shaktiman2010
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These right wing types who are running Japanese Govt. are really pathetic. Beyond their profits, they see nothing.
Japanese nuclear disaster
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jbond197
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Official: Japan's nuclear situation nearing severity of ChernobylTune in to CNN Tuesday night at 8 ET for special editions of "In the Arena," "Piers Morgan Tonight" and "AC360º." Anderson Cooper, Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Soledad O'Brien report live from Japan on the quake and tsunami's catastrophic effects. Are you there? Share your photos and videos if you can do so safely.
(CNN) -- The explosion Tuesday at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has elevated the situation there to a "serious accident" on a level just below Chernobyl, a French nuclear official said, referring to an international scale that rates the severity of such incidents.
The International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale -- or INES -- goes from Level 1, which indicates very little danger to the general population, to Level 7, a "major accident" in which there's been a large release of radioactive material and there will be widespread health and environmental effects.
"It's clear we are at Level 6, that's to say we're at a level in between what happened at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl," Andre-Claude Lacoste, president of France's nuclear safety authority, told reporters Tuesday.
Japanese nuclear authorities initially rated the incident at Level 4, according to Greg Webb of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Level 4 is characterized as a minor release of radioactive material that necessitates only measures to control food due to contamination. But in the latest information about the explosion, Japanese authorities did not give it a rating, Webb said, and the IAEA is not putting a number on it either.
Whatever the level, many experts warn that it's too early, and there's too little information, to determine what it means for the people who live in the region near the Daiichi plant.
"We don't know enough to assess the long-term or short-term effects of this," said Dr. Kirby Kemper, a noted nuclear physicist, physics professor and vice president of research at Florida State University.
Based on information from Japanese authorities, Kemper said it appears the radioactive material that has been released has mostly dissipated into the atmosphere. However, he said, authorities would have to test the soil for contamination in the 20-kilometer radius that was evacuated around the plant before anyone could return home.
Trying to place the situation on the INES scale is premature, said David Brenner, director of the Center for Radiological Research at Columbia University.
"I've been asked to put a number on it a few times and I've resisted," he said.
With the effort to get the reactors under control still under way and uncertainty over where winds will blow radioactive waste, there's no way of telling how much waste will be released or what impact it will have on human health, he said.
As things stood Tuesday, Brenner said he did not believe the releases that had been reported so far posed a significant public health threat. He said the situation will clarify within 48 hours, for better or for worse, at which point, he said, it would make sense to assess the incident's overall severity.
At least 30 people died following the 1986 explosion and fire at Chernobyl, and large swaths of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia were contaminated from the nuclear fallout. The core meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Middletown, Pennsylvania, in 1979 caused no injuries or deaths, and only very low levels of radiation were found later in plants and animals, experts said.
The latest incidents in Japan -- an explosion Tuesday at the plant's No. 2 reactor and a fire in a cooling pond used for nuclear fuel at the No. 4 reactor -- briefly pushed radiation levels at the plant to about 167 times the average annual dose of radiation, according to details released by the IAEA.
That dose would quickly dissipate with distance from the plant, and radiation levels quickly fell back to levels that posed no immediate public health threat, said Japan's chief Cabinet secretary, Yukio Edano.
But the deteriorating situation at the plant and concerns about a potential shift in winds that could loft radiation toward populated areas nevertheless prompted authorities to warn people as far as 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) away from the plant to stay inside.
"There is still a very high risk of further radioactive material coming out," Prime Minister Naoto Kan said, asking people to remain calm.
According to the information about the radioactive matter released Tuesday from Japanese authorities, Kemper said, "as long as you're sealing your house well enough you're not going to ingest it."
Another problem with trying to predict contamination is that the levels don't necessarily go down the farther you get from the source, according to David Lochbaum, director of the Nuclear Safety Project for the Union of Concerned Scientists.
"The contamination levels aren't linear, so the farther away you get doesn't necessarily mean you get a lower dose rate. Chernobyl, in some cases, had areas 100 miles away from the facility having significantly higher radiation levels than areas only 10 or 15 miles away," he explained Tuesday in a teleconference with reporters.
"The winds would carry the radioactivity and then the rainfall would bring it down to the ground to contaminate where people were, he said. "So there are a number of factors that determine where it goes and who's in harm's way."
About 200,000 people within a 20-kilometer (12.4 mile) radius of the Daiichi plant had been previously evacuated.
But Japanese authorities couldn't rule out the specter of greater radiation dangers down the road.
