Massive earthquake in Japan...

You know what ? for a long time I've toyed with similar ideas to clean up Chernobyl, although I prefered an asteroid strike, Tungska style.
Tsar bomba vs Tungska, H-bomb against asteroid strike - trades should be made between precision and fallout.
But I agree, it would be a radical way of cleaning some mess down on earth.
 
I don't believe short burst irradiation of masses of low enrichment plutonium or uranium will cause them to go boom. Most of them will still be around and be spread around by the nuclear explosion. Given the quantity in the reactor, such an explosion will disperse an amount than would make Chernobyle look like a beneign pop.
 
Agreed, you'll just move the problem. It'd be better to introduce the neutrons in a less violent way.

Don't forget that uranium fission is just the first step. It results in various radioactive materials, each have their own halflife and will decay into other (possibly radioactive again) atoms. You'll have to make the radionucleides go through all of the decay steps until the end product is stable. So you'd have to irradiate the mess for a longer period, and cool it to prevent more meltdowns. Basically you'd have to turn the rubble into (or move the rubble to) a breeder (sort of) reactor.
 
the Tsar Bomb was ironic, the most clean H-bomb of all time
it 50 Mega tons blast atomize it's first stage atombomb detonator fuel
 
Hi!
Chernobyl and Fukushima.
 

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A nice infographic Blackkite - there's another making the rounds that seeks to inflate the contamination from Fukushima.

Cheers!
 
Shortage of soil plagues govts / Massive amount of soil needed for various reconstruction works

The Yomiuri Shimbun


Areas devastated by the Great East Japan Earthquake are now facing a new problem of how to secure an enormous amount of soil needed for reconstruction works.

The problem is a major headache, particularly for farmers who had the surface soil of their farmland washed away by the tsunami, as it remains uncertain when they will be able to obtain soil suitable for farming and resume work.

Kazuko Abe, 49, a full-time farmer in Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, said with a furrowed brow, "I wonder when I can get soil to start cultivating," looking upon her neglected rice field.

She used to grow rice and buckwheat in her about 1.5-hectare field. However, the tsunami washed away most of the surface soil. Earth and sand from the sea have now accumulated there.

Although some debris was removed, nails and glass pieces still remain in the field. She consulted the town office, saying she would like to cover the damaged field with new soil. However, she was told no soil was available.

Abe disappointedly said: "It's frustrating, as I want to farm. It's hard for me to just wait like this."

In Iwate Prefecture alone, the disaster damaged a total of about 700 hectares of farmland. About 1.57 million cubic meters of soil, equivalent to an amount that could fill the Tokyo Dome 1.3 times, will be necessary to improve the land.

Unfortunately, rocky coastal areas of the Sanriku region contain little soil suitable for farming. In autumn last year, the prefectural government started asking municipalities if they could find soil in their neighborhood to lower transportation costs. But most local governments found it difficult.

An Otsuchi municipal government official said: "Farmers need soil suitable for their farmland, and not just any soil will do. Even if we cut through a mountain, the soil there contains many stones which would take time to remove."

According to the prefectural government, less than one-third of existing farmland is expected to be ready for cultivation in the new fiscal year.

In Miyagi Prefecture, where entire plains were devastated, about 14,000 hectares of farmland was damaged. A total of about 3.5 million cubic meters of soil is projected to be necessary in the two cities of Ishinomaki and Higashi-Matsushima alone.

Given the difficulty of securing such a large amount of soil, an official in charge at the prefectural government said, "We plan to consider another method [of using soil] by removing salt and debris from it."

The situation is similar in Fukushima Prefecture.

"The biggest problem is a lack of soil," a prefectural government official said. But the prefecture is still uncertain of how much it will need as it is currently in the process of measuring levels of radioactive substances in soil.

The Miyagi prefectural government plans to elevate the height of coastal roads in a 140-kilometer-long section as part of its efforts to block tsunami in a "multiple defense." This project is estimated to require about 5 million cubic meters of soil, an amount that could fill the Tokyo Dome four times.

Another 3 million cubic meters of soil is expected to be needed for improving seawalls along the coastline under the prefectural government's jurisdiction. More soil is also expected to be needed to increase the elevation of urban areas.

"Even 10 to 20 million cubic meters of soil would not be enough," a senior prefectural government official said.

Prefectural government officials in charge are becoming increasingly concerned about the situation.

"The amount of soil is far in excess of what municipalities can handle. This shortage of soil could delay restoration," an official said, adding that the prefectural government would consider utilizing recycled materials, such as soil left over from construction projects and concrete refuse.

