stonebro: Can anybody explain to me why a decision was made to place a nuclear power plant, no screw that, several nuclear powerplants right next to the sea? In Japan?
...

Damuna: Hey Trilarion, I notice you're not signed up for GogPM - is there some way I could contact you?

Darling_Jimmy: All THREE damaged nuclear reactors now in 'meltdown' at tsunami-hit power station

Darling_Jimmy: All THREE damaged nuclear reactors now in 'meltdown' at tsunami-hit power station

carnival73: Reading blurbs further down this link, apparently the meltdowns won't be as destructive as depicted in ficitional movies but a lot of people are going to get sick from radiation poisoning.

Darling_Jimmy: Right. I'm not worried about being vaporized but I am topping up our water tanks while we still have access to clean water.

carnival73: Good idea.

I was just thinking, you know how some of the best things result from shitty occurences?

Don't they treat cancer with radiation? i mean maybe that's TOO optimistic.

Bhaldur: Emotional debate equals money, fundamental media psychology.

xa_chan: I'm dubious of all the reports the foreign medias do on the nuclear situation, i.e. the "nuclear meltdown" reported by the dailymail. There's no such news in any media here in Japan. Instead, this morning we had news that operations of cooling down are under way and that the reactor in which the nuclear bars were fully exposed is now half-full of water, which is better.

We also have reports on radioactivity levels in the areas close to the power plant.

So I wonder: what games are playing foreign medias? japanese medias? I wouldn't be surprised if foreign medias saw that mainly as a way to make more money. After all, Henri Guaino (special advisor of french president Nicolas Sarkozy) delcared that this nuclear problem "could be a chance for the french nuclear industry" (the full article, in french, is here : http://fr.reuters.com/article/frEuroRpt/idFRLDE72C0N420110313)

The economy journalist Larry Kudlow on CNBC said "the human casualties seem to be way higher that the economic problems it will create and for that, we can be thankful".

I'm torn between keeping the tv running to get the last updates and shutting down everything and not listen to all those mofos anymore...

xa_chan: Snip

Trilarion: Well, here they are normally located near big rivers, because somehow the demand for water cooling is really high. I guess in Japan, with so much coast and not enough land, they decided to go for coast. In France there are nuclear power plants near the coast as well. Well afterwards one is more clever. Going 1 or 2 km away from the shore might have been better.

bansama: The problem is, the Japanese government and TEPCO could simply be playing everything down here to avoid mass hysteria. The foreign media on the other hand, want to hype up the situation to create mass hysteria as that sells.

Ultimately, I don't think we can actually truly believe what either is saying.

One things for certain, TEPCO can't stick to their own schedules. We've now been informed that our power is going out for 3 to 4 hours far earlier than previously announced. So now I'm desperately trying to warm up at least one room.

bansama: The problem is, Japan really doesn't have anywhere that isn't on or right near a fault line. And with around 70% of the land unusable (too mountainous, etc.) there really is little choice as to where to build such installations.

Aaron86: I did't quite catch your last line in the context of the rest of your post, Bhaldur.
Aaron86: Are you saying that the anti-nuclear movement is in it "solely for the money", or was it a general observation on how the media will fixate on any controversy to make a quick buck?

Oh yeah, and condolences to Japan and everyone in it and all that.