Thread: Japan Earthquake: Fukushima

Excessive radioactive cesium found in fish sampled off Fukushima | Kyodo News

Excessive radioactive cesium found in fish sampled off Fukushima

TOKYO, April 10, Kyodo

Radioactive cesium above the legal limit for consumption was detected Saturday in young sand lance caught off Fukushima Prefecture, as the prefecture took samples amid a voluntary ban on fishing there in the wake of the ongoing nuclear crisis.

One of the four sample fish had a level of cesium of 570 becquerels per kilogram on Thursday about 1 kilometer off the city of Iwaki, and the other three measured 480 to 500 becquerels. The limit is 500 becquerels under the Food Sanitation Law.

The samples were taken after the species was found contaminated off Ibaraki Prefecture, although fishermen have voluntarily refrained from fishing off Fukushima due to the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.

Radioactive iodine measured 1,100 to 1,700 becquerels in the samples against the legal limit of 2,000 becquerels.

The move came as food makers and restaurant operators in Japan have increasingly begun to check levels of radioactive substances in food coming from the Kanto region, where Fukushima is not included.

A guild of tobacco growers in Fukushima said, meanwhile, it has decided not to plant leaf tobacco this year although the prefecture ranked seventh last year in output among Japan's 47 prefectures.

Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Michihiko Kano visited the prefecture the same day to coordinate with local authorities to keep farmers from planting rice near the nuclear complex, saying he expects the size of the banned area to be decided on in about mid-April.

Up to 26 becquerels of iodine and 8 becquerels of cesium were found in two flatfish species caught Friday off the Ibaraki city of Hitachinaka, according to the latest test results released by Ibaraki Prefecture.

The radioactive levels were also below the limits or none in strawberries and other farm produce in Fukushima, while no levels were found in spinach and three other types of produce tested in Niigata Prefecture.

Some interesting pictures here :

Japan earthquake and tsunami debris floats across the Pacific toward the US west coast - Telegraph



Japan earthquake and tsunami debris floats across the Pacific toward the US west coast





Massive floating rubbish islands almost 70 miles in length from the Japanese tsunami are causing chaos in the shipping lanes of the Pacific Ocean as they head for the west coast of the United States

Sorry that looks like a fake to me. A completely intact house floating in the middle of the ocean?

Originally Posted by Takeovers

Sorry that looks like a fake to me. A completely intact house floating in the middle of the ocean?

Check out the other pictures. Some other oddities in there.

Originally Posted by Takeovers

Originally Posted by MakingALife

Good luck to Japan regarding future seismic disturbances and the threats to secondary Tsunami's. Hopefully Nature will give them 20 or 30 good years before pummeling them once again with a plate pop like the one that caused the current tragedy.

Let us hope. The Great One of Tokyo is still pending. It is overdue already. If Tokyo would be struck with a powerful quake before Japan has recovered from the present disaster it would be very hard to recover.

They have yet to experience the volcanic activity that follows these major quakes. With all this activity I would expect Japan to be in a real mess yet again in less than five years' time.

Indonesia had several volcanic eruptions last year as a consequence of the 2004 quake, so if you want to see Mount Fuji in its present state I would get over there PDQ.

Flying drone peers into Japan's damaged reactors - CNN.com

Flying drone peers into Japan's damaged reactors

By Matt Smith, CNN
April 10, 2011 -- Updated 1438 GMT (2238 HKT)


A remote-controlled helicopter with a camera attached was sent over the damaged nuclear power plant Sunday to get pictures.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Engineers hope the drone will give them a better picture of the reactors
• More than 2,000 people protest against nuclear power in Tokyo
• A worker falls ill at the plant, but Tokyo Electric says radiation wasn't the cause

Tokyo (CNN) -- Engineers used a flying drone to peer into the damaged reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant Sunday as the crisis spurred more than 2,000 people to march against nuclear energy in Tokyo.

"I was just a couch potato critic, but here we are today with friends for the first time, and I'm sure it's the first time for a lot of people today," said Karima Asuma Stickan, one of the protesters.

