xa_chan: For nowhere near under control reactors, I find they display a remarkable lack of explosion "chernobyl-way". And that's utterly spitting on the efforts of the crews up there. Weren't they in action, the situation would be far worse.
3 years from contained? well then you might have better sources of informations than me, because I never saw anywhere in the medias that they where giving a schedule for "containing" the reactor (oh, it's 4 reactors in one power plant, not 4 power plants).
eRe4s3r: You are right, i meant 4 reactors ;) And only 2 are/were spewing if we be exact ;)
Imo, "under control" means its under control without people having to sacrifice themselves. If they stop cooling now you got reactors going critical (+ the water basins with rods) + leaks and cracks everywhere, not really "under control" imo. Also you didn't get my point,i meant this "level" raise is a PR gag, it is not a Chernobyl level of catastrophe at all. And that is indeed thanks to those people working on these reactors.
Contained (imo) means that radioactivity is plotted properly in the exclusion zone. Contamination is complete, Rubble removed, diseased decontaminated, reactor buildings "covered", fuel rods from water basins removed etc. - The nuclear crisis is over, basically.
Do you disagree that 3 years is a decent guess for that? I think its a good guess... Although naturally i hope it is "fully over" a lot faster than that.
Anyhow, i mean no disrespect ^^
no disrespect taken, but I hear so much crap from european and american medias and from people comfortably living thousands of kilometers away from the devastated area that I sometimes get a little ichy. ^_^ Sorry if I over reacted !
Of course the level raise is PR joke, because while raising the level, they immediately add that the situation is fare from being as bad as the chernobyl one. Then, when raising it to the level that has been specifically designed to describe the chernobyl catastrophe?? fckn' politicial, always trying to save their sorry arses first...
The 30km thing is also a joke: it's done since day one!! I mean, yeah, the official "don't come" zone is 20km, but from 20 to 30 km away from the power plant, people have been strongly advised to leave sonn there's almost nobody left there! Once again it's just a PR stunt to look good.