(Mar. 24, 2012)


(LINK)
 
a unmanned Japanese fishing boat missing during Tsunami march 2011
is found near the coast of British columbia, Canada
http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20120324/NEWS/120329994/biggest-japanese-tsunami-flotsam-8212-a-fishing-ship-8212-found


also are more and more Tsunami debris arrives at east coast of North America
 
Contrary to assumptions the reactors still aren't in a stable state. N°2 reactor has only 0,6 m of
cooling water from the bottom, instead of the expected 10m, so constant cooling again cannot be
taken for ensured. Radiation level is much higher, than anticipated, too. And N° is the only reactor,
that could be closely examined so far. The other too reactors with melted cores could be in an even
worse state. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17533398
So, what was already out of the direct public view, seems to be back there again.
No comfort in the fact, that a high-ranking job is available at Tepco ! :(
 
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/perspectives/pulse/news/20120319p2a00m0na020000c.html
 
Grey Havoc said:
Pity they couldn't be bothered to salvage her.

1) It was almost certainly worthless as a vessel, after a year of no maintenance.
2) Towing it a long distance would be a little dangerous and a lot expensive.
3) So would it be worth the risk and expense to go to the effort just for the scrap value... scrap value that would be reduced due to the likely additional expense involved in cleanup (oil, fuel, birdcrap, etc)
4) Just about the only remaining use of the thing would be as a museum piece. The only place for such a museum would be Japan. I didn't see the Imperial Japanese Navy show up to collect the boat.

So if the Japanese didn't want it, and it'd be kinda pointless for anyone else... sinking it is about the only option left. Personally, I wouldn't have used the deck gun of a Coast Guard cutter. I'd've used an H-Bomb. Because I wanna see one.
 
Indeed, I was thinking along the lines of a museum exhibit, with a bit of practical research thrown in on the side.

Orionblamblam said:
Personally, I wouldn't have used the deck gun of a Coast Guard cutter. I'd've used an H-Bomb. Because I wanna see one.

;D
 
Grey Havoc said:
Indeed, I was thinking along the lines of a museum exhibit, with a bit of practical research thrown in on the side.

The question always is whether the cost is worth the benefit. Apparently nobody in Japan - where such a museum would be most appropriate - thought it was worth the effort to try.


Orionblamblam said:
Personally, I wouldn't have used the deck gun of a Coast Guard cutter. I'd've used an H-Bomb. Because I wanna see one.
;D

Imagine a modern H-bomb test filmed with two dozen IMAX cameras, and with a dozen satellites and a hundred airplanes watching. Giggity!
 
Tokyo govt to hire staff to help reconstruction

Jiji Press

The Tokyo metropolitan government will hire retired public servants and others for a fixed period to be dispatched to the three northeastern prefectures hit hardest by the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami.

The recruitment process will start in late April, and those employed will undergo a training program and be sent to the three prefectures--Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima--in September for up to five years to support reconstruction work there. No age limit will be set for applicants, metropolitan government officials said Friday.

The Tokyo government will solicit retired public servants and also experienced private-sector people from a wide range of sectors.

(Apr. 8, 2012)

(Via the DAILY YOMIURI ONLINE)
 
Not surprising: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T120611004550.htm
 

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National archive to compile 300,000 items related to 3/11 quake (The Asahi Shimbun)

With the mountain of photos, videos, documents and records related to the Great East Japan Earthquake still fresh, the government wants to compile them into a central database for easy access and preservation.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, jointly with the National Diet Library, on Jan. 10 will start tests of a “Great East Japan Earthquake Archive,” an integrated data management system for more than 100,000 items related to the earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011.

It plans to complete the system in early March and increase the number of items to more than 300,000, including related data.

The archive will collectively manage data that is currently kept by local governments affected by the disaster, the news media, universities, nonprofit organizations, private companies and others.
 
http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2013/01/25/rikuzentakata-mayor-red-tape-slowing-disaster-zone-recovery/

Even during the dark days following the devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami that rocked his coastal city, Rikuzentakata Mayor Futoshi Toba imagined that with time — one or two years — he would see progress toward recovery.

But as the two-year anniversary of the March 11 disaster approaches, Mr. Toba said he is frustrated that Rikuzentakata is nowhere near the recovery he imagined, slowed by red tape and a weakening sense of urgency to rebuild Japan’s disaster zone.

In comments made this week in Tokyo, he said the city — still reeling from the giant tsunami that killed 1,800 of its residents and washed away scores of businesses and homes — needs help. The gutted remains of destroyed buildings still dot the city’s lower basin and about 2,200 families live in temporary homes, he said.

