# Large earthquake in Northeast Japan **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 11, 2011, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/large-earthquake-in-northeast-japan/574279 "2011-03-11T06:10:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 36
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/large-earthquake-in-northeast-japan/574279/702 "2011-03-23T05:57:38Z")
How are after shocks not earthquakes? The Japanese say there is radiation that "drastically exceeds the legal levels in 11 vegetables grown in the area. "for human consumption. Yep more sensationalism . ---
**Author:** ![Hokkaido\_Brit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/d26b3c/32.png) [@Hokkaido\_Brit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hokkaido_Brit)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/large-earthquake-in-northeast-japan/574279/703 "2011-03-23T08:46:10Z")
[These boys are the same age as my son.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhDn2DP2gTk&feature=player_embedded) They wear pretty much the same uniform, the same tabards are in his school for sports events etc, they talk the same (given a bit of dialect difference). This could have been us. My husband has seen these boys and says they are doing an adult’s work each. They have all lost someone themselves - the town where they live was devastated despite it having 10m high sea walls. My husband said he was there yesterday and saw ships in the main street, and a whole house that had come to rest upon another house. ---
**Author:** ![chromaticity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@chromaticity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chromaticity)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/large-earthquake-in-northeast-japan/574279/704 "2011-03-23T08:48:40Z")
Aftershocks, are not really news worthy, especially when there are so many other things going on at the same time. check out the number of aftershocks here: > **[Japan Quake Map](http://www.japanquakemap.com/)** > > Time-lapse visualisation of the March 11, 2011 earthquake off the coast of Sendai, Japan and its aftershocks. I don’t think it is practical to report them at this point. Yesterday since it rained the radioactivity is supposed to have increased a bit when they measured the water levels. But it is not at a level that would affect adults, yet. I have to get back home from my office soon, and it started raining again now. [http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/tokyo-water-unsafe-for-babies-food-banned/story-e6frfku0-1226026951055](http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/tokyo-water-unsafe-for-babies-food-banned/story-e6frfku0-1226026951055) ---
**Author:** ![chromaticity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@chromaticity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chromaticity)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/large-earthquake-in-northeast-japan/574279/705 "2011-03-23T08:51:33Z")
> [@Hokkaido\_Brit](#): > > [These boys are the same age as my son.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhDn2DP2gTk&feature=player_embedded) > > They wear pretty much the same uniform, the same tabards are in his school for sports events etc, they talk the same (given a bit of dialect difference). This could have been us. My husband has seen these boys and says they are doing an adult’s work each. They have all lost someone themselves - the town where they live was devastated despite it having 10m high sea walls. > > My husband said he was there yesterday and saw ships in the main street, and a whole house that had come to rest upon another house. That is really touching. Usually my opinion of the Japanese youth is not very high, but seeing these kind of things raises my hopes. Best wishes to your family, hope you can get through this soon. ---
**Author:** ![Waenara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/50afbb/32.png) [@Waenara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waenara)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/large-earthquake-in-northeast-japan/574279/706 "2011-03-23T09:16:13Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > How are after shocks not earthquakes? > The Japanese say there is radiation that "drastically exceeds the legal levels in 11 vegetables grown in the area. "for human consumption. Yep more sensationalism . I went to Google News and searched for articles about “Japan food contamination” (without quotes), and the articles I found were mostly about _fears_ about contamination, and the articles that listed the actual contamination levels and the safe/legal levels made it clear that while it wouldn’t be a good idea to eat the contaminated food long-term and it’s certainly prudent to avoid them for now, it’s not likely to have huge human health consequences. Current levels are higher than the legal limit, but the legal levels are not the same as the maximum safe dose. Legal limits are set to be much lower than even a safe dose, so there’s some buffer between legal and immediate danger. Clean up and continued monitoring