Are they joking? (If so, it's a bad one!)

My latest WTF moment...the workers at the plant are getting only crackers for breakfast and one meal a day, have to sleep on lead sheets on the floor and can only shower once a day..and don't even ask if they have the proper suits or not...and some don't even have radiation monitors, we now learn!  So I'm remembering back to all the coverage from before the Iraq invasion that showed how well prepared the US military is to fight in a contaminated environment (i.e. NBC - Nuclear, Biological, Chemical).  The suits were way beyond what the workers seem to be wearing, showering off the contaminants was an integral part of the program, and they also had special tents that provided a secure environment...not to mention plenty of highly nutritional MREs.  So you mean to tell me that the Japanese SDF doesn't have that sort of stuff?  If so, why didn't TEPCO already have the same sort of thing on hand...or at the very least gotten a bunch of it from the SDF on day one?  If not...what exactly is it that Japan has been paying for with the 5th largest military budget in the world?  And even if that were the case, wouldn't one phone call from PM Kan to Pres. Obama have been all it would have taken to get the needed equipment from the US?   Are they trying to fail?  At this point, you really have to wonder!

Useful Links

Here are links to some sites I've found useful:

1. The New York Times - straightforward reporting combined with some nice extra features.  I especially like their daily reactor-by reactor update page.  You need to register, but it's free.

http://www.nytimes.com/

2. NHK World English - All the latest updates from NHK in English.  Needless to say, they don't go very far out on a limb, but still a very good source of basic info (at least that which the government wants us to know.)

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/

3. Daily Telephone Media Briefings by the Union of Concerned Scientists - You know, the folks who keep track of the nuclear war doomsday clock.  Three of their scientists (not so radical, but not bought and paid for by the nuclear lobby, either) hold a daily Q&A session with reporters, and the transcripts are posted on line.  Dry, non-sensational...and quite informative.

http://www.ucsusa.org/nuclear_power/nuclear_power_risk/safety/japan-nuclear-crisis-briefings.html?utm_source=SP&utm_medium=link2&utm_campaign=japan-nuclear-crisis-link2-3-15-11

4. Daily Japanese government radiation readings (air and water) in English - Essential basic information for those of us trying to see how our areas are doing.

http://www.mext.go.jp/english/radioactivity_level/index.htm

5. Daily wind direction and speed interactive map - Sometimes you do need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows :-)

http://www.windfinder.com/forecasts/wind_weather_forecast_google_map_eastern_asia.htm

"We can't allow ourselves to be optimistic."

Yipes!  Not exactly what I was hoping to hear from the PM last night at his news conference.  (BTW - for those of you not familiar with Japanese politicians and bureaucrats way of speaking, the rough translation would be something like, "Man are we ever f**ked!)

The questions I'd most like to see answered

The information we have gotten from the Japanese government and media, the international media, online, and directly from our own governments is confusing and contradictory, to say the least. For about a week or so after the earthquake and the tsunami struck, CNN and BBC featured almost nonstop coverage of these disasters, and the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Crisis that followed. This coverage included a number of real experts with a range of opinions, so someone who paid attention and did a reasonable amount of online homework could get a reasonable idea of what the implications of some of the things that were happening might be, and some pausible theories of the best and worst case scenarios. Soon after the US Embassy and State Department issued their evacuation guidelines (which included the advice that residents of parts of Japan far removed from the plant should "seriously consider evacuation" - which I for one would regard as diplomatic speak for get out now), and the no-fly zone in Libya was implemented, it all just seemed to get flushed down the memory hole. Now, instead of serious analysis for real experts, all we seem to get is superficial fluff. Meanwhile, thousands of us are now sitting overseas, wondering if and when we can safely get back to Japan to restart our lives...and what the long-term consequences of this event will be. So to get the ball rolling, here are some of the main questions I've got. Anybody care to comment, answer, or offer some more of their own?

1. How long can we expect radiation to continue leaking for the plant? At what levels? (Best case, best guess, and worst case scenarios)

2. If the radiation leaks continue, how far out can the impact zone be expected to be? So far we have been quite lucky with the wind patterns, but what happens when these change? How far into the country could strong east winds (not to mention a good typhoon) take the radiation? Are Gunma, Nagano, Niigata, Akita, etc. at risk? Just how far away would need to be to truly be considered "safe"?

3. Does the risk of a catastrophic melt-down (and/or explosive event) still exist? What would the results of something like that be?

4. Under a kind of best case scenario, what exactly is the end game...that is, how does TEPCO get the plant under complete control and shut down all future leakage of radiation? Is that even possible?

5. What are the long term effects on the food supply likely to be? How widespread is the contamination going to be?

6. Are we likely to get some sort of "All clear" from our governments...or are we basically our own with this?
Well, that's more than enough for now.  Looking forward to hear what everybody else has to say!