This is another clearinghouse diary for discussion and commentary about the ongoing nuclear disaster(s) in Japan. For updated information on news and a timeline of the events following the March 11 Japanese Earthquake, visit the Mothership. The Mothership is updated regularly and also provides a more extensive list of news and data sources, social media, crisis mapping and other relevant information.
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STATUS UPDATES: April 9 JST (Combined Sources)
Reuters: Wrapup April 9 ... Some highlights
• As China detects above normal radiation in ships, aircraft and food, Beijing closely monitoring events in Japan.
• G20 finance leaders asking Tokyo for a plan to resuscitate its economy to prevent global ramifications. Japan economy in severe condition, no quick recovery
• Tsunami left 28,000 people dead or missing, damaged six nuclear reactors north of Tokyo
• Power blackouts and restrictions, factory shutdowns, and a sharp drop in tourists new establish the Japanese Earthquake and tsunami and nuclear disaster as "the world's costliest natural disaster" with damaged ranging as high as $300 billion to date
• U.N.'s nuclear watchdog announces signs of progress in stabilizing the plant; the IAEA has not detected changes in radiation levels following the 4/7 quake.
• TEPCO continues to inject nitrogen into No 1 reactor to prevent another hydrogen explosion
• Officials estimate it will take months to stabilize the nuclear reactors and years to clean up toxic fallout
• The 20-km (12-mile) exclusion zone remains in effect; fishing is banned along the northeast coast, and tens of thousands remain in evacuation centers.
Townspeople facing 'starvation' as aid fails to reach disaster area households
SHICHIGAHAMA, Miyagi -- Some four weeks after the disasters of March 11, survivors who have returned home from refugee shelters are struggling with severe shortages of basic necessities, with some even saying they face starvation.
Priority in the provision of relief supplies is given to refugee shelters in the disaster-stricken northeast, depriving areas where people remain at home of access. Even in places where there is enough food to go around, a shortage of staff is preventing distribution of supplies to every household.
Satoshi Onodera, a 35-year-old school teacher in this tsunami-devastated town, has turned to an acquaintance in Kyushu for help.
"Delivery companies are finally running again, so could you send some food, or medicine or clothes? Anything really," Onodera asked of his friend. Onodera was at his primary school when the earthquake and tsunami hit, and he was stranded there for about a day.
A grief observed
Japan's code of honor makes counting the dead and aiding the living easier and more difficult
Indeed, though the Japanese government has improved on its often-panned response to the Kobe earthquake of 1995 by accepting relief from at least two dozen nations (including Iran), and welcoming rescue workers from at least 19 countries (including Israel), some aid workers complained that a stringent process for entering the disaster zone made relief deliveries difficult during the first two weeks after the quake.
Lacking facts, U.S. played it safe with 80-km evac zone
WASHINGTON (AP) A recommendation for the evacuation of all U.S. citizens who live within 80 km of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant was based on incomplete information and assumptions about the reactors' condition, U.S. nuclear officials told an independent advisory panel Thursday.
Members of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards pressed officials Thursday to explain how they concluded that 80 km was a safe distance from the crippled reactors. Tokyo had set a 20-km evacuation zone.
Latest April 8 Japan News Updates (combined sources, Kyodo, NHS, and kos sources procrastinator john, rickelwise, Siri, Middleadedhousewife and others. Grazie)
Thursday night’s 7.4 earthquake in northeastern Japan was the largest aftershock since the 11 march quake. Af of 6 AM JSP roughly 3.9 million households in 6 northeastern prefectures still do not have power. The operation to reduce the risk of a hydrogen explosion at Fukushima nuclear power plant by injecting nitrogen and pouring coolant water into reactors was not affected by that quake, although recovery workers temporarily evacuated.
Current Status of the nuclear plants in Japan:
Fukushima Daiichi: No damage reported, no increase in radiation. Workers sheltered for a while but resumed work. No interruptions in ongoing efforts. No increase in radiation reported.
