Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told a nuclear safety forum stricter standards and full transparency were vital to restoring public confidence in nuclear energy.

How many chances do they want ?

the statement above is simply not compatible with political or business reality. And he knows it. Which means that this is special pleading for a new pr campaign to sweep all the bad news under a different carpet to keep his job and his industry alive.

So meet the new lie, same as the old lie.

keep to the Fen Causeway

Have the steel containment vessels of any of the reactors been breached?

Has the concrete containment around the vessels been breached?

Were any fuel rods scattered/lost during the hydrogen explosions?

Were any fuel rods exposed because cooling water boiled away?

Did the rods overheat or melt?

How many people remain in the exclusion zone?

What kind of dose have they received?

What kind of dose have people living outside the exclusion zone received?

What are the likely health effects of these doses?

Is the situation stable, is it improving, or is a further meltdown still likely?

It's nice that TEPCO has managed to find dosimeters for its workers and has been making some interesting home movies, but I'd rather have some direct answers to simple questions.

Years ago, the ALLOWED LIMIT was for normal operations. The limits were very restrictive. If any detected release exceeded the allowed limits, the Power Plant had to report itself to the Regulatory Agency along with recommendations to correct the problem that caused the high reading. Seeing how TEPCO was taking sea water samples where the readings would be low, (Incoming currents as opposed to outgoing currents from the shore near the effluent release) I can only guess that they had very little reporting to do in the past.

I do not know if the requirements have changed in the recent past.

Tokyo Electric said it would dump about 4,800 tons of water a day for two days. An additional 1,500 tons will also be released from the No. 5 and No. 6 reactors, after runoff was found flooding parts of their turbine buildings.

The concern there is that the water could damage the backup diesel generators for the reactors' cooling systems, said Yukio Edano, the chief cabinet secretary. That water will be released 300 tons at a time over five days.

It's not a nuclear power plant at this point. There is no realistic probability that it will ever be a nuclear power plant again within any culturally or economically interesting time frame. It's the site of the Fukushima Daiichi meltdown - or "incident" if one is into that sort of euphemisms.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

Japan has asked Russia's state-controlled nuclear firm Rosatom to send a liquid radioactive waste disposal facility to the troubled nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture, RIA Novosti news agency reported Monday.

The floating waste-disposal facility, designed for the disposal of waste from decommissioned nuclear-powered submarines, has been in use since 2001. Its construction, which cost around $35 million, was financed by Japan, the report said.

But for perspective's sake, i just spent the evening (when i should have been preparing for my trip to "don't call it Frisco") talking about the disaster with a very intelligent and verdammt talentiert young woman about what's happening in Japan.

First, she doesn't know anything about the fine points of external or internal microsieverts. Second, she doesn't quite understand the fine points of incident engineering from a control room perspective.

What she seems to understand is technological hubris. She seems to understand that this civilization is fucking with her womb. She admits that she doesn't know everything about low-level radiological effects, but she believes most science facts are framed around the beneficiary.

What she really got more than most of the discussion on ET is how many families are broken for decades (generations?). i didn't know how to answer her, because i haven't seen the data on what's projected... since no one's taking that data. (Of course, the data from Belorussia can't be accepted, because they're all itinerant criminals.)

She has not one line in her face, the beauty, but her brow wrinkled seriously when i asked her how this all would affect her. She looked really depressed, and her eyes soured... and then her back arched, and she said, "I don't know how it will affect me, but i make my stand here, i think i've had enough."

Eye think i've had enough too.

She looked at me like my experience would make it all go away, and we could live as humans. She said, "you've been through this before, what should we do?"

It was not the right time to be at a loss for words.

Since the most endangered intelligent species at the moment is dolphins, i can only quote somebody's post, "every time someone smiles a dolphin is released.:" OK, kids don't understand science completely exact. But you get my point.

Hubris and Blindness hand in hand, way to go, civilization. Side effect: destroy the ability to use facts. Or even debate.

The disaster in Fukushima is not about excessive stray radionucleides, it's about mind, in the wrong fucking place.

i'm crazy, but i'm a horse, and i'm going to fight for this girl's womb.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKFGavZ_rf4 (at time stamps about 10:13:27, and about 10:20:28) those beams and with them the crane do indeed seem to have fallen flat on the floor -- smack on top of the lid, and with steam gushing out from under it.