For the first time since the quake crippled cooling systems at the Daiichi reactors on Friday and blasts occurred at two reactors Saturday and Monday, Edano said radiation levels at the plant had increased to "levels that can impact human health."
He said Tuesday he could not rule out the possibility of a meltdown at the troubled reactors.
While seawater was being pumped into the reactors in an effort to prevent further damage, "it cannot necessarily be called a stable situation," he said.
The plant's owners have taken precautions to protect the people in Fukushima Prefecture, where the reactors sit. The plants are 138 miles (about 225 kilometers) from Tokyo.
They evacuated all but about 50 workers from the facility and urged people within 30 kilometers of the plant to remain indoors. The government imposed a no-fly zone over the 30-kilometer radius "because of detected radiation after explosions" there, the country's transportation ministry said.
A North Carolina-based company, Nukepills.com, has donated about 50,000 potassium iodide tablets to a hospital in Tokyo. Potassium iodide "is recommended by health officials worldwide to prevent thyroid cancer of those exposed to radioactive iodine in the event of a nuclear reactor accident or detonation of a nuclear bomb," said a statement from the company, which describes itself as a internet-based provider of radiation emergency preparedness products.
"We are very pleased that these tablets will be given to people directly affected by the nuclear crisis," said Troy Jones, president of Nukepills.com.
(CNN) -- The explosion Tuesday at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has elevated the situation there to a "serious accident" on a level just below Chernobyl, a French nuclear official said, referring to an international scale that rates the severity of such incidents.
The International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale -- or INES -- goes from Level 1, which indicates very little danger to the general population, to Level 7, a "major accident" in which there's been a large release of radioactive material and there will be widespread health and environmental effects.
"It's clear we are at Level 6, that's to say we're at a level in between what happened at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl," Andre-Claude Lacoste, president of France's nuclear safety authority, told reporters Tuesday.
Japanese nuclear authorities initially rated the incident at Level 4, according to Greg Webb of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Level 4 is characterized as a minor release of radioactive material that necessitates only measures to control food due to contamination. But in the latest information about the explosion, Japanese authorities did not give it a rating, Webb said, and the IAEA is not putting a number on it either.
Whatever the level, many experts warn that it's too early, and there's too little information, to determine what it means for the people who live in the region near the Daiichi plant.
"We don't know enough to assess the long-term or short-term effects of this," said Dr. Kirby Kemper, a noted nuclear physicist, physics professor and vice president of research at Florida State University.
Based on information from Japanese authorities, Kemper said it appears the radioactive material that has been released has mostly dissipated into the atmosphere. However, he said, authorities would have to test the soil for contamination in the 20-kilometer radius that was evacuated around the plant before anyone could return home.
Trying to place the situation on the INES scale is premature, said David Brenner, director of the Center for Radiological Research at Columbia University.
"I've been asked to put a number on it a few times and I've resisted," he said.
With the effort to get the reactors under control still under way and uncertainty over where winds will blow radioactive waste, there's no way of telling how much waste will be released or what impact it will have on human health, he said.
As things stood Tuesday, Brenner said he did not believe the releases that had been reported so far posed a significant public health threat. He said the situation will clarify within 48 hours, for better or for worse, at which point, he said, it would make sense to assess the incident's overall severity.
At least 30 people died following the 1986 explosion and fire at Chernobyl, and large swaths of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia were contaminated from the nuclear fallout. The core meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Middletown, Pennsylvania, in 1979 caused no injuries or deaths, and only very low levels of radiation were found later in plants and animals, experts said.
The latest incidents in Japan -- an explosion Tuesday at the plant's No. 2 reactor and a fire in a cooling pond used for nuclear fuel at the No. 4 reactor -- briefly pushed radiation levels at the plant to about 167 times the average annual dose of radiation, according to details released by the IAEA.
That dose would quickly dissipate with distance from the plant, and radiation levels quickly fell back to levels that posed no immediate public health threat, said Japan's chief Cabinet secretary, Yukio Edano.
But the deteriorating situation at the plant and concerns about a potential shift in winds that could loft radiation toward populated areas nevertheless prompted authorities to warn people as far as 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) away from the plant to stay inside.
"There is still a very high risk of further radioactive material coming out," Prime Minister Naoto Kan said, asking people to remain calm.
According to the information about the radioactive matter released Tuesday from Japanese authorities, Kemper said, "as long as you're sealing your house well enough you're not going to ingest it."
