brahmburgers

My money's on the cement option.

That will be the eventuality, and not far off in time either.

When the situation is reasonably stabilized, with minimum radiation emissions, probably all reactors will be flattened, and entombed with sand - then covered by cement. It will then be a dead zone for....? ....for roughly 40,000 years. Would you want your kids building sand castles at the beach there?

The average N reactor has a life span of 30 years. The average decommissioning cost of a functioning reactor is just under a billion dollars - though the UK's Nuclear Decommissioning Authority estimates it will cost at least £70 billion to decommission the 19 existing sites in the UK. That's about 4 billion US dollars per site.

One Canadian N plant (Quebec) had a decommissioning cost which amounted to $140,000 for each day it was in operation.

source: Wikipedia

....and there are still Thai businessmen who will try to convince us that Thailand needs to go nuclear, and one of their reasons: THE SAVINGS! :lol:

Scan the passport and obliterate the passport number and date of birth.

From the OP: I did something similar: I took a photo of my passport ID page, then cropped the not-so-clear photo so the ID# was partial.

I made it v. clear to the purported buyer that because I'm a farang, I can't have my name on the chanod (title). I offered to let him contact the Thai person who's name is on the title. He wasn't interested.

Someone asked why I referred to the person as a 'he'. Reason: he had a man's name. Nelson Donald. Incidentally, my tech-savvy friend did a search on his email and found no problems. I then did a search on his name and found two hits on Linkedin. One was from Zambia. hmmmmmm.....

Interesting that the responses to this thread are pretty much divvied between thinking it might be a real offer, and those who think, as I do, that the guy was scamming, ....probably ID theft.

I can't be 100% sure he was scamming. People can get adept at these sorts of things, so it's sometimes tricky to tell who for real and who's a rip off. When I asked him for his ID, he didn't respond. As for the Bt.1,000, I have no regrets for insisting on that before sending him my personal info. If he's cruising to purchase a multi-thousand dollar item, then he can come up with $30 to show his sincerity.

excerpt from article written during the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico:

"(Watchdog groups) are warning about the BP oil spill's potential damage to Gulf and Atlantic coast nuclear power plants that use seawater to cool pumps and other safety equipment. While seawater is not used to cool the reactors themselves, it's used in the plants' secondary cooling systems. There are concerns that contamination could damage those systems."

full article: Texas Observer

Note: the planned sites for all but one of Thailand's 5 future nuclear plants are along sea shores. The 5th is by a large lake. All are upwind from neighboring countries, particularly Cambodia.

It is one thing for the US & allies to make this move it is another when Russia & China state openly calls for stability.

China and Russia didn't vote against the no-fly resolution, they abstained. Both could have vetoed the resolution, but neither chose to do so. They aren't backing Gadaffi. I don't buy the 'war for oil' theory this time. Libyan production is quite small compared to the likes of Iraq, and the guy is a genuine nut case. I think its a good thing that other governments have decided to step in and stop a slaughter.

I agree. P.S. also Brazil abstained on the Sec.Council. China will ALWAYS lean to commercial interests over human rights. That's why they aren't involved either with Iraq or Afghanistan, except to rush in after the coalition does the dirty work, and, with big smiles, wave mineral contracts offers in the faces of locals. China didn't get involved in East Timor, in the Balkans. Its only involvement with Sudan was to try and make commercial deals on the fringes.

One of the spookiest moments for Chinese foreign policy thugs was when Bosnia declared and achieved independence from Serbia. Scary visions of Tibet and Taiwan gaining full sovereignty tormented politburo minds. It's also no surprise that the movie Avatar was forced to stop showing in China in its 2nd week, while it was breaking records for attendance. It shows low-tech insurgents taking on and beating the bloated established military regime.

I think it is obvious who instigated the rebel uprising. Who was the first to recognize them? Who was the first to call for military action? France of course.

If you think France could incite 90% of men in Libya, between the ages of 15 and 45, into a sustained armed insurrection - you're naive indeed.

If you're against the armed intervention, then perhaps you're in favor of insurgents and bystanders getting killed by Gadaffi's armed forces.

Japan is a "hi-tech" well organised country, that has spent a lot of time, thought and money on dealing with earthquakes.... Imagine if this happened in another country with nuclear power plants!

.... or a country which wants nuclear plants, yet has armory explosions or weapons/ammo stolen from military bases - every two months or so.

EGAT (Thailand's gov't company which wants Thailand to go nuclear) often publicized the truism that "nuclear will not burn any fossil fuels nor generate any greenhouse gases" A-hem (throat clearing prelude...), think about the large amounts of fossil fuels being used currently at the crippled N plant in Japan. Also; nuclear plants need vast amounts of steel and cement. Tons of fossil fuels are needed to fabricate, ship and apply such materials. Then there's mining/refining/shipping the U, plus plant maintenance, dealing with spent rods and decommissioning - ....more hundreds of tons of fossil fuels. So much for no greenhouse gases.