@ MadderDoc, Fred, et. al.:

Re: New video. Attached is a screenshot from the viedo with and without annotations of what I think I see. As ever, I say the blast came out of the primary containment, through failed seals on the transfer ("cattle") chute gate. But then, it is all too easy to see what you expect to see and want to see. Comments?

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/n...4annotated.png

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/n...4at50940PM.png

As new reports emerge of highly radioactive water leaks at Fukushima's reactor 3, a new analysis prepared for Greenpeace Germany by nuclear safety expert Dr Helmut Hirsch shows that Japan's nuclear crisis has already released enough radioactivity to be ranked at Level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES). This is the scale's highest level, and equal to the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

Dr. Hirsch's assessment, based on data published by the French government's radiation protection agency (IRSN) and the Austrian governments Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics (ZAMG) found that the total amount of radionuclides iodine-131 and caesium-137 released between March 11 and March 23 has been so high that the Fukushima crisis already equates to three INES 7 incidents.

It's something that was pointed out to him - it looks like a Powerpoint prezzie, in Japanese. Can anyone find anything of interest in it?

The operator of the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says 7.5 million times the legal limit of radioactive iodine 131 has been detected from samples of seawater near the plant.

Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, found on Saturday that contaminated water was leaking from a cracked concrete pit near the No. 2 reactor.

Experts say this makes it clear that highly radioactive substances from the reactor are flowing into the sea, and that the leak must be stopped as soon as possible.

The utility firm said samples of water taken near the water intake of the No. 2 reactor at 11:50 AM Saturday contained 300,000 becquerels of iodine 131 per cubic centimeter, or 7.5 million times the legal limit.
TEPCO said the figure had dropped to 200,000 becquerels per cubic centimeter, or 5 million times the legal limit, in samples taken at 9:00 AM Monday.

300 Mbq per Kg

or  300 Gbq per m cubed

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

Small fish caught in waters off the coast of Ibaraki have been found to contain radioactive cesium above the legal limit.

Ibaraki is south of Fukushima prefecture, where the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is located.

Ibaraki Prefecture says 526 becquerels of radioactive cesium was detected in one kilogram of sand lances. The acceptable limit is 500 becquerels. It is the first time that higher-than-permitted levels of radioactive cesium have been found in fish.

The government has decided to suspend discussions on revising Japan's nuclear policy until the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant is over.

The Cabinet Office's Atomic Energy Commission met on Tuesday for the first time since the March 11th earthquake and tsunami crippled the plant.

The commission said it is taking the accident at the nuclear plant under the gravest consideration and that it has shaken the country's basic confidence in atomic power generation.

Last year in December the commission launched discussions for revising the national outline on the use of nuclear energy.

East Japan Railway says its Shinkansen bullet trains were able to put on their emergency brakes seconds before the March 11th earthquake, thanks to its early detection system.

JR East had 27 Shinkansen trains operating in northeastern Japan at the time of the quake, but all of them stopped without derailing.

The company had set up 9 seismographs along the Shinkansen tracks and the Pacific coast.

The operator of the crisis-hit Fukushima nuclear plant has injected a hardening agent beneath a leaking concrete pit in a bid to stem the flow of highly radioactive water into the sea.

The firm says the leakage seems to be decreasing, following the infusion of the hardening agent.

The utility showed reporters a photo of the leak on Tuesday evening, saying it indicates such a decrease.

TEPCO said it will infuse another 1,500 liters of liquid glass.

The Japan Meteorological Agency released a tentative projection of the spread of radioactive substances Tuesday, saying materials of over a 10 trillionth of a becquerel per square meter may be found in a wide area from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The agency had not been publicly releasing projections out of fear of causing misunderstanding over the spread of radiation. It disclosed the projection at Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano's order but said that the data does not reflect the real concentration as it is tallied based on hypothetical figures set by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The agency said radioactive substances of more than a 10 trillionth of a becquerel per sq meter may spread from the plant to areas from the southern part of the Tohoku region in northeastern Japan to the Kanto region around Tokyo and the Tokai region in central Japan.

The reading could reach a 100 billionth of a becquerel at the highest point, it said.

Japan hastily set a legal limit Tuesday for the permitted level of radioactive iodine in seafood as safety concerns spread overseas in the wake of continuing leaks contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The limit of 2,000 bequerels per kilogram set by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare for radioactive iodine in marine products such as fish and shellfish is the same as that already adopted for vegetables, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told a press conference.

Concern is growing about seawater contamination and the safety of seafood as Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the Fukushima power plant, has begun dumping water containing a relatively low level of radioactive materials into the sea as it struggles to contain highly contaminated water at the complex.