Another problem with trying to predict contamination is that the levels don't necessarily go down the farther you get from the source, according to David Lochbaum, director of the Nuclear Safety Project for the Union of Concerned Scientists.
"The contamination levels aren't linear, so the farther away you get doesn't necessarily mean you get a lower dose rate. Chernobyl, in some cases, had areas 100 miles away from the facility having significantly higher radiation levels than areas only 10 or 15 miles away," he explained Tuesday in a teleconference with reporters.
"The winds would carry the radioactivity and then the rainfall would bring it down to the ground to contaminate where people were, he said. "So there are a number of factors that determine where it goes and who's in harm's way."
About 200,000 people within a 20-kilometer (12.4 mile) radius of the Daiichi plant had been previously evacuated.
But Japanese authorities couldn't rule out the specter of greater radiation dangers down the road.
For the first time since the quake crippled cooling systems at the Daiichi reactors on Friday and blasts occurred at two reactors Saturday and Monday, Edano said radiation levels at the plant had increased to "levels that can impact human health."
He said Tuesday he could not rule out the possibility of a meltdown at the troubled reactors.
While seawater was being pumped into the reactors in an effort to prevent further damage, "it cannot necessarily be called a stable situation," he said.
The plant's owners have taken precautions to protect the people in Fukushima Prefecture, where the reactors sit. The plants are 138 miles (about 225 kilometers) from Tokyo.
They evacuated all but about 50 workers from the facility and urged people within 30 kilometers of the plant to remain indoors. The government imposed a no-fly zone over the 30-kilometer radius "because of detected radiation after explosions" there, the country's transportation ministry said.
A North Carolina-based company, Nukepills.com, has donated about 50,000 potassium iodide tablets to a hospital in Tokyo. Potassium iodide "is recommended by health officials worldwide to prevent thyroid cancer of those exposed to radioactive iodine in the event of a nuclear reactor accident or detonation of a nuclear bomb," said a statement from the company, which describes itself as a internet-based provider of radiation emergency preparedness products.
"We are very pleased that these tablets will be given to people directly affected by the nuclear crisis," said Troy Jones, president of Nukepills.com.
CardSharp
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If they lie to their people and lie to the world, they are done. period.
below_freezing
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Japan was using these reactors to secretly stockpile plutonium for its weapons project. Their reactor design was not robust for this express purpose of being specifically made to easily and quickly breed and extract plutonium.
No sympathy for war criminals.
No sympathy for war criminals.
Vassnti
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So having a nuclear program is a war crime? Come on its a GE mark 1 reactor they are all over the place you dont need a conspiracy theory to explain how a 40year old not so great design reactor failed after an 8.9 and a 10meter Tsunami.
So you are blamig their grandchildren for their crimes in WW2?
Brotherhood
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70% of nuclear fuel rods estimated to be damaged at reactor 1 - People's Daily Online March 16, 2011
An estimated 70 percent of the nuclear fuel rods have been damaged at No. 1 reactor of the Fukushima nuclear power plant and 33 percent at the No. 2 reactor, Kyodo quoted Tokyo Electric Power Co. as saying Wednesday.
Source: Xinhua
An estimated 70 percent of the nuclear fuel rods have been damaged at No. 1 reactor of the Fukushima nuclear power plant and 33 percent at the No. 2 reactor, Kyodo quoted Tokyo Electric Power Co. as saying Wednesday.
Source: Xinhua
Brotherhood
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Japanese PM slams nuke plant operator's handling of growing crisis, SDF switch to relief from rescue - People's Daily Online March 16, 2011
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan speaks at a press conference in Tokyo, Japan, March 15, 2011. (Xinhua/Kyodo)
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Tuesday slammed Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) for its botched handling of the quake-stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant at which two explosions Tuesday led to the leak of radioactive substances into the atmosphere.
According to the Kyodo news agency, one of its reporters overheard Kan saying to the company's executives at TEPCO's head office, "what the hell is going on?"
The prime minister's angry remarks came as local TV was reporting an explosion to the public at the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, which led to radiation leaking into the atmosphere and being detected in the country's capital.
Sources close to the matter said of that incident, the prime minister was livid that he was receiving his news at the same time and in the same manner as the rest of the nation.
The prime minister also urged TEPCO not to withdraw its workers from the faltering power plant, saying that in the event of a withdrawal he was "100 percent sure the company would collapse."
However, following the second explosion on Tuesday, the plant operator pulled out 750 workers, leaving just 50 to deal with cooling the overheating reactors.
