TinWing said:
Here is an aggregator website where the links are frequently updated:
http://www.drudgereport.com/
As you can see, the situation depends on a number of factors, such as wind direction.
Drudge has had its successes, but has a political bias that may have to be accounted for (
as much as, say, Huffington might represent an ideological counterweight). Leanings on the right-left-whatever axis are not in any way objectionable of course, but to me these aggregators do have problems independent of their respective perspectives. The headlines tend to be "yellow pressy" to say the least, as their primary function is to drive traffic - for varied reasons - and only (
a distant) second to generate content. An opportune business model, but not a raging success in resourcing and enabling primary source reporting. If one can make sense of this media environment, good, but such expressionistic reporting may not be ideal for everyone (
me?) who are trying to make personal sense of the events that will have at least somewhat unintended causal effects on our environment for months, if not years, to come.
In matters of such dire gravity as Fukushima 1, please also consider specialized websites who have staff trained in nuclear physics and engineering (
or clear first-person lines of communications with such individuals). Official bodies such as the US NRC and the IAEA have their merits and are worth visiting, although they must exhibit almost inhuman prudence to maintain the maximum of credibility, impartiality and responsibility towards everyone. At times of crises this may sometimes appear frustratingly disconnected. One website which, for me at least, has stood out on technical merit is UCS's "All Things Nuclear" -
link here. Their recent blog postings on spent fuel pool pneumatic transfer gate seals as a possible reason for decreasing water levels (
the humble rubber tubes need to be constantly powered too, to maintain integrity), the deeper reasons behind the unsuccessful hydrogen venting efforts (
witness the outer structure decimating explosions which cannot be explained away by the designed routing for such emergency actions), exact fuel amounts and their locations (
it matters), and the extent to which the "Pacific plume" is radioactive over extended distances (
not so much) have stood well above anything else I've managed to find on the subject. They also seem to list other resources too; I can't recommend those (
yet) as I haven't visited them at this point, apart from the excellent JAIF charts which are already well known here.
If you like aggregate-like sites nonetheless, but are in a mood for a more comprehensive approach and prior-to-the-event scientific perspective then from my own experience I can recommend the New Scientist website. That includes proper investigative reporting on the earthquake and the tsunami too, as there continues to be much more to this than the pesky nuclear issues. This quake and its aftershocks have been recorded meticulously by Japanese sensor grids and the resulting data has a very good chance of improving understanding of these more rare large scale events; one just needs some patience as not all the answers will conform to the 24h social information cycle where the propagation of shocks is much different.
A special "Thank You" for blackkite, too, I'm reading the updates from Japanese language sources with great interest. I appreciate your efforts.