More than 27,000 people have been confirmed dead or missing in the March 11th earthquake and tsunami.

Japan's National Police Agency says the official death toll has risen to 12,431.

7,571 died in Miyagi prefecture alone, while 3,643 were killed in Iwate, 1,157 in Fukushima, 3 in Aomori and one in Yamagata prefecture.

About 81 percent of the bodies have been identified and are being handed over to relatives.

Police say 15,513 people are missing, based on reports filed by those who have lost contact with family members.

Authorities say the death toll could increase when some municipalities are able to determine the number of missing residents.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

(Reuters) - New ways need be found to communicate to the public the true risks of radiation from crises like the one at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant without fanning overblown fears of an "apocalypse," scientists say.

Communication has to get across statistics about risks and at the same time address peoples' real fears, especially when they concern atomic power which has associations with the Cold War and the 1945 bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Many experts say Japan's March 11 tsunami, which has so far left 28,000 people dead or missing, is likely to have a greater impact on public health in Japan than radiation leaking from the stricken plant.

Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency has apologized to neighboring countries for causing concern over the release of contaminated water into the sea from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

A senior official of the agency, Hidehiko Nishiyama, told a news conference on Tuesday that Japan failed to contact South Korea before taking the measure.

South Korea's foreign ministry expressed concern on Monday that Japan hadn't notified the country of the release in advance.

TOKYO, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Japan's Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Banri Kaieda said Tuesday that Japan would endeavor not to dump any more radioactive water from the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean.

The trade minister's comments followed embattled plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) releasing a total of 11,500 tons of low-level radiated water into the ocean on Monday.

The releasing of water was aimed at freeing up more space to store highly-radioactive water from in and around the troubled No. 2 reactor at the plant, so as to ease restoration work at the radiation-leaking facility.

Kaieda also said that the estimated 20,000 tons of radioactive water, up to 500 times the legal limit, should be moved from the vicinity of the No. 2 reactor into the plant's proper storage facility where radioactive waste is usually treated.

A plan to cover damaged reactor buildings at the crisis-hit Fukushima nuclear plant with special sheets to halt radiation leakage cannot offer a quick remedy, as the sheeting will be installed in September at the earliest due to high-level radioactivity hampering work at the site, government sources said Tuesday.

The government had asked Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the Fukushima Daiichi power station crippled by the March 11 quake and tsunami, to study the installment of radiation-shielding sheets, and a major construction firm commissioned to examine the idea said the construction will not start until June, the sources told Kyodo News.

They said workers need to wait until radiation levels drop at the site, where hydrogen explosions have blown away the roofs and upper walls of three reactor buildings.

Some nuclear experts have been skeptical about the feasibility of the plan as they believe the step would have only limited effects in blocking the release of radioactive substances into the environment.

India said Tuesday it will suspend food imports from Japan for about three months to prevent food contaminated with radioactive substances leaked from the crisis-hit Fukushima nuclear power plant from entering the country, Press Trust of India news agency reported.

Specific food items subject to the suspension were not immediately disclosed, but marine products and fresh fruits are expected to be among them.

India's health ministry said the import suspension will last until it can obtain reliable data proving that the levels of leaked radioactive substances are safe, according to PTI.

A radiation monitor at the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says workers there are exposed to immeasurable levels of radiation.

The monitor told NHK that no one can enter the plant's No. 1 through 3 reactor buildings because radiation levels are so high that monitoring devices have been rendered useless. He said even levels outside the buildings exceed 100 millisieverts in some places.

Pools and streams of water contaminated by high-level radiation are being found throughout the facility.

The monitor said he takes measurements as soon as he finds water, because he can't determine whether it's contaminated just by looking at it. He said he's very worried about the safety of workers there.

Leakage of highly radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has halted after Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501.TO) injected a chemical agent near the leak, the company said early Wednesday, according to Kyodo News.

Trouble at Fukushima reactors No. 5 and 6 -- Cracks are allowing in radioactive water that could destroy emergency generator and other vital equipment (VIDEO)

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

United States government engineers sent to help with the crisis in Japan are warning that the troubled nuclear plant there is facing a wide array of fresh threats that could persist indefinitely, and that in some cases are expected to increase as a result of the very measures being taken to keep the plant stable, according to a confidential assessment prepared by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Among the new threats that were cited in the assessment, dated March 26, are the mounting stresses placed on the containment structures as they fill with radioactive cooling water, making them more vulnerable to rupture in one of the aftershocks rattling the site after the earthquake and tsunami of March 11. The document also cites the possibility of explosions inside the containment structures due to the release of hydrogen and oxygen from seawater pumped into the reactors, and offers new details on how semimolten fuel rods and salt buildup are impeding the flow of fresh water meant to cool the nuclear cores [...]