Fukushima Govorner Yuhei Sato phoned Kan and told him that "the fears and anger of residents in the prefecture are reaching the limit," according to a statement by a local government official to the press on Tuesday.
Sato insisted the central government do more to bring the nuclear crisis to an end and insisted that TEPCO should "provide accurate information much earlier to the central government."
Japanese citizens as well as the government have been wholly unsatisfied with TEPCO's shoddy and tardy release of vital information on the failing plant's status.
In an effort to improve communication, the government and TEPCO on Tuesday launched a joint crisis headquarters to deal with the situation at the Fukushima power plant.
Authorities in Tokyo meanwhile reported that radiation levels spiked in the nation's capital and its vicinity, following the two explosions at the plant, causing a panicked public to empty the shelves of supermarkets, home supply and convenience stores.
Enforced power outages this evening are expected to throw the greater Tokyo area into wider disarray this evening.
The transport ministry has also imposed a no-fly zone within 30 kilometers of the stricken plant in Fukushima as the catastrophe escalates by the hour.
Also on Tuesday, Kan ordered the Self-Defense Forces to shift their focus from relief rather than rescue operations, as thousands of people in temporary evacuation centers are running low on essential supplies.
Some in the most remote areas of quake-ravaged northeastern Japan, have been without food or water since the magnitude 9.0 quake struck Friday, according to local media reports.
"While we will continue with our rescue operations, there are many people at evacuation centers hoping for help so we need to gradually shift our work to addressing their needs," Kan said at a Cabinet-level emergency disaster headquarters meeting held at his office.
"It is most effective for the SDF to take charge of this task because they have the organizational power to do so, Kan said, with reference to transporting much-needed emergency supplies.
According to official figures, Friday's megaquake and tsunami have left 6,400 people dead or missing, with numbers expected to rise well above 15,000 people.
The National Police Agency said Tuesday that 2,722 people were confirmed dead in 12 prefectures in Japan, while 3,742 remained missing as of 3:30 p.m.
Source: Xinhua
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan speaks at a press conference in Tokyo, Japan, March 15, 2011. (Xinhua/Kyodo)
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Tuesday slammed Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) for its botched handling of the quake-stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant at which two explosions Tuesday led to the leak of radioactive substances into the atmosphere.
According to the Kyodo news agency, one of its reporters overheard Kan saying to the company's executives at TEPCO's head office, "what the hell is going on?"
The prime minister's angry remarks came as local TV was reporting an explosion to the public at the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, which led to radiation leaking into the atmosphere and being detected in the country's capital.
Sources close to the matter said of that incident, the prime minister was livid that he was receiving his news at the same time and in the same manner as the rest of the nation.
The prime minister also urged TEPCO not to withdraw its workers from the faltering power plant, saying that in the event of a withdrawal he was "100 percent sure the company would collapse."
However, following the second explosion on Tuesday, the plant operator pulled out 750 workers, leaving just 50 to deal with cooling the overheating reactors.
Fukushima Govorner Yuhei Sato phoned Kan and told him that "the fears and anger of residents in the prefecture are reaching the limit," according to a statement by a local government official to the press on Tuesday.
Sato insisted the central government do more to bring the nuclear crisis to an end and insisted that TEPCO should "provide accurate information much earlier to the central government."
Japanese citizens as well as the government have been wholly unsatisfied with TEPCO's shoddy and tardy release of vital information on the failing plant's status.
In an effort to improve communication, the government and TEPCO on Tuesday launched a joint crisis headquarters to deal with the situation at the Fukushima power plant.
Authorities in Tokyo meanwhile reported that radiation levels spiked in the nation's capital and its vicinity, following the two explosions at the plant, causing a panicked public to empty the shelves of supermarkets, home supply and convenience stores.
Enforced power outages this evening are expected to throw the greater Tokyo area into wider disarray this evening.
The transport ministry has also imposed a no-fly zone within 30 kilometers of the stricken plant in Fukushima as the catastrophe escalates by the hour.
Also on Tuesday, Kan ordered the Self-Defense Forces to shift their focus from relief rather than rescue operations, as thousands of people in temporary evacuation centers are running low on essential supplies.
Some in the most remote areas of quake-ravaged northeastern Japan, have been without food or water since the magnitude 9.0 quake struck Friday, according to local media reports.
"While we will continue with our rescue operations, there are many people at evacuation centers hoping for help so we need to gradually shift our work to addressing their needs," Kan said at a Cabinet-level emergency disaster headquarters meeting held at his office.
