Now it is personal.....

[juniorfjr]

It's his time. He'll shine and be better for it. Prayers his and your way.

 

[semongtaulie]

Prayers for you and your son. Your son is providing some greatly needed help over there. U.S. service men and women stepping up again and doing what's asked of them.

 

[kolonial72]

Next time you talk to Tyler - and I believe there will be a next time - please tell him that at least one of us, and I think almost all of us, thank him very much for doing his part. I'm overjoyed that the US military is stepping in to help the island nation and proud of every person involved in these missions of mercy.

As for the reactors, it is highly unlikely that the Japanese government will let ANYONE near those sites. Stay frosty, WC, though I know it must be hard.

 

[Mr Bill]

.. that whole area has to the potential to go all Chernobyl on them.

Looks like that's happening now. Meltdown unless the steam let off works. The cloud should go out to sea and I'm sure the NBC folk are on top of this to keep our troops out of harms way.

 

 

Prayers sent to you and your family.

 

[Silver Penguin]

Sending karma, vibes, prayers and anything it takes to help Tyler, his crew mates and the people of Japan. I don't think we can have any clue how terrible this is for them. Thank goodness that there are brave, upstanding souls who are heading that way, to help out.

 

[yamafitter]

Yes, I am very proud of Tyler.

But I am wringing my hands in agony, watching that nuclear plant blow up this morning... that whole area has to the potential to go all Chernobyl on them.

What a catastrophe.

Tyler is doing a very nesessary job in an extremely bad situation. I hope he and all the other rescuers will stay safe and wish them good luck in the days ahead.

I worked in the nuclear power industry and there is no possibility of these reactors going "Chernobyl" due to their inherent design. However, the problem is almost identical to Three Mile Island and the hydrogen explosion today was almost what happened at TMI when a hydrogen bubble formed at the top of the containment vessel.

My concern is that Japanese business have a bad reputation for not releasing information that can expose them in a bad light and I am wondering just how bad the situation really is.

My trade dealt directly with the testing and calibration of the safety shutdown systems so I have some knowledge in this area. According to some reports the Japanese units were relying on battery power for 9 hours before backup generators were available.

It is highly unlikely that the batteries lasted 9 hours since the batteries are only intended to maintain emergency power until backup generators can take over. This is usually rated at 30 minutes. According to news reports the normal backup generators failed after being drowned out by the tsunami. The batteries would then have been drained and the emergency cooling to the fuel in the reactors would have failed.

The long term backup generators where I worked were basically a jet engine coupled to a turbine generator set that produces 4 megawatts at 4160 volts. I doubt you have seen one of these at your local Home Depot. It takes that kind of power to cool down a nuclear reactor. Reports state that backup generators were brought in to restore power. You don't just plug in extension cords when you are dealing with this kind of power. It would have taken some time to make all the required connections.

Radiation leaks are being detected though reports don't mention the type of radiation (gamma, beta, alpha or neutron)

The radiation suits that nuclear workers wear only protect you against alpha & beta radiation. Neutron radiation is only present when fission is taking place. Gamma is controlled with shielding, distance from source and other factors.

One of the latest reports is that workers will be flooding the reactor core with seawater. It is highly likely that the resulting steam will need to be released and that this steam will be carrying radioactive components.

The hope is that the prevailing winds at the time will take the steam cloud out to sea where it will dissipate.

 

[Dudewado]

Dale, I know it's hard when your child is put in harm's way, but I am sure his training and inherited awesomeness will kick in and he will be fine.

I saw this picture on CNN and thought you would like to see it.

Edit:

Crap, it won't let me do the right picture; go forward ten pics and there is a pic of the USS Tortuga.

My link

 

[Warchild]

Thanks, Dudewado .... pic from CNN:

 

[Patriot]

Thanks, Dudewado .... pic from CNN:

ya might not be able to recognize Tyler's *** in that pic :yahoo:

 

[scubatech]

There are 45 countries heading out to help these folks survive this mess. When you are a decent country you have a lot of friends. Good luck to Tyler!

 

[GPRIDER]

Good luck to Tyler and all that serve with him. Prayers coming shortly.

GP

 

[Bike Effects]

My wife and I were talking about how we would feel if our son was over there. Hard to imagine. We have friends here in town who's son is a Fox correspondent and is there now doing daily reports. They are pretty uncomfortable to say the least. Best wishes and safe keeping for your son.

 

[Mr Bill]

You would think they would keep our troops out of the radioactive cloud....

 

https://poway.patch.com/articles/americans-continue-relief-efforts-in-japan-after-earthquake-tsunami-amid-threats-of-radiation

 

The ship was in the radioactive cloud for an hour and they all got a months worth of radiation.

 

[trimmantom]

What I'm now thinking about is with all this going on with the nuclear power plants what will the later effects be on our brave men and women over there trying to help.Twenty,Thirty years down the line. Long term on their health.Not to mention the possibility of another earthquake.

Hope and pray for your son Dale and all our people in harms way.

 

[Warchild]

I heard from Tyler today... he is fine. A lot of the 7th Fleet ships in the area had to be diverted after those 17 aircrew off the USS Ronald Reagan got zapped while flying through the radiation cloud. :angry:

Can't say I am very happy to have my first-born son floating around out there... I hope to hell the NBC guys have got a handle on the radiation plume travel, and adjust ship's movement accordingly.

This is just dicked up.....

 

[BikerGeek99]

My thoughts are with your son, Dale.

I came across this link on another forum - use the slider thingy to see the before-and-after pictures from Japan.

Pictures Clicky