This is why Japan must pull through ... inventions that blow our minds!
VDub
That's a pretty cool little picker upper...
E2EK1EL
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Japan on ‘maximum alert’ as nuclear crisis deepens
March 29, 2011 00:03:00
Mari Yamaguchi and Yuri Kageyama
ASSOCIATED PRESS
TOKYO—Japan’s prime minister insisted Tuesday that the country was on “maximum alert” to bring its nuclear crisis under control, but the spread of radiation raised concerns about the ability of experts to stabilize the crippled reactor complex.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan told parliament that Japan was grappling with its worst problems since World War II.
“This quake, tsunami and the nuclear accident are the biggest crises for Japan” in decades, said the wan but resolute Kan, dressed in one of the blue work jackets that have become ubiquitous among bureaucrats since the tsunami.
He said the crises remained unpredictable, but added: “We will continue to handle it in a state of maximum alert.”
The magnitude-9.0 offshore earthquake on March 11 triggered a tsunami that slammed minutes later into Japan’s northeast, wiping out towns and knocking out power and backup systems at the coastal Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.
Police said more than 11,000 bodies have been recovered, but the final death toll is expected to exceed 18,000.
Hundreds of thousands remain homeless, their homes and livelihoods destroyed. Damage could amount to $310 billion — the most expensive natural disaster on record, the government said.
Against the backdrop of the humanitarian disaster, the drama at the power plant has unfolded, with workers fighting fires, explosions, radiation scares and miscalculations in the frantic bid to prevent a complete meltdown.
The plant has been leaking radiation that has made its way into vegetables, raw milk and tap water as far away as Tokyo. Residents within 20 kilometres of the plant were ordered to leave and some nations banned the imports of food products from the Fukushima region.
Highly toxic plutonium was the latest contaminant found seeping into the soil outside the plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said.
Safety officials said the amounts did not pose a risk to humans, but they said the finding supports suspicions that dangerously radioactive water is leaking from damaged nuclear fuel rods.
“The situation is very grave,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters Tuesday. “We are doing our utmost to contain the damage.”
Kan, meanwhile, faced stinging criticism from opposition lawmakers over the handling of a nuclear disaster stretching into a third week.
“We cannot let you handle the crisis,” lawmaker Yosuke Isozaki said in parliament. “We cannot let you be in charge of Japan’s crisis management.”
Edano admitted Tuesday that Japanese safety standards were not enough to protect the complex against the tsunami’s power.
“Our preparedness was not sufficient,” Edano told reporters. “When the current crisis is over, we must examine the accident closely and thoroughly review” safety standards.
An AP investigation following the tsunami found that TEPCO officials had dismissed scientific evidence and geological history that indicated that a massive earthquake — and subsequent tsunami — was far more likely than they believed.
The plant was pounded by water far higher and stronger than the complex was prepared to endure, the investigation found.
The urgent mission to stabilize the Fukushima plant has been fraught with setbacks.
Workers succeeded last week in reconnecting some parts of the plant to the power grid.
But as they pumped water into units to cool the reactors down, they discovered pools of contaminated water in numerous spots, including the basements of several buildings and in tunnels outside them.
The contaminated water has been emitting radiation exposures more than four times the amount the government considers safe for workers and must be pumped out before electricity can be restored to the cooling system.
That has left officials struggling with two crucial but sometimes-contradictory efforts: pumping in water to keep the fuel rods cool and pumping out contaminated water and safely storing it.
Nuclear safety official Hidehiko Nishiyama said cooling the reactors had taken precedence over concerns about leakage.
“The removal of the contaminated water is the most urgent task now, and hopefully we can adjust the amount of cooling water going in,” he said, adding that workers were building sandbag dikes to keep contaminated water from seeping into the soil outside.
The discovery of plutonium, released from fuel rods only when temperatures are extremely high, confirms the severity of the damage, Nishiyama said.
Plutonium is a highly toxic substance which breaks down very slowly, remaining dangerously radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years.
“If you inhale it, it’s there and it stays there forever,” said Alan Lockwood, a professor of Neurology and Nuclear Medicine at the University at Buffalo and a member of the board of directors of Physicians for Social Responsibility, an advocacy group.
E2EK1EL
High radiation levels detected outside Japan exclusion zone
March 30, 2011 00:03:00
Sylvia Westall and Fredrik Dahl
REUTERS
VIENNA—Radiation measured at a village 40 km from Japan's crippled nuclear plant exceeded a criterion for evacuation, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Wednesday, the latest sign of widening consequences from the crisis.
The finding could increase pressure on Japan's government to extend the exclusion zone beyond 20 km around the Fukushima power plant, which has leaked radioactive particles since it was hit by a huge earthquake and tsunami on March 11.
Criticized for weak leadership during Japan's worst crisis since the Second World War, Prime Minister Naoto Kan has said he is considering enlarging the evacuation area to force 130,000 people to move, in addition to 70,000 already displaced.
“The first assessment indicates that one of the IAEA operational criteria for evacuation is exceeded in Iitate village,” Denis Flory, a deputy director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said.
“We have advised (Japan) to carefully assess the situation and they have indicated that it is already under assessment,” he told a news conference.
Greenpeace this week said it had confirmed radiation levels in this village northwest of the plant high enough to evacuate. But Japan's nuclear safety agency on Monday rebuffed a call by the environmental group to widen the evacuation zone.
The IAEA also said it had been told by Singapore that some cabbages imported from Japan contained radioactive iodine above the levels recommended for international trade.
“Some samples were over the Codex Alimentarius values recommended for international trade,” said Flory.
David Byron, a U.N. food agency official seconded to the IAEA, said the recommended level was 100 becquerels per kg and that one of the samples in Singapore was up to nine times above that. “Other samples were also over that level,” he said, although not as much.
IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano said the situation at the Fukushima plant remained very serious despite increased efforts by authorities to get it under control.
Saying the Japanese authorities had faced additional difficulties but also experienced some successes, he said he had sent invitations to the IAEA's 151 member states for a ministerial nuclear safety meeting on June 20-24 in Vienna.
“It should be a forward-looking meeting,” he said.
Amano had said on Monday he wanted IAEA member states to assess the response to Japan's nuclear emergency and discuss ways to prevent such a disaster happening again, adding that the international community needed a coordinated response.
The disaster has prompted a rethink of nuclear power around the world, just as the technology was starting to regain momentum as a way to fight global warming.
Hundreds of engineers have been toiling for nearly three weeks to cool the Fukushima plant's reactors and avert a catastrophic meltdown of fuel rods, although the situation appears to have moved back from that nightmare scenario.
In a potentially negative development, Flory said the agency had heard there might be “recriticality” at the plant, in which a nuclear chain reaction would resume, even though the reactors were automatically shut down at the time of the quake.
That could lead to more radiation releases, but it would not be “the end of the world,” Flory said. “Recriticality does not mean that the reactor is going to blow up. It may be something really local. We might not even see it if it happens.”
geroin
quote:
Originally posted by E2EK1EL
High radiation levels detected outside Japan exclusion zone
March 30, 2011 00:03:00
Sylvia Westall and Fredrik Dahl
REUTERS
VIENNA—Radiation measured at a village 40 km from Japan's crippled nuclear plant exceeded a criterion for evacuation, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Wednesday, the latest sign of widening consequences from the crisis.
The finding could increase pressure on Japan's government to extend the exclusion zone beyond 20 km around the Fukushima power plant, which has leaked radioactive particles since it was hit by a huge earthquake and tsunami on March 11.
what about now Nick? or you're waiting for reports of death then you will be convinced?
Originally posted by jester
That buts Canada to shame.
Why do you say that??
You don't think that our road crews would be capable of that type of repair in an emergency situation??
E2EK1EL
Softbank has announced that it will give free replacements for all lost or damaged iPhones and give free phones and service to all those orphaned by the Japanese tragedy.
Softbank founder and CEO Masayoshi Son recently visited Tamura, a city greatly affected by the Fukushima nuclear disaster. During the trip he announced that Softbank would cover a year's worth of living expenses and provide jobs for 1,200 people.
Son's goodwill didn't stop there. According to Engadget, one of Son's twitter followers suggest he give orphaned children free credit for limited time so they could stay in contact with family and friends.
Son then retweeted this idea and announced that all earthquake orphans will receive free phones, along with call costs waived until they reach the age of 18. Another gadget-related initiative came in earlier today with Son promising free replacement for all lost or damaged iPhones due to the earthquake, with details to follow later.
It's definitely refreshing to see companies like Softbank and Apple stepping up to help during this crisis.
jester
quote:
Originally posted by VDub
Why do you say that??
You don't think that our road crews would be capable of that type of repair in an emergency situation??
Nope, I don't think we could do it, but I would like to be proven wrong though.
ChemEnhanced
quote:
Originally posted by jester
Nope, I don't think we could do it, but I would like to be proven wrong though.
so you want Canada to suffer a massive natural disaster that kills tens of thousands of Canadians
:D
jester
quote:
Originally posted by ChemEnhanced
so you want Canada to suffer a massive natural disaster that kills tens of thousands of Canadians
