robin1234

Well there are many different branches of the "western news." The ones I generally follow are National Public Radio, BBC Radio 4, and the New York Times. Their reporting seems to be pretty sober and fact-based.

paddingtongreen

I don't want to dispute that these people are heroes, but while they are taking a risk of a sudden turn for the worse, they are working in controlled conditions as far as dosage is concerned. There is a lifetime number, based on one's age minus twenty years, times the maximum dosage rate. The difference between actual dosage and this life time allowable is available for heroic actions.

Understand that for some unknown reason, nuclear and Xray and other such machine radiation is limited to much lower levels than say coal miners and airline flight personnel because it is "man made"; only man made radiation is monitored. They did pull them out for a while when the radiation spiked which, indicates that they are controlling dosage.

meauxna

I have no link, but read two days ago that there are 6 employees with "full on radiation sickness".

Those of us of a certain generation are taking it harder than others (among ppl I know), it's sort of an interesting divide. But the nuclear threat was the 'menace' of my youth so it strikes a certain.. deep chord, I guess.

Michael

Finally some good news. It was just reported that the Japanese have completed laying a new power cable to the site, They still have to test it and connect it to the plant.

Although many of plants probably have damage to the control panels caused by the blasts and probably can't use the power directly, if they can get the cooling pumps working, that will go a long way towards getting the reactors under control.

SultanOfSwing

Definitely a step in the right direction. A long way to go yet but how nice is it to hear some good news for a change

Michael

In the following link, the NRC ranks the possibility of a nuclear reactor core being damaged by an earthquake.

Surprisingly Diablo Canyon is ranked 15th and San Onofre is ranked 46th.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42103936...cific/42088981

meauxna

Thank you for reporting these things here, Michael. I can't bear to read the news but it is nice to know the highlights of what is going on.

N1cky

How many heartbreaking stories must there be like this, I'm sat reading this and can't stop the tears rolling down

Mr Suzuki has not yet found the name of his wife on the lists of victims or survivors What he knows is that Izumi was at home and, as the tsunami approached, leapt in her car to escape with their two children and Tatsuya's mother.

The family lived in the fishing port of Yuriage which was devastated by the waves. Where there was a town of several thousand now almost nothing remains.

The Suzuki's home, like almost every other one down by the harbour, has vanished.

What you can see is where Izumi fled to. She made it just a few hundred metres down the road.

As the waves crashed through the town, she stopped in front of a cousin's house. That house is still there, with debris piled all around.

With her mother-in-law she jumped out of her car, and seeing the tsunami coming up the road, they ran across the street carrying the two children.

They were heading for another cousin's house because it was made of steel. Izumi reached the steps.

She handed the two children to her mother-in-law who pulled them inside just as the tsunami reached them. Izumi was swept away by the waves.

The children ran to the second floor of the building and survived. The house they found refuge in is now one of the few things left standing in the area.

Izumi Suzuki had managed to get her children to the safety of a relative's house

Sally Redux

Sad stories indeed, and how difficult it will be for a long time after it's newsworthy, as with Haiti, Pakistan etc.

Michael

There appears to be a little more good news. It was just announced that they are bringing a fire truck to the site so this probably means that the road has been completed to the site.

I wondered how they were going to fill the spent rod pool in reactor 4 since apparently it is impossible to get very close to the pool due to radiation and heat. I suspect that since the side of that building is damaged, they will try to spray water from the fire truck hoping that they can hit the pool through the hole in the side of the building. I don't know if that will work since from recent reports, the pool is completely dry.

Korea is sending 53 tons of boron to Japan which will be used to control fission in nuclear reactors as a neutron-capturing substance. Water alone doesn't stop the reaction but only slows the reaction where boron will cause the the neutrons to be absorbed.

Bob

It took Kobe 5 years to recover properly when they got hit...this will probably take longer, very sad.

Bob

I'd read that it was a water canon used in crowd control, but either way, it's a good sign

Manc

I'm not being a complete bastard.

but a little piece of me thinks the cable news networks are loving all this, and want it to continue and get worse......

maybe I'm wrong......

coastieexpat

I don't have TV, but I certainly get a sense of that when I read some of the headlines online.

Michael

I suspect it took Kobe a lot longer than that to completely recover.

Prior to this catastrophe, Katrina was the most expensive disaster with $120 billion in damages and New Orleans still has a long way to go. I suspect the damage for this will be at least 2 times that amount and take significantly more than 10 years to fully recover from this disaster. Of course the government could foot the complete bill and pay for anything not covered by insurance and the time will be greatly reduced.