March 18, 2011

There were 2 posts published on March 18, 2011 (this is page 1 of 1).

Air horn

Working from home, I’ve gotten a good idea about the things that go on in the neighborhood. Yesterday there was something quite unusual. In the early afternoon, Kelly and I both heard an extremely loud air horn: loud enough that it literally sounded like a train was in our back yard.

We’re used to hearing horns at our home, with a fire station a quarter-mile away and the Norfolk Southern railroad yard a mile in the other direction. Oddly, this sounded much more like a train than a fire truck. We’re still not sure what it was.

Understanding Japan’s nuclear crisis

This is the best layman’s description I’ve seen of the physics taking place inside the crippled Fukushima Daiichi reactor.

Following the events at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors in Japan has been challenging. At best, even those present at the site have a limited view of what’s going on inside the reactors themselves, and the situation has changed rapidly over the last several days. Meanwhile, the terminology involved is somewhat confusing—some fuel rods have almost certainly melted, but we have not seen a meltdown; radioactive material has been released from the reactors, but the radioactive fuel currently remains contained.Over time, the situation has become a bit less confused, as cooler heads have explained more about the reactor and the events that have occurred within it. What we’ll attempt to do here is aggregate the most reliable information we can find, using material provided by multiple credible sources. We’ve attempted to confirm some of this information with groups like the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Department of Energy but, so far, these organizations are not making their staff available to talk to the press.

via Understanding Japan’s nuclear crisis.