Monday marks a full month in the battle to prevent a worse disaster at Fukushima Daiichi, which was battered by the earthquake and resulting tsunami that struck northern Japan on March 11. Japan's largest utility, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, has been struggling to cool down three damaged reactors and prevent a wider release of radioactivity than has already occurred.

A camera was mounted on a remote-controlled helicopter to get pictures of the damaged reactors from above Sunday in hopes of getting a better look at the damaged housings of the No. 1, 3 and 4 reactors and hopefully the pools of spent fuel inside, company spokesman Junichi Matsumoto said. The drone hovered over the plant for 28 minutes at an altitude of about 150 meters (492 feet), he said.

The T-Hawk drone, built by the U.S. company Honeywell, can transmit ordinary pictures as well as infrared images, Matsumoto told reporters. Images captured by the drone are expected to be released Monday, he said.

In addition, the company is now using remote-controlled heavy machinery to clear away debris outside the plant and has begun the process of laying new pipes to start pumping radioactive water out of the flooded basements of the turbine plants behind units 1 through 3. One worker fell ill during the work Sunday, the company said, but said there was no indication that radiation was the cause.

Workers have been pouring hundreds of tons of fresh water a day into the three damaged reactors and the spent fuel pools of units 1-4 to keep them cool until normal circulation systems can be restored. The No. 2 reactor is believed to be leaking highly radioactive water, some of which had been spilling into the Pacific until Wednesday, while flooded basements in the turbine plants of all three units are making it impossible to restore power, company officials say.

To make room for the fluid, Tokyo Electric has been dumping less-contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean from a waste treatment facility on the site. That process -- which also includes the release of radioactive water from the drainage basins beneath reactors 5 and 6 -- was nearly complete Sunday evening, Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency reported.

The radioactive particles in the water are dispersing into the ocean. But concentrations of radioactive iodine-131 remained 25 times higher than the Japanese legal standard in water sampled 16 km (10 miles) south of the plant on Saturday.

That's down from 93 times the limit on Wednesday, according to sampling data released Sunday. Levels of longer-lived cesium-137, which takes 30 years to lose half its radioactivity, remained nearly six times the legal limit but well below levels reported earlier this week.

The discharge was billed as an emergency measure, but it infuriated Japan's fishing industry and drew protests from neighboring South Korea. And participants in Sunday's protest in Shiba Park, at the foot of the landmark Tokyo Tower, expressed concern about the long-term effects of the radioactive releases so far.

"The air pollution gets into the lungs," said Dr. Nobuhiko Murapsu, a pulmonary care physician from Chiba Prefecture, north of Tokyo. "Five years, 10, 20 years later, they get lung cancer. This is a very severe problem."

Murapsu said he's changed his views on nuclear power since the accident and decided to join the demonstration. Protesters marched from the park, ringed with cherry blossoms, to Tokyo Electric's headquarters and on to the Ministry of the Economy, Trade and Industry, which regulates Japanese nuclear power plants.

Makiko Mikami told CNN that no one believes they're getting enough answers from either the utility or the government.

"The problem is, I think I'm not sure they know the whole picture themselves," Mikami said. "If they know, they should share that information with us. And if they don't, they should admit that they're scared as well."

Improvisation, frustration mark nuclear crisis at four weeks

Japanese turn in cash found in tsunami zone

Digging Up a Tsunami Prediction - WSJ.com

The Man Who Predicted the Tsunami

After studying ancient rocks, a Japanese geologist warned that a disaster was imminent—to no avail

By PETER LANDERS

The giant tsunami that assaulted northern Japan's coast surprised just about everyone. But Masanobu Shishikura was expecting it. The thought that came to mind, he says, was "yappari," a Japanese word meaning roughly, "Sure enough, it happened."

"It was the phenomenon just as I had envisioned it," says the 41-year-old geologist, who has now become the Japanese Cassandra.


Peter Landers/The Wall Street Journal Masanobu Shishikura wrote in August about a likely tsunami.