is certainly needed, and it seems like they’re halting food shipments mostly to prevent people from mistrusting the food supply, rather than any immediate risk. [Here is a good news article](http://content.usatoday.com/communities/sciencefair/post/2011/03/japapan-radioactive-food/1) that I found (my emphasis added): > [@](#): > > From reports I have heard so far, it seems that the levels of radioactive iodine and caesium, in milk and some foodstuffs are significantly higher than government limits. This doesn’t mean that consumption of these products is necessarily an immediate threat, as **limits are set so that foodstuffs can be safely consumed over a fairly long period of time**. Nevertheless, for foodstuffs which are found to be above limits, bans on sale and consumption will have to be put in place in the affected areas. Iodine-131 has a half life of about 8.1 days, so I wouldn’t expect these bans to last more than a few weeks. But, if land and foodstuffs are significantly contaminated with Caesium-137, this would be a much longer-term problem. > > \ > > In the U.S., the Nuclear Regulatory Commission sets limits on internal uptake for radiation workers called annual limits on intake. These are the activities which, if taken internally, would give a worker the maximum permissible dose for a year - whether whole body of 50 mSv (milliSieverts) or a particular organ of 500 mSv. > > The annual limit on intake for iodine is based on the thyroid limit of 500 mSv and is 50 uCi (microCuries) … **Japans “tolerable” level is set nearly 4 orders of magnitude below what a worker in the US can intake in a year**. > > Same with cesium - 137. Japan’s tolerable level is 200 Bq ( **0.005 uCi** ) per kilogram of milk. The US annual limit on intake based on a whole body dose of 50 mSv is **200 uCi**. > > **What they have found on food - from the info I can find - is even below these “tolerable” levels, so insignificant from an intake dose standpoint**. > > For comparison, an average banana has about 130 Bq of potassium-40 per kilogram. A 70 kg human has about 7,000 Bq of potassium-40. ---
**Author:** ![Waenara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/50afbb/32.png) [@Waenara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waenara)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/large-earthquake-in-northeast-japan/574279/708 "2011-03-23T09:36:33Z")
Here’s [another article](http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110322004943.htm) that I found (my emphasis added): > [@](#): > > The Nuclear Safety Commission has set standards for acceptable levels of radiation in water, milk and produce–excluding root vegetables, such as yams. > > The decision to restrict shipments of these items was based on these numerical standards. > > For dairy products such as milk, the NSC has determined 300 becquerel of radioactive iodine per kilogram and 200 becquerel of radioactive cesium per kilogram are safe for consumption. > > For vegetables, acceptable levels increase to 2,000 becquerel and 500 becquerel, respectively. > > Following the detection of high levels of radioactive substances in some agricultural products Monday, the government ordered Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi and Gunma prefectures to halt shipments of spinach and kakina greens. It also ordered Fukushima Prefecture to halt milk shipments for the time being. > > “Even if people eat these products, there will be no immediate effect,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said. “ **We have imposed the restrictions in case the radiation leak becomes protracted**.” > > Food safety expert Hideaki Karaki, professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo, said: “ **As it stands, the radiation levels that have been detected in food present no danger. But in all likelihood, many consumers would refuse to buy the products even if they were shipped, so factoring in distribution costs, this restriction was unavoidable**.” > > “Moving forward, similar incidents and harmful rumors need to be nipped in the bud by disclosing correct information, and farmers need to be properly compensated for their losses,” he said. > > In Iitatemura, Fukushima Prefecture, radioactive iodine was detected in the water supply at levels three times higher the acceptable limit of 300 becquerel per kilogram. Nuclear experts believe airborne isotopes entered the water supply via the reservoirs and rivers from which the water is pumped. > > The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry instructed the village’s residents to refrain from drinking the water, but said they could still use the water for bathing and washing. > > **The numerical standards for food and water are based on the premise of the radioactive material being ingested for a year.** > > Based on this, the experts then calculate how much of the radioactive substance would be absorbed into the body by both adults and children, and to what extent their health would be affected. The government’s limits are based on the results of these calculations and set at a level that avoids health risks. > > **At the levels that have been detected so far, people can still safely ingest the food or water until safer alternatives are secured without facing health risks, according to the ministry**. ---
**Author:** ![FXMastermind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fxmastermind/32/7289_2.png) [@FXMastermind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FXMastermind)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/large-earthquake-in-northeast-japan/574279/709 "2011-03-23T14:55:50Z")
I wonder if anyone will publish the amount of Cesium that is 100% guaranteed to harm your child? Or say that “plutonium levels are only three times the normal amount”. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/large-earthquake-in-northeast-japan/574279/710 "2011-03-23T17:35:39Z")
I’m sure the information on cesium is out there. Of course, it doesn’t take much _pure_ cesium, radioactive or not, to cause harm as the stuff has a habit of spontaneously combusting in the normal atmosphere. In other words, it has the potential to kill you chemically before any possible radiation could harm you. Well, there’s _another_ reason not to fool with it. Let’s try a quick Google… A number of its compounds are strongly alkali, so there again there’s the possibility of plenty of chemical damage. A quick look on Wikipedia says the chemical LD50 of cesium chloride is copmarable to that of potassium chloride and common table salt, so at least that compound isn’t so very hazardous… unless it’s composed entirely of radioactive cesium + chlorine, that could be a problem… The only information I could find on the letahlity of the 137 isotope was the result of experiments in dogs. Apparently 4.1 micrograms of cesium-137 per kilogram of bodyweight is lethal within three weeks, so assuming that holds true for people as well, feeding your kid 4.1 micrograms of Cs-137 per kg of weight would _definitely_ be harmful. Lesser amounts probably aren’t good for you either. Next question? ---
**Author:** ![Yeticus\_Rex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a698b9/32.png) [@Yeticus\_Rex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yeticus_Rex)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/large-earthquake-in-northeast-japan/574279/711 "2011-03-23T21:11:15Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > In the wake of the Indian Ocean tsunami, it was in the news that a quake apparently had to be at least magnitude 7.5 to spawn a tsunami. I don’t know if this figure has been adjusted, but they often do tsunami warnings for quakes of smaller magnitude than that, possibly just to be safe. Plus, it needs to be on a thrust fault (one side with a large enough vertical vector upwards while the other side downwards) in deep ocean to generate the water displacement needed to produce a tsunami. So, strike-slip faults and shallow waters are very unlikely to generate tsunamis except for possibly some very localized areas due to geography/topography of the local area. ---
**Author:** ![kushiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kushiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kushiel)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/large-earthquake-in-northeast-japan/574279/712 "2011-03-23T22:44:37Z")
I forgot to inform the Canadian Consulate that I was not actually taking the trip to Tokyo this week that I was registered for - I just received an email stating ‘Nuclear Emergency in Japan’. Yeah, shit’s hit the fan when the government starts sending you emails like that. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2011, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/large-earthquake-in-northeast-japan/574279/713 "2011-03-24T14:43:09Z")
It seems the earthquake and tsunami crippled the security system at a Shinkin Bank in Kesennuma, and the vault popped open. And then someone walked off with 40 million yen, which is about half a million bucks American. The bank notified police on Tuesday, 11 days after it happened. Story [here](http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110322/ap_on_re_as/as_japan_earthquake_bank_robbery). BBC TV just reported a 7.0-magnitude earthquake in Burma, WAY up in the Golden Triangle area near the borders with Thailand and Laos. Too far inland to cause a tsunami, but they said it could be felt here in Bangkok several hundred miles away. The local BBC reporter was on the line saying she was speaking from the 8th floor of a Bangkok building that she claimed had shaken quite a bit. Said she’d been receiving calls from lots of others who felt it. My wife and I here on our sixth floor just looked at each other and wondered what the hell she was talking about, because we felt nothing. ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2011, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/large-earthquake-in-northeast-japan/574279/714 "2011-03-24T16:05:41Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > It seems the earthquake and tsunami crippled the security system at a Shinkin Bank in Kesennuma, and the vault popped open. And then someone walked off with 40 million yen, which is about half a million bucks American. The bank notified police on Tuesday, 11 days after it happened. Story [here](http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110322/ap_on_re_as/as_japan_earthquake_bank_robbery). > > BBC TV just reported a 7.0-magnitude earthquake in Burma, WAY up in the Golden Triangle area near the borders with Thailand and Laos. Too far inland to cause a tsunami, but they said it could be felt here in Bangkok several hundred miles away. The local BBC reporter was on the line saying she was speaking from the 8th floor of a Bangkok building that she claimed had shaken quite a bit. Said she’d been receiving calls from lots of others who felt it. My wife and I here on our sixth floor just looked at each other and wondered what the hell she was talking about, because we felt nothing. Didn’t feel a thing here (5th floor), but soon after the quake a friend of my girlfriend called telling they had to evacuate their building as it swayed a fair bit. Now my GF is having second thoughts about traveling to Indonesia in a couple weeks, she’s scared of more quakes and possible tsunamis as in 2004. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2011, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/large-earthquake-in-northeast-japan/574279/715 "2011-03-24T16:38:10Z")
I hear there’s some good diving in Lake Geneva. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2011, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/large-earthquake-in-northeast-japan/574279/716 "2011-03-24T16:55:36Z")
> [@Ale](#): > > Didn’t feel a thing here (5th floor), but soon after the quake a friend of my girlfriend called telling they had to evacuate their building as it swayed a fair bit. > Now my GF is having second thoughts about traveling to Indonesia in a couple weeks, she’s scared of more quakes and possible tsunamis as in 2004. [She would be right.](http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/usc0002aes.php) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2011, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/large-earthquake-in-northeast-japan/574279/717 "2011-03-24T17:57:58Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > My brother the engineer (software, not nuclear; but he has a master’s degree in engineering and I’m sure he generally knows his stuff) assures me that even if the plant goes into total meltdown, there will be no Chernobyl-style disaster – because Fukushima uses water-cooled reactors. The Chernobyl reactor was cooled by graphite, which is combustible and, when it combusted, scattered radioactive particles across the countryside. The Fukushima plant can’t do that. > > He also expresses amazement that all the media coverage ignores this. He also says plants can be built safely even in Japan so long as they’re built out of tsunami range, i.e., further uphill. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2011, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/large-earthquake-in-northeast-japan/574279/718 "2011-03-24T18:09:43Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > He also says plants can be built safely even in Japan so long as they’re built out of tsunami range, i.e., further uphill. Well, you should remind your friend we don’t care that Chernobyl used graphite because our problem isn’t just five armed reactors, it’s also six fuel pools with decades and thousands of tons of highly radioactive and dangerous fuel rods contained by nothing more than some water on top of them which has now become quite a globally attention getting concern. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/large-earthquake-in-northeast-japan/574279/719 "2011-03-25T06:46:53Z")
on radio water at reactor is 10000 times normal. no more detail given. from AP reactor core in reactor 3 may have been breached. high radiation levels are detected. ---
**Author:** ![Norse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a9adbd/32.png) [@Norse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Norse)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/large-earthquake-in-northeast-japan/574279/720 "2011-03-25T07:03:14Z")
Some MPSIMS in this MPSIMS thread: I still haven’t decided to cancel my trip to Tokyo and western Japan next month. The only thing that holds me back is the degree of control they have over the situation in Fukushima. As soon as the cooling systems are working well enough (and I’m guessing that’ll happen within a week), I’m going to reconfirm my hotel reservation. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/large-earthquake-in-northeast-japan/574279/721 "2011-03-25T07:41:16Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > My brother the engineer (software, not nuclear; but he has a master’s degree in engineering and I’m sure he generally knows his stuff) assures me that even if the plant goes into total meltdown, there will be no Chernobyl-style disaster – because Fukushima uses water-cooled reactors. The Chernobyl reactor was cooled by graphite, which is combustible and, when it combusted, scattered radioactive particles across the countryside. The Fukushima plant can’t do that. With all due respects to your brother, and I’m sure he is a great software engineer, anyone who is not intimately involved with the particulars of this particular facility has no business making sweeping generalization like this. Making unsupported, simplistic statements for the pro nuclear side, _everything is completely safe and anyone questions this is hysterical, so don’t worry your pretty little heads_ (and while he isn’t necessarily saying it, the condescension from other wanna-be experts in unmistakable) is no more sophisticated than _the sky is falling, and because there was an accident, the world is ending_ of the Chicken Little camp. I challenge your brother, and all other self proclaimed “experts” who took a class or two in nuc engineering to refute the concerns by read experts. We can leave the kooks out, so don’t worry about them. Here’s a paper, written in 2000, well before this accident which outlined some experts’ concerns about the spent fuel. > [@](#): > > It has been known for more than two decades that, in case of a loss of water in the pool, convective air cooling would be relatively ineffective in such a “dense-packed” pool. Spent fuel recently discharged from a reactor could heat up relatively rapidly to temperatures at which the zircaloy fuel cladding could catch fire and the fuel’s volatile fission products, including 30-year half-life 137Cs, would be released. The fire could well spread to older spent fuel. The long-term land-contamination consequences of such an event could be significantly worse than those from Chernobyl. How specifically did he address concerns about spent fuel, which is not stored within the containment vessels? If he or any of the other self-proclaimed messengers of rational discussion have the arrogance to dismiss the real experts, show me the calculations. Oh, maybe he doesn’t know how much fuel is stored in the pools. Maybe he really doesn’t know what he is talking about. I’m not saying that the world is coming apart, and I’m not saying this _will_ be a problem, I’m just saying I would like to know what is the real level of concern. It would be really nice if more people could discuss this topic like **broomstick** does, a voice of reasonable discussion on this board, as he/she counters true hysteria without mislabeling any dissent as such, and without getting pissy in the face of reluctance, or attacking rather than explaining, all while acknowledging that there is potential for danger. The drinking water in Tokyo has exceeded the levels of radioactive iodine considered safe for babies. (And in now supposed to be better.) This is a concern because some experts believed that because the fission necessary to produce radioactive iodine with its short half-life of just eight days stopped within minutes of the earthquake on March 11. So the fear is that more radiation is being released than what was thought. And there are other [issues as well](http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/23_28.html). > [@](#): > > Japanese authorities have detected a concentration of a radioactive substance 1,600 times higher than normal in soil at a village, 40 kilometers away from the troubled nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture. > > The disaster task force in Fukushima composed of the central and local governments surveyed radioactive substances in soil about 5 centimeters below the surface at 6 locations around the plant from last Friday through Tuesday. > > The results announced on Wednesday show that 163,000 becquerels of radioactive cesium-137 per kilogram of soil has been detected in Iitate Village, about 40 kilometers northwest of the plant. Hubris is what got us into this mess. I have little patience for it now. Honest discussion, love to. Arrogance, no. So **BrainGlutten** your bother may be right that we will not have exactly the _same_ disaster as occurred in Cheryonebe, it does not mean that we cannot have a really bad disaster or that there are no chance of sever consequences. To proclaim otherwise is not only naïve, but poor engineering. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/large-earthquake-in-northeast-japan/574279/722 "2011-03-25T07:50:31Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > water at reactor is 10000 times normal. no more detail given. More details from TEPCO > [@](#): > > Tokyo Electric Power Company says it has detected high levels of radioactive substances in water that 3 workers were exposed to at the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. > > The company says 3.9 million becquerels of radioactive substances per cubic centimeter were detected in the water that the workers were standing in. That is 10,000 times higher than levels of the water inside a nuclear reactor in operation. Humm. I wonder if this is a good thing. If only an expert could come along tell us that there is NO WAY this is a bad thing. . . [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/large-earthquake-in-northeast-japan/574279.md?page=35) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/large-earthquake-in-northeast-japan/574279.md?page=37)