Don't know about stateside, but this is probably the biggest story here. Sheen? Who? I mean, I'm barely aware that Gaddafi is kicking the sh!t out of Libyan rebels in the meantime.

I don't know if the spent fuel rods really burn that easily, they can heat up and melt, but as far as I know, they are made of some kind of zirconium alloy, not graphite, as was the case in Chernobyl. Still, I think FUBAR is a fair assessment of the situation.

According to Reuters Flames no longer visible at Fukushima Daiichi No.4 reactor: NHK

The latest I've heard is that Japan hasn't been completely upfront. The nuclear guy from the states has stated that the spent rods are completely uncovered in reactor 4, and the water has completely boiled off.

THIS IS REALLY REALLY REALLY BAD.

I see Lanovami is in Tokyo, that's good. Don't come within 50 miles of that place!

The cladding on the fuel rods can heat to ignition and catch fire, and if that happens you'll have large areas of wasteland like Chernobyl because there will be Cesium everywhere. A large chunk of northern Japan will become inhabitable if that occurs. They said initially that fire was an oil fire... it damn well better have been.

In addition, the rods are just spewing radiation because the water also acts as the shielding. That in and of itself isn't a problem environmentally, however it makes it very difficult to get near the rods to get water onto them. It'd probably kill someone in short order.

Funny how people talk meltdown and run around like it's the end of the world. The meltdowns in the core weren't the problem, and in all likely hood wouldn't have amounted to any real harm. Those spent rods becoming exposed... yikes.

Over here at Calvert Cliffs they're kept separate from the reactors if I remember right.

They're talking about trying to use long-distance water cannons to continue the seawater cooling. I hope they manage this.

From the BBC site:

"Japan says it is stepping up efforts to cool reactors at the tsunami-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Army helicopters dumped tonnes of water to try to prevent a meltdown of fuel rods. Water cannon are set to join the operation on the ground and it is hoped electricity will be restored soon."

Yeah, they are now in last ditch efforts. I don't know how they can do much of anything as damaged as the reactor buildings are. They almost need to demolish and remove the tops of those buildings.

For those who live on the West Coast and have concerns about radiation....

http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2011/03/more_fear_than_threat_from_rad.html

The plume hits southern California Friday at 2am. This thing is going to be with all of us for a long time, and it'll be global.

So Friday morning I'll wake up under this plume with .001 units on an "arbitrary scale" of relative radiation levels. The rest of the country will too within days. As the figures on that "arbitrary scale" start increasing 10-fold as the plume progresses, the reality is that there's absolutely nothing any of us can do about it. On that chart the red indicates 100,000-times the relative units what the initial plume brings.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/03/16/science/plume-graphic.html?ref=science

The reality is those of us who live on the east coast have been directly living in the fallout from hundreds of nuclear weapons airburst in the Nevada desert for over 40 years now. Two days after a bomb was detonated, it would settle in PA, MD, NY. We haven't dropped over dead or all died of cancer, and the stuff in nuclear fallout is a lot worse.

The stress of worrying about stuff floating over from Japan will shorten your life far more than any minute increase in radiation you'll experience.

2 days now since you posted. Hope things are going ok over there. I wonder if the blackouts are affecting you.

Good question.
Hope we hear some news soon.

The stress of worrying about stuff floating over from Japan will shorten your life


Good reality check, Sarge, thank you. And a lot more polite than I'd be. I'm ready to open a deli serving fried Chicken Little. I think the supply will hold steady for at least another year.

Understand, I do not make light of the situation in Japan. It's worried me sick. But "the world is gonna die and we're all gonna die and if not then we'll grow extra legs and our children will be born with two butts and . . ."

Please. Stop it and think about the people who are in very real and serious danger. Get. Over. Yourselves.

OK, I kinda missed the polite bus. Sorry.