"It is most effective for the SDF to take charge of this task because they have the organizational power to do so, Kan said, with reference to transporting much-needed emergency supplies.
According to official figures, Friday's megaquake and tsunami have left 6,400 people dead or missing, with numbers expected to rise well above 15,000 people.
The National Police Agency said Tuesday that 2,722 people were confirmed dead in 12 prefectures in Japan, while 3,742 remained missing as of 3:30 p.m.
Source: Xinhua
Brotherhood
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Japan struggling amid food, water shortages, radiation leak - People's Daily Online March 16, 2011
Tens of thousands of Japanese and foreign workers are racing against time to rescue survivors four days after the historic 9.0-magnitude earthquake devastated northeast Japan and an ensuing tsunami engulfed many coastal cities in the region.
The Japanese government has sent 100,000 troops to lead the aid effort. It has sent 120,000 blankets, 120,000 bottles of water and 110,000 liters of gasoline plus food to the affected areas.
The Japan Self Defense Forces, firemen, and police from all over the country were mobilized to search for survivors and dig out bodies.
"We are still focusing on searching for the survivors," said Wataru Suzuki, a fireman from the fire department of Osaki, Miyagi prefecture. He said it is hopelessly difficult as there are too many missing people.
The firemen used hand picks and chain saws to clear away mounds of broken timber, plastic sheets, roofs, sludge, twisted cars, tangled power-lines and household goods. Meanwhile, ambulances were on standby, and helicopters were patrolling the area.
A 15-member Chinese international search and rescue team Monday morning set out to join the relief work in Ofunato, Iwate, a densely populated coastal city severely hit by the earthquake and ensuing tsunami.
The Chinese team is one of the first overseas groups to join and help out with relief work in the city. Team leader Yin Guanghui said they have brought along life exploration devices and other equipment to help with the rescue.
By Monday, food supplies were shipped to four shelters in Minamisanryuku, Miyagi prefecture, reaching at least 3,000 people.
However, electricity will take days to restore. From Iwate to Fukushima, power supplies were still limited to a small urban area. Telecommunications were impossible in Minamisanryuku, Kesennuma or other seriously-hit coastal areas. Cars queued for hours to get gasoline.
According to public broadcaster NHK, some 430,000 people are living in emergency shelters and another 24,000 people are stranded. As rescue workers are struggling to reach the victims, it was estimated that millions of people were spending a fourth night Monday without water, food or heat in the cold northeastern region.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan said at a Monday morning meeting of the government disaster headquarters that emergency workers have so far rescued 15,000 survivors.
Police said the total death toll has reached 2,414 and 3,118 were missing as of 8:00 a.m. (2300 GMT Monday).
The Japan Tourism Agency said about 1,000 of the 4,900 tourists visiting the devastated areas could not be contacted by Monday afternoon.
The Chinese embassy in Japan has not received any casualty report of Chinese nationals following Friday's colossal earthquake, Press Counselor Deng Wei said Monday.
Deng said the embassy has sent three working groups to the quake-hit areas, and the safety of up to 8,446 Chinese has already been confirmed.
Many Chinese students studying in Sendai prefecture, one of the hardest-hit regions, have been evacuated to Osaka in Southern Honshu Island to head back to China, and the rest will be evacuated to Niigata, President of Sendai Chinese Students and Scholars Association Cao Pengyu told Xinhua.
President of Chinese Students and Scholars Association at Fukushima University Zhao Yaotong told Xinhua in an email that part of the roughly 250 Chinese students studying at the university have been staying in the university's student exchange center, where there is sufficient food and water. They are considering leaving for China, fearing a possible nuclear leak at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant about 75 km away.
INTERNATIONAL RESCUE EFFORTS GATHER PACE
Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi met with Japanese Ambassador to China Niwa Unichiro in Beijing Monday to offer continued support for Japan's disaster relief work.
Yang said the Chinese government and leaders are paying close attention to the disaster in Japan and have conveyed their condolences to the Japanese leaders.
The Chinese rescue team has started search and rescue operations Monday morning in Japan's northeastern Iwate Prefecture, and China is willing to enhance cooperation with Japan on quake relief work and post-disaster reconstruction, he said.
A chartered plane carrying the first batch of relief goods China committed to Japan's earthquake rescue operations took off from Shanghai late Monday afternoon.