Dr. Shishikura's studies of ancient earth layers persuaded him that every 450 to 800 years, colliding plates in the Pacific triggered waves that devastated areas around the modern city of Sendai, in Miyagi Prefecture, as well as in Fukushima Prefecture.

One early tsunami was known to historians. Caused by the 869 Jogan quake, its waves, according to one chronicle, killed 1,000 people. Dr. Shishikura had found strong evidence of a later tsunami in the same region, which probably took place between 1300 and 1600.

"We cannot deny the possibility that [such a tsunami] will occur again in the near future," he and colleagues wrote in August 2010. That article appeared in a journal published by the Active Fault and Earthquake Research Center in Tsukuba, the government-funded institute where Dr. Shishikura works.

He was beginning to spread the word. Plans were under way at his center to hand out maps so people would understand which areas were at risk. Dr. Shishikura had an appointment on March 23 to explain his research to officials in Fukushima.

Dr. Shishikura's boss at the center, Yukinobu Okamura, had even mentioned the results at a 2009 meeting of an official committee discussing the safety of nuclear-power plants. Dr. Okamura says the idea of beefing up tsunami preparedness didn't go anywhere.

At Dr. Shishikura's eighth-floor office, bookshelves and televisions crashed to the floor during the quake on March 11. He has found temporary office quarters one story below, where he discussed his unheeded warning. "It's unfortunate that it wasn't in time," he said. But he also felt vindicated after past slights, remembering the local official who didn't want to help him dig holes in the earth for research and who called the endeavor a "nuisance."

His work is part of a young field called paleoseismology. Kerry Sieh, a pioneer in the specialty, says that the few dozen people who do this kind of work are usually doomed to be ignored. Humans are made to trust what they have seen themselves, or what someone they know has seen. They aren't designed "to deal with these once-in-500-year events," says Dr. Sieh, formerly of the California Institute of Technology and now head of the Earth Observatory of Singapore.

From his youth, Dr. Shishikura liked to collect fossils in the hills outside Tokyo. He says he realized in high school how geology could answer questions about the past.

His method is fairly simple. Miyagi Prefecture has rich soil, but sandwiched in it are layers of sand and pebbles that Dr. Shishikura says must have been carried from the shore by tsunamis. Looking at the layers allowed his group to estimate the rough dates of waves that struck as far back as 3,500 years ago.

Many lives could have been saved, at relatively little cost, by spreading awareness of the danger. People in Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures were used to strong quakes, but the location and magnitude of these seismic events didn't generate tsunamis. Further north on the eastern coast, tsunamis were well-known from quakes in 1896 and 1933. Those were of yet another, weaker variety that affected mainly low-lying areas along the coast.

During the magnitude 9.0 quake on March 11, some people well inland, thinking themselves safe, took time to change clothes or to make phone calls. Others watched the disaster unfold instead of running to high ground. They proved what Dr. Shishikura's group wrote last year about local tsunamis: "It appears to be almost completely unknown among the general public that in the past great tsunamis have inundated areas as far as 3-4 kilometers inland as the result of earthquakes exceeding magnitude 8."

Now, Dr. Shishikura's team is looking at the Nankai trough to the south, which could trigger tsunamis hitting the island of Shikoku and the Kii Peninsula. Dr. Shishikura says large tsunamis appear to hit there every 400 to 600 years, with the most recent in 1707.

Those rough calculations suggest the danger is at least a century away. Still, Dr. Shishikura says, "we had better be on the lookout."

Japan to evacuate more towns around crippled nuclear plant - CNN.com

Japan to evacuate more towns around crippled nuclear plant

By Matt Smith, CNN
April 11, 2011 -- Updated 0820 GMT (1620 HKT)


Tokyo Electric Power Company president Masataka Shimizu (left) speaks at a news conference in Tokyo on March 13, 2011.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: Japan's point man for the crisis warns the situation may still worsen
• NEW: The evacuations are based on expected long-term radiation levels
• NEW: Evacuations won't occur right away, Edano says
• NEW: Tokyo Electric's president apologizes to Fukushima residents for the disaster

Tokyo (CNN) -- Japan's government Monday called for evacuations for several towns beyond the danger zone already declared around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, warning that residents could receive high doses of radiation over the coming months.

