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Pres. Obama in the Rose Garden delivers a brief statement on Japan.
Hiya Firedogs!
The president is expected to give a statement on the situation in Japan at 3:30EDT. So I thought I’d give you all the blow by blow color commentary as it is happening.
Of course you can also watch it live at the below, if it is not blocked at work or you have sufficiently fast internet connections.
Anyway we’ll be getting fired up here is a few minutes so pull up a chair!
Well, it seems the President is running a little late but they are now showing the podium.
Here we go!
Opening statement recapping the problems with the earthquake and tsunami.
Peaceful power= nuclear? Really?
All resources to bear to protect Americans citizens. There is a substantial risk to those near by the plant. That why we broke with the Japanese as to distance.
He ordered dependents home and those still there should continue to monitor the situation.
NRC says that radiation will not reach the West Coast. (yeah people are going to buy that)
CDC says that there is no need to take precautions against radiation.
Says that our plants are safe against many problems but he has ordered a review (any one think that will stop the relicensing of Diablo Canyon? )
3:41
Lots of talk about how we are helping. Support from SAR. Help for nuclear plant. Food and medicine and people. If you want to help go to the Red Cross.
The Japanese are pulling together and working to dig out. Tells the story of baby found in the wreckage.
Summary:
Well that was a whole lotta nothing wasn’t if sports fans? The whole point, to my mind, seemed to be to tell us all that we won’t be covered in radioactive particles. And should quit bugging CVS for Iodine.
While I think it is a good thing for the President to keep panic down, the problem is that he (and we) can’t know what will happen in the next few days. We all hope that the cooling will resume at the Daiichi plants for both the reactors and the storage ponds but we don’t know if it will.
If they are successful in getting new power to the plant that is a big step. It would keep allow the adding of water to the storage ponds and maybe the restarting of the pumps in the reactors themselves.
The problem is we (and they) have no idea what kind of damage the partial meltdowns have done to the system of the reactors. And all of this does not completely solve things if the reactor and or the containment vessels are breached.
I know that Presidents have to tamp things down but this situation could come back and bite him in the ass if the fuel rods in the storage ponds melt and cause their own type of meltdown.
It was interesting to hear him talk about the fact that we have a different standard for evacuations. It is a safe bet that the Japanese officials would like to have the wider evacuation zone too, but where would they put those people?
All in all pretty much a non-event to live blog.
The floor is yours.
99 Comments
This sanctimonious guy creeps me out.
His voice sounds so hollow?? Or is it just me? Seems monotone…worse than usual…
Left before anyone could ask him how much in the way of campaign contributions he got from the nuke industry.
The only time I’ve noticed he seems at ease behind a microphone is when he’s campaigning.
So the usual corporate claptrap, then? Everything’s hunky dory? Excellent! I’ll go ahead and book a vacation for Fukushima Daiichi. I understand it’s very nice this time of year. And the prices on rooms? Fantastic!
Ha! GE, brings things to LIGHT.
Reports are showing on twitter and the news that people arriving via plane are lighting up the geigers. I am so sick of President Benito I could scream loud enough to hear in DC!
Why don’t they call on the scientists to help them with radiation poisoning now. I mean NOW!
What do you expect? He can’t pretend to have emotions ALL the time. Once in a while the mask slips.
Peaceful power = nuclear? Really?
North Korea, Iran, Pakistan can fall to Ossama quite easy, Saudi Arabia wants a reactor and they can fall to Ossama to never mind the current rulers would love to attack Israel someday.
Yes, and they have this huge bon fire going to keep you warm on cool nights. It glows. I have heard it could even make YOU glow.
You know one thing the Feds could do right this instant to lower threats of radiation on the Public?
Turn off the TSA porno-scanners.
You got a link for the geiger counter claim?
So yer sayin’ POTUS Empty Suit got up on his hind legs and brayed out a buncha lies?
No kidding.
Hah, yeah that’s why we’re so opposed to the Iranians getting nukes- it’s because of all the “peace” that power brings.
The pols aren’t even good at artifice anymore. The hypocrisy is blazing. You would need at least a partial lobotomy not to notice it.
The President is now on the hook thanks to video tape for everything he said. If California starts detecting radiation then Obama looks like a liar and a fool.