Fukushima Daiini: No damage reported, no increase in radiation.
Onagawa Nuclear Power Station in Miyagi Prefecture: Lost two of its three external power systems. Cooling operations stopped, then resumed quickly. Reactors were already shut down since March 11. No rise in radioactivity.
Rokkasho fuel reprocessing facility: Running on emergency diesel generators after their external power supplies were knocked out. Plant has been shut down since March 11.
Higashidori Nuclear Power Station: External power was cut off and is running on emergency diesel generators. Reactors were already shut down since March 11.
h/t rickelwise
Procrastinator John, who lives within the quake zone, provides an analysis of a map detailing radiation in the evacuation zone (translating Japanese): (The scale on the left side is millisieverts (I assume per hour, but it doesn't say).
The top part of the image shows a graph of radiation levels in two villages, no. 1 is Namie-machi, which we haven't heard much about, and no. 2 is Iitate, which has been in the news a lot. The scale on the left side is millisieverts (I assume per hour, but it doesn't say). There is a dotted line at 20 millisieverts that is the level the government is considering for mandatory evacuation. The scale at the bottom of the graph starts from March 15 and runs to April 7. The graph shows that radiation levels are very high in Namie-machi and somewhat lower in Iitate.
The map on the lower right shows the 30 km evacuation zone as a circular dotted line, and there are various colored lines that show the actual level of radiation. There are three black numbered circles: no. 1 is Namie-machi, no. 2 is Iiitate, and no. 3 is Minami Soma. What is interesting is that Minami Soma is closer to Fukushima Daiichi, but its radiation levels are lower. Namie-machi is just outside of the 30 km zone, but radiation levels are high. There are several irregularly shaped lines in various colors that show the level of radiation. You can see the legend on the lower left of the map. The yellow line is 100 millisieverts, and the other lines show higher levels.
The map shows that the 30 km evacuation zone is at best a crude device. Some areas within 30 km have very low levels of radiation, and some as far as 50 km away have fairly high levels.
"pj" also provides us with another translation:
"The Yomiuri Shinbun has a story about a fisherman who went back to his home village of Ukedo, which is in the township of Namie. It is within the 20 km evacuation zone."
A harbor town with no trace of people, foul smells floating in the air, a flock of ravens--.
A 27 year-old fisherman entered the fishing harbor of Ukedo in the township of Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, about 6 km from Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power plant (within the 20 km radius zone). He reported to the Yomiuri Shinbun on conditions in the town where time has stopped since the earthquake.
On March 23 the man and his father (53) who are living in an evacuation center donned raincoats and headed for the port. They were worried about the boat that had left behind in the harbor.
As they stood on the seawall they could see a boat that had smashed into a house. It was a boat of a fisherman they knew, and well known for its large catches of fish. In a location facing the harbor, the only trace of the home they build 8 years ago was the foundation.
Even though they were wearing masks, the smell hit them. The damage was terrible, and there was no way to tell the difference between men and women [apparently referring to corpses]. A flock of ravens sat on an electric wire hanging from an electric pole that tilted at an angle.
Two days later the man went back to the harbor with a friend. A test of the radiation showed there was no problem. "If only people had been tough enough to do a search during the first couple of days, there would have been people who could have been rescued." The fisherman in his 50s grimaced.
MiddleagedHousewife provides an analysis of a PDF from METI with a radiation level by prefecture map (link to PDF http://www.meti.go.jp/....)
It indicates the level in Fukushima prefecture is ~2.24 uS/hr. Of course it has a nice chart of how much radiation people generally get in everyday life -- 3000 uSv/year; 50uSv/ chest x-ray; 200uSv/round-trip from Tokyo to NY.
I think I'm going to make my own chart.
Since there are 8,760 hours per year, the usual exposure per hour (dividing 3000 uSv/year by 8,760) =
0.342 uSv/hr.
Since this level is quite a bit above background for most of Japan, excluding Fukushima, there must be some assumptions of round trip airline travel and chest x-rays in the average yearly exposure figure, but we'll ignore that for now.