"This policy does not require immediate evacuation right away, but we take the long-term perspective, considering the long-term effect of radiation on your health," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters.

Edano said the municipalities are likely to see long-term radiation levels that exceed international safety standards, and warned that the month-old crisis at Fukushima Daiichi was not yet over.

"Things are relatively more stable, and things are stabilizing," he said. "However, we need to be ready for the possibility that things may turn for the worse."

Edano named several towns outside the 30-kilometer (19-mile) radius already drawn around the plant, where three nuclear reactors were damaged following the earthquake and resulting tsunami. Another community, the city of Minamisoma, was partially covered by the new orders.

"If you're living in these towns and villages, I'm sorry. We may cause you some inconvenience," he said. But he said the evacuation zone may be limited to a one-month period.

Residents within 20 kilometers of the plant were ordered to evacuate as the crisis unfolded, while those living between 20 and 30 kilometers were told to take shelter indoors. The orders covered about 85,000 people inside the 20-kilometer zone and another 62,000 within 30 kilometers, Fukushima Prefecture officials told CNN.

Edano said some of those inside the 20-30 kilometer belt now should prepare to evacuate, and that local governments would deliver more detailed instructions.

The anti-nuclear group Greenpeace, which had warned about higher radiation levels in towns outside the evacuation zone two weeks ago, called Edano's declaration a good step.

Jan van de Putte, who took readings in the town of Iitate, said the levels of radioactivity are likely to remain dangerous "for years to come."

The announcement came as Japan marked one month since the March 11 disaster. The plant's owner, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, has been struggling to cool down the overheated reactors and pools of spent fuel since the tsunami knocked out the plant's coolant system.

Tokyo Electric President Masataka Shimizu visited the off-site headquarters for authorities attempting to manage the disaster Monday and met with local officials, emerging to issue an apology for the situation.

In comments carried by Japanese public broadcaster NHK, Shimizu -- who was hospitalized for "fatigue and stress" in late March -- also expressed regret that he didn't apologize to Fukushima Prefecture residents before Monday.

stcom The Straits Times
FLASH: Buildings in Tokyo sway after a 7.1 quake struck north-east Japan. Quake's epicentre was in Fukushima prefecture.

TimeOutTokyo TimeOutTokyo
Quake apparently downgraded to 6.8 from initial report of 7.1 (both on richter scale)

[BREAKING] Strong quake hits north-east of #Japan, #tsunami alert issued FRANCE 24 - france 24 live - twitter

CNNInternatDesk International Desk
Japan: Now Tsunami warning and alert - wave expected 2 meters

ProducerMatthew: Just in: Workers have been evacuated from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant following earthquake, tsunami warning.

Another 7.1 quake
Tsunami warning!

NHK WORLD English

What a sick feeling reading that just gave me. Thank god nothing else happened.

Japan rattled by aftershock on quake anniversary

SENDAI, Japan (AP) -- A strong earthquake rattled Japan's northeast Monday and sparked a fresh tsunami alert on the one-month anniversary of the massive temblor and wave that devastated the northeastern coast and unleashed a still-unfolding nuclear crisis.
The 7.1-magnitude aftershock briefly forced Tokyo's main international airport to close both of its runways. The epicenter was just inland and about 160 kilometers north of Tokyo. The operator of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear complex said the latest quake had no impact on the plant.
A warning was issued for a one-meter tsunami, the same as for after an aftershock that shook the northeast coast last week. That quake generated no tsunami.
People at a large electronics store in the northeastern city of Sendai screamed and ran outside, though the shaking made it hard to move around. Mothers grabbed their children, and windows shook. After a minute or two, people returned to the store.
There were no new reports of damage. Aftershocks have repeatedly rattled the disaster-weary region, but there is little left in the northeast to ruin. Last Thursday's 7.1-magnitude aftershock, which had been the strongest tremor since the day the original quake hit, did sink hundreds of thousands more households into darkness, however. Most of that electricity has been restored.
The 9.0-magnitude earthquake and the tsunami it generated on March 11 are believed to have killed more than 25,000 people and caused as much as $310 billion in damage. The nuclear power plant they disabled has been spewing radiation since, and even a month on, officials say they don't know how long it will take to cool reactors there.returned to the store.