While the assessment does not speculate on the likelihood of new explosions or damage from an aftershock, either could lead to a breach of the containment structures in one or more of the crippled reactors, the last barriers that prevent a much more serious release of radiation from the nuclear core. If the fuel continues to heat and melt because of ineffective cooling, some nuclear experts say, that could also leave a radioactive mass that could stay molten for an extended period [...]

Among other problems, the document raises new questions about whether pouring water on nuclear fuel in the absence of functioning cooling systems can be sustained indefinitely. Experts have said the Japanese need to continue to keep the fuel cool for many months until the plant can be stabilized, but there is growing awareness that the risks of pumping water on the fuel present a whole new category of challenges that the nuclear industry is only beginning to comprehend.

The document also suggests that fragments or particles of nuclear fuel from spent fuel pools above the reactors were blown "up to one mile from the units," and that pieces of highly radioactive material fell between two units and had to be "bulldozed over," presumably to protect workers at the site. The ejection of nuclear material, which may have occurred during one of the earlier hydrogen explosions, may indicate more extensive damage to the extremely radioactive pools than previously disclosed [...]

The steps recommended by the nuclear commission include injecting nitrogen, an inert gas, into the containment structures in an attempt to purge them of hydrogen and oxygen, which could combine to produce explosions. The document also recommends that engineers continue adding boron to cooling water to help prevent the cores from restarting the nuclear reaction, a process known as criticality [...]

The assessment provides graphic new detail on the conditions of the damaged cores in reactors 1, 2 and 3. Because slumping fuel and salt from seawater that had been used as a coolant is probably blocking circulation pathways, the water flow in No. 1 "is severely restricted and likely blocked." Inside the core itself, "there is likely no water level," the assessment says, adding that as a result, "it is difficult to determine how much cooling is getting to the fuel." Similar problems exist in No. 2 and No. 3, although the blockage is probably less severe, the assessment says.

There is plenty of radioactive wastewater in the turbine buildings. Especially, Unit 2's wastewater is very highly radioactive. To store this stably, it was decided that this needed to be transferred to the Central Radioactive Waste Disposal Facility. However, within that facility, we are storing ten thousand tons of low level radioactive wastewater. In order to transfer more wastewater, we need to discharge the low level radioactive wastewater. In addition, as low radioactive subsurface water is piling up in sub-drain pits of Units 5 and 6 and a part of subsurface water is running into buildings. We are concerned that important equipment to secure the safety of reactors may be submerged.

Based on the Section 1 of the Article 64 of the Nuclear Reactor Regulation Law, we have decided to discharge to the sea approximately ten thousand tons of the accumulated low level radioactive water and a total of fifteen hundred tons of the low level radioactive subsurface water stored in the sub drain pits of Unit 5 and 6 as soon as we get ready.

VANCOUVER - Radiation in B.C. rain water is decreasing, a trend that could mean either the end of radiation emissions in Japan or just a change in the weather pattern, a nuclear scientist told The Vancouver Sun.

"We see a consistent decreasing trend. I looked into the sample for yesterday and I see very little iodine-131," Krzystof Starosta, a nuclear chemist and physicist and associate professor at Simon Fraser University, said in an email. "I am not sure if this is the end of the releases or a change in the weather pattern; the time will show."

A chart provided by Starosta shows that iodine-131 in Vancouver's rainwater peaked on March 20 at 12 becquerels (Bq) per litre. Levels were at zero up to March 18, 2011, and as of March 29 had fallen to just above three Bq per litre. (A becquerel is an international measurement of radioactivity related to radioactive decay per second.)

Meanwhile, seaweed samples were still showing increasing iodine-131 as of March 28, according to data provided by Starosta. In samples of dehydrated seaweed taken on March 15 near the North Vancouver SeaBus terminal, the count was zero; on March 22 it was 310 Bq per kilogram; and by March 28 it was 380 Bq/kg.

Students in many districts across Japan brushed off their uniforms and shouldered their bookbags for the first day of the new school year on Wednesday.

But while most were worried about meeting their new teachers or what their class schedules might be, some were facing the threat of nuclear contamination or the loss of former classmates.

