Japan News (4/17)
Apr. 17th, 2011 10:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mbarker4/14
Hum. That's got to be grim. There is a town about 7 kilometers from the Fukushima reactors which has not been cleaned up or searched since the evacuation.
And today, 300 police kitted up in white coveralls, masks, goggles, gloves, and counters went in to search for bodies. There was some video, too. A fishing boat and a construction crane, both toppled and nestled oddly in the wreckage. I noticed that while most of the police had green gloves (looked thick), at least one who seemed to be leading things had something more like surgical gloves. Several also had tape holding their coverall sleeves or legs in place. They were also looking for identifiable artifacts -- i.e., they found a child's bookbag, with tags. And a picture album. It wasn't clear whether they were just photographing those items or planned to bring them back.
Odd sight, to see a small horde of white figures working their way through the piled debris. Bright sunshine, the largely brown debris, and bright white figures.
Somewhere in there, they looked at one of the counters. The man holding it said it was at 1 microseibert. Another time it was at 0.3 microseibert. No idea whether that was an adjusted figure or not, or for what period of time, but it seemed pretty low.
Another comparison with a tsunami in 1896. There's a spot 400 meters from the shore that had a measured 38.2 meter high peak in 1896. This time the same spot measured 38.9 meters. I have to admit, I wondered if anyone took the frequently reported 70 centimeter drop into account -- if not, these could be identical peaks! Any way you look at it, thought, that's one tall wave.
3/15
And Disneyland opened again! Apparently a crowd of 10,000 or so lined up for the opening. Video of the crowd pouring in, and people lining up to get a picture with Mickey.
19:00 pm. The electric company announced what they are going to pay the families that have been displaced due to the Fukushima situation. Families are going to get 1,000,000 yen (roughly $10,000). Single people will get 750,000 yen. The total payout is estimated at 50,000,000,000 yen (roughly $500 million). There are some people who are saying that's not really enough for each family, but there's also some concern about possibly bankrupting the Northern Japan Electric Company, which is busily trying to deal with the earthquake and tsunami damage, too.
3/16
Remember the fellow who had the "concept picture" of a town on concrete stilts? Well, he's back, but I think as part of a government commission or something. With three proposals for rebuilding the towns that have been destroyed. One is his "towns on stilts" proposal. Another is to take the destroyed debris and use that as the basis for an enormous seawall (also moving the town further inland in the process, probably). A third is what I would call a banded city -- living zone inland, on high land, probably with a farming/park zone in the middle, and fishing, factories, docks, and stuff that must be there near the ocean. One concern with this third approach is how to ensure that there are really rapid evacuation routes for people at work or factories. Anyway, if I understood right, they're suggesting that towns think about these as possible approaches to rebuild -- town on stilts, major seawall, or banded town.
More video from the police search of the town in the Fukushima evacuation area. One part that I thought was a bit funny -- there were four cows running wild near the river. A helicopter caught them on video, but they were running. I don't think anyone bothered to catch them.
A review of the week. Pointed out the 4/11 2:46 memorials, with emphasis on ganbaro (fight on!). Then at 5:16, there was the major aftershock. They also showed that at least in one area, where they were planning to put up temp housing, the aftershock cracked the grounds -- a large running crack across what had been a smooth field. I have to admit, I'm not sure whether it would be more frustrating to have this quake and crack before you started building -- or after? I guess it's better that the fault showed up before they got the buildings up. Again, some video of high tension parks, and mention that they had shorts there.
But, on the other hand, at least one woman was shown getting electricity back in her house for the first time since the quake. She looked quite pleased to have the living room light on, and to turn on the television again.
They ended that piece with a dramatic little video. First was a close up of cherry blossoms, just blooming. Then they backed off and showed that this particular tree had fallen in the quake and tsunami, and was resting at a slant across some debris. But it is blooming. The voice in the background said, "There are cherry blossoms, and spring is here."
Another piece about Sendai Airport opening. I was wrong, the first flight was a JAL Express flight. They also pointed out that the clocks are still stopped, there is major cleanup still in process, and there are windows and wall panels broken and bent in various places. Still, the airport is open again.
Hum. Another explanation of the various radiation levels being measured. First, they explained that the IAEA limit is 100 milliseiberts -- apparently for a single exposure? Some explanation of the fact that 1 milliseibert means a single cell damaged (out of 100) and that your body can fairly easily repair that. Then he added to his chart that the normal background exposre for a year is about 1.5 microseibert.
