunami must be getting close, because over the last two hours, the marks that were on the edge of the surf are now slightly underwater."


No, dude actually said that. I was embarrassed for him. Although I guess it was his lucky day, since it was obviously his first trip to the beach -- if not for the reporting assignment, he'd be the DB that loses his shoes on the beach because for some odd, super-mysterious, inexplicable reason, the water came up.

Gotta give props to the head of the state geology department they had on, though -- the cameras they have trained on the beach had some happy-go-lucky beachcomber dude walking by, right as they were split-screen interviewing geology dude, who, live on air, said beachcomber dude was "just doing his part to clean up the gene pool." I laughed like a mofo.

Some of these reporters (and the reporters who are at the station to head to the Coast at 3AM are always the cream-of-the-crop) are a hoot. Since there's rough surf on an incoming tide in March on the North Coast, it must have something to do with the quake in Japan.

Surf's actually rough as all get out this morning (not the slightest bit unusual this time of year).


We're over an hours past when the geniuses at the NOAA said the surge was coming. Ain't seen it yet. Although, some places on the Coast, especially the northern part, it starts to get shallow a ways off the shoreline, which would theoretically make any incoming surge much higher than open ocean, or Hawaii... we'll see how that works out. If I didn't have stuff to do, and it was a little later in the day, I'd trek on down to Seaside (I assume the warrant they have on me has expired by now... over parking in the wrong place), and hike on up Tillamook Head (which is nowhere near Tillamook), and sit on the cliff (must be 500' up), and dangle my legs over the edge, crack a beer, and watch the show. But I guess I'll get some work done instead.

Carson wrote: ...or Spock.

Government spokesman Yukio Edano said an explosion caused by vented hydrogen gas destroyed the exterior walls of the building...

The explosion was caused by hydrogen interacting with oxygen outside the reactor. The hydrogen was formed when the superheated fuel rods came in contact with water being poured over it to prevent a meltdown.

Edano said the radiation around the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant had not risen after the blast, but had in fact decreased. He did not say why that was so.

LTS TRN 2 wrote:
WASHINGTON — A spending plan approved by the House would slash funding for a tsunami warning center that issued an alarm after the devastating earthquake in Japan.

The plan approved by the GOP-controlled House last month would trigger deep cuts for the National Weather Service, including the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii.

OCmike wrote: Now their problem is this: Does Japan have any heroes like those FDNY firefighters that went up the stairs of the towers knowing they weren't coming back? Because someone's going to have to strap on a radiation suit and walk into that glowing reactor control room to manually release a shitload of steam, all while absorbing a bazillion rads and punching his own ticket. He'd be dead man walking on the way out, if he makes it that long.

LTS TRN 2 wrote:
Think solar!

OCmike wrote: Does Japan have any heroes like those FDNY firefighters that went up the stairs of the towers knowing they weren't coming back?

War Wagon wrote:

OCmike wrote: Does Japan have any heroes like those FDNY firefighters that went up the stairs of the towers knowing they weren't coming back?

I don't know about that but I'll have to rack the Japs in that I haven't seen any reports of looting yet and it's doubtful there will be much if any of that going on. I also doubt that there are many other countries where that could be said after a disaster of this magnitude.

FUK STK 2 wrote:... it's the U.S. plans for sneaking back into the nuclear power racket going up in smoke.

missjo wrote:Screw global warming
The Governments of the world who allowed Nuclear testing by drilling thousands of Kms into the Earths Crust to test atomic & nuclear bombs I think have a lot to answer for with all the Bombs let off in the South Pacific region it had to have affected the movement of the Tectonic Plates

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapons_testing

mvscal wrote:True more modern plant designs are safer, but I wouldn't knock that 40 year old design either. It withstood an earthquake powerful enough to move the entire island chain eight feet and shift the earth's axis, followed up a gigantic tsunami which knocked out all back up power not to mention numerous powerful aftershocks.

After all that, the partial meltdown did not breach the containment vessel and release of radiation was minimal. This is not a nuclear disaster story. It is a nuclear success story.

mvscal wrote: It withstood an earthquake powerful enough to move the entire island chain eight feet and shift the earth's axis

Dr_Phibes wrote:

mvscal wrote: It withstood an earthquake powerful enough to move the entire island chain eight feet and shift the earth's axis

That sounds like a misnomer,

Dan Vogel wrote:This magnitude of this tragedy is unlike anything I've seen in my life.

Dinsdale wrote:


Since the Tsunami Center in Hawaii does pretty much nothing except repeat what the Tsunami Center in Alaska says.

Complete redundant and useless, and should never have been there in the first place. Just like every other government monstrosity, the NWS and NOAA are just going to keep expanding and expanding, and making up bullshit reasons why they need more money out of everyone's pocket to produce absolutely nothing, and contribute absolutely nothing of value to the USA.

mvscal wrote:True more modern plant designs are safer, but I wouldn't knock that 40 year old design either. It withstood an earthquake powerful enough to move the entire island chain eight feet and shift the earth's axis, followed up a gigantic tsunami which knocked out all back up power not to mention numerous powerful aftershocks.

After all that, the partial meltdown did not breach the containment vessel and release of radiation was minimal. This is not a nuclear disaster story. It is a nuclear success story.

LTS TRN 2 wrote:Japan's safety standards are far beyond ours

The future of energy production is alternative sources, starting with wind. Right now America has tremendous opportunities for wind power--starting in Montana, etc.

LTS TRN 2 wrote: After all, we put men on the moon in the 1960's.

LTS TRN 2 wrote:As for wind power, well, guess what, wags? The oil companies sure as shit don't want all that clean and cheap power cutting deep into their profits. Or what?

LTS TRN 2 wrote:Really, how about 20% of our current energy requirements coming just from Montana alone? Now add in another five or six prairie states and do the math. Fact is, these thoroughly co-opted GOP ass wipes are digging in their heels against alternative fuels and going whole hog with the disastrous Planet Corn route.