In Tokyo, a group of students evacuated from the Fukushima area began the school year in a new city and a new classroom [...]

Up in northern Japan, where the worst devastation from last month's tsunami occurred, the new school year has been delayed several weeks. Dozens of schools were wiped out or too badly damaged to reopen in Miyagi prefecture.

Governments and educators are scrambling to repair schools, round up teachers and cope with the tens of thousands of displaced people.

A different set of problems in Fukushima, where authorities have begun testing schools, kindergartens and playgrounds across the prefecture after parents expressed worries about high levels of radiation.

Teams of researchers will monitor 1,428 locations over three days ending Thursday to try to reassure the public about safety outside the 20-kilometer exclusion zone around the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. on Wednesday prepared to inject nitrogen into one of the reactors at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power complex to reduce the potential risk of a hydrogen explosion, while it succeeded in stopping highly radioactive water leaking into the Pacific Ocean from the plant.

The nitrogen, an inert gas, is expected to be injected into the No. 1 reactor's containment vessel, a process that could take several days. Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for the government's nuclear agency, denied during a morning press conference that there is an ''immediate danger'' of explosion.

In addition to the task of maintaining the relative stability of all six reactors at the nuclear complex, the utility firm known as TEPCO has also been engaged in efforts to stop highly radioactive water from leaking into the sea and cleaning up contaminated water within the plant.

Japan Earthquake: nuclear plants - Page 191

BTW, one of the earlier posts did confirm that the dozer work was to clear high level waste and another confirms that pieces of radioactive fuel rod have been found large distances from the pool.

Did those come from the core of the reactor or from the SFP? My vote is SFP and the only vertical blast out of the SFP would have to come from steam.

Three unmanned helicopters are set to be shipped to Japan from France shortly so that Japanese authorities can use them to monitor the unfolding crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the developer of the drones said Wednesday.

Helipse said it developed the helicopters equipped with radiation sensors, infrared thermometers and cameras in response to an order from Japanese authorities last Thursday.

25 years after Chernobyl - the ongoing health effects

The IPPNW/GfS Report "Health Effects of Chernobyl - 20 Years After the Reactor Disaster" documents the catastrophic dimensions of the reactor
accident, using scientific studies, expert estimates and official data:

A French nuclear safety institute is calling for long-term monitoring of the Pacific Ocean off northeastern Japan following leaks of radioactive material from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety has analyzed the impact on the sea of a recent leak of water with high levels of radiation at the No.2 reactor. The computer analysis was based on publicly available data.

The analysis showed that as of Monday, water contaminated with radioactive substances had spread to areas near the coasts of Fukushima and Miyagi prefectures.

It also showed that airborne radioactive substances had mixed with seawater. The research projected that the contaminated water could be spread throughout the Pacific Ocean in 3 months by the Japan Current.

A government task force on the Fukushima nuclear crisis was found Wednesday to have rewritten the starting time of venting radioactive vapor from a troubled reactor the day after the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami without any clear explanation.

The change was made March 27 on the website of the prime minister's office to ''10:17 a.m.'' from ''2:30 p.m.''

Hironombu Unesaki, professor at the Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute, said the change, without any adequate explanation to the public, poses a problem as information on venting is ''important in connection with residents' exposure to radiation.''

The United Nations will look into health effects of the Fukushima nuclear accident in disaster-hit Japan, a senior official said Wednesday.

Within two years, the U.N. Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation will compile a report on such key issues as environmental impact and health risks of the accident, Wolfgang Weiss, chair of the committee, said at a press conference.

The committee will also check the health of workers, who are currently fighting to solve the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and are exposed to high levels of radiation, Weiss said.

According to Weiss, details about the plan are currently being worked out and negotiations with the Japanese government on the issue have already started.

(PDF warning)

Page 76 talking about cooling from the outside of reactor pressure vessels

In-vessel retention by ex-vessel cooling is feasible, if:
1. The vessel cavity can be flooded and sufficient water supply to the cavity
provided for days and weeks

2. The steam produced in the cooling can escape the cavity
   
3. The volumetric heat source is small
   
4. The peak heat flux through the vessel wall does not melt the wall or lead to
   

substantial creep
5. The peak heat flux does not exceed external vessel cooling capabilities

• Ex-vessel retrofitting has been done for the Finnish Loivisa plant
  
• Ex-vessel cooling is planned for some new reactor
  
• Ex-vessel cooling does not solve the problem of steam explosion and
  

recriticality

And page 77 talking about water cooling from inside

In-Vessel Cooling = Water supply from inside the vessel
Core Catcher required
Core Catcher = device for molten corium retention inside or outside the RPV
Tasks of in-vessel core catcher:

1. Avoid steam explosion
   
2. Avoid recriticality
   
3. Reduce pool power density
   
4. Provide engineered gap for gap cooling
   

Many interesting proposals have been made, but never one single proposal
has been built.

he nuclear department at TEPCO is already a very special group, forming a closed world. Some call it the "atomic village" -- a separate company within a company. On the practical level, there is almost no exchange between the "atomic village" and other TEPCO departments.

