The Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan

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I had to post something about the earthquake and Tsunami in Japan last Friday.   First off, I hope that the death toll does not go as high as they currently fear.   Second, everything I have seen so far about the Japanese reactions to the quake inspires nothing but admiration and respect for the Japanese people.   My prayers go out to all the victims and their families.

I am sure that if this disaster had happened in California the news would be full of stories about how the government is not doing enough and where is all the help people are supposed to be receiving from the government as folks sat around in the rubble and complained instead of trying to help themselves.   What I am seeing in Japan is the exact opposite.  People in Japan seem to be getting down to business of recovering, not bitching about why the government is not doing more.  They remind me more of the folks in Mississippi and Alabama after Katrina than anything else.

It does not amaze me how much attention is being paid to the struggles at the nuclear reactor at Fukushima.   What does amaze me is the amount of hyperbole and downright misinformation there is about what is going on.   I do not think it is coming from the Japanese government or power operator either.   Here is a nice alarmist piece from MSNBC.   I am certainly looking forward to hearing the anti-nuclear power crowd goes crazy over the issues arising at a plant struck by both a 23-foot tsunami and a magnitude 8.9 earthquake.   They will gleefully claim that the Fukushima reactors problems mean nuclear power is unsafe regardless.   They will also offer no alternatives for supplying the power generated by these plants.

Illustration of the construction of of a typical GE reactor of the type found at Fukushima, notice how robust the design is.

One thing is clear even after only minor research, the reactor design at Fukushima is very robust and the chances of a “Chernobyl like” explosion even were all safety measures to fail is as close to impossible as human engineers can make it.   What is unsaid is the amount of effort and dedication of the plants workers and engineers who have worked ceaselessly since Friday to contain a looming disaster instead of leaving their posts and seeking out family to ensure their safety.   It is easy to forget among all the talk of partial meltdown that not only was the nuclear plant hit, so was the area around it, the area where the plant workers and their family lived.

No doubt, this will be the story of the week, month, or even spring.   I also do not doubt that within a week, we will begin to see stories about which star is doing what and other petty things creep back into the news.   Modern man is nothing if not easily distracted.   I for one, will be interested in following the news from Japan in the coming months to see how the Japanese recover, a topic with which many will probably get bored very quickly.   How much were we hearing about Christchurch, New Zealand before the quake hit Japan?  The New Zealand quake was only three weeks ago and it had already all but faded from the news, how long until the disaster in Japan is overtaken by the 24-hour news cycle?

 Below are a list of links to articles and information on both the earthquake and the damage to the Fukushima reactors:  Battle to stabilize earthquake reactors, Japan Does Not Face Another Chernobyl, Japan Earthquake: before and after, LA Times slideshow of quake images, Info paper on Boiling Water Reactors from the US NRC

 

6 thoughts on “The Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan”

  3. The idea of having nuclear power plants in seismically active areas has always worried me. That said I am generally much less resistant to the idea of nuclear power than I was – someone does need to think of what to do with the waste though. The next generation of power stations should be better, as they will be producing much less waste, and less dangerous waste, as producing fissile material for use in weapons is no longer a priority.

    • The problem with the anti-nuclear crowd is that they have no answer for what will replace Nuclear power than some almost mythical “alternative energy.” That seems to always be the left’s problem, they can readily identify problems but rarely have any solutions. In the US they generally throw money at it, I am still trying to wrap my mind around what the left does in Europe. It seems to be a combination of money, social engineering, and hope. As regards nuclear power, I would bet that because of politics they will in fact start shutting plants down with nothing to replace the lost capacity. We should probably all brace for steep hikes in energy prices. There is no way that wind, hydro, geothermal, and solar are mature enough to replace Nuclear power right now. We will see though. It all depends on what the chicken little’s we call the public demand, at least to an extent.

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