Current problems in Japan:

[Cuchulainn]

I found following predictions interesting:

http://current.com/1tetp4c ("US Mega-Quake Coming Warn Russian Scientists")
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8eB-...layer_embedded ("Sign of California Quake to Come ")
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95zMdTvoqcQ (warning of huge Earthquake activities from 11th-23th march)
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread660276/pg1 ("Coming Massive Earthquake off Japan - A Dream" about one month before it happened; it came true)


At Fukushima 1 they consider to build a sacrophac building of sand and concrete. This would cost a lot of money. I heard that the necessary renovation of Chernobyl sarcophagus will cost several 10 billion euros. The next 2 days or so could still be crucial at Fukushima 1. It's not clear yet that the cooling via cooling circuit will work soon, even if they have electicity now.

At least the wind turbines in Japan are still working fine (source).

[Luina]

I just read this.

Conditions at the site remain "very grave and serious," Prime Minister Naoto Kan said. "We are not in a position where we can be optimistic. We must treat every development with the utmost care."

source: Google News

I wish they will be able to find a solution to stop the danger goes and effects other cities worst than right now and also in whole water system and their food.

[Vaylos]

Here's some of the info I dug up for the 25th:

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/...T?OpenDocument

Also, one of the links Enio listed seems to correlate.
http://www.nei.org/newsandevents/inf...n-that-region/

The situation is not pretty, but they are slowly slowly regaining control. They have some power restored to control rooms as well. So hopefully they can further stabilize things in the coming week(s).

[_Enio_]

Originally Posted by Vaylos

The situation is not pretty, but they are slowly slowly regaining control. They have some power restored to control rooms as well. So hopefully they can further stabilize things in the coming week(s).

From what i could gather together it seems not at all under control and the real situation there seems to be not clear/information hold back.

There was a release of measurements of the contaminated water in unit 3 a day ago and some analysis on that sounds alarming. If its not been a typo. They found alot of Cl-38 in it, a fission product with a 37min (?) half-life time. If that is true it indicates the (probably melted) core of unit 3 might still be in a critical state (check criticality related to nuclear reactions).

Ill back that up with some links and quotes when im back at a pc.

Edit: The CL-38 measurements been probably misreadings.

Tl dr the situation could be far worse then it appears on the media.

[OpperVaagheid]

Just heared another EQ hit Japan. Dunno if its true. Also heared they got another tsunami incoming. Also not sure if thats true..

[Kitsuni]

The situation is much worse than they are letting on, even citizens who were evacuated there will tell you that if you manage to get into contact with some of them. The jist of it is; they were under pressure to keep the plant going both for commercial, economic and honorary reasons, for example lack of power would make recovery efforts far more difficult - in some cases mass death in hospitals and other institutes could occur from a lack of power alone. It was just a very bad situation (the earthquake) compounding with another bad situation, creating pressure to keep the plant going at all costs. However, this created a worse situation. This power plant should've had a lead dome built over it immediately at the first signs of trouble, because no matter how hard they try, they are not going to save it. They've even recently announced that it wil lbe decommissioned after the crisis is over; but it is too little, too late. Radiation is already being released into the atmosphere, ground and water and has been for some time. At the very least, Fukushima will never be able to sustain itself economically now due to bans on exports, even if they manage to rebuild (in an area of now questionable safety).

They did at least manage to reduce the disaster significantly. Had all of the reactors actually melted down or caught fire (or both), it would've started a horrible chain-reaction that would've resulted in the release of so much radioactive material that the weather conditions could've carried it all the way to the west coast of the United States. The reactors used at this plant were old and of a very dangerous, outdated design, compared to newer reactor designs that would've handled this situation gracefully and with little effort from workers (google for pebble bed reactor). It's a shame that they couldn't reduce the disaster more than they did, but they should've taken the solution to the worst case scenario to begin with, instead of letting it play out and risk that scenario happening. Even if the outcome of losing so much power is so bad, it was nothing compared to the risk that was created by attempting to save the plant. When you have see media sensationalizing that "Japan could be ruined", it was not a lie. It was highly unlikely - but it was still a very real possibility given the magnitude of the fissile material that could have come out.

[_Nel_]

Here you can see all recent earthquakes in japan since 2011-03-11 :
> http://www.japanquakemap.com/

[_Enio_]

Originally Posted by Kitsunie

keep the plant going at all costs.

Dont be offended but, you sound as if it was a given fact while in reality its not the case at all. If you speculate without any source to base your thoughts on, make it visible to not confuse people.

First press release by Tepco right after the Impact:
http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp...1031105-e.html

All have been shut down automatically and since then stayed off, however reactors wont stop producing heat immediately and have to be cooled for days up to weeks after shutdown.

Read up this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decay_h...rs_in_shutdown

The problems seem to have arised from the lack of cooling capabilities probably due to non sufficient tsunami safety on fallback energy sources in case of Loss-of-offsite-power (LOOP).

IIRC:
The lack of cooling the decay heat -> too high temperatures in core -> Reaction of damaged Zircalloy cladding with water/steam into H2 -> high pressure in core get vented into the Building -> critical mass of H2 reacts with Oxygen for the explosions in U1&3.

Since then its a mess..

Edit: While you have to take it with a grain of salt, its quite good summary up on wiki already http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushi...lear_accidents

[Kitsuni]

I didn't state it as fact as much as just give my opinion and view of things; however it is made quite obvious by the fact that Eastern Japan is suffering rolling blackouts and is expected to continue suffering from them for up to a year. Entire areas of the country (Tokyo apparently excluded), will be without power for up to 3-6 hours at a time for months to come. In addition to the problems created from the current earthquake crisis, it will leave many critical installations without power for large periods of time, as well as homes without air conditioning even during boiling summer months.
(Hospitals and similar will have to rely entirely on backup generators and batteries during those times.)

http://www.tepco.co.jp/ (officially posted here somewhere a while back)
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/03/1...ors-shut-down/
http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/03/81346.html
http://www.startribune.com/world/118713669.html
And many other sources that can be found on Google :P

[_Enio_]

Originally Posted by Kitsunie

I didn't state it as fact as much as just give my opinion and view of things; however it is made quite obvious by the fact that Eastern Japan is suffering rolling blackouts and is expected to continue suffering from them for up to a year.

[...]

And many other sources that can be found on Google :P

Well, you obviously didnt take the time to read up what lead to the current situation nor did you read my post. The reactors are shut down since the earthquake so your assumptions are not justified.