As this is going on, several related things are happening:

>>>> Script writers are busy framing this for one or more movies. Agents for Asian-looking actors are probably already getting calls.

>>>> Nefarious people are calculating what size bomb can cause these sorts of problems.

Political note: So even if a country's nuclear program considers maximum safeguards for all the types of natural disasters that might affect their nuke plants (hurricanes, tsunamis, volcanoes, earthquakes, tornadoes, floods, etc) - they can still never do enough to allay a determined terrorist attack or, as in the case of Thailand, a popular uprising targeting an important target (recent take-overs of airports or downtown Bangkok come to mind).

Something good to say about where the plant is sited:

>>>> Considering winds most often blow from the west or southwest, it's good Japan built it on their eastern shore - as there is virtually no landmass to its east and northeast. Similarly, Thailand is about as safe a place to be in that regard, as we're SW of Japan.

The Middle East is stuck in old world thinking patterns. Similar to parts of Africa (Hutus/Tutsis) and parts of Europe (Balkans). Indeed the word 'Balkanization' fits perfectly with the Middle East, as each little country has to think it has a kingdom unto itself. I worked at a childrens' camp in Virginia where the manager/owner tried to get children from varying Middle Eastern sects to interact. There were Jewish kids, Syrian, Iranian, Saudi, Egyptian and others. For the most part, the kids got along like kids everywhere else - playing, hassling, singing, crafts, hiking, etc.

However, getting non-Jewish kids to attend was not easy, as their parents were usually paranoid, and worried that there might be a philosophical-altering affect from the camp staff. Great efforts were made to get non-Jews to attend, including free tuition. The non-Jewish kids who did attend were pretty cool, some of whom (an Iranian and a Saudi, while I was there) graduated to become dorm leaders. However, some other non-Jewish kids were very cloistered. A pair of Arab boys were so blown away by seeing girls walking around smiling and wearing bright colors, that they would run and hide in a dark corner of their dorm, and frantically read the Q'ran.

I worked with one group of Palestinian girls on a music project. I was very impressed with their intelligence and focus. They took things quite serious, rarely giggling and frolicking as you'd expect 11 yr old girls to do. One of the counselors was a Palestinian guy. After 4 days at the camp, he ran away for a week to (as we found out later) ....to see Disneyland. Working one summer at that camp was an eye-opener for me, albeit just a tiny microcosm of the whole mess in that part of the world.

Americans (and to some extent Europeans) generally grow up in environments with a whole mix of nationalities, skin colors, ethnic/religious leanings, etc. Sure there are some problems sometimes, but taken in the context of 300 million people, there's general acceptance and harmony. Middle eastern kids, in contrast, grow up with extremely deep-set prejudices demanded by their elders/parents. The elders feel a frantic compulsion to maintain and deepen those rifts. Indeed, for many, it's more important than life itself, as shown by the old men who strap bomb belts on young men and women.

I'm a pacifist and I think Netanyahu is ok. If that sounds like contradiction, then so be it.

I'd like to see all sorts of inducements for birth control throughout the Middle East. Pay people to not have babies, or whatever it takes. The region is desert. It doesn't have the carrying capacity for 1/20th the number of people trying to claw out a living there. It's no wonder there's incessant conflict.

It seems like there are two stories going on here concurrently. One story mentions;

.....the Dominion Post on Saturday reported tests carried out on Carter showed she had echovirus - a highly contagious disease which can cause myocarditis, the heart condition which killed her. The disease is linked to dirty, overcrowded conditions. The discovery was revealed by Thai doctor Pasakorn Akarasewi, who met New Zealand embassy staff to report the investigation's latest findings on Thursday night.

The other is typical inept Thai investigator drivel which states they don't know nothin' (in the hope the whole story blows away a.s.a.p.). Which is it?

If the echovirus story rings true, where does the virus come from, and how to keep it from infecting others?

I am planning a trip to Chiang Mai next month,my 1st question is which Hotel was this,I do not believe I want to check in there for fear of not checking out alive.2nd, question I am trying to understand this all these people die and there know exact cause? I was thinking before reading all this that Chiang Mai might be a nice place to live or retire too.Last question so I should not eat sea-weed if on the menu?

Go 3 hours further north, and you get to Chiang Rai. Smaller, a fraction of the vehicles and gridlock, friendlier locals, cooler summers, less smog. Your choice, dude. In C.Mai, you can drive from city center to green farmers' fields in about 35 minutes. In Chiang Rai, it's about 6 minutes.