So, the level in Fukushima Prefecture right now, at 2.24uSv/hr can be said to be ~6.5x the average hourly exposure for most people.
Another way of putting it -- it is like getting a chest x-ray every 22.3 hrs.
Or, for the people of Fukushima Prefecture, it is like they are flying round trip to NY and back every 89 hrs, or every 4 days. That sounds like fun!
See? Nothing to worry about!
USC Briefings Resume h/t louisev
DR. LYMAN: Yeah. My initial view, and I still stick to that, is that given all the problems that they've been having with doing accurate radionuclide analysis, that you shouldn't base any conclusions from a single reading. In fact, there would have been -- if you could see chlorine 38 from that kind of an event, then you'd expect to see a wide range of other short-lived fission products, which didn't appear. So, I continue to be skeptical.
It's not that limited criticality couldn't be happening, but I don't think that you can make any conclusions based on a single reading like that. Also, it was reported in the New York Times story, I believe, that the neutron dose rates that were detected away from the reactor buildings could have been explained by fuel particles that had been released from the spent fuel pool that contained some isotopes that undergo spontaneous fission and release neutrons. UCS Daily Briefing 4/7/11
Japan Quake Snapshot http://www.reuters.com/.... http://www.reuters.com/...
It's an interesting overview in general, but I'm having trouble reconciling this statement:
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says radiation around Fukushima Daiichi had peaked in the early days of the crisis and, apart from a brief rise on March 22, had now fallen to "a level very close to background."
with the footage posted by another liveblogger from a Japanese journalist in the last ROV? He had a geiger counter with him. Can anyone comment? h/t mahakali overdrive
Reporting from South Korea h/t Quinn
More than 130 elementary schools and kindergartens in Gyeonggi Province surrounding the South’s capital Seoul canceled or cut classes after rain began falling.........snip......state TV urged people to arm themselves with raincoats and boots as well as umbrellas on rainy days
South Korean schools shut over radioactive rain fear
and this:
Vegetables in northern coastal areas have been found to contain iodine-131, the Atomic Energy Council (AEC) said yesterday.
The council sampled vegetables grown in the region after finding iodine-131 in grass and leaves in the area on Wednesday. The council said the radiation fell in rain on Sunday and Monday.
Iodine-131 discovered in vegetables from Taiwan
In other news, prior to Thursday evening’s aftershock, police began searching within 10-20km radius of Fukushima No. 1 as they measured radiation levels: 2,453 missing account for more than 60% of total missing in the Prefecture.
Coverage@Kos: 4/06 - 4/07
joanneleon: [Update] 7.4 Earthquake off coast of Japan. All tsunami alerts/advisories canceled on 4/7
akmk: Toshiba Eyes Big Contract for Nuclear Cleanup on 4/7
Deep Harm: Tests blow radiation theory out of the water on 4/7
vets74: Fukushima Media Silliness on 4/6
kbman: House hearings on US response to Fukushima on 4/6
Sdelear: GOP Anarchists: The TEA Party Gone Insane on 4/6
The Fear of Magnitude Zero: A Japanese Blogger's Poem Translated
Straight after the major earthquake, I was about to write an article on my blog
But I couldn’t
Title of the article was
‘Emergency theory’
The day the earthquake hit
phone lines in Tokyo went down and text messages couldn’t be received
On top of that, the nuclear plants in Fukushima exploded and rumors spread of radiation reaching Tokyo
and so
People stopped going to work and stayed at home
and more and more people started to flee to Kansai
(snip)
So I want to write here, what can only be written ‘now’
11th March
We experienced something we’ve never seen before
It was not only for the people in the North
But even for me in Tokyo
Something for the first time in my entire life
The thought that ‘I might die’ crossed my mind for the first time with the big tremor of the earthquake
We experienced the halt of transportation systems and shut down of phone lines
