-Ryan Posted March 12, 2011 Share Posted March 12, 2011 Don't think I know of anyone here that lives in Japan, but everyone fine nonetheless? Okay... So let me get this straight... So far i've heard theres an 8.9 earthquake, a tsunami, a nuclear plant meltdown, and what is SARS? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cornflakes Posted March 12, 2011 Share Posted March 12, 2011 SARS is an old illness. People were worried about it after 9/11. Yeah...Japan's not doing too well atm. :sad01_anim: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThisIsJ Posted March 12, 2011 Share Posted March 12, 2011 Yeah, Japan got hit really hard. The videos of the wave were insane. Hopefully they can control the damage to the powerplant before it gets any worse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shamasii Posted March 12, 2011 Share Posted March 12, 2011 There was an 8.9 earthquake, and the earthquake caused the tsunami and also cause the roof on the nuclear power plant to collapse. As far as I know the nuclear power plant hasn't actually melted down yet, they are just afraid of it happening though. There was an explosion caused by hydrogen (not radioactive), but some radioactive material was release and right now there is an evacuation. And I have no idea what SARS is...I just googled it and I found it was Severe acute respiratory syndrome...I haven't really seen anything about that...where did you see that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyler. Posted March 12, 2011 Share Posted March 12, 2011 it makes me sad to see the suffering the only good news is the death toll is expected to stay low since Japan is very earthquake prepared still, the devestation is unbearable to watch I'm thinking of Japan and hope that things will get better Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olivia_D Posted March 12, 2011 Share Posted March 12, 2011 Japan was horribly tragic. My prayers go out to everyone out there and to who all have family in Japan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjoudrey Posted March 12, 2011 Share Posted March 12, 2011 My brother is over there right now. he is fine, but it's a terrible time for him to be over there on vacation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antiaircraft Posted March 15, 2011 Share Posted March 15, 2011 My condolences and best wishes to Japan - and kudos for their excellent emergency response. :yes: Hopefully they'll make a strong recovery before too long. Just to clarify on the nuclear power plant issue, here's what happened: Most, if not all, of Japan's nuclear power plants (and many other facilities) have systems that automatically shut them down in the event of an earthquake or similar incident, to minimise the risk of an accident. Fukushima I, like any good little Japanese nuclear power plant, automatically shut down when the earthquake hit. Nuclear power plants require cooling systems to keep them stable and prevent a meltdown. When the reactor shuts down, the material inside it generates a lot of heat for a few days afterwards, and since the plant is no longer generating power, the cooling system can't run on the plant's electricity to deal with this. Fortunately the plant's engineers already thought of this, so the cooling systems could simply be switched over to the standard power grid. Unfortunately the earthquake heavily damaged the power grid, leaving it unable to supply the power needed to run the cooling systems. Fortunately the engineers thought of that as well, and switched on their backup diesel generators to keep the cooling systems running. Unfortunately seawater from the tsunami overflowed the sea wall protecting the plant and flooded the generator building, killing the generators and shutting down the cooling systems. Fortunately the engineers had anticipated this too, and kept their control systems running off backup batteries. Additional batteries were brought in from other plants to keep the controls running. Portable generators were deployed in less than 13 hours, ready to be hooked up to the cooling systems to save the plant. Unfortunately, the tsunami also managed to flood the switching equipment needed to connect these generators. While the engineers worked frantically to connect the generators elsewhere, the cooling systems were no longer able to keep the reactors cool, and they started to go into meltdown. Even more unfortunately, the meltdown gave off explosive hydrogen gas, which began to build up. Fortunately the engineers had developed safety systems to automatically ignite any hydrogen gas build-up before enough of it accumulated to become explosive. Unfortunately these safety systems needed power to run. Uh-oh. Fortunately the engineers had made sure to build their containment buildings sturdily, and very little (if any) radioactive material escaped in the explosions. Unfortunately, the explosions seem to have critically damaged the cooling systems needed to save the plant. Ahh. It's tough being an engineer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xerophyte Posted March 15, 2011 Share Posted March 15, 2011 Someone I know lives in Japan along with his wife and daughter, but I've just received word from them that they're doing alright. *relief* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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