Japanese tsunami disaster discussion

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Tsotne

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TOKYO (Nikkei)--A broad sell-off swept the Tokyo stock market in the minutes following Friday afternoon's devastating earthquake, with shares in insurance companies taking the worst hit.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8540742.stm

Is it true that Japanese trade may be halted while the panic calms down? How about the situation in other parts of the pacific?
 
Traders could take advantage of market timing strategy these days. In previous post I meant the possibility of closing the Japanese markets. Recall immediately after the 9/11 tragedy the US president gave an order to halt the trading on stock exchanges to rise the country out of panic. How do you see the similar possibility for Japan? Today I heard some Japanese economists considering such an event. Not aware of full details though.
 
I'm sure most people are concerned with the loss of life and the impending disaster at the nuclear reactor in Japan. How the financial markets perform are the least of my concern now and I'm saying it as someone who lived in in NYC and through the chaotic days and months after Sept 11.

Get a proper perspective, people.

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Definitely yes. The concern is only lost lives when such disasters happen. We all hope Japan will withstand this and the whole world supports them.
 
Japanese nation is really admirable and great nation on earth. We are all proud of Japanese people how they managed to build such an advanced country after WW2 on small territory. With world's help and God's grace they will rebuild the country again and we are sure that Japan remains one of the most developed country on earth. Having such fantastic people is an honor for any country!
 
Watched some japanese earthquake / tsunami videos on Youtube .... cars, buildings and people washed away in the blink of an eye ... very sad
 
Excerpts of some emails from folks on the ground this morning.

We had a strong aftershock in Shizuoka an hour ago (6+ there, around 3 here). Not pleasant but we're fine here.

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In my ward a number of businesses have closed temporarily to conserve power, and Shinjuku was a lot quieter than normal during a visit there this afternoon. People have been buying up bread, water, other dry foods, and batteries, I think largely because there is still a lot of confusion about the rolling blackouts and about the nuclear emergency. My ward is still not on the list for blackouts.

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Hi, everyone. Everything is ok here - I'm at my parents'. We are worried about my aunt and her husband living in Sendai, the epicenter this time. We know they are both safe, but it's still worrisome. They have no power or gas, today is Day 5, and it's as cold as New York.

I could not make it to the airport today (No Narita Express; and limited & slow shuttle buses). My parents offered to drive me up there, but it is rather far (2 hours drive one way on a normal day. It'll easily take x3 or more now) and gasoline supply is very limited, since most gas stations got nothing to sell. I postponed my departure to Thursday for now, but even that may be too optimistic. Express train may not be restored, or gasoline may not be available by then. It all depends on how power supply and cargo delivery situation develops in coming days.

According to ANA, outbound flights from Narita are rather empty due to many cancellations (I suspect many can't make it to the airport). If not Thursday, I will postpone again for another few days. Will keep you all posted (as long as we have power in coming days!).

We are having rolling blackouts (which has been creating a lot of confusion. TEPCO is not popular now...), and meteorological agency says that we should remain cautious about substantial aftershocks for another few days (Still 40%-70% chance of magnitude-7, until 2pm on Thursday). News about the nuclear reactors are truly unnerving, but apparently Tokyo is 250km away from the reactors and we should not worry too much at this point.
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My first thoughts are with the people on the ground (I had my girlfriend call her brother who is living in Tokyo and tell him to go to the south asap as a result of the massive release of radioactive material that appears imo almost imminent...) I will also almost surely commit some significant [at least within my current budget...] money once I do some research about what funds it makes sense to commit to (the confounding factor is the massive amount of fraud that has arisen with donations and that japan has the third largest economy in the world - I want my money to go to those people in the country most directly affected by these tragedies, the country should have a decent enough safety net to deal with more global consequences).
 
The reactor 4 situation in Fukushima is getting worse. They are now trying to cool her down by sending helictopters with water to dump over it.

For those who don't know, there is a meltdown of the radioactive fuel bars inside the reactor if you can't keep them surrounded by water. "Cooled" means 270 degrees celcius, in the open air the temperature rises to 1200 degrees celcius.

Here's what happened so far:
- The water supply to cool the reactor stopped working after electricity shut down.
- The backup generator kicked in but that water supply stopped after 1 hour for unknown reasons (to me at least). Edit: It was after 50 minutes and because of the tsunami.
- The second safety backup kicked in i.e. taking the steam and turning it into water. This works fine but is not enough to keep the entire bars covered in water.
- They tried to fill the entire reactor with sea water but apparantly this also isn't enough (reasons unknown to me).
- They are now sending helicopters with water to dump from the air above.

If the fuel bars melt ("melt down") that would be a radio-active disaster, not only for Japan but for the West Coast of North and Latin American as well. I think in this case the foreign ambassadors in Japan are the best "signal" to see how bad the situation really is. Currently some are moving to the south of Japan, when they all start leaving Japan you know their governments know something the general public may not yet be informed about.

Hope it helps.
 
BTW, if the North America and Latin America coast are in danger of a radio active disaster, you are pretty much guaranteeing that the east coast of Asia is toasted, right?
 
Peter-Jan said:
The reactor 4 situation in Fukushima is getting worse. They are now trying to cool her down by sending helictopters with water to dump over it.

For those who don't know, there is a meltdown of the radioactive fuel bars inside the reactor if you can't keep them surrounded by water. "Cooled" means 270 degrees celcius, in the open air the temperature rises to 1200 degrees celcius.

Here's what happened so far:
- The water supply to cool the reactor stopped working after electricity shut down.
- The backup generator kicked in but that water supply stopped after 1 hour for unknown reasons (to me at least).
- The second safety backup kicked in i.e. taking the steam and turning it into water. This works fine but is not enough to keep the entire bars covered in water.
- They tried to fill the entire reactor with sea water but apparantly this also isn't enough (reasons unknown to me).
- They are now sending helicopters with water to dump from the air above.

If the fuel bars melt ("melt down") that would be a radio-active disaster, not only for Japan but for the East Coast of North and Latin American as well. I think in this case the foreign ambassadors in Japan are the best "signal" to see how bad the situation really is. Currently some are moving to the south of Japan, when they all start leaving Japan you know their governments know something the general public may not yet be informed about.

Hope it helps.
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Out of curiosity, where are you getting information about the ambassador whereabouts?
 
alain said:
BTW, if the North America and Latin America coast are in danger of a radio active disaster, you are pretty much guaranteeing that the east coast of Asia is toasted, right?
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Depends on the wind, which is currently blowing the radio activity into the ocean and not towards the Asian mainland.
 
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