Japanese nuclear disaster

[Markus]

The Japanese are a unique race. They are truly WORLD BEATERS.

They will never go down. They will come back with a vengeance.

 

[hembo]

EU energy chief Günther Oettinger has said Europe should consider whether it can meet its energy needs without nuclear power, Reuters reports.

Update as of 07:09 GMT: There is a fire at a spent fuel pond of a reactor and radioactivity has been released into the atmosphere, says the IAEA according to AFP news agency

 

[hembo]

Thats the Japanese spirit. I have a feeling that rest of the world is panicking more than the Japanese themselves.

In CNN they showed that on the street in Sendai, people are more worried about how to rebuilt their lives and focus on food and water, and when asked about the nuclear threat, they said, they trust their govt's actions and are ready to cooperate with them. Most were elderly though, most of who would have been alive during the WWII atomic bombings.

I think even the Japanese have also started to panick and they should too. They have to prepared for the worst case scenario, which, btw, does not look too good.

Associated Press is reporting on the increasing anxiety among people living close to the Fukushima plant. Residents in tsunami-hit Soma - 50 kilometers away from the facility, so well outside the exclusion zone - appear to be rapidly losing faith in the government's assurances that they are safe (although, see below, experts seem to agree that the risk is very low).

"I don't think they are telling us the truth. Maybe even they don't know," said Toshiaki Kiuchi, a 63-year-old innkeeper whose business was flooded waist-deep by Friday's tsunami...

"We are really afraid, as if we didn't already have enough to worry about. You can't see fallout so we are totally relying on them for our lives," said Shinako Tachiya, 70.

"I used to believe the nuclear power officials, but not now. I think they are not being open with us. They aren't telling us anything."

 

[VelocuR]

It is hard to imagine, only country Japan have been through terrible and devastated lands in any shock.

Hiroshima/Nagasaki Atomic Bombs (2 times)
Tsunami (never stop)
Earthquakes (never stop)

They have to start all over again again to rebuild their country. They have been exhausted and tired of many years.

 

[hembo]

China is confident that Japan can overcome the hardships facing the country, the Chinese foreign ministry says. Spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters during a press briefing:

We are confident that they will be able to overcome these hardships, and China will provide more aid based on the needs of Japan.

China's nuclear safety agency says it is "closely monitoring" developments and strengthening checks on radiation levels in China, though no increase had been detected so far in China.

 

[hembo]

Contradictory statements are coming out:

On one hand at 4:30 PM Japan time,, Yukio Edano, a cabinet minister, insists that radiation levels are not posing a health risk at the moment.

At the No 2 reactor water is being supplied right now. The radiation level at the front gate was 8217 this morning. [...] It has since come down to the level that can do no harm, according to the information that I have received.

And on the other hand, read this update from IAEA & France's FM at 4:40 PM Japan time,

The threat from a nuclear reactor damaged by Japan's huge earthquake is judged "extremely high," AFP quotes France's foreign minister as saying as Japan met with other Group of Eight powers.

More on the fire at a spent fuel pond at Fukushima: It is at the number 4 reactor and "radioactivity is being released directly into the atmosphere", AFP quotes the IAEA as saying.

 

[hembo]

Robert Fitzsimmons tweets: "My local village of Ten'ei in Fukushima have asked everyone to avoid going out in the rain. We're about 100km away from the nuclear reactor."

 

[hembo]

There has been a slight rise in temperature of two more reactors at Fukushima nuclear plant, the chief government spokesman says according to AFP.

Japan has told the IAEA it has extinguished a fire at the spent fuel storage pond of a reactor in Fukushima, Reuters says.


Dutch broadcaster RTL pulls back its reporters from Japan due to raised radiation levels, according to one of RTL's reporters on Twitter

 

[hembo]

0814 GMT: Radiation levels at Fukushima nuclear power plant have fallen after an earlier sharp rise, the chief government spokesman says according to AFP.

