Recent content by biffvernon

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    Japan Earthquake: Nuclear Plants at Fukushima Daiichi

    Looks like it's been raining. http://crofsblogs.typepad.com/h5n1/2011/07/fukushima-hit-by-torrential-rains.html
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    Japan Earthquake: Nuclear Plants at Fukushima Daiichi

    That's interesting. The position of the Torness nuclear power station in eastern Scotland, and other British coastal reactors, did not take account of the Storegga Slide, which caused a large tsunami in about 6100BC.
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    Japan Earthquake: Nuclear Plants at Fukushima Daiichi

    So the hydrogen explosion had to start somewhere. Maybe a spark inside your electrical distribution box?
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    Japan Earthquake: Nuclear Plants at Fukushima Daiichi

    Right, to summarise, I think what we now know is that we have some soft, Quaternary, deposits, maybe fluvial or marine alluvium, to the north and south of the site. That would not be sensible to build anything very heavy upon. The plant itself is built on the Tertiary...
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    Japan Earthquake: Nuclear Plants at Fukushima Daiichi

    :oops: That should have read Tertiary rather than Quaternary (but it doesn't change the argument very much). The basement rock of granite type material starts about 800 meters below the power plant and is overlain by the Tomioka Formation of Late Miocene/Early Pliocene sedimentary rocks upon...
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    Japan Earthquake: Nuclear Plants at Fukushima Daiichi

    Oh dear, I've just found a paper about the geology written in English:https://ir.kochi-u.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/10126/2261/1/N022-04.pdf The Taga Group and its Tomioka Formation are indeed Quarternary - Late Miocene/Early Pliocene. Much younger than I had assumed and so likely to be much...
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    Japan Earthquake: Nuclear Plants at Fukushima Daiichi

    LOL There was a map posted here several pages ago! The anonymous professor gave the name of the Sandstone/siltstone formation. This is the 'bedrock' that the power plants are built on. The Quarternary deposits cover this bedrock just north and south of the site. The builders were not...
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    Japan Earthquake: Nuclear Plants at Fukushima Daiichi

    Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the Quarternary deposits are to the north and to the south of the plant. The sandstones and siltstone below the plant are much older (and stronger). How a rock behaves in an earthquake is very complicated and how a building sitting on top behaves is even...
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    Japan Earthquake: Nuclear Plants at Fukushima Daiichi

    The trouble with general terms like 'sandstone' and 'mudstone' is that they tell you approximately nothing about the strength and probably nothing about the permeability of the rock. Sandstone is any sedimentary rock composed of sand grains; mudstone is a sedimentary rock made of much finer...
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    Japan Earthquake: Nuclear Plants at Fukushima Daiichi

    So now we know that the power station is built on solid geology not alluvium. 'Mudstone' should be read as stone rather than mud. The buildings are not going to slide into the sea, as someone suggested a great many posts ago. The significant detail about how permeable the rock immediately...
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    Japan Earthquake: Nuclear Plants at Fukushima Daiichi

    What we need is not just a geologist (like me) but a geologist that reads Japanese and can find the data. A quick scan through the Report of Japanese Government to the IAEA Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Safety June 2011 http://min.us/mvoVGLP appears silent on the matter of site...
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    Japan Earthquake: Nuclear Plants at Fukushima Daiichi

    As I said before, it's not that we don't have a geologist. It's that we don't have any geological information. A map would be a good start.
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    Japan Earthquake: Nuclear Plants at Fukushima Daiichi

    The reading is on the ground in a road gutter near a drain. Probably cesium 137 gets washed down from a large area and concentrates by a few orders of magnitude. It illustrates that relying on average measurements over an area are not appropriate when assessing the risks to small children with...
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