“The biggest impediment is the lack of a sense of speed,” Mr. Toba told JRT on Friday, expanding on a speech he made at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan on Thursday.

Mr. Toba said the inability of Japanese politicians and government ministries to adjust regulations and procedures for the special circumstances faced by the disaster area is a constant source of frustration.

He cited the example of a construction project in the western part of the city. The plan to build a fire station, a police station and a public housing block on higher land was presented to the city’s residents in August 2011. A deal with a construction company was signed in October 2011, but the project didn’t break ground until 13 months later because of the amount of paperwork required by the government.

“If this happened in Tokyo or Osaka, there is no way this would happen,” said Mr. Toba. “It’s really frustrating for us. It makes us angry.”
 
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201303040001
 
Jiji Press

Japan received about 164 billion yen in aid for the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami from abroad during the year after the disaster, according to a think tank survey.

The amount was equivalent to about 40 percent of about 400 billion yen in donations collected in the nation, the International Development Center of Japan reported.

Most of the aid from abroad came in the first three months after the disaster. Japan was the biggest recipient of all assistance extended in response to natural disasters and humanitarian crises in the world during 2011, according to the center.

(Mar. 7, 2013)

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T130306005606.htm
 
Grey Havoc said:
Even during the dark days following the devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami that rocked his coastal city, Rikuzentakata Mayor Futoshi Toba imagined that with time — one or two years — he would see progress toward recovery.

<SNIP>

Mr. Toba said the inability of Japanese politicians and government ministries to adjust regulations and procedures for the special circumstances faced by the disaster area is a constant source of frustration.

He cited the example of a construction project in the western part of the city. The plan to build a fire station, a police station and a public housing block on higher land was presented to the city’s residents in August 2011. A deal with a construction company was signed in October 2011, but the project didn’t break ground until 13 months later because of the amount of paperwork required by the government.

“If this happened in Tokyo or Osaka, there is no way this would happen,” said Mr. Toba. “It’s really frustrating for us. It makes us angry.”

This really isn't surprising. Since the disaster the politicians have kept up their old game of infighting and muck-throwing - trying to climb to the top of the pile as the people of Tohoku suffered. The sad thing is, the people of Japan let them get away with it, even in Tohoku - Ichiro Ozawa, who leads the pack in the "me first" world of Japanese politics, was comfortably re-elected by the geriatric-led population of Iwate. This despite the fact that instead of batting for them in their darkest days of disaster, he took himself off to Kyoto to escape imaginary nuclear fears.

And the reconstruction has a double whammy. Most contracts were given to the big Japanese Companies - local firms and building suppliers were frozen out of the process, so most of what has been spent so far does not even stay in Tohoku - it flows back down to Tokyo.

The whole situation is disgusting.
 
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T130311004448.htm

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/recovery/AJ201303110120
 
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T130311003871.htm

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T130311003970.htm

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T130311003885.htm
 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21737931

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/worldnews/9922256/Japan-earthquake-and-tsunami-second-anniversary-in-pictures.htm

http://science.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/11/17270236-japan-tsunami-debris-still-washing-ashore-2-years-later
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KgVi29aj58

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqwiWM8pGvY


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti7nZwxUEjU
 
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/1259393/1/.html
 
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2013/07/05/our-lives/mom-who-blogged-about-tsunami-wants-people-to-remember/

Mom who blogged about tsunami wants people to remember

BY KRIS KOSAKA

SPECIAL TO THE JAPAN TIMES



Stranded for three days after March 11, 2011, with her mother-in-law and young children on the second floor of their home near the industrial port of Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, Naoko Nakayama fought panic by communicating the only way she could: scribbling on torn scraps of paper.

She wrote about how their toddler was running around the house naked before the shaking started; how their daughter held onto a beam in the upstairs bedroom, wide-eyed, as she listened to the dishes crashing in the kitchen; and how Nakayama herself made desperate plans to use the children’s bunk bed as a makeshift boat.

With one eye on the encroaching waves outside the window, she kept jotting things down. The notes were a substitute for what she would say to her husband, as a way to counter her worrying about his safety and that of their extended family and friends.

“I needed to be able to tell him what had happened in his absence. I wanted to talk to someone about the disaster,” she recalled.

Nakayama kept writing about anything she could find: how they used diapers instead of a toilet and rationed out fruit juice salvaged from the flooded area downstairs; how they wandered in hip-deep water after being stranded in the house for three days, taking turns carrying the children before they were discovered and guided by Self-Defense Forces personnel to an emergency shelter.