The first relief package containing 2,000 blankets, 900 cotton tents and 200 emergency lights valued at 7.2 million yuan (1.1 million U.S. dollars) arrived at Tokyo Haneda International Airport at 9 p.m. Monday.
The Ministry of Commerce said Monday China will provide 30 million yuan worth of emergency humanitarian assistance to Japan, while local governments and China's chapter of the Red Cross said they will send separate donations to aid the quake relief actions.
On Sunday, Chinese Ambassador to Japan Cheng Yonghua handed over 4.57 million yen (about 55,700 U.S. dollars) in donations to victims of the quake from Chinese students, Chinese nationals and enterprises in Japan, Deng said.
Some 70 countries have offered assistance to Japan so far. Two U.S. urban search and rescue teams, with 144 staff members and 12 dogs, had begun work early Monday morning, the White House said in a statement.
Meanwhile, a U.S. disaster response team was sent to Tokyo with "people with nuclear expertise from the Departments of Energy and Health and Human Services as well as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.
A Singaporean 5-member rescue team arrived in Fukushima prefecture Sunday afternoon to begin rescue operations. The same team had participated in the post-quake rescue following the recent earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand.
The Indonesian chapter of the Red Cross has dispatched a seven-member rescue team Monday to assist rescue operations in Japan.
Moreover, the Thai cabinet Monday approved a proposal to send 10,000 tons of rice and 5,000 tons of sticky rice, as well as dispatching a medical team.
NUCLEAR MELTDOWN FEARED AT FUKUSHIMA NUCLEAR PLANT
As rescue workers are racing against time, the possibility of a nuclear meltdown at the quake-hit Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant has aroused great concern among governments and the public worldwide.
A third explosion occured at 6:10 a.m. Tuesday (2110 GMT on Monday) at the No.2 reactor and damaged the reactor's suppression pool, said a spokesman for the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, Shigekazu Omukai.
Another agency spokesman Shinji Kinjo said detectors showed 11,900 microsieverts of radiation three hours after the explosion, up from 73 microsieverts beforehand.
Later fire broke out at the No. 4 reactor, causing more radiation near the complex.
Japan's prime minister warned against further leaks and told people living within a radius of 30 km of the affected plant to stay indoors.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), owner and operator of the Fukushima complex, said it is evacuating some workers from the plant, except those who are working to cool the reactor, a sign that the situation is worsening.
Failure of the cooling function had resulted in two hydrogen explosions at the No. 3 reactor Monday and No.1 reactor Saturday respectively, damaging the outer walls. But it did not pierce the reactors' steel and concrete containment vessel.
The nuclear plant shut down automatically due to Friday's massive earthquake, but the catastrophe knocked out its cooling systems, raising fears of a major radiation leak.
Prime Minister Kan said earlier Tuesday that the government and TEPCO will set up integrated headquarters, headed by the premier, to address issues at the Fukushima No. 1 plant.
While U.S. and Russian nuclear experts are rushing to Japan, it was reported that the latter had also asked the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to provide experts in a joint effort to deal with the incidents at the nuclear power plant.
The Japanese government Monday asked the IAEA to send experts to help the country deal with the nuclear safety crisis.
PLANNED OUTAGE DISRUPTS TRANSPORTATION, PRODUCTION
Train and subway services in northeast Japan and greater Tokyo are being suspended due to scheduled power outages, which will be conducted in shifts of three hours between 6:20 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. local time.
TEPCO announced the planned blackout late Sunday, as Friday's earthquake knocked out power-generating capacities serving the nation's capital and surrounding areas. It was the first planned power outage in Japan after World War II.
However, the plan was not carried out until 5:00 p.m. Monday since consumption levels were lower than expected during the day, a TEPCO official said.
Mass confusion broke out in train stations, where staff redirected impatient crowds as a result of last-minute cancellations.
"We would like to avoid implementing rolling blackouts as much as possible, so we have been coordinating efforts until the last minute," a TEPCO official told a news conference explaining the flip-flop in policy.
Trains serving East Japan Railway Co.'s main lines in the greater metropolitan area were running at 20 percent of normal operation.
Many shops used a minimum of lighting or suspended services to help save energy. Manufacturers including Sony, Toshiba and Mitsubishi suspended production in Tochigi, Saitama, and Kanagawa prefectures.
Numerous Tokyo residents started to hoard food and water, fearing possible gas and water cutoffs due to the power outage. Bottled water was sold out in most convenience stores and supermarkets in the Kando area, although customers were permitted to buy only two bottles each.