This closed village has until now been allowed to hide data and test reports from nuclear power plants; to falsify and invent. For that reason, the president and the vice director resigned in 2002. The new head of TEPCO tried to open up the "atomic village" through transfers and restructuring, but everything is basically just the same.

 MORIOKA--Police in Iwate Prefecture are scratching their heads over how to return to their rightful owners safes and other valuable items recovered from the rubble left behind by last month's tsunami.

Safes swept out of houses destroyed when the earthquake-triggered tsunami inundated coastal areas of the prefecture have turned up in other locations, making it difficult to trace the owners.

"There are so many safes and most are either rusty or lost their original shape. I have no idea which one is ours," said a 55-year-old housewife who visited Miyako Police Station in the hope of finding her family's safe.

The woman gave up after trying her key in the locks of many of the nearly 200 safes kept at the police station. Many people visit the police station looking for their safes, a police officer said.

This year is the 100th anniversary of the discovery of the atomic nucleus, and a little over 70 years since nuclear fission was first demonstrated. In historical terms, that puts the field of nuclear engineering today roughly where electrical engineering was in 1900. Consider what followed: the creation of the electric power grid, television and telecommunications, the revolutions in microelectronics and computation, and much more. None of it was anticipated by the electrical engineers of 1900.

Likewise, no one today can foresee the future of nuclear energy technology at the end of the 21st century [...]

New fuel "cladding" materials are being developed that don't react with high-temperature steam to produce hydrogen--the cause of the shocking explosions in Japan. Other new plant designs rely on natural heat conduction and convection rather than electric-powered pumps and valves and human intervention to cool the fuel in reactors that have shut down.

Today's most advanced designs go even further toward the goal of "walkaway safety," that is, reactors that can shut themselves down and cool themselves off without electric power or any human intervention at all. Longer-term possibilities include lifetime fueling, which would allow a single charge of fuel to power a reactor for its entire life - making it, in effect, a nuclear battery. Integrated power plant/waste disposal systems are another promising concept. Here, used fuel never leaves the site and is disposed of directly in stable, dry bedrock several kilometers below the earth's surface (more than 10 times as deep as the controversial Yucca Mountain nuclear waste facility in Nevada.)

Huge gains in computing power already enable far more precise simulations of nuclear-reactor behavior than ever before. Computational advances will also make it possible to design radiation-resistant materials literally atom by atom and, perhaps, specially tailored nanostructures that could store long-lived nuclear waste safely for tens of thousands of years. All of this can be foreseen today, and much greater advances surely lie over the horizon.

The innovators here will not be today's industry leaders or officials at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, but rather the young men and women who for the last decade have been entering university nuclear engineering programs in growing numbers. They see great engineering challenges in designing new nuclear power systems that are safe and economical, and they see an opportunity to help ameliorate the grave threat of climate change.

The Government says it may order residents of some areas within 20 to 30 kilometers of the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to evacuate.

Residents within 20 kilometers of the plant have been evacuated, while those living between 20 to 30 kilometers have been advised to remain indoors.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters on Thursday that existing evacuation guidelines assume large amounts of radiation being released over a short period of time and are not relevant in considering the impact of long-term exposure.

At the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, radiation in seawater near the Number 2 reactor remains high, even after the leakage of contaminated water into the sea was stopped.

The plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company, said it had confirmed early Wednesday morning that highly contaminated water was no longer leaking from a concrete pit after workers injected a hardening agent beneath it.

The company says it detected 5,600 bequerels of radioactive iodine-131 per cubic centimeter in seawater samples collected around the water intake of the reactor at 7:40 AM local time on Wednesday.

* Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) says its president, Masataka Shimizu, has left hospital and is back in the office. Shimizu was admitted to hospital late last month due to overwork.