She jotted down her impressions and feelings so much that it became a habit that continued even after her husband found them at an evacuation center five days after the earthquake, when restored cellphone services allowed her to give up the paper scraps for a blog.

“In the evacuation center, there was no place to speak privately and no way to publicly voice my fears. Everyone was having a hard time and I was not the only one in distress,” she said. “I was also determined to keep my tired or worried feelings hidden from my children. If I created a blog, someone far away could read it. I was only able to show my true feelings in a blog.”

Nakayama’s early need to reach out and the subsequent popularity of her blog led to “Ne Ne, Shittetaa” (“I Know What Happened”), a manga based on her blog entries describing the Great East Japan Earthquake, the tsunami and the rebuilding efforts of their family, which was one of the first to move back to the devastated Tsukiyama port area of Ishinomaki. Illustrated by Shin Masuda and recently translated into English by Suzanne Yonesaka and Masami Iwasaki, Nakayama hopes her message of determined hope resonates with other disaster victims around the world.

Since her manga is mainly directed at children, the illustrations are rendered in a child-friendly, cute style. Nakayama’s text, however, does not avoid the grim reality of her family’s experience. One especially poignant passage reveals how she told her children that their grandfather, Nakayama’s father-in-law, perished in the tsunami. Other passages reveal her children’s lingering fears: “Mama, please don’t become a photo. Please live for a long time.”

Yet Nakayama firmly believes it is the remembering that leads to recovery, both physical and mental.

“The disaster took many things away from us, and it’s so devastating that sometimes I just want to forget all about what happened on March 11. But more importantly, I want to try hard to give my children confidence to know what to do, to protect themselves first by escaping and not worry about anything else,” she said. “I feel strongly that I should be talking to as many people as possible about what I experienced and the hardship we went through, to help others to be strong and overcome any disaster.”

Nakayama said it is important to build children’s confidence going forward.

“Many children living in the disaster area cannot remember the earthquake or tsunami now. Yet it is important to treasure their experiences in order to gain confidence in their own strength and resilience. Helping each other, with so many strangers and friends helping us, gave us such joy. Because of so many people’s help, our home is rebuilt and is now a fun and clean place for people to gather.”

Out of the 1,000 households that once made up the Tsukiyama neighborhood, Nakayama estimates that only 30 have returned. Nakayama and her husband made the difficult decision to return to honor his father.

“I knew I could not accept it myself if I just let our house be destroyed,” she said. “My father-in-law was a carpenter and built this house for us. The house saved us. We decided to fix the house and live here again, even with our fear.”

Nothing in Nakayama’s past indicated her need to write. A trained physical therapist, Nakayama worked part-time while raising their two young children. She herself admits being puzzled by her own urge to write, and then by the popularity of the blog, which gradually spread — first among local residents and then to wider audiences as a forum for victims of the disaster to connect with each other.

Over 1,000 copies of the manga were sold by word of mouth alone, and NHK gave it national coverage in a Children’s Day program this year. She was awarded a grant from the Toyota Foundation and hopes to use the money to continue publicizing the work.

After the house was rebuilt, Nakayama traveled from Kobe to Hokkaido to speak at schools about her experience. Her blog has become a connecting point for many affected by the tragedy, and she released a second comic book in late June detailing stories from around Japan related to the March 11 disasters.

“This new manga reveals a wide range of stories, different types of people all sharing their own experiences. There are records of people who directly experienced the tragedy and other stories from people who did not feel the earthquake at all physically. I’m very excited to share these stories, which we collected from people reading my blog who wanted to share their own experiences.”

Nakayama also feels thankful she has the potential to reach an international audience, thanks to the two translators, who are professors at Hokkai-Gakuen University in Sapporo.

Iwasaki, an anthropologist with close ties to Ishinomaki, started bringing her university students for relief work to Miyagi soon after the tragedy. Once she saw Nakayama’s manga, she shared it with her colleague, Yonesaka, and together they volunteered to translate it into English. It took six months to complete the translation, but all three women hope the work will find an international audience to help others in disaster-hit areas around the world.

Nakayama continues to use her blog to share information and has since added a Facebook page, hoping her online presence will remind people of the disaster areas and the people who live there.

“We still need help, clearing debris and with other relief work, even now, over two years after the disaster. The television does not really show the reality anymore, but we still need help.

“After all, the experiences we are sharing are very small. They are just everyday parent and child stories that may not seem like important news. But if the manga or my blog triggers something in people so that they can look back on a tragedy and go on, or learn to trust and believe in their family members, I hope they will keep on reading.”
 

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