Food and water were still in short supply in many quake-hit areas, where hundreds of thousands took shelter in schools and other designated public facilities, national broadcaster NHK reported Monday night.
Tens of thousands of Japanese and foreign workers are racing against time to rescue survivors four days after the historic 9.0-magnitude earthquake devastated northeast Japan and an ensuing tsunami engulfed many coastal cities in the region.
The Japanese government has sent 100,000 troops to lead the aid effort. It has sent 120,000 blankets, 120,000 bottles of water and 110,000 liters of gasoline plus food to the affected areas.
The Japan Self Defense Forces, firemen, and police from all over the country were mobilized to search for survivors and dig out bodies.
"We are still focusing on searching for the survivors," said Wataru Suzuki, a fireman from the fire department of Osaki, Miyagi prefecture. He said it is hopelessly difficult as there are too many missing people.
The firemen used hand picks and chain saws to clear away mounds of broken timber, plastic sheets, roofs, sludge, twisted cars, tangled power-lines and household goods. Meanwhile, ambulances were on standby, and helicopters were patrolling the area.
A 15-member Chinese international search and rescue team Monday morning set out to join the relief work in Ofunato, Iwate, a densely populated coastal city severely hit by the earthquake and ensuing tsunami.
The Chinese team is one of the first overseas groups to join and help out with relief work in the city. Team leader Yin Guanghui said they have brought along life exploration devices and other equipment to help with the rescue.
By Monday, food supplies were shipped to four shelters in Minamisanryuku, Miyagi prefecture, reaching at least 3,000 people.
However, electricity will take days to restore. From Iwate to Fukushima, power supplies were still limited to a small urban area. Telecommunications were impossible in Minamisanryuku, Kesennuma or other seriously-hit coastal areas. Cars queued for hours to get gasoline.
According to public broadcaster NHK, some 430,000 people are living in emergency shelters and another 24,000 people are stranded. As rescue workers are struggling to reach the victims, it was estimated that millions of people were spending a fourth night Monday without water, food or heat in the cold northeastern region.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan said at a Monday morning meeting of the government disaster headquarters that emergency workers have so far rescued 15,000 survivors.
Police said the total death toll has reached 2,414 and 3,118 were missing as of 8:00 a.m. (2300 GMT Monday).
The Japan Tourism Agency said about 1,000 of the 4,900 tourists visiting the devastated areas could not be contacted by Monday afternoon.
The Chinese embassy in Japan has not received any casualty report of Chinese nationals following Friday's colossal earthquake, Press Counselor Deng Wei said Monday.
Deng said the embassy has sent three working groups to the quake-hit areas, and the safety of up to 8,446 Chinese has already been confirmed.
Many Chinese students studying in Sendai prefecture, one of the hardest-hit regions, have been evacuated to Osaka in Southern Honshu Island to head back to China, and the rest will be evacuated to Niigata, President of Sendai Chinese Students and Scholars Association Cao Pengyu told Xinhua.
President of Chinese Students and Scholars Association at Fukushima University Zhao Yaotong told Xinhua in an email that part of the roughly 250 Chinese students studying at the university have been staying in the university's student exchange center, where there is sufficient food and water. They are considering leaving for China, fearing a possible nuclear leak at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant about 75 km away.
INTERNATIONAL RESCUE EFFORTS GATHER PACE
Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi met with Japanese Ambassador to China Niwa Unichiro in Beijing Monday to offer continued support for Japan's disaster relief work.
Yang said the Chinese government and leaders are paying close attention to the disaster in Japan and have conveyed their condolences to the Japanese leaders.
The Chinese rescue team has started search and rescue operations Monday morning in Japan's northeastern Iwate Prefecture, and China is willing to enhance cooperation with Japan on quake relief work and post-disaster reconstruction, he said.
A chartered plane carrying the first batch of relief goods China committed to Japan's earthquake rescue operations took off from Shanghai late Monday afternoon.
The first relief package containing 2,000 blankets, 900 cotton tents and 200 emergency lights valued at 7.2 million yuan (1.1 million U.S. dollars) arrived at Tokyo Haneda International Airport at 9 p.m. Monday.
The Ministry of Commerce said Monday China will provide 30 million yuan worth of emergency humanitarian assistance to Japan, while local governments and China's chapter of the Red Cross said they will send separate donations to aid the quake relief actions.
