Is the Nikkei even going to finish up for the day? I think I heard something over the weekend about Japan ''not allowing'' any bankruptcies for two years...!
Japan's biggest one day open market operation pumps 12 trillion yen ($150billion USD) into the markets http://e.nikkei.com/e/ac/tnks/Nni20110314D14SS695.htm
To be a disaster, the plant(s) need to have a full meltdown, then the container designed to withstand the resulting blast needs to fail, then shit will be flying all over the place. Partial meltdown doesnt do much, even a full meltdown wont matter if it's contained within the plant. Chances for that to happen is pretty low, it will be a blackswan within a blackswan. I think they are pumping sea water or something into the plants now to try to cool it which sounds pretty desperate but still it's a low probability you will have a full meltdown and the containment specifically designed for it fails...
I honestly don't understand what people were expecting to happen here. I mean it's not like we don't have a lot of data points to look back on over the last 100 years. Most these natural disasters have been bull items especially when they happen in someone Else's backyard.
Agree with everything you said, and would add that LWRs don't "melt down". The type of reactor that is damaged is unable to cause a catastrophe but hell, why let facts get in the way of a good story?
I didn't know ET boasted so many nuclear physicists... To me, it appears the GOJ and Tokyo Electric (owner/operator) are frantic to downplay the possibility of a full-scale meltdown. 2 of the reactor housing units literally blew apart. Radiation levels were reported 1000 times higher than normal near Fukushima. Entire towns (100,000+) were evacuated and denizens tested. I heard cooling with salt water effectively destroys the reactor casing making the plant a write-off. Clearly, the situation is dire and the authorities want nothing less to create panic and liability. For those that have been dialed in since early Friday morning, Tokyo Electric continued to sound the all clear while the reactor was in partial meltdown. If the situation weren't dire, neighboring towns wouldn't be evacuated, nor would Tokyo Electric pump-in water that destroys their investment.