For some reason I hadn't thought about this before I saw the article, but the worst typhoon since 2004 could be a serious threat to the Fukushima Daiichi plant's integrity.

link

I was wondering about that.

Holy Christmas!

They're warning folks to be prepared to Bug-Out
while at the same time, canceling all flights
and even the Bullet Train!

"...and not to do any unnecessary traveling..."

You've been a bit of a Climate Change Denier
in the past.. but if I were you, I'd start to
consider taking your family and going back to
where you came from!

Iowa, isn't it?

All things considered,
I'm sure you'd be welcome with open arms.

"You've been a bit of a Climate Change Denier
in the past.."

You've got me confused with someone else on that one.

We weathered well. Most everything was basically over in Tokyo by 10 am. It moved further north. No big news about Daiichi not handling it well, except for warnings about more possible overflows, which is par for the course these days.

Good & Good

Glad you have more sense than that,
because the magnitude of weather events
esp. coastal, are just going to keep getting
more serious now that we've crossed the threshold.

I'd kept my eye on the maps
and saw that that cold front from
the north was pushing it back out to sea.

The same thing happened here last month (?)
when N.J./N.Y. was facing another hurricane that
threatened to do more damage to the communities that
had previously been decimated by "Super-Storm Sandy".

Yes, it certainly seems we have crossed a line, especially with this year's weather. Rather scary. I hope, among a host of other things, my son will be able to live a happy life in the future we have built for ourselves.

Daiichi weathered the typhoon pretty well according to reports. To be honest, I think we got lucky. The forecasters expected more damage and losses than actually occurred. No complaints here.

So, TEPCO was set to start removing spent fuel rods from a damaged cooling pool atop reactor number 4. Again, reactor number 4 had no problems, but complications with piping etc. connected to this cooling pool (for rods that were used well before the accident) caused the pool (which happens to sit atop reactor 4) to malfunction and lose water.

This is to be a very delicate procedure. Depending on what source you believe, it could be not so scary (unless you are one of the people at the plant) to apocalyptic if something goes wrong.

This article sums up both sides of that

After many organizations and gov'ts said they wanted to provide more advice and assistance before TEPCO took the plunge, TEPCO decided to do more testing and has delayed beginning the very sensitive (and long) removal process for two weeks.

Heard this on the radio today. thought you might be interested.

http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2013/11/06/fukushima-nuclear-cleanup

Thanks, Papa. I never get tired of reading more about it. It's an issue close to my heart.