 

[hembo]

Can any one explain what is min level of radiation?

A bit more from Yukio Edano, Japan's chief cabinet secretary, who has said the level of radiation around the quake-damaged Fukushima no 1 nuclear power plant "is high enough to affect human health", according to NHK World.

The Japanese news website reported that Edano told reporters today that 400 millisieverts of radiation per hour had been detected around the plant's No.3 reactor building at 10:22 AM.

The figure 400 millisieverts, or 400,000 microsieverts, is 4 times higher than the acceptable level of radiation for humans, NHK said. Hope this answers your query.

 

[hembo]

Amid reports that the wind direction at the Fukushima plant is turning inland, David Brenner, director of radiological research at Columbia University, tells the BBC World Service: "That would certainly impact on the amount of radiation exposure that individuals inland are getting. If one is thinking of Tokyo, it is a good distance away, and there's still going to be a great deal of dispersal of the radioactive plume before it gets that far... But this also depends on how much radioactivity is released from the reactors. " Those still working in the plant are now "at significant risk. In many ways they are already heroes... [they] are going to be suffering very high radiation exposures."

 

[Brotherhood]

Radiation thickening, Japan fights to avert disaster - People's Daily Online March 15, 2011

High levels of radiation leaked Tuesday from a quake-damaged nuclear power plant about 240 kilometers north of Tokyo are threatening the health of more people, and the authorities has ordered people nearby to stay indoors as a precaution.

In a nationally televised announcement Tuesday morning following a cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said that radiation has spread from the four nuclear reactors of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi power plant.

"The level seems very high, and there is still a very high risk of more radiation coming out," Kan said, even though he urged the public to keep calm.

Japanese media reports say that the government had warned 150,000 residents nearby to stay indoors to avoid exposure to dangerous radiation particles.

Radiation obviously thickened early Tuesday, as the plant’s No 2 reactor was rocked by a new explosion, feared to have partially damaged the valve linking it to the steel containment structure holding the nuclear fuel core. And, a sudden fire broke out at the No 4 reactor, where spent fuel rods were kept and were suspected to have exposed to air and spewing radiation gas.

Earlier, the authorities had ordered up to 800 engineers and workers to evacuate the power plant, leaving only 50 workers to continue pumping sea water with firefighting hoses in a desperate effort to cool down the nuclear reactors. The move seemed as a bid to not put that many human lives to harm’s way.

Meanwhile, Japan has asked for urgent help from the United States government and the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), according to media reports.

Tokyo also reported slightly elevated radiation levels, but officials there said the increase was too small to threaten the 35 million people living in and around the capital.

Officials just south of Fukushima reported up to 100 times the normal levels of radiation Tuesday morning, Kyodo News agency reported.

"Please do not go outside. Please stay indoors. Please close windows and make your homes airtight," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told residents in the danger zone. "Don't turn on ventilators. Please hang your laundry indoors."

Public fears about potential health risks have risen in Japan on Tuesday with news of a greater radiation release and official warnings to stay behind closed doors and windows.

Japanese stocks plunged 10.6 percent on Tuesday, after a 6.2 percent drop on Monday, posting the worst two-day losing streak since 1987. Panic selling was triggered on Tuesday, as the news of imminent nuclear meltdown was reported by the press.

By People's Daily Online

 

[hembo]

1012 GMT: The UN's weather agency says Japanese winds are dispersing radioactive material over the ocean, and there is no danger for Japan or the region for now, Reuters reports.

 

[hembo]

The radiation dosages of up to 400 millisieverts per hour recorded at the Fukushima plant "are levels that you have to take very seriously indeed to ensure you avoid immediate health effects", Professor Richard Wakeford from the Dalton Nuclear Institute at the University of Manchester tells the BBC World Service. He says Japanese authorities will be imposing a ban on food and drink from the area and issuing iodine tablets to block the intake of radioactive iodine from the thyroid.

 

[Respect4Respect01]

ok seriously humans are trying to kill themselves,