Smart pols never say anything definite especially when they might be wrong.
The UCS site has a their 2010 update on US nuclear plant safety. Improvements needed, it claims.
It has a separate article on a principal source for the current problems in Japan, preparedness for Station Black Out or SBO. The Fukushima units had 8 hours of secondary backup power from batteries. Ninety-three (93) US plants have only 4 hours of battery backup. Not unreasonably, it chides the US government for its blanket insistence that US plants are safe, trust us:
An issue not discussed was the design/management choice not to provide primary or secondary backup power for the coolant supplying spent fuel rod pools.
“The spread of radioactive contaminates into the atmosphere from the Chernobyl accident was eventually detected all over the world”
http://users.owt.com/smsrpm/Chernobyl/glbrad.html
Ok Obama needs a fact checker I am available:)
Hey ! did that President guy mention how Japanese Wind Farms are largely still operational and in fact, have been asked to pump up the volume to help with shortages ?!?!?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kelly-rigg/battleproof-wind-farms-su_b_837172.html
Thanks for the update Bill. Can’t watch that guy though… he raises my blood pressure and harshes my zen.
Is that a freebie, or do they charge for it?
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-17/tokyo-passengers-trigger-u-s-airport-detectors-n-y-post-says.html
Our failing infrastructure, which includes aging power plants and transmission grids, is a frequent topic on progressive sites. Funding for improving it – existentially and as a way to spur an economy in deep recession – has fallen by the wayside.
As Dick Cheney said about having sought 5 deferments to avoid active duty in Vietnam, Congress and the president, it seems, have other priorities.
Airborne radioactive effluents can enter the body by air inhalation, absorption through the skin, or food consumption. Exposure immediately following the accident involved air inhalation and absorption through the skin but, this exposure could have been minimized by staying indoors. The greatest threat for the public is from food contamination. In this case, fallout settles on farmland and grazing land. Cattle consume the grass and inadvertently contaminate themselves and their by-products such as milk and meat. In the case of farmland, radioactive dust settles on the crops. If well cleaned, this source of radiation is minimized but, for the people in eastern Europe and Finland, often sanitary conditions are not available on the small family-owned farms.
Radioactive effluents in water offer similar contamination threats from drinking water, fish consumption, and absorption through the skin. Again the greatest threat is from consumption of food. Small fish absorb the effluents through their skin and gills and from ingestion. Radioactive particulates in water are also reconcentrated in the aquatic food chain. The ingestion of fish then results in internal exposure.
http://users.owt.com/smsrpm/Chernobyl/glbrad.html
Fish in Japan very well might next year be caught and eaten on the West Coast will Obama have his kids eat that like he had his kids eat Gulf Shrimp?
“Ninety-three (93) US plants have only 4 hours of battery backup.”
If you wrote that factoid into a piece of fiction, it would be dismissed out of hand as being completely absurd. In an incident of any significance, 4 hours is not even time to figure out which end is up.
I do!
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2011/03/17/radiation-from-japan-dectected-at-ohare-airport/
Sounds like a great time to invest in Japanese Green Power you just know they won’t be building more nuke plants anytime soon. Wish I still had some cash to invest:)
On the up side, I understand that radioactive particles make an excellent tea…
one_outer,
Here is your link. You should have already heard/seen this from earlier this morning. Heck, twitter had it going along with all the news updates.
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2011/03/17/radiation-from-japan-dectected-at-ohare-airport/
The only silver lining I can find in this story, the only one, is that our president doesn’t say “nukular”.
I wanted to leave a comment about how much I adore sushi, but all attempts were too flip. I’m just seriously bummed about the conditions for the Japanese people and our pacific community.
It looks like we may have to start avoiding fish from Japan. I guess I am going to have to start bringing my Geiger counter to the grocery store (seriously).
We need to hear from someone in a white coat that, despite the belief and reassurance that radiation won’t reach us, the government is prepared for it and in exactly what ways.
Having President Credibility up there mouthing platitudes at me doesn’t help. As if I watched — ha!
The UCS makes the same point about potassium iodine. First priority has to be supplying the Japanese, many of whom may need it immediately. Odds of radioactive iodine still being a problem after it reaches the US are currently low. Other substances that KI won’t treat, would be more problematic.
