3 ms·

Please don't spread misinformation about this. The reactors stopped automatically, but you still have to cool them. They ran out of diesel, so they're getting m

Please don't spread misinformation about this. The reactors stopped automatically, but you still have to cool them. They ran out of diesel, so they're getting mobile power units in to cool the rest. They're not morons.

blahblahblah 16y ago
So, basically, MSNBC did a crappy job of writing their article -- it should have explicitly stated that a shutdown happened...
- foobarbazetc 16y ago
  Yeah, but every news agency is. The BBC had a "live feed" of a huge blazing fire, and the caption was "Government declares Nuclear Emergency". The fire was at a natural gas storage tank... I don't know if these news agencies like stoking mass panic, but you need to be a little sceptical about reporting in the media about "contentious" issues like nuclear power. Here's the IAEA post about the current issue: http://www.iaea.org/press/?p=1133 http://www.iaea.org/press/?p=1133 It's standard procedure in these situations to evacuate a 3km radius from the plant, just in case. If the situation gets slightly more... interesting (as in, they need to vent some steam), they evacuate 10km. TL;DR: Let's wait and see what happens before declaring that Japan is about to be annihilated by nuclear fallout. Edit: here's the current status of each reactor: http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/11031207-e.html http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/11031207-e.... http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/11031212-e.html http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/11031212-e.... http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/11031213-e.html http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/11031213-e.... http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/11031214-e.html http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/11031214-e.... I.e., all shut down. Need cooling. Pressure being vented in the Daiichi reactor.

blahblahblah 16y ago

So, basically, MSNBC did a crappy job of writing their article -- it should have explicitly stated that a shutdown happened...

foobarbazetc 16y ago
Yeah, but every news agency is. The BBC had a "live feed" of a huge blazing fire, and the caption was "Government declares Nuclear Emergency". The fire was at a natural gas storage tank... I don't know if these news agencies like stoking mass panic, but you need to be a little sceptical about reporting in the media about "contentious" issues like nuclear power. Here's the IAEA post about the current issue: http://www.iaea.org/press/?p=1133 http://www.iaea.org/press/?p=1133 It's standard procedure in these situations to evacuate a 3km radius from the plant, just in case. If the situation gets slightly more... interesting (as in, they need to vent some steam), they evacuate 10km. TL;DR: Let's wait and see what happens before declaring that Japan is about to be annihilated by nuclear fallout. Edit: here's the current status of each reactor: http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/11031207-e.html http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/11031207-e.... http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/11031212-e.html http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/11031212-e.... http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/11031213-e.html http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/11031213-e.... http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/11031214-e.html http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/11031214-e.... I.e., all shut down. Need cooling. Pressure being vented in the Daiichi reactor.