Fukushima: Propaganda and Self-Interest
Due to the dramatic events in Japan, I had to reactivate my blog. While the Japanese people are suffering from unbelievable consequences of an earth quake that was followed by a tsunami that was followed by several nuclear "incidents", it is very hard to obtain accurate information about the severity of these nuclear "incidents".
Everybody acts in their own self interest
Governments, naturally, do not want to spread panic among their citizens. News media, naturally, want to attract as much readers as possible, corporations want to retain their reputation and market position, anti-nuclear groups want to fight against the proliferation of nuclear power and - last, but not least - the nuclear industry also acts in their own interest.
While looking for information sources, I came across the website world-nuclear-news.org, a news service backed by the nuclear industry. Whatever you might think of nuclear energy, there is one thing you can learn from this news service: How to do public relations properly and how to describe very dramatic events as calm and undramatic as possible.
Propaganda?
Let's take a quick look at two news articles. The first one is called: Problems for units 3 and 4 and starts with this quote:
The cause of the fires remains unknown due to radiation in the area, and they could in fact be one fire that died down before reigniting.
Plain English: This basically says that there is so much radiation in the area that no one could go there to check what caused the fires. In addition, one fire that first died by itself and then "reignited" sounds much more innocent than two uncontrolled fires.
Efforts are underway to refill the pool, including an abandoned attempt to douse the building with water from an army helicopter, hoping to get some to go through the damaged building.
Plain English: This part of the text says nothing about the status of those "efforts": Will they be successful? What exactly are these efforts? When I know what to do, I say "I am taking the car and drive to Hamburg". But when I say "I am underway to start an effort to go to Hamburg", this could mean that I haven't even made one single step towards my destination. In addition, it suggests that no one actually knows what to do.
Plus, "pool" sounds so much nicer and so much more innocent than "nuclear fuel rod container". "Abandoned attempt" and "army helicopter" sound at first sight as if everything was under control, but reading it a second time it shows desperation. What can you do more if you can't even use an army helicopter? "Hoping to get some to go through the damaged building" only underlines this desperation further.
The "pond" is "warming"
Next news story is called: Possible damage at Fukushima Daiichi 2
Radiation decreasing, fuel ponds warming
Plain English: Positive news! "The fuel ponds are warming": Doesn't this sound nice, a warm summer day at the pond? Nice description for an overheating and possible explosion of gases and fires that might come afterwards. Not to forget about the radiation.
Loud noises were heard at Fukushima Daiichi 2 this morning and a major component beneath the reactor may be damaged.
Plain English: There was an explosion and the reactor might have been damaged. Just imagine you sit in the plane, and the captain says that "I heard a loud noise and I think that a major component of the plane may be damaged". Sounds not nice...
Concern is growing over the status of fuel cooling ponds at units 4, 5 and 6.
Plain English: The cooling does not work, it might heat up so much that it starts burning eventually. When your health "status" is deteriorating, you are ill.
The pressure in the pool was seen to decrease from three atmospheres to one atmosphere after the noise, suggesting possible damage.
Plain English: Sounds good when pressure is decreasing, but this is actually a bad sign.
In line with the theory that non-condensed gases in the torus will be released fairly promptly and not replenished at the same rate, it is possible that the radiation release - at least via this route - will diminish and stabilise.
Plain English: Nice to hear that radiation will diminish, but "at least via this route" suggests that there might be other, more dangerous, sources of radiation that in the end might actually lead to an increase of total radiation.
Similar to the need to cool fuel in the reactor core, used fuel assemblies in cooling ponds require a covering of water to remove decay heat. The main differences being the amount of decay heat to be removed decreases exponentially with time and that fuel ponds are much less of an enclosed space than a reactor vessel. At the same time, ponds may contain several years of fuel.
Plain English: Here again, it sounds like a good development at first "much less on an enclosed space than a reactor vessel", but if this actually starts to burn it is even worse because the radiation cannot be contained as good as in a reactor.
Road ahead and ways to help
There is not much to say. I am actually really thankful to be far, far away from the events in Japan and I am really amazed how well the Japanese people seem to handle the situation. If you want to donate money, read this blog entry and donate your money wisely.
I can only hope that the situation at Fukushima quickly improves, and that Japan finally in all of these adverse circumstances gets a little bit of luck.
Airbus A380 in Cologne
This Saturday, the world's biggest passenger plane Airbus A380 made its first-time landing at Cologne-Bonn Airport (CGN/EDDK).
Since I was curious, I had to go and take some pictures. It turned out to be really crowded with all kinds of people. A mountain biker asked me on the way "Hey, do you know what is happening here?". He thought there would be a kind of open air concert.