Still, that doesn’t address our level of preparedness. It avoids it. It’s Rumsfeldian newspeak: we deal respond to disasters with the preparedness we have, not the one we want. That formulation leaves out what preparedness we have and what we’ve done to improve it since Mr. Obama’s predecessor thought it would be a good idea to put a horse breeder in charge of FEMA.
If that ever was a rule it ended with W who was definite about WMDs in Iraq.
They just thumb their noses & waggle their fingers in their ears at us.
this will harsh your zen he lied again they are kicking down doors of caregivers in montana,the guy is really beginning to piss me off,just to think i was taken in for a vote,now he says nothing to worry about how do we believe him anymore?glad i got well water to my house,the fallout is comming here.
Thanks, President GeeI’mFuckingStupid. Glad you could make it.
after spending yesterday picking his march madness picks Obama told a fundraiser her attended last night
President Obama boldly proclaimed Wednesday that he had fulfilled his campaign pledge: “Change we can believe in.” HE IS EFFING DELUSIONAL
Chu is completely on board from remarks a day or so ago.
still strange to find myself reaching for the mute button as quickly as I did during Bush/Cheney
I love sushi too but fish swim any fish near Japan now could a year from now be near the west coast. Salmon swim a bunch for example. A fishing ban on parts of the pacific could mean starvation for millions.
I’m sure he’s surrounded by people that do nothing but tell him how wonderful he is and how much he’s changed this country.
I’d be fine with Obama calling it “nukular”, especially if he were to say: NO NUKULAR — NOT NOW — NOT EVER.
One way or another, the events in Japan and the aftermath will be spun as a reason to have even more confidence in nuclear power as the preferred ‘clean’ option.
I assume the UCS has their facts correct. You can review them here.
I was taken aback at the number of plants, 93. Four hours of backup seems absurd, even if it’s secondary backup. Fukushima makes clear what should have been clear already: In the face of major man-made and natural disasters, system failures readily cascade and their effects multiply. It makes one wonder how many other happy assumptions plague US nuclear plant operations.
I don’t think he’s delusional. I think he’s a liar. I think that many of his supporters, however, are delusional.
David and Jon have done an excellent job on reporting this already, but here is a refresher for radiation poisoning.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/radiation-sickness/DS00432/DSECTION=symptoms
Chu was completely on board on the day he was appointed.
OBVIOUSLY people, the reason this accident even happened at all, is because the anti-nukes crowd made it impossible to build newer and better plants. It’s YOUR fault you DFH nutbags./s
I don’t hear any discussion of airborne plutonium. I’m not aware that Chernobyl had any in its reactors, so that isn’t covered in its evaluation as a public health hazard.
Inhaled or ingested, single atoms of plutonium can carry fatal risks. There really is NO safe level of Pu exposure, and inhaling Iodine isotopes isn’t far behind.
The MSM and their guvmint analysts all claim, “there is absolutely NO risk on US soil from radiation!” I just heard this on NPR during an interview with an Oregon State professor.
But it isn’t merely the radiation levels. The radiation comes from radioactive atoms, as well as contaminated materials. It’s a bit naive to say that radioactivity is coming to America, tomorrow, but there is no risk whatsoever.
Hasn’t the US guvmint been complaining that the Japanese authorities have been behind the curve on this from the start? And doesn’t THAT imply that WE should be AHEAD of the curve?
We are only seeing the the leading edge of the plume now, the absolute lowest level of exposure, I’d guess. But if that plume is relatively continuous, then we should expect rising levels of radiation, and higher concentrations of airborne radioactive particulates.
It seems to me we are behind already. I’d like to see at least some action by FEMA establishing a public protocol for distribution of Potassium iodide tablets in the event of their need to protect those in the path of the plume. That doesn’t seem like a complete over-reaction to the worsening situation at Fukushima.
It feels like all our leaders want to do is squelch any panic, but at the loss of necessary public discussions.
Awesome…thank you!
love your username!
In the immortal word of dik cheney,
So?
People would have to be paying attention, and then actually DO something, for that to matter.
If that does go down, unless it turns into a serious public health issue here, everyone will forget within two days of being told of the connection. And they would have to be shown the connection. Americans aren’t going to listen to him today and then connect the dots on their own next week.
thanks for the great information
I miss the days of govt. by the people for people.