Against this, he said the measured exposure from 50 grams of spinach (a serving) is 0.043 microseibert -- which is 27 times the normal level. And if you ate 50 grams a day for a month, you'd have 1.3... microseibert, I think. And if you continued to eat 50 grams a day for a year, you'd end up with 15.6. Now, that assumes that the spinach continues to have the same level, and that you can face eating it after one serving each day... Still, not really worrying.
Similarly, apparently the water level (2.1 times normal!) is really pretty low. 1.76 for a month of drinking, I think.
Oh, I don't know if that's good or not. A reporter went back to some of the towns inside the evacuation area? He'd apparently done this shortly after the evacuation, and they were empty. But now... people are returning. He found several people who had gone back. One old woman laughed at the camera and said, "Take a good look! All that radiation makes you all wrinkled!" (She was an old woman, well-wrinkled...). The problem here is that radiation sickness and damage often is a long-term thing, and you don't necessarily know that you've gotten a serious exposure until too late.
3/17
Interesting. One of the shows had a brief look at how the disaster has spurred ideas. I think some of these must have been at least incubating before, but they showed storage units -- sheds -- that are easily turned into emergency toilets. Just take out whatever you've had inside, snap in the toilet seat or urinal unit, connect the sink unit, and you've got a toilet. Oh, and the built-in light apparently has it's own battery. Or a couple of companies that are turning out small wind turbines, able to generate enough power for lighting or small equipment. Those looked like model airplanes on poles, but they are easy to set up and apparently work on almost any wind. There was also a portable solar panel/battery unit. Roughly a meter square, with solar panels that rotated out to catch the sun (looked like at least 6 times the original surface area, maybe more). Apparently designed for easy transport into disaster areas.
We've been running around today, so I haven't caught much of the news today. There's been a string of quake reports, though.
8:55 pm. Cool -- they've sent the robots into the reactors. Tracks with a jointed arm. Some pictures have come out.
A rather lengthy special this evening -- mainly recounting the Hyper-rescue team work at Fukushima. These guys had just been to New Zealand, and got yanked and sent to Fukushima. Interesting to hear some of their views and interpretations of what was going on. Weird. One of them mentioned that the manholes seemed to have exploded. I don't think I've heard anyone else mention that.
Huh -- didn't realize that there was a tank in the street when they were running the pipe. So they got out of the truck and ran it around by hand -- and their radiation monitors buzzed while they were at it? 60 milliseibert? So they ducked back into the truck, waited a bit, and then finished the job.
Really odds and ends this time.
Hum. That's got to be grim. There is a town about 7 kilometers from the Fukushima reactors which has not been cleaned up or searched since the evacuation.
And today, 300 police kitted up in white coveralls, masks, goggles, gloves, and counters went in to search for bodies. There was some video, too. A fishing boat and a construction crane, both toppled and nestled oddly in the wreckage. I noticed that while most of the police had green gloves (looked thick), at least one who seemed to be leading things had something more like surgical gloves. Several also had tape holding their coverall sleeves or legs in place. They were also looking for identifiable artifacts -- i.e., they found a child's bookbag, with tags. And a picture album. It wasn't clear whether they were just photographing those items or planned to bring them back.
Odd sight, to see a small horde of white figures working their way through the piled debris. Bright sunshine, the largely brown debris, and bright white figures.
Somewhere in there, they looked at one of the counters. The man holding it said it was at 1 microseibert. Another time it was at 0.3 microseibert. No idea whether that was an adjusted figure or not, or for what period of time, but it seemed pretty low.
Another comparison with a tsunami in 1896. There's a spot 400 meters from the shore that had a measured 38.2 meter high peak in 1896. This time the same spot measured 38.9 meters. I have to admit, I wondered if anyone took the frequently reported 70 centimeter drop into account -- if not, these could be identical peaks! Any way you look at it, thought, that's one tall wave.
3/15
And Disneyland opened again! Apparently a crowd of 10,000 or so lined up for the opening. Video of the crowd pouring in, and people lining up to get a picture with Mickey.
19:00 pm. The electric company announced what they are going to pay the families that have been displaced due to the Fukushima situation. Families are going to get 1,000,000 yen (roughly $10,000). Single people will get 750,000 yen. The total payout is estimated at 50,000,000,000 yen (roughly $500 million). There are some people who are saying that's not really enough for each family, but there's also some concern about possibly bankrupting the Northern Japan Electric Company, which is busily trying to deal with the earthquake and tsunami damage, too.