Interesting to see people worried about trace amounts of radiation in food, when much food is irradiated already - to lengthen its shelf life. Plus, look at what the average Joe and Jane eat and drink normally, and it's even more nutzoid. Fermented sugar (alcohol), fermented fish (fish sauce), fermented dairy (cheese), fake oils (trans-fats) which fool the body in to thinking it's ingesting real fats, when later the body finds it can't digest the trans-fats, so has to eject them or store them somewhere - which results in a bloated sickly populace.

When looking at the entire picture of what the average person ingests, a tiny bit of radiation doesn't look so bad after all.

Though the damage reports were downplayed by authorities, in many other countries it would have been worse in that regard. In Russia or any Arab country or most African countries, there would likely have been a news blackout - as much as authorities there could control dissemination. In most countries, there would not have been geiger counter read-outs made public, and it's doubtful even photos from afar would have been permitted. In recent months, in Greece, foreigners were jailed for just pointing a camera at an international airport runway, and in Iran, foreigners were jailed for walking near a remote border line. Japan has likely downplayed some details on its nuclear problem, but they're quite open when compared to how most country's authorities would handle a similarly dire scenario. Burma, N.Korea and Zimbabwe probably wouldn't even have press conferences. As for Thailand? ....somewhere in between.

Is Purachai still around? He was the one who, with Thaksin hand in hand, decided to rid Thailand of sex venues. Well, the succeeded somewhat in little outlying provinces, but of course they couldn't make a dent in the mecca centers of sex-for-sale, namely; Bkk, Phuket, Pattaya. Purachai would rail against farang being the core of all Thailand's problems, then promptly bought property in New Zealand where he hides away most of the time. Who's the bigger hypocrite: Jatupon, Thaksin or Purachai - ....you be the judge. Any one of them, anywhere near a position of political power in Thailand - is trouble with a capital T.

You have to blame Thai voters, at least to some degree - for being so totally duped, paid-for, and suckered but such a bunch of problematic people.

The Reds did have a generous offer of dissolution of Parliament and subsequent early election - TWICE. The 2nd time, the process would have taken place in a few months hence. They stupidly turned it down for one or combination of the following:

1. their puppetmaster didn't want to be seen as agreeing with anything the gov't proposed

2. the Reds wanted confrontation, similar to 11 months prior. They knew confrontation would put them in the public eye and would likely turn the populace against the gov't.

The Abhisit gov't didn't play along with the Red's wishes for early confrontation, so the Reds were frustrated - resorting to taking pot shots at the railway landing (killed one woman there), raiding the hospital, and other such goading. After many weeks went by, the gov't belatedly acted, and did a rather good clean-up job - something they probably should have done a lot sooner.

Jatuporn is grasping at straws. He's a poser, a liar, and an all-around unattractive specimen - doing whatever he can to be a pain-in-the-you-know-what. By mentioning foreign passports and Wikileaks, he's treading on very thin ice - as the #1 family in Thailand could be besmirched by the same mud-slinging rhetoric.

Japanese authorities have assessed that the core damage at the Fukushima Daiichi 1 reactor unit caused by the loss of all cooling function has been rated as 5 on the INES scale.

from: FB Live

Is that '5' rating the same as the rating for nuclear plant danger levels? If so, that indicates the highest, most dire rating of 5 out of 5. In other words, that indicates a core meltdown. I hope my interpretation of that is wrong.

Maybe my recollection of the chart is flawed. Upon further thought, it seems the chart goes up to 7 - which is what Chernobyl was rated.

The (Air Force) personnel were scrubbed down with soap and water, then declared contamination-free.

Just wondering: The core reactor containment vessels are metal, are they not? If you dump cold water on super hot metal of a car motor, you crack the block. I assume the experts on the scene have their bases covered, ...though they appear to have done some bloopers thus far.

This has happened to me at least 3 times in the past several months. For starters, I have posted a house for sale. Then I get a response from someone who sounds very interested. Here are some indications that its probably a fraud:

1. the interested party agrees to the full price, doesn't try to bargain it down

2. he decides to buy it sight-unseen.

3. he may or may not want to do some fancy money transfer thing - asking you, the seller to facilitate a money transfer to another country.

4. he may want photocopies of title and passport.

5. he won't send a token Bt.1,000 to show good intentions, in exchange for photocopies of documents.

I haven't been duped yet, but am getting more aware of indications of fraud. The two earlier attempts were by people who claimed to be Irish. The most recent was a guy who insisted on passport photocopy or scan, which I didn't send. He was pretty good though, as he fooled a tech-savvy friend of mine (via a long chat) - who thought he was for real.

Be cautious. These scams could also be used for other valuable items: cars, collectibles, jewelry .....you name it.

Some Thaksin apologists are always saying what a savvy genius businessman he is. Well, how savvy do you have to be to put a big load of money in someone else's lap? Thaksin, the poster boy for hiding assets, by putting money in other people's accounts, got stung big time. Boo Hoo Hoo.