I also miss the days of a non corporate press.
Especially as the fuel rods in reactor #3 contained plutonium.
I think Shoto’s point would be that truth is stranger than fiction, not that he’s disputing it.
Frankly, I’m surprised that there are any battery backups. Then again, these plants were mostly built in the 70′s when we, you know, regulated a coule things from time to time.
ThingsComeUndone March 17th, 2011 at 11:54 am
Don’t know if any has been detected yet, but the plume is coming
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/03/16/science/plume-graphic.html?ref=science
He really should just shut up
I should have? Eh, I’m at work and I hate twitter. I miss stuff sometimes.
Did he explain how he is moving ahead with building more nuclear plants in the US and we the tax payers will take all the risk, while the Banksters get all the profits.
And Teyco gets to build and run them. Yup, Teyco of Japan who is running the Fukushima plant.
Precisely
Obama forgot about this bit of useful information
He must want the Net Roots to spread this great news
I apologize for posting this cynical comment. I actually have seen this ridiculous argument put forth somewhere, and I couldn’t wash the stupid out of my brain, so I let it slip out and muck up the thread. Sorry.
Per A-J, the attempt to run a mile-long power cable to restore AC power to the reactor site was not successful on Thursday Tokyo time. Efforts will resume Friday.
Go for the non-fish maki or inari. Or, if like me, you find sushi too time consuming to make and too expensive to buy, you can always go for the good old musubi. Teri Spam Musubi – so ono!
peasant party @12:01 within a nest
from the article at your link:
“Travelers who show signs of radiation sickness are being referred to health authorities for proper treatment.”
ruh roh.
Plutonium particles cannot be detected by a geiger counter because they are alpha emitters. Watch this BBC debate, March 14th, and see how quickly you can spot the government shill.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S2qgTrqR6A
Detected radiation on plane passengers poses another problem. Even though the radiation levels are extremely low, and if I correctly remember my decontamination training, the proper procedure is to wash the radiation positive items with soap and water. Also from my training, I distinctly remember that the soles of shoes were a likely source of low-level contamination. Since passengers have been walking all over inside those planes, they will have spread low-level radiation via their shoes, which can be picked up and spread by new passengers boarding. This is a vicious circle, unless the interiors of the planes are washed down. Ruh Roh indeed.
Yes! It glows at night for ease of location and requires no time over a burner to keep it warm.
The CDC posted a box with information on their Emergency Preparedness and Response page for Radiation
http://emergency.cdc.gov/radiation/
It’s mostly general information (and some of it is collected together from other response pages like radiological terrorism and the like), but that’s what they put up so far.
from what you’re saying, reddog, people should be decontaminated before they get on the planes or given paper clothing to wear over shoes, etc to keep the whole plane from getting contaminated and getting spread around by the next passengers on the plane.
Stooge.
Just punching the clock.
X2
The U.S. maintains several major military bases in Japan including a large navy base in Okinawa. I presume this includes many helicopters. Can’t they be used to deliver food, water and medical assistance to the stricken areas in Japan? Doesn’t the military have emergency generators that could be airlifted to provide electricity to the nuclear power plants that need electricity for the cooling pumps? It would seem the resources of the military could be employed for the benefit of the people of Japan.
Exactly.
No one will bother to hold anyone accountable for anything, even as they’re getting ill or worse, and even when shown footage of their politicians and corporate overlords lying to them.
Americans strike me as some of the most foolish, short-sighted people, easily distracted by nonsense and never willing to really take responsibility for anything.
good point!
Yes! Me too! That didn’t take long.
Another two patty nothigburger from our fearless leader.
Now that’s scary.
What is Chu “on board” with?
Isn’t Chu one of those two-headed snakes who wants to combat climate change by promoting nuclear power?
Chu is also NOT at odds with the fossil fuel industry. In fact, Chu was bankrolled by BP — to the tune of a half billion dollars — in his former position as Director of UC Berkley’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where he and BP co-founded The Energy Biosciences Institute in 2007:
Unfortunately, none of this “controversy” was addressed in 2009 when Chu became Secretary of Energy, nor in 2010 when he oversaw the Gulf Oil Spill.