On Sunday, Chinese Ambassador to Japan Cheng Yonghua handed over 4.57 million yen (about 55,700 U.S. dollars) in donations to victims of the quake from Chinese students, Chinese nationals and enterprises in Japan, Deng said.
Some 70 countries have offered assistance to Japan so far. Two U.S. urban search and rescue teams, with 144 staff members and 12 dogs, had begun work early Monday morning, the White House said in a statement.
Meanwhile, a U.S. disaster response team was sent to Tokyo with "people with nuclear expertise from the Departments of Energy and Health and Human Services as well as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.
A Singaporean 5-member rescue team arrived in Fukushima prefecture Sunday afternoon to begin rescue operations. The same team had participated in the post-quake rescue following the recent earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand.
The Indonesian chapter of the Red Cross has dispatched a seven-member rescue team Monday to assist rescue operations in Japan.
Moreover, the Thai cabinet Monday approved a proposal to send 10,000 tons of rice and 5,000 tons of sticky rice, as well as dispatching a medical team.
NUCLEAR MELTDOWN FEARED AT FUKUSHIMA NUCLEAR PLANT
As rescue workers are racing against time, the possibility of a nuclear meltdown at the quake-hit Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant has aroused great concern among governments and the public worldwide.
A third explosion occured at 6:10 a.m. Tuesday (2110 GMT on Monday) at the No.2 reactor and damaged the reactor's suppression pool, said a spokesman for the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, Shigekazu Omukai.
Another agency spokesman Shinji Kinjo said detectors showed 11,900 microsieverts of radiation three hours after the explosion, up from 73 microsieverts beforehand.
Later fire broke out at the No. 4 reactor, causing more radiation near the complex.
Japan's prime minister warned against further leaks and told people living within a radius of 30 km of the affected plant to stay indoors.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), owner and operator of the Fukushima complex, said it is evacuating some workers from the plant, except those who are working to cool the reactor, a sign that the situation is worsening.
Failure of the cooling function had resulted in two hydrogen explosions at the No. 3 reactor Monday and No.1 reactor Saturday respectively, damaging the outer walls. But it did not pierce the reactors' steel and concrete containment vessel.
The nuclear plant shut down automatically due to Friday's massive earthquake, but the catastrophe knocked out its cooling systems, raising fears of a major radiation leak.
Prime Minister Kan said earlier Tuesday that the government and TEPCO will set up integrated headquarters, headed by the premier, to address issues at the Fukushima No. 1 plant.
While U.S. and Russian nuclear experts are rushing to Japan, it was reported that the latter had also asked the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to provide experts in a joint effort to deal with the incidents at the nuclear power plant.
The Japanese government Monday asked the IAEA to send experts to help the country deal with the nuclear safety crisis.
PLANNED OUTAGE DISRUPTS TRANSPORTATION, PRODUCTION
Train and subway services in northeast Japan and greater Tokyo are being suspended due to scheduled power outages, which will be conducted in shifts of three hours between 6:20 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. local time.
TEPCO announced the planned blackout late Sunday, as Friday's earthquake knocked out power-generating capacities serving the nation's capital and surrounding areas. It was the first planned power outage in Japan after World War II.
However, the plan was not carried out until 5:00 p.m. Monday since consumption levels were lower than expected during the day, a TEPCO official said.
Mass confusion broke out in train stations, where staff redirected impatient crowds as a result of last-minute cancellations.
"We would like to avoid implementing rolling blackouts as much as possible, so we have been coordinating efforts until the last minute," a TEPCO official told a news conference explaining the flip-flop in policy.
Trains serving East Japan Railway Co.'s main lines in the greater metropolitan area were running at 20 percent of normal operation.
Many shops used a minimum of lighting or suspended services to help save energy. Manufacturers including Sony, Toshiba and Mitsubishi suspended production in Tochigi, Saitama, and Kanagawa prefectures.
Numerous Tokyo residents started to hoard food and water, fearing possible gas and water cutoffs due to the power outage. Bottled water was sold out in most convenience stores and supermarkets in the Kando area, although customers were permitted to buy only two bottles each.
Food and water were still in short supply in many quake-hit areas, where hundreds of thousands took shelter in schools and other designated public facilities, national broadcaster NHK reported Monday night.
below_freezing
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Why are they using U-Pu alloy instead of uranium oxide fuel? I doubt it's simply a limit of their reactors. Most reactors have 2 circuits of water, this one has only 1 and directly exposes the turbine water to the core. Japan is likely stockpiling nuclear material in violation of the nonproliferation treaty and its own constitution.
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