# Japan



## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

How sad. I guess living in Canada we really don't realize how lucky we are. The worst thing we get is bad winter weather, and a rare tornado. This whole story is going from bad to worse. This is so scary with what's happening at the nuke plant. Americans are now being asked to stay fifty miles away from this plant. This could get really bad when you listen to the experts. This will affect us all directly or indirectly. I pray for everyone that is touched by this. There are roughly one hundred and thirty million people there and the whole country is smaller than California.


----------



## irnfit (Nov 21, 2006)

I think everyone feels the same way, Dave. The quake and tsunami would have been bad enough to get through, but now the nuclear problem. I can remember the 3 Mile Island meltdown and we had one on LI at Shoreham, which is closed now. There is a nuclear plant only 50 miles from NYC. Heard tonight that the US is going to fly over the plant to get their own air samples.


----------



## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

Michele, hopefully the world will learn something from this. It seems that there definitely are problems with the way these spent fuel rods are stored and some of these plants around the world are outdated. Actually it was said that Canada has some of the best/ safest plants in the world. I hope the one sixty miles from us is on that list.


----------



## pjewel (Apr 11, 2007)

There was an old Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner movie called "On The Beach" that was very impactful at its time. It was exploring a world after a nuclear holocaust. Left me terrified at the time. The final scene in the film stays with me to this day. I must admit, it came to mind after this latest accident.

God bless all the people so devastated by the events of the past several days. Their nightmare is ongoing. My prayers are with them.


----------



## Flynn Gentry-Taylor (Jan 17, 2008)

It is such a sad time, and did you see even in the rescue sites, the Japanese are recycling? The brave men who are staying there trying to stave off an explosion in those nuclear plants are beyond heros. 
I hope the USA will reconsider the nuclear plants. It is clear they are not meant to last as long as many have.. Five dollar a gallon gas does not seem so important now, does it?


----------



## morriscsps (Aug 17, 2010)

The majority of the US nuclear plants aren't on faults and are quite safe. I do agree it is very important to question and upgrade safety procedures constantly but they do that anyway. Engineers try to come up with the worst case scensarios. They did pretty well to design a plant that survived a 9.0 earthquake and 10m tsunami. The thing could have exploded immediately. They have gained almost a week to try to fix the problems.

I find reporters who purposely try to terrify the public irresponsible. The whole "they have nuclear plants, we have nuclear plants, therefore our plants will melt down, too." is wrong. sigh.... sorry... I hate sensationalism. 

However.... It may be time to cover over the Japanese reactors with sand and concrete like they did in Chernobyl.


----------



## Gizmo'sMom (Jul 9, 2010)

morriscsps said:


> The majority of the US nuclear plants aren't on faults and are quite safe. I do agree it is very important to question and upgrade safety procedures constantly but they do that anyway. Engineers try to come up with the worst case scensarios. They did pretty well to design a plant that survived a 9.0 earthquake and 10m tsunami. The thing could have exploded immediately. They have gained almost a week to try to fix the problems.
> 
> I find reporters who purposely try to terrify the public irresponsible. The whole "they have nuclear plants, we have nuclear plants, therefore our plants will melt down, too." is wrong. sigh.... sorry... I hate sensationalism.
> 
> However.... It may be time to cover over the Japanese reactors with sand and concrete like they did in Chernobyl.


I was thinking the same thing. I apparently live close to the most at risk nuclear plant according to yesterdays report. They make it sound like it's ready to meltdown any minute just to get people nervous....I think it's good if they update it now to help a meltdown not happen in the future, but they don't have to make it sound like there will be a disaster tomorrow.


----------



## morriscsps (Aug 17, 2010)

Exactly!!!

What I think is interesting is that last year Obama cancelled the funding for the US to develop a similar early warning system like the Japanese have. Reports are saying that the Japanese system may have saved thousands of people. Those few seconds of warning gave people a chance to duck and cover. It shut down the trains and some construction sites. Then the people had 10 minutes to reach safety from the tsunami.

If I lived on the west coast, I would want a similar warning system.


----------



## Kathie (Jul 31, 2008)

I agree with both your posts, Pam. These reporters seem to enjoy stirring things up just so they'll have a story!


----------



## Suzi (Oct 27, 2010)

I hope they can control the situation soon. The news today is showing them still trying to cool down the reactors. I think it is far worse than any other nuclear melt down the world has experienced. We have nothing to compare it too because their is so many about to melt. The people who are having to live threw all that has happened are in need of so much help to add Radiation contaminating their land and harming their health is just way too much to be living threw.


----------



## mckennasedona (Feb 20, 2007)

It's a tragic story. My thoughts and prayers are with everyone affected.

I do hate the way the media is playing up the nuclear fallout panic. People are buying up iodine pills as though taking a bottle of pills will keep them safe from all radiation. Now we have the reports of the radiation cloud crossing California tomorrow. They make it sound so horrible but the experts say there won't be any more radiation exposure than one would get with a standard X-ray. 

If that's something to panic about I guess I'm done for since, in January, I had a mammogram on a Tuesday, a sinus MRI two days later, and a pre-surgery chest X-ray two weeks later.


----------



## morriscsps (Aug 17, 2010)

Chernobyl was far worse because the Russian govt. never said anything until the fallout hit Europe. Its failure and meltdown were due to human error. Because it was in the 80s and the Cold War era, safety procedures and international nuclear disaster agencies were not developed.

That disaster made governments realize the need for strict guidelines. Chernobyl is rated a 7 out of 7 on the scale. 3 Mile Island was a 5. So far Japan is a 6. Hopefully, it won't get worse.


----------

