So, how was your week?

When it rains it pours.

Stock market's down, gas prices going back up, (from 'horrible screwing' back to "gas or groceries'), another military action looming in the mideast, the NFL season is in a shambles at best and doubt at worst, and now this.

I mean, this is really terrible, a one-two punch that gets you where you live, I mean, but for the grace of Allah, there go I, (or us, as the case may be).

Those poor people!

What more must they endure, I mean, how much can an individual take?

Enough about these two whiney-assed crybabies.

Lets talk Japan.

By now, everybody knows that the Land of the Rising Sun was hit with a huge earthquake followed closely by a series of tsunami waves last friday, and that, besides the damage done by those two (related) incidents across the country, the Fukushima Power complex which consists of five nuclear reactors was heavily damaged.

There is no doubt that any incident at a nuclear complex is severe, and complicated, so if either of you reading this care to comment, or shoot anything down, let's keep that in mind. The situation is already dramatic, friendly debate or discussion is not selling the issue, situation or any solution short. OK?

I have noticed on practically every news outlet, in every medium, that the same information is being recycled. Right now, Sunday, nothing new is known. But, here is what has come up so far:

All five reactors were shut down by the initial earthquake. That seemed to work pretty well. Right now, three of the five are in a cold shutdown mode, (just that, completely closed down). Two of those three have sustained some mechanical/structural damage.

The other two reactors did shut down, but the tsunami damaged the backup cooling systems and left the nuclear core hot enough to damage fuel rods still in place, (though non-reactive). That damage may have, or may yet, result in a potentially catastrophic exposure of radioactive material.

Steam and hydrogen gas in the reactor buildings caused explosions that damaged those buildings to different extents. The gas may have come from exposed fuel, or may have come from superheated coolant. Cesium has been measured in the atmosphere, which may indicate exposure of the fuel, or may indicate that the reactor is just wrecked. (What isotope of cesium has not been revealed, nor its concentration -- commentators seem to agree that both factors would help determine what is going on, but they have the luxury of determining that from New York).

The two reactors are being cooled by seawater and boron, a worst case scenario that may indicate a worst case necessity, or may indicate that there is nothing else left to try.

It seems that no one has flipped a yen and sent the new guy in with a flashlight for a lookie.

Like I said, the news reports are recycling those facts sometimes with new talking heads or new headlines, but we don't know shit, and that friends is the biggest failure thus far of this disaster.

This is bound to be politicized, everywhere. Yesterday, a spokeperson for the French Green Party reiterated a plan to completely denuclearize that countries power industry. That may or may not be practical, but you can see where the yelling is going to go.

So, what does that mean for us?

I am going to be adding to this for a while, but I will tag additions to keep track.

Let the invectives fly.

update 1: a pretty good report on what is happening with the experts elsewhere can be seen here.

update 2: apparently, the fuel rods at at least two reactors have been exposed and are partially melted. still no word on the restoration of any moderating substance to these reactors.

update 3: on top of everything else, there is now a volcano erupting on the southwestern part of the island.

update 4: I mentioned the information vacuum before. the ramifications of that will have as much impact in the long run as the initial earthquake. what will these events do to the drive towards nuclear power in this country, and worldwide?