And nobody said boo about Chu when the BP-funded Energy Biosciences Institute subsequently financed the first in a series of widely-publicized, highly misleading “oil-eating microbe” studies (by Terry Hazen, et al) during the height of the spill.
At the rate they are going, we will have to squat and cough before boarding a plane.
No, they are focused on the GWOT.
To date the DoD has determined that the earthquake and Tsunami was not the result of Muslims pissed off because of their fellow Muslims treatment by regimes “friendly” toward the US.
“NRC says the radiation will not hit the West Coast.”
Last time I checked, the Pacific, which will receive contaminated water, was connected to the West Coast.
No, say it ain’t so. This cannot be, we all know the world is flat, an we are on the western edge, and the orient is on the eastern edge.
Next you will be asserting that the earth circles the sun.
Is this our working thread?
Union of Concerned Scientists
There is a table in the original which is an image. I’m not going to try to retype it here, since I doubt the formatting will work.
This does not seem to include the rod storage pool outside the reactors, about which we have heard very little.
Reactor UnitAssemblies in Reactor CoreAssemblies in Spent Fuel PoolTons of Fuel in Spent Fuel Pool
1400292
2548587100
3548 (32 are MOX)51490
4548783130
5548946160
6764867150
Of course, we know #4 had its fuel removed, so at least that much is wrong.
As you can see, that didn’t work at all. Look at the original for the image.
Hey there – on another note, enjoying your script. I was just looking at it, and you know what would be great is if you put a style tag in to bold the [new].
At this line:
c_ts += ‘ [new]‘;
c_meta.getElementsByClassName(‘comment-date’)[0].innerHTML = c_ts;
Even if it bolded the whole CSS class element, that would be ok.
You know how to tell when they’re lying CS?
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Their lips are moving
Jet stream (If it’s too fast, click pause, then next or resume to ff or reverse one frame at a time)
Thank you kindly. I thought “Piehole” was more subtle than “Foxhole Atheist” which I go by on another site.
President Bush, oops, I mean Obama took no questions? Curious.
Basically, I gave you the procedure for contamination prevention. Contain it at the source, and don’t spread it to another area. So yes, decontaminate on-site whenever possible. Everything that comes into contact with contamination is, by definition, also contaminated. Right now they are dealing with very low “safe” levels of contamination, which there aren’t really, but no need to really go there now. Tomorrow–maybe not so.
Thanks. Please put comments regarding the script in the script diary (I keep checking it), so as not to clutter up threads for the peeps who don’t care. I’m currently trying to reformat the nested comments as the unnested style people here seem to prefer (I like the nested + [new]). I’ll see about the bold.
Why curious? If he took questions he might have to answer.
Bingo! Lovely radiation graphs with sources.
linky
If I read those correctly, that’s very encouraging for the moment. Thanks!
If you didn’t catch the link to The Oil Drum last night or today (?) do check it out. Very informative.
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/7675#more
I left a question at whitehouse.gov if they offered to send over a Boeing 747 Forest Fire Aircraft to them. There are also over 100,000
USN personel taking part in Operation Tomodachi. Knock those towers down in the flight path of the aircraft they’re going to have to use, whatever. Email your congressmen to send the most sophisticated Fire Fighting aircraft we have, let’s do something… Jimmy Carter helped clean up Chalk River up there in Canada back in ’58, what does he have to say?
Yeah, what do you say to this:
Is anybody talking about building “newer and better plants” to replace the old ones? If so, that would cost the industry a LOT of money.
So, the bottom line has probably demonstrated that it’s been a lot more profitable to keep on operating the old clunkers.
I don’t know if this has been asked before, but I’m wondering why when radiation doses are reported, they’re in µSv/hr, and then for comparison they immediately list the normal background in µSv/yr. Is it honest oversight, laziness on the part of the reporter, or intentional obfuscation?
I kinda suspect the last, as 6800 µSv/hr detected compared to 2400 µSv/yr normal dose doesn’t seem as bad as 6800 µSv/hr detected vs 0.27 µSv/hr normal, but then I’ve become a suspicious bugger. I used to be a trusting soul, full of belief in hope and change…
Anybody have any solid info as to the why?
All plutonium is produced in uranium reactors and all uranium reactors contain plutonium.