rice, toilet paper, battery, gasoline were all sold out and our ordinary life quickly crumbled beneath our feet
For days and nights after, Tokyo continued to be shaken by aftershocks
This earthquake, even for the people in Tokyo
must’ve been the closest they’ve come to ‘death’
But
3 months from now, no, in less than a month
we will be struck again
This time, it won’t be as intense as this disaster
The complete opposite actually – a gentle wave
But in some cases
it’s powerful enough to make the living, a living-dead
The name of this wave
Is…
‘Ordinary life’
We will
Forget that one day we shall die
And the fact that ‘death’ will come suddenly
We will be engulfed in a wave called ‘ordinary life’
If there was a way to prevent it
the only way would be to make use of ‘now’
‘Am I happy with my life now’
‘You only live once. Is there anything left undone’
‘Is there anything I haven’t done that I would regret’
These ‘ordinary’ words held no meaning in our usual lives until now
But
Because the current situation is not ordinary, these words have huge meaning
What we need to do now, is to ‘use’ this unprecedented disaster
To re-examine ‘life’
But we must hurry
Yesterday, people filled the streets of Shibuya, and although their lights were dimmed, shops opened as usual
It’s a sight that people had long been waiting for
But at the same time, it felt like they’d started to forget that feeling of urgency that was felt after 11th March
So for now, please turn off your TV, showing repeats of the same news and broadcasting the usual programs
What you need to be looking at now – is ‘yourself’
…and 1 month from now, 3 months from now
please remember and think again about the victims of this crisis
By that time, the news may have forgotten about them
But for us living in Tokyo
there may be even more things we can do for the people in the North
excerpts from "The fear of Magnitude Zero,' translated from the Japanese
Please visit ROV #42 for coverage from 4/5 through 4/6 and the archives in Japan Nuclear Incident group for all previous ROVs and Coverage@Kos.
h/t ricklewsive,
Fukushima Daiichi Radioactive Seawater Model April 5
h/t Siri
Nitrogen injection ups pressure in reactor http://www3.nhk.or.jp/...
The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says pressure inside the containment vessel of the Number 1 reactor is rising following an injection of nitrogen gas.
Tokyo Electric Power Company started the injection early on Thursday to prevent a possible hydrogen explosion at the reactor.
Fuel rods inside the reactor are nearly half exposed after a loss of cooling water, creating a dangerous buildup of oxygen and hydrogen and fears of another explosion.
UPDATE, 3:15 pm, Thursday, April 7, 2011.
Today’s earthquake (which we have seen variously reported as between 7.1 and 7.9 in magnitude) has knocked out power in some sections of northeast Japan. The single-unit Higashidori Boiling Water Reactor and the Rokkasho reprocessing plant have lost offsite power and are running on emergency diesel generators. Offsite power may also have been lost to the three unit Onagawa nuclear complex, although there is a report that power remains for the reactors themselves, but not for the fuel pools and that those are relying upon emergency diesel generators.
SPRING ACTINS FOR A NUCLEAR FREE WORLD
Regularly Updated Data Sources
@Kos: A database of temperature, pressure, radiation levels, etc readings over time can be found in: The Daiichi Database This is an evolving diary that will be updated regularly.
• Japanese Atomic Industrial Forum (JAIF)
• RSOS Emergency & Disaster information Services - Japan
• Daily Telephone Media Briefings from Union of Concerned Scientists
• Energy.gov: The Situation in Japan
• EPA RadNet Map View & EPA's Radiation Air Monitoring
Scribble Live
• Fukushima Data Page: Data for all 3 reactors, as well as a good chunk of data over time: pressure, water flow, core nozzle temp, core bottom temp
• Japan Municipal Water Charts (in Japanese)
Best News Sources
Kyodo Nuclear News Feed
GreenAction Fukushima Update
NHK Japan Live
OilDrum: Fukushima Open Thread - Tue 3/29
Asahi on Facebook
Tepco's webcam
Reuters
Fukushima Wikispaces
Google Earth Engine (download required): Radiation Over Japan. Visit Pachube for mapping.
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