The Airbus finally touched down at around 17.30 local time and when it was over my head it was so huge that it did not really fit onto the photo. I was standing in the approach zone of runway 14L, a few hundred meters before the runway threshold (special thanks to this website). NRWeblog also took some photos.
Here are some pictures from the landing:
Sitting on a Volcano
Not only Norway has beautiful lakes, Germany has, too. My favourite lake in Oslo is Sognsvann, but this one comes close. It is called "Laacher See" and it is a potentially active volcano. At some spots you can see little bubbles coming out of the water.
In contrast to Sognsvann it lacks an efficient subway connection, but the Benedictine monastery Maria Laach Abbey (seen in the background of the first picture) more than makes up for it.
One Google Maps you find the lake here.
Impressions of Oslo
First blog post after nearly a year of blogging absence: this time just a few impressions of Oslo. Most of the pictures were taken right after a heavy thunderstorm, that's why they have such a dramatic atmosphere. The first one was taken shortly after midnight on July 4th to show you that it is still light at that time of the night.
I was the entire July in Oslo both to meet friends and to take an intensive Norwegian language course (a win-win situation ;) ). The course was offered by the Folkeuniversitetet and I really learned a lot. Could in the end already have a discussion whether Norway should join the European Union or not (I will not go into the details here).
With these newly acquired language skills I am very happy now because this was the only thing that had bothered me during the 2 years I lived in Oslo: I could perfectly understand everything, but not really talk.
Otherwise, it is great to be in Oslo in July. Sometimes, you feel a bit like being in a ghost town as many people are on vacation. However, the nature around the city, the lakes and the fjord are just fantastic in summer. You should only be prepared for all kinds of weather as it ranged from something that felt more like autumn to 30°C degrees, sunshine and swimming in the fjord.
Open Day at Norwegian TV NRK
Thanks to the Oslo Cultural Night, it was possible to visit the Norwegian public broadcaster NRK last Friday.
Here is a short video I took with my digital photo camera (excuse the quality). You can see NRK's costume inventory and some studios and enjoy the Norwegian language...
May 17th: Norwegian Independence Day
May 17th, the Norwegian Independence Day, was a rather wet affair this year: Temperatures in Oslo down at about 4°C degrees, some snow in the upper parts, rain in the lower parts of the city and lots of wind as well.
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Music ensemble in the parade
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Also the concerts at Kubaparken later on suffered a bit because of the weather. We managed to stay there for only about 3 hours, but then went indoors to have a real Norwegian dinner with all kinds of traditional Norwegian food. No, not pizza or hamburgers this time, but well, sausages were there as well.
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Patriotic spectator
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Despite the weather ("there is no bad weather, only bad clothing"), it was a really nice day with a truly special atmosphere. For Norwegians this day is very important, except for one Norwegian friend of mine who went to his home town for mountain biking by saying "Freedom and independence? You don't really need this..." (Irony switched on, of course).
For more sunny impressions, check the blog entry from last year.
GPS on the plane: Where am I?
Last weekend, I went for a really quick visit to Germany by plane and had the possibility to try out my new GPS while being airborne. Since I had chosen the somewhat cheaper GPS unit, I had to have a window seat in order to receive enough GPS satellites for the proper calculation of the position.
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"My" plane coming in from Frankfurt-Hahn
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I took Ryanair from Oslo-Torp to Frankfurt-Hahn and therefore, the plane was a brandnew Boeing 737-800. While sitting next to a window and putting the GPS on the armrest, I had enough reception during the entire flight and could always see where we were.
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Data view
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The picture above shows the data view of the GPS. You can see (bottom) that the plane is travelling at a speed of 824 km/h at the cruising altitude of 37820 feet, which is roughly 11.5 kilometres. The "Distance to destination" (i.e. Frankfurt-Hahn; top left) is 546 kilometers and the estimated time of arrival (ETA) was 18:02.
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Map View
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Much more interesting however, was the map view. Here I could see where exactly on the map we were. This helped while being above Denmark to recognize the Danish coastline and parts of the German island of Sylt. Later, above Hamburg there were too many clouds, so nothing of the city was visible.
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Just clouds
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Back at home, I put the data from the GPS into my laptop. Since the GPS logs the position every second, you can follow the entire trip. Unfortunately, I had totally forgotten to switch off the GPS during final approach and landing ( ;-) ), which made it possible to even see at which speed we touched down on the runway. Very interesting data.
On the flight back, I took SAS from Frankfurt/Main airport and only got a seat in the corridor, which made it impossible for the GPS to receive anything. This personal GPS on the plane is definitely something I don't want to miss in the future.