(Mainichi Japan) April 11, 2011


Japan rattled by aftershock on quake anniversary - The Mainichi Daily News

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english201...c_13823141.htm

Death toll reaches 13,116 from great quake, tsunami in Japan

English.news.cn
2011-04-11 11:16:58

Police officers in protective suits observe a moment of silence for those who were killed by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, as they search for bodies at a destroyed area in Minamisoma, Fukushima prefecture, about 18km from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant, April 11, 2011. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

TOKYO, April 11 (Xinhua) -- The Japanese National Police Agency said on Monday that the March 11 earthquake and tsunami have left 13,116 people dead and 14,377 others unaccounted for in Japan by 10:00 a.m. local time (0100 GMT).

About 151,000 survivors are staying in 2,300 shelters across the country as one month has passed since the quake and tsunami.

A 9.0-magnitude earthquake hit the Pacific coastal areas of northeastern and eastern Japan on March 11, triggering enormous tsunami.

Heavy casualties and extensive damage have been caused by the twin disasters.

Originally Posted by misskit

What a sick feeling reading that just gave me. Thank god nothing else happened.

I felt much the same.

How much more can these poor souls bear.

must be terrible
There have been 8 shocks alone today!

^ Yes, been watching them come in on Twitter, at one point there were 3 aftershocks in quick succession, all over 4.0 and in different places. Insanely active.

Originally Posted by misskit

Japan rattled by aftershock on quake anniversary

WOW that year went quickly.

Japan to raise Fukushima crisis level to worst


The Japanese government's nuclear safety agency has decided to raise the crisis level of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant accident from 5 to 7, the worst on the international scale.

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency made the decision on Monday. It says the damaged facilities have been releasing a massive amount of radioactive substances, which are posing a threat to human health and the environment over a wide area.

The agency used the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale, or INES, to gauge the level. The scale was designed by an international group of experts to indicate the significance of nuclear events with ratings of 0 to 7.

On March 18th, one week after the massive quake, the agency declared the Fukushima trouble a level 5 incident, the same as the accident at Three Mile Island in the United States in 1979.

Level 7 has formerly only been applied to the Chernobyl accident in the former Soviet Union in 1986 when hundreds of thousands of terabecquerels of radioactive iodine-131 were released into the air. One terabecquerel is one trillion becquerels.

The agency believes the cumulative amount from the Fukushima plant is less than that from Chernobyl.

Officials from the agency and the Nuclear Safety Commission will hold a news conference on Tuesday morning to explain the change of evaluation.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 05:47 +0900 (JST)


NHK WORLD English

Strong aftershock kills 4

NHK WORLD English

Originally Posted by Mr Gribbs

All the scare mongering about this being worse then Chernobyl seem to be finally dying down. You had talking heads on the news talking about the reactors like they actually knew what they were talking about. The Japanese response hasn't been the best, but what are you going to do, these things happen during a natural disaster. The only problem I have is they were faking the safety reports at the nuke plants for over a decade.

You were saying ?

Originally Posted by Mid

Originally Posted by Mr Gribbs

All the scare mongering about this being worse then Chernobyl seem to be finally dying down. You had talking heads on the news talking about the reactors like they actually knew what they were talking about. The Japanese response hasn't been the best, but what are you going to do, these things happen during a natural disaster. The only problem I have is they were faking the safety reports at the nuke plants for over a decade.

You were saying ?

"The only problem I have is they were faking the safety reports at the nuke plants for over a decade."

Oh, yeah, that.

Originally Posted by misskit

Japan to raise Fukushima crisis level to worst

Does that mean it can't get worser?