[Mr. Ford95]

Japan lost its place as the world's No. 2 economy to China last year. The Japanese economy has been ailing for two decades, barely managing to eke out weak growth between slowdowns. It is saddled with a massive public debt that, at 200 percent of GDP, is the biggest among industrialized nations.

Yikes and I thought we were in trouble in the US, had no idea Japan had dropped so far.

Here's the Treasury Dept's stats on foreign owned US Bonds:http://www.treasury.gov/resource-cen...uments/mfh.txt

If you count Taiwan in with China since China still claims them, it's an even bigger gap.

[MichiganDriver]

Interesting article with guestimates (will change by the time you read this I'm sure)

Factbox: Japan disaster in figures | Reuters

[One]

Originally Posted by golfhobo

One said:



Naaaahhhhhh..... I'm gonna go with the CNN International and BBC news reports! I don't think we've had anything like a "meltdown" yet. They've been pumping in sea water to keep the rods cool. The water level got real low and SOME of the very tops of the rods began to degrade..... giving off cesium. the SAME "event" has occurred at the second reactor at this ONE location. Apparently, they were not well prepared or paying attention.



Yes, I agree... but, in tolerable concentrations, and ONLY from the very top of the rods. This does NOT qualify as a meltdown.

The TOP scientists and nuclear specialists are ON THE JOB right now... and in a country with THEIR record for Nuclear power and safety..... WE, as a World community will band together... without concern for RACE, RELIGION or Politics.... to help our fellow man! :usa:

Like i said...meltdown in progress. The bad thing is, that if it was 1 reactor only, it would contaminated the entire area, prohibiting workers from saving the next reactor! Now we have not only multiple reactors melting, but also 40 (FOURTY) Years of fuel rods stored with the reactors!! This will go down as the worsts nuclear accident in history and if you think the death toll from the quake was bad....This is just the beginning. One of the reactors uses a plutonium mixture. That stuff burns much hotter and is much more dangerous than Uranium; 1 ounce of Plutonium can potentially kill every human on this planet, has a half life of 21000 years. Enjoy.
It doesnt seem people here are taking this very seriously...Chernobyl was just 1 reactor and no stored fuel rods..this is 5 reactors an 40 years of their spent fuel rods+ plutonium mix... Chernobyl affected millions of people.

[Mr. Ford95]

This also has a cap over the reactors whereas Chernobyl did not. HUGE difference there in keeping it from being the worst disaster yet with Nukes. The world learned a lot from Chernobyl, as long as the cap stays intact it won't be anywhere close to Chernobyl.

What do you mean the workers are being prohibited from stopping/saving the other reactors? They have voluntarily decided to stay and fight till the end to keep everyone else safe. They already know they are on borrowed time and until their strength is gone they are going to do everything they can no matter what their superiors say. The people at Chernobyl did the same thing. The helicopter pilot at Chernobyl knew the risk he was taking but he went anyways, he died a few days after flying directly over the exposed core in a last ditch effort to drop sand on it and smother the core.

As for the Japanese population and the radiation, in Tokyo they had 20 times normal readings which sounds bad. Do the math though, they got as much radiation per hour as you can get smoking 1 cigarette. 1.5 packs of smokes per day for a year only give you 13 mSv per year or less radiation per hour than 40 chest X-ray's. At the plant, they were getting radiation equal to 1 chest X-ray per hour.

[Windwalker]

Well, the latest I get is that the nuke scenario is not over yet. Japanese are considering filling the reactors with soil. Looks like they can't seem to get a handle on them no matter what else they might try. Might be a clean and efficient way to produce power, but is it worth this kind of mess? They can't get the pumps going, they can't pump in enough sea water, and with the boron, it's not doing it. A few days ago, I'd heard that that was the "last line of defense". Now, they talk centers around filling them with dirt. It suggests that everything they've tried so far has only been a delaying effort. Then, I think of all the rest of the reactors on line around the world. When is the next disaster coming? And, what will be the fall-out from that one?