Cross-Country Skiing: Need Pølser
Last Saturday, I went very spontaneously cross-country skiing with some friends. We were four in total and our destination was Ullevålseter, a small cottage just outside of Oslo. Since we were all beginners (except for the Norwegian guy), we did not know whether we would actually make it there.
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Just outside of Oslo
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The weather was really beautiful and the sun was shining. The entire forest was lit up and since the snow was new, it felt like being in a totally different world. When there are no other people around, it is also totally silent, because the snow dampens down all sounds.
Compared to down-hill skiing, I must say that cross-country skiing is a bit more challenging with regard to the condition. You basically need all your muscles to ski (especially when it goes uphill). Besides, the waxing of the skis is a science of its own. First, I could not get up the hills, but then I just applied the red wax instead of the blue on and finally it worked perfectly. There is a wax for every kind of weather, we were joking whether there is also a wax that has to be used on Mondays with temperatures between -3 and -1.5, with a mild breeze blowing from south west.
But basically, cross-country skiing is quite simple. You just step into the skis and start marching. The braking works similar to down-hill skiing, but the skis feel a bit "more unstable" because they are also much lighter.
We finally made it to Ullevålseter, where for the first time in my life, I actually wanted to have a Pølse, which is nothing more than a simple hot dog and Norwegians are crazy about these Pølser. The way down was of course much more fun than going up and also much quicker.
I took just a few pictures, which you can see here.
Downhill Skiing: Successful Second Attempt
Last year, I tried out downhill skiing for the first time ever and the painful conclusion I made after 50 metres was that if I ever want to try it again, I will have to take a skiing course (for the pictures from last year see here). So new year, new hope, I wanted to try it again - this time with professional help.
So I wanted to sign up for a skiing course for beginners. However, when I called the skiing school, the lady on the telephone told me that for absolute beginners like me, it was better to have a personal instructor instead of a course in a group. First I was a little bit sceptical also because of the higher price for the lesson, but then I "ordered" a personal instructor for 1 1/2 hours.
Personal Instructor
Today then, I went up to Tryvann and there he was: Nick, my personal instructor from England, a country well known for its cold temperatures, high mountains and loads of snow.
First things first, I asked him many stupid questions like how to step into the skis, whether the boots were sitting correctly and how to properly hold the sticks because I have absolutely zero knowledge when it comes to skiing. After that, we started really slowly on a beginner's slope (in German we call that Idiotenhügel = idiot's hill) with very basic movements. After that went quite well, he said "now let's get up there and go down the big slope". I was a bit scared because this was the very slope where I fell down last year and hurt myself pretty bad.
However, this time it went really well. We made some more exercises and Nick also showed me techniques how to make sharp turns and how to brake. Then I should follow his way down the hill and when we reached the ski lift on the bottom (where I also met a colleague from work). I was quite happy because I had not fallen and had safely made it to the ground. We went up again and down another time and then my skiing lesson was over. Nick concluded "you are doing really well, if you like, just ski on your own a few times".
Near-collision
And so I did. Since my card for the ski lift was still valid for almost 1 1/2 hours, I had enough time to practise. In the end, it turned out easier than I had thought: I went down the hill probably 5 times on my own, with only one "minor incident" (a near-collision with a snowboarder). It was a lot of fun, and I am still astonished how it was possible to ski on my own after only 1 1/2 hours of instruction given by a British guy. :-)
Darkness, Snow and the Language
So this time a little update on the weather situation and the climate in general in Oslo: Winter is approaching now and the first snow already fell. At Tryvann, the local skiing area, there is already a lot of snow. If the forecast is right (which it usually is not), there will be some more snow falling within the next few days.
Otherwise the days are getting shorter and shorter, which is a bit annoying. It starts to get dark at around 15.30 and afterwards you have the feeling as if it is 22.00 in the night, but it is only 17.00 maybe. So far, it is not really depressing, but in these days it is good to run on a tight (spare-time) schedule because otherwise it could probably become a bit boring.
Besides, I spotted the other day some spike tyres for mountain bikes. This is definitely a "must have" because these tyres allow you to more or less safely drive on snow and ice.
Norwegian language
A few weeks ago, I started to take part in an "advanced" Norwegian course. The course is quite okay so far, but I am wondering whether I will ever start to actually speak the language. I now understand probably 95% percent (leaving out some really strange dialects), which is nice, though.
In addition, English has now fully replaced German as my working and "living" language. This is a bit funny, but now I actually appreciate to talk German sometimes. (This is in stark contrast to Maastricht, for instance, where it was hard to avoid Germans :-) ).