Surprised

[artme]

The fourth estate comments are cogent Mic.

I was thinking ahead to the worst case scenario as per Chernobyl. Two explosions so far and the Japanese PM is distinctly worried.

Immediate loss of life is not the main concern here. The release of radiactivity that could drift across to continental Asia hardly bears thinking about. The long term effects could be profound both in Japan and on the continent. Can you imagine the political argy bargy arising from this on top of the other consequences??

[AlexHW]

Yes how devastating, my wife has been crying for days.(lots of Japanese friends)

I can't watch the news anymore, too horrible.

[jimbur]

I suspect that the reason that a response to the Japanese earthquake/tsunami was so slow on this site was the same as mine. The scale of the disaster just takes you aback. That this can happen to an advanced industrial nation, one that has been prepared for generations for earthquakes, is mind-numbing.
Whether or not you agree with the use of nuclear power for electricity generation the fact is inescapable that sufficient safeguards were not in place for this eventuality. The apologists have already started to excuse it by claiming that the worst problems come from forty year old reactors. Why then were not the lessons learned in the past forty years and the safeguards built into more recent reactors retro-fitted? You don't leave the same set of tyres on a car for all its useful life.
Even worse, media reports have not been able to mitigate the impact of the disaster by bringing up such concepts as the "Aussie spirit", or in the case of Christchurch, the Anzac spirit.
I believe we all feel less safe and more likely to ask, "but what if?"
Cheers,
Jim

[cookie48]

Gentlemen. Thankyou for these very interesting articles. I have found them to very good in my understanding of what is happening. But I am still concerned for what can happen.
Once again thankyou.