3/16
Remember the fellow who had the "concept picture" of a town on concrete stilts? Well, he's back, but I think as part of a government commission or something. With three proposals for rebuilding the towns that have been destroyed. One is his "towns on stilts" proposal. Another is to take the destroyed debris and use that as the basis for an enormous seawall (also moving the town further inland in the process, probably). A third is what I would call a banded city -- living zone inland, on high land, probably with a farming/park zone in the middle, and fishing, factories, docks, and stuff that must be there near the ocean. One concern with this third approach is how to ensure that there are really rapid evacuation routes for people at work or factories. Anyway, if I understood right, they're suggesting that towns think about these as possible approaches to rebuild -- town on stilts, major seawall, or banded town.
More video from the police search of the town in the Fukushima evacuation area. One part that I thought was a bit funny -- there were four cows running wild near the river. A helicopter caught them on video, but they were running. I don't think anyone bothered to catch them.
A review of the week. Pointed out the 4/11 2:46 memorials, with emphasis on ganbaro (fight on!). Then at 5:16, there was the major aftershock. They also showed that at least in one area, where they were planning to put up temp housing, the aftershock cracked the grounds -- a large running crack across what had been a smooth field. I have to admit, I'm not sure whether it would be more frustrating to have this quake and crack before you started building -- or after? I guess it's better that the fault showed up before they got the buildings up. Again, some video of high tension parks, and mention that they had shorts there.
But, on the other hand, at least one woman was shown getting electricity back in her house for the first time since the quake. She looked quite pleased to have the living room light on, and to turn on the television again.
They ended that piece with a dramatic little video. First was a close up of cherry blossoms, just blooming. Then they backed off and showed that this particular tree had fallen in the quake and tsunami, and was resting at a slant across some debris. But it is blooming. The voice in the background said, "There are cherry blossoms, and spring is here."
Another piece about Sendai Airport opening. I was wrong, the first flight was a JAL Express flight. They also pointed out that the clocks are still stopped, there is major cleanup still in process, and there are windows and wall panels broken and bent in various places. Still, the airport is open again.
Hum. Another explanation of the various radiation levels being measured. First, they explained that the IAEA limit is 100 milliseiberts -- apparently for a single exposure? Some explanation of the fact that 1 milliseibert means a single cell damaged (out of 100) and that your body can fairly easily repair that. Then he added to his chart that the normal background exposre for a year is about 1.5 microseibert.
Against this, he said the measured exposure from 50 grams of spinach (a serving) is 0.043 microseibert -- which is 27 times the normal level. And if you ate 50 grams a day for a month, you'd have 1.3... microseibert, I think. And if you continued to eat 50 grams a day for a year, you'd end up with 15.6. Now, that assumes that the spinach continues to have the same level, and that you can face eating it after one serving each day... Still, not really worrying.
Similarly, apparently the water level (2.1 times normal!) is really pretty low. 1.76 for a month of drinking, I think.
Oh, I don't know if that's good or not. A reporter went back to some of the towns inside the evacuation area? He'd apparently done this shortly after the evacuation, and they were empty. But now... people are returning. He found several people who had gone back. One old woman laughed at the camera and said, "Take a good look! All that radiation makes you all wrinkled!" (She was an old woman, well-wrinkled...). The problem here is that radiation sickness and damage often is a long-term thing, and you don't necessarily know that you've gotten a serious exposure until too late.
3/17
Interesting. One of the shows had a brief look at how the disaster has spurred ideas. I think some of these must have been at least incubating before, but they showed storage units -- sheds -- that are easily turned into emergency toilets. Just take out whatever you've had inside, snap in the toilet seat or urinal unit, connect the sink unit, and you've got a toilet. Oh, and the built-in light apparently has it's own battery. Or a couple of companies that are turning out small wind turbines, able to generate enough power for lighting or small equipment. Those looked like model airplanes on poles, but they are easy to set up and apparently work on almost any wind. There was also a portable solar panel/battery unit. Roughly a meter square, with solar panels that rotated out to catch the sun (looked like at least 6 times the original surface area, maybe more). Apparently designed for easy transport into disaster areas.
We've been running around today, so I haven't caught much of the news today. There's been a string of quake reports, though.
8:55 pm. Cool -- they've sent the robots into the reactors. Tracks with a jointed arm. Some pictures have come out.
A rather lengthy special this evening -- mainly recounting the Hyper-rescue team work at Fukushima. These guys had just been to New Zealand, and got yanked and sent to Fukushima. Interesting to hear some of their views and interpretations of what was going on. Weird. One of them mentioned that the manholes seemed to have exploded. I don't think I've heard anyone else mention that.
Huh -- didn't realize that there was a tank in the street when they were running the pipe. So they got out of the truck and ran it around by hand -- and their radiation monitors buzzed while they were at it? 60 milliseibert? So they ducked back into the truck, waited a bit, and then finished the job.
Really odds and ends this time.
