Meltdown Likely Under Way At Japan Nuclear Reactor

[elcent]

Thai Airways International Public Company Limited (THAI) announces assistance for the affected people as a result of the earthquake and tsunami in Sendai, Japan.

Mr. Piyasvasti Amranand, THAI President, said that after the earthquake on 11 March 2011, resulting in disaster areas THAI has been monitoring the situation closely and has taken the following measures:

Tickets

For THAI tickets purchased to Japan, for travel during 11 March 2011 to 30 April 2011, THAI will waive all fees for any refund and flight changes within 21 March 2011. Passengers can contact THAI office worldwide or THAI Contact Center in Bangkok at +66 (0) 2356-1111 for more information. For tickets purchased through travel agents, passengers are advised to contact their local agents directly.

Miles RedemptionAll frequent flyer Royal Orchid Plus members who have award tickets for routes to/from Japan during 11 March 2011 – 31 May 2011 can change travel dates and flights without any fees being applied.

Special Fares for Thai community in JapanThais in Japan wanting to travel from Narita or Haneda to Bangkok may purchase one-way, economy class ticket starting from THB 13,000 each; ticket price does not include fuel surcharge, airport tax or insurance. These tickets are subject to seat availability.

To help alleviate the strain on basic survival requirements such as transportation, communication, accommodation, fuel, water, and etcetera, during this crisis, THAI Cabin Crew has revised their operations to be a quick turn-around flight. As well, all non-essential THAI staff and their families are being called back to Bangkok.

In addition, THAI also supported tickets for Thai medical team to Japan, and shipped blankets donated by the Royal Thai Government via THAI cargo to those in need in Japan.

All THAI flights to/from Japan are currently operating on normal schedule. Passengers may call the THAI Contact Center in Bangkok at 02-356-1111 (24 hours), fax. 02-356-2222, or visit the website at www.thaiairways.com

For finding information about relatives, the public is asked to check with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Thailand at +66 (02) 643-5000.

http://www.thaipr.net/nc/readnews.aspx?newsid=C0D2AF4EA5527C5B07F389E41ED8D9BD&sec=travel

[Tywais]

BTW, does anyone have the web link for where the Japanese govt. is posting their daily radiation reading results??

Disaster prevention and nuclear safety. The concerning part is the parts that are "Under survey".

[elcent]

Japan disaster: How you can help

http://blogs.reuters.com/prism-money/2011/03/11/japan-disaster-how-you-can-help/

[bkkjames]

NHK reports that various foreign countries, mostly smaller, are either ordering their diplomats out of Tokyo and back home, or transferring them to other cities than Tokyo, because of the nuclear plants threat.

France that small John? anyways, what's the status concerning Thailand?

[elcent]

Workers battling to contain the crisis at Japan's quake-stricken Fukushima nuclear plant were briefly moved to a bunker because of a rise in radiation levels, local media has reported.

The level of radiation at the plant surged to 1,000 millisieverts early on Wednesday before coming down to 800-600 millisieverts.

Harry Fawcett, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Japan, said the workers struggling to avert a nuclear meltdown were allowed to return to the facility later.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2011/03/201131635745664299.html

[bkkjames]

Well guys need to call it a day-let's hope they make some progress tonight.

To keep up to date, just google things like fukushima, meltdown or tokyo radiation and click on the 'real time' option and in streams the news, tweets etc.

[jfchandler]

The 400 milli-sievert reference from the other day was correct. It was measured right at one of the reactors...

Edano's comments this morning were regarding a different location measurement. I saw the NISA officials on live TV, after Edano's news conference, correct the mistake he had made in mixing milli with micro.

THE STATEMENT IN THE IMAGE HERE SAYS THAT 400 MILLISIEVERT WERE MEASURED(NOT MICROSIEVERT) ON TUESDAY MORNING.

MISTAKE?

I THINK 1000 MILLISIEVERT TODAY WERE CORRECT TOO AND NOT A MISTAKE.

[jfchandler]

Appreciate the comment... Much thanks.

I don't want to detract from what is being done here. But ...

This thread is by far the most informative and useful source of facts, figures, references, technical data and interpretation that I have come across. I am grateful to all the contributors for their outstanding efforts here.

Thank you.:jap:

[ETatBKK]

Asahi News reported that the radiation level at Tochigi prefecture was 1.39μSv.

while the last year March average was 0.021μSv; last 3 years peak was 0.084μSv.

the Fukushima Dia Chi incident, on Mar 16, 19.00h brings 300 times of normal level, at 1.47μSv /hour.

graphic map shows radiation levels at various prefectures.

http://www.asahi.com/national/gallery_e/view_photo.html?national-pg/0316/TKY201103160432.jpg

放射線量、危険な場所はロボットで測定　文科省が貸与

translated : www.asahi.com Mar 16, 2011 at 22.47h JST

[jfchandler]

BTW, does anyone have the web link for where the Japanese govt. is posting their daily radiation reading results??

Disaster prevention and nuclear safety. The concerning part is the parts that are "Under survey".

You the man... Tywais... thanks very much...

Re the missing data, recall, there was a post earlier today about the Japanese saying their radiation prediction system wasn't working and probably wouldn't be, because the power outage in the quake areas around the reactors had knocked out their monitoring stations...

Dunno if that's the reason for the missing data here... ADD: actually, as I look more at that web site, SPEEDI, it is the same one we posted about earlier that's suffering from out of service monitoring stations...

So...are their daily reports going to be in the Gy/h format???? I hate all this math... Tywais or Jd...can one of you guys post the formula for converting those to milli sieverts again...since that's probably the easier measurement to deal with.. At least..people have gotten used to those terms by now...

Edited March 16, 2011 by jfchandler

[jfchandler]

James, I haven't seen anything about the presence of Thailand's mission in Japan.. I'd assume it would show up in our local media..but I haven't been reading that at all..the past few days, as you might imagine...

Re the French, I knew and had posted that they were urging their citizens to bail out... But have they said they're pulling their diplomats as well??

NHK reports that various foreign countries, mostly smaller, are either ordering their diplomats out of Tokyo and back home, or transferring them to other cities than Tokyo, because of the nuclear plants threat.

France that small John? anyways, what's the status concerning Thailand?

[elcent]

The 400 milli-sievert reference from the other day was correct. It was measured right at one of the reactors...

Edano's comments this morning were regarding a different location measurement. I saw the NISA officials on live TV, after Edano's news conference, correct the mistake he had made in mixing milli with micro.

THE STATEMENT IN THE IMAGE HERE SAYS THAT 400 MILLISIEVERT WERE MEASURED(NOT MICROSIEVERT) ON TUESDAY MORNING.

MISTAKE?

I THINK 1000 MILLISIEVERT TODAY WERE CORRECT TOO AND NOT A MISTAKE.

This was posted after the so called "Correction" at Aljazeera

Workers battling to contain the crisis at Japan's quake-stricken Fukushima nuclear plant were briefly moved to a bunker because of a rise in radiation levels, local media has reported.

The level of radiation at the plant surged to 1,000 millisieverts early on Wednesday before coming down to 800-600 millisieverts.

Harry Fawcett, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Japan, said the workers struggling to avert a nuclear meltdown were allowed to return to the facility later.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2011/03/201131635745664299.html

[bkkjames]

Re the french, john I assumed they gave the order after leaving on the first flight kidding.

Re the math issues, this is where your gov got it right; colour coded levels of danger.

These numbers I believe are designed to confuse people on purpose-much like your office IT guy that keeps everything to himself so he becomes indespensable.

[Tywais]

.can one of you guys post the formula for converting those to milli sieverts again.

This one is easy - one Gray (Gy) = 1 Sievert, so they can be considered interchangeable numerically. radprocalculator

[elcent]

Re the french, john I assumed they gave the order after leaving on the first flight kidding.

Re the math issues, this is where your gov got it right; colour coded levels of danger.

These numbers I believe are designed to confuse people on purpose-much like your office IT guy that keeps everything to himself so he becomes indespensable.

Kinda over-engineering issue, isn't it?

[jfchandler]

But then, 1 Sievert is equal to 1000 milli Sievert, right? This is giving me a headache...

.can one of you guys post the formula for converting those to milli sieverts again.

This one is easy - one Gray (Gy) = 1 Sievert, so they can be considered interchangeable numerically. radprocalculator

[Alphonso]

But then, 1 Sievert is equal to 1000 milli Sievert, right? This is giving me a headache...

.can one of you guys post the formula for converting those to milli sieverts again.

This one is easy - one Gray (Gy) = 1 Sievert, so they can be considered interchangeable numerically. radprocalculator

Numbers are in nanoGray so divide by 1,000 for microSv or divide by 1,000,000 for milliSv.

From http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/RS_Second_fire_reported_at_unit_4_1603111.html

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano has described problems that occurred on the morning of 16 March with Fukushima Daiichi 3 and 4. He also outlined plans to pump water into unit 4.

At 8:34am local time white smoke was seen billowing out of Fukushima Daiichi 3. Efforts to determine the cause of this development were interrupted as all workers had evacuated to a safe area due to rising radiation readings. Readings from a sensor near the front gate had fluctuated for some time, although Edano said that on the whole there was no health hazard. Earlier in the morning readings had ranged between 600-800 microsieverts per hour, but at 10am readings rose to 1000 microsieverts per hour. Readings began to fall again from around 10:54.

If readings are quoted without knowing where they were taken from i.e. the gate or at the reactor itself, it can make for a lot of confusion.

Edited March 16, 2011 by Alphonso

[elcent]

Over 150 aftershocks so far

About 1,500 earthquakes strike the island nation every year. Minor tremors occur on a nearly daily basis. Deadly quakes are a tragic part of the nation's past.

The anniversary of the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, for example, which killed more than 100,000 people around Tokyo, is now national Disaster Prevention Day. More recently, a 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck the city of Kobe in 1995, killing more than 6,000 people.

Japan has such a large potential for earthquakes — and disaster — because the nation sits atop four huge slabs of the Earth's crust, called tectonic plates. These plates mash and grind together and trigger deadly earthquakes, like the 8.9-magnitude quake that struck on Friday (March 11). [Photos: Japan Earthquake and Tsunami in Pictures

[jfchandler]

Elcent, you can believe what you choose...

But the highest numbers I've seen today were the early morning measurement of 10 milli sievert at the plant gate...

Posted Today, 11:09

JFC note - interestingly, the NISA officials in their televised news conference didn't mention the 10 mSv figure at 10:40 am... They used a 10:30 am reading and then skipped to 10:45 am... See broader readings in prior post above.

Radiation briefly topped 10 millisievert at Fukushima plant

TOKYO, March 16, Kyodo News

The radiation level at the quake-hit Fukushima No.1 [Daiichi] nuclear power plant reached 10 millisievert per hour at one point Wednesday morning, possibly due to the damage at its No.2 reactor the day before, the government's nuclear safety agency said.

The maximum level was measured at the plant's front gate at 10:40 a.m. It fell to 6.4 millisievert at 10:45 a.m. and to 2.3 millisievert at 10:54 a.m. but rose again to about 3.4 millisievert as of 11:00 a.m., the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said.

And then, this afternoon, the posts about the Japanese police helicopter flying over the plant, preparing to do the water drop, that measured 50 milli sievert and then bailed out... 50 mSv presumably because it was flying right into the airborne plume coming from the plant...

And actually, recall that the Japanese govt. just this morning granted a special exception for workers at the reactors to receive up to 250 milli sievert exposure... I believe the limit had been 100 mSv before... Obviously if it was 1,000 mSv somewhere, none of them could or would be there.

If I'm not mistaken, an exposure of 1,000 milliSieverts pretty much means you're going to die.

Edited March 16, 2011 by jfchandler

[jfchandler]

Make it simple Tywais...

1 Gy/h = ??? microSV

[

.can one of you guys post the formula for converting those to milli sieverts again.

This one is easy - one Gray (Gy) = 1 Sievert, so they can be considered interchangeable numerically. radprocalculator

[elcent]

Elcent, you can believe what you choose...

But the highest numbers I've seen today were the early morning measurement of 10 milli sievert at the plant gate...

http://www.thaivisa....ost__p__4285696

And then, this afternoon, the posts about the Japanese police helicopter flying over the plant, preparing to do the water drop, that measured 50 milli sievert and then bailed out... 50 mSv presumably because it was flying right into the airborne plume coming from the plant...

And actually, recall that the Japanese govt. just this morning granted a special exception for workers at the reactors to receive up to 250 milli sievert exposure... I believe the limit had been 100 mSv before... Obviously if it was 1,000 mSv somewhere, none of them could or would be there.

If I'm not mistaken, an exposure of 1,000 milliSieverts pretty much means you're going to die.

1000 milisievert may be deadly when taken for a longer period of time, assuming over an hour or more.

250 msv create some health issues already when exposed over a longer period.

those who worked and died in Tschenobyl were exposed to 6000 msv anfd7000 msv within a short period of time. No death was reported with 1000 msv though.

They're not exposing themselves for a long period of time each time they go near the core.

Edited March 16, 2011 by elcent

[jfchandler]

I didn't see this earlier in the day...

Thai Cancer Agency issues Japan travel advisory

[BuckarooBanzai]

.can one of you guys post the formula for converting those to milli sieverts again.

This one is easy - one Gray (Gy) = 1 Sievert, so they can be considered interchangeable numerically. radprocalculator

To expand the relationships - one Gray (Gy) = 1 Sievert = 100 centi sieverts = 1 thousand milli sieverts = 1 million micro sieverts = 1 billion nano sieverts

deci Tenth

centi Hundredth

milli Thousandth

micro Millionth

nano Billionth

[Tywais]

Make it simple Tywais...

1 Gy/h = ??? microSV

1 Gy/h = 1 Sievert/hour

Since it is a one to one correspondence the appropriate decimal units apply.

1 milli (m) = 1x10^-3 (1/1000) = 1 thousandth

1 micro (u) = 1x10^-6 (1/1,000,000) = 1 millionth

1 nano (n) = 1x10^-9 (1/1,000,000,000) = 1 billionth

1mGy = 1mSv

1uGy = 1uSv

1nGy = 1nSv

From nGy to uSv divide by 1000

From nGy to mSv divide by 1,000,000

[jfchandler]

NHK running a recap on the tsunami at Fukushima now.. using wave data measured at Soma City about 30 Km. away, estimate that the size of the wave(s) that hit Fukushima were 7.3 meters in height.

[jfchandler]

I've heard absolutely nothing in terms of when the timing of the water cannon approach is going to be... Originally, they said they were going to try tonight..Japan time..

But as I've been monitoring things, the indication is that they're going to use some kind of police truck mounted with water cannon... Almost sounds like the kind they'd use for riot/crowd control.

Somehow, it seems a bit less than re-assuring that that's the best attempted solution the Japanese can come up with under the circumstances.

[jfchandler]

Things still happening out there:

U.S. to fly spy plane over Fukushima nuclear plant for closer look

TOKYO, March 17, Kyodo

The U.S. military will operate a Global Hawk unmanned high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft over a stricken nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture, possibly on Thursday, to take a closer look at its troubled reactors, a Japanese government source said Wednesday. Photographs taken by the plane equipped with infrared sensors could provide a useful clue to what is occurring inside the reactor buildings, around which high-level radiation has been detected.

The planned mission comes as the Japanese government appears unable to contain the crisis days after the coastal nuclear plant was struck by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami.

It would represent a deepening of Japanese-U.S. cooperation in coping with the escalating crisis, with the U.S. military having already provided logistical transportation, and search and rescue efforts in the wake of the disaster that hit northeastern Japan.

In Washington on Wednesday, a Pentagon official said U.S. forces in Japan are in principle not allowed within a 90 kilometer radius of the plant.

There has been no damage to the health of U.S. soldiers as a result of exposure to radiation from the plant, the official said.

[jfchandler]

Head of U.N. nuclear watchdog to visit Japan, possibly Thurs.

VIENNA, March 16, Kyodo

Yukiya Amano, secretary general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Wednesday he will visit Japan, possibly on Thursday, to check the situation at the quake-hit Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. Amano told a news conference that the nuclear power plant is in a serious situation.

[Tywais]

But as I've been monitoring things, the indication is that they're going to use some kind of police truck mounted with water cannon... Almost sounds like the kind they'd use for riot/crowd control.

Have been trying to locate an example of what Japan has and found this.

[jfchandler]

Russia to evacuate diplomatic families in Japan from Friday

MOSCOW, March 17, Kyodo

The Russian Foreign Ministry announced Wednesday that it has decided to evacuate the families of diplomats working at the Russian Embassy in Tokyo, possibly from Friday, in the wake of radiation leaks from a nuclear power plant in northeastern Japan.