It's not nice when someone steals from you. Maybe Thaksin will mend his ways now he's learnt a valuable lesson in life.

That's the nicest way to put it. It's also not nice to direct people kill innocent others. That's what T did while PM - at Tak Bai, and in his 'war on drugs.'

Mizuho Bank to Suspend ATMs on 3-Day Weekend

Tokyo, March 18 (Jiji Press)--Mizuho Bank said Friday it will suspend all its automated teller machines in Japan on a three-day weekend due to a continued system glitch.

It wouldn't be to to avert a run on the banks, would it?

They've got to put a pretty big breaker on those AC wires coming in. How would you like to be the one to pull the switch? It looks as though reactors #3 and #4 are the most problematic at this time.

This whole messy scenario will, among other things, but a roadblock up against Thailand going nuclear. Hip hip hooray!

^^Yes the Japs arguably lead the world in robotics it is amazing they don't have anything to do this kind of surveillance..This seems a tailor made circumstance for their application..

They're good at fuzzy wuzzy feel-good robots like square puppies with big rolling eyes. And they're good at making walking androids which do nothing, except dazzle shareholders at big corporations' annual bashes - but they're behind on practical non-cute robotics, and particularly the types with innovative shapes/propulsion modeled after spiders, three-armed starfish, mini-tanks, butterflies, etc. That's where the Americans excel.

As for a nuclear explosion: imagine a sphere of highly enriched U or Plutonium just smaller than a soccer ball. Now slice that ball in twelve equal sized segments, each with points pointing inward. Then separate the pieces (by a flimsy foam-like metal mesh?) by about a half inch. Then put plastic explosive charges on the fat/outer end of each segment, and wire them to go off simultaneously - ka-boom! - you've the basics of an atom bomb. That's why the Japanese reactors won't explode. The fissionable metals there aren't configured that way.

Someone send him some lip gloss cut with super glue. The guy really needs to have his mouth shut.

Whenever his lips flap, out come lies almost as good as his puppet master.

Translation: It might be a nuclear bomb.

That's according to several definitions of nuclear criticality that I looked up. But I do find it hard to believe anyone would be quite so stupid as to put enough fissionable stuff that close together. So, someone tell me this is wrong. Please?

What is missing here is the 'sudden pressure' component of a bomb.If the containment vessel steams up and breaches it still won't be the same as compressing a ball of uranium or plutonium with a perfectly calibrated surrounding high explosive charge detonated at the exact right sequence that causes it to evenly reduce it's size by orders of magnitude until it must re-expand in a super critical state.

It won't be a nuclear bomb, but it might be a sort of 'dirty bomb' with high heat popping out highly radioactive stuff, like an oversized roman candle. Reminds me of my 'flower power' days in Wash.D.C. in the 60's. There was a 'Weather Underground' type alternative tabloid called DC Free Press. One issue had simple cut-away drawing of the inside workings of an H bomb, with explanations. Plastic explosives are needed to instantly compress the Atom bomb which, within less than a millisecond - provides enough heat and pressure to trigger the Hydrogen. I can picture the design now as clearly as the day I saw it, but I don't think I'll draw it out here for T.Visa.

Incidentally, I think if there's a full meltdown, the nuclear mess will burn down a ways, but I can't picture it going down anywhere near as far as the molten iron core of the planet. I think that's a dramatization we can put in the same category as the Loch Ness monster or Big Foot or crop circles.

That's great. A memorable experience for all, as long as they get along well enough.

There should be bus trips going every which way - Thais to Europe, Chinese to Sri Lanka, Kenyans to Korea, ...you name it. So happens, it's mostly the Americans and Europeans who venture far from their homes, and it's not just because of finances. Here's an example: there's an organization called WWOOF which enables backpackers to visit nearly anywhere in the world, where there's a wwoof host. In exchange for easy-going work about 5-6 hours a day, the backpackers get meals and a modest place to sleep. I've been a host for several years. Out of 200 or so backpackers who have stayed at my farm in northern Thailand, guess how many were Asian. Zero. Not even one from Singapore or HK. Same with the other dozen or so hosts in Thailand. You'd think at least one Thai would want to try it - Nope. They either don't know about it, or are too busy being worried about getting in to the rat race, and think it's a frivolous endeavor.

I could go on, but that's it for now. Great for the Finns, and an open invitation for them to visit my very cool Adventure Park (climbing, zip lines) in northernmost Thailand.

This time last year, the Reds started taking over downtown Bangkok. 11 months before that they gave us a preview, after coming up from making a mess in Pattaya. For whatever it's worth.

Not too many dull moments - residing in Asia these days.

How do we know there's not already a core meltdown at one of the reactors. #3 seems to be the most dire, as it's the one with plutonium, and has had a steady stream of smoke/steam coming out for days.