<snip>

- TEPCO has said it will scrap at least four reactors once they are under control, but this could take years or even decades. The Fukushima Daiichi and nearby Fukushima Daini plants produce 4 percent of Japan's power and local politicians say reopening them will be politically difficult.

Japan has been asking foreign media to objectively report on the evolving crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the Foreign Ministry said Thursday, as reports deemed sensationalist or based on incorrect information have fanned concern and led to import restrictions on Japanese products.

State Foreign Secretary Chiaki Takahashi told a press conference that Tokyo believes some reports by foreign media on the Fukushima crisis were ''excessive'' and has urged the organizations responsible for the stories through Japanese diplomatic missions abroad to correctly and objectively disseminate information.

Recyclable-Fuel Storage Co. said Thursday it will resume peripheral construction work Monday for a facility for intermediate storage of spent nuclear fuel in Mutsu, Aomori Prefecture.

The company, which is 80 percent owned by Tokyo Electric Power Co., has suspended the construction since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami triggered a crisis at TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The company attributed the suspension to materials shortages after the disaster and noted that the resumption comes as materials distribution has been stabilized.

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.

The company says that after injecting 413 cubic meters of nitrogen gas until 5 PM on Thursday, the pressure reading inside the vessel was 1.76, up 0.2 from before the injection started.

   SIROCCO has performed, at the request of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), simulations using the 3D SIROCCO ocean circulation model to investigate the dispersion in seawater of radionuclides emitted by the Fukushima nuclear plant. The model uses a stretched horizontal grid with a variable horizontal resolution, from 600m x 600m at the nearest grid point from Fukushima, to 5km x 5km offshore. The initial fields (T,S,U,V,SSH) and the lateral open boundary conditions are provided by the Mercator Ocean PSY4V1R3 system (one field per day, horizontal resolution 1/12 ° x 1/12 °). At the sea surface, the ocean model is forced by the meteorological fluxes delivered every 3hours by ECMWF. The tidal forcing at the lateral open boundaries is provided by the T-UGO model , implemented for this purpose by the SIROCCO team on the Japanese Pacific coast.

Can someone take a screenshot of this US Geological Survey map?

Economics is politics by other means

• BREAKING NEWS: No info on abnormality at Fukushima Daiichi, Daini plants: agency (23:55)
• NEWS ADVISORY: All highways in Miyagi Pref. closed after quake: local police (23:53)
• BREAKING NEWS: No abnormal data reported at Fukushima Daini nuclear plant after quake: TEPCO (23:47)
• BREAKING NEWS: Ibaraki nuke power plants normally operating after quake: local gov't (23:44)
• BREAKING NEWS: M-7.4 quake measuring upper 6 jolts Miyagi Pref. in northeastern Japan (23:39)
• BREAKING NEWS: Powerful earthquake shakes northeastern Japan, tsunami alert issued (23:36)

(Reuters) - Toshiba Corp submitted a proposal to Tokyo Electric Power Co and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry to dismantle the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant by 2020, the Nikkei business daily reported.

The proposal was drawn up jointly by 3 U.S. firms -- Toshiba's Westinghouse Electric Co, Babcock & Wilcox Co and Shaw Group Inc -- which worked to clean the damaged reactor at the Three Mile Island nuclear facility in the U.S, the daily said.

Toshiba and its partners plan to revise the proposal as the situation unfolds, as conditions inside the reactors are still unclear, Nikkei reported.

Each day seems to bring more news of the huge challenges facing emergency workers at Fukushima. As if adding insult to injury, a magnitude 7.4 earthquake hit the region on Thursday. Though Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) reported no serious incidents as a result of the quake, the tremor was a reminder--as if one was needed--of how perilous the situation remains at the stricken power plant. "The damage that has been done to date by the earthquake and tsunami has degraded the plant's ability to withstand ground motion, so you have more chance of a containment breach with the next earthquake," says Ed Lyman, a nuclear safety expert at the Union of Concerned Scientists. "The conditions at the plant are so fragile it can't really stand many more challenges,"

Four weeks after the earthquake and tsunami hit Fukushima, emergency workers continue to struggle to keep multiple hazards from spiraling out of control. That effort will last months; eventual clean-up and decommissioning will take decades. Fukushima is already a messy, extremely costly nuclear disaster. But amid reports of cracked vessels and leaking radioactive water, it's worth remembering that it will not necessarily be a harmful one to human health.

Radioactive materials released from Japan's crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant had spread around the entire northern hemisphere in the two weeks following the March 11 quake and tsunami disaster, a Vienna-based international nuclear watchdog said Thursday.

The Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization said minute traces of radioactive substances spread around the hemisphere by around March 25 after moving across the Pacific Ocean and other places. It said the amounts of such substances were far below levels that could affect human health.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has noticed ''early signs of recovery'' at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan despite the serious overall situation, a senior IAEA official said Thursday.

''There are early signs of recovery in some functions such as electrical power and instrumentation,''

Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant
All reactors have been in cold shutdown since the 11 March earthquake.

NISA has confirmed that two out of the three lines supplying off-site power to the site were lost following the 7 April earthquake. Off-site power continues to be supplied through the third line.

Cooling of the spent fuel pool was temporarily lost, but has subsequently been restored.

No change has been observed in the readings from the on-site radiation monitoring post. The status of the plant is currently being checked.

Tokai Daini Nuclear Power Plant
Tokai Daini nuclear power plant remains in cold shutdown since the 11 March earthquake. No abnormality has been observed.

Higashidori Nuclear Power Plant
NISA has confirmed that the Higashidori NPP was shutdown and in a maintenance outage at the time of the 7 April earthquake. Off-site power has been lost. Emergency power supply to the site is operating. All the fuel had been removed from the reactor core and stored in the spent fuel pool. Cooling of the spent fuel pool is operational.

Tomari Nuclear Power Plant (in Hokkaido)
At the time of the 7 April earthquake Tomari Unit 1 and Unit 2 were in operation. Following the 7 April earthquake, the Hokkaido Electric Power Company reduced the generating power to 90% of capacity.

Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant
NISA confirms that Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant and uranium enrichment facility lost off-site power. Emergency power supply to the site is operating.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. is considering alternative methods, including the construction of improvised systems, to cool reactors at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

Ongoing operations--which involve pouring water directly into the reactor cores to lower temperatures inside the pressure vessels of the Nos. 1 to 3 reactors to below 100 C--have not worked as expected, and restoration of the reactors' existing cooling systems is not likely to happen soon.

The discouraging outlook has prompted TEPCO to begin exploring new options.

The original cooling systems worked by circulating water inside the pressure vessels. After absorbing heat in the pressure vessels, water was extracted and cooled by heat exchangers before being returned to the pressure vessels.

The damaged systems are now unable to circulate water, so new water must be continually added to the pressure vessels to control temperatures.

However, because the water sources used in the continual injections are positioned lower than those incorporated in the original systems, it is unclear whether fuel rods in the reactors are being entirely covered with water.

Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for the nuclear regulatory body, said the agency will carefully examine conditions to allow the evacuees' temporary return with the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan, a government panel, to ensure their safety.

According to estimates by TEPCO, nuclear fuel rods in the No. 1 reactor core are the most damaged compared with those in the Nos. 2 and 3 reactors. The cooling functions of all three units were lost after a magnitude 9.0 quake and tsunami ravaged the plant on March 11. The company estimates that 70 percent of the fuel rods in the No. 1 reactor core have been damaged, compared with 30 percent in the No. 2 and 25 percent in the No. 3 reactor cores.

Hydrogen explosions occurred at the No. 1 and No. 3 reactors days after the twin disasters hit the site, blowing away the roofs and upper walls of the two units plus the No. 4 reactor's building. Nishiyama said past explosions likely occurred due to hydrogen accumulation caused by the reaction of zirconium from melted fuel rods with steam from coolant water. But there is now concern that hydrogen could accumulate in the No. 1 reactor under a different process involving radiation-induced decomposition of water into hydrogen and oxygen, he added.

U.S. officials say the nation's health system is ill-prepared to cope with a catastrophic release of radiation, despite years of focus on the possibility of a terrorist "dirty bomb" or an improvised nuclear device attack.

A blunt assessment circulating among American officials says, "Current capabilities can only handle a few radiation injuries at any one time." That assessment, prepared by the Department of Homeland Security in 2010 and stamped "for official use only,'' says "there is no strategy for notifying the public in real time of recommendations on shelter or evacuation priorities."

Radioactive water spilled from pools holding spent nuclear fuel rods at the Onagawa power plant in Miyagi Prefecture following the strong earthquake late Thursday, the nuclear safety agency said Friday.

At the crisis-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant or at another plant in Fukushima Prefecture, meanwhile, no new problems have surfaced since the magnitude 7.1 aftershock of the deadly March 11 quake.

While the spent fuel pools at the Onagawa plant and the Higashidori nuclear power station in Aomori Prefecture, both operated by Tohