Today marks the 10th anniversary of the earthquake that rocked Japan

There's been a few videos starting to pop up about it again. When we were in Japan we learned about "Tsunami Markers" some of which are up to 600 years old but most date to 1896. The markers represent the local 'greatest height' of water from a tsunami. Most date from 1896 as that was a devastating killer. The 2011 tsunami broke the local height in places by 2 m (2 yd).


MIYAKO, Japan - Modern sea walls failed to protect coastal towns from Japan's destructive tsunami last month. But in the hamlet of Aneyoshi, a single centuries-old tablet saved the day.

"High dwellings are the peace and harmony of our descendants," the stone slab reads. "Remember the calamity of the great tsunamis. Do not build any homes below this point."

It was advice the dozen or so households of Aneyoshi heeded, and their homes emerged unscathed from a disaster that flattened low-lying communities elsewhere and killed thousands along Japan's northeastern shore.

The tightly-knit community of Aneyoshi, where people built homes above the marker, was an exception.

"Everybody here knows about the markers. We studied them in school," said Yuto Kimura, 12, who guided a recent visitor to one near his home. "When the tsunami came, my mom got me from school and then the whole village climbed to higher ground."
 
I was reading an article a couple years ago I think about how they actually froze the ground all around that place and keep it frozen to stop the radioactive water from leaking. I coudn't wrap my head around how that is even posible.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Gomez Adams
They had a really excellent write-up on it in Popular Mechanics year before last I think it was. It's basically a huge evaporator core like that used in a typical air conditioning system, only with no air blowing around the coils it freezes everything solid and keeps it that way.

It was a brilliant idea and it does work flawlessly.

In fact, that same sort of system is what seals a salt reactors depleted uranium in the reaction chamber. If the power ever goes out, the super hot depleted uranium is able to melt the ice and drain into a larger container which kills the reaction.

It's literally impossible for it to ever have a meltdown.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Grimhogun
Small Modular Reactors are on the way.
And as luck would have it, there's a great write-up on those in Popular Mechanics two issues ago.

The leading candidate in my (and their) opinion is a company called NuScale. Their reactors are 1/100th the size of a typical nuclear power plant but produce 10% of the power.

They can be put most anywhere and have a lifespan of about 40 years. Here's the picture of one that was on the cover:

1615504256242.png
 
In that same article they showed a Russian barge reactor. No kidding. A full blown nuclear reactor built on a barge. They floated it somewhere up a river to a remote town and it powers the entire place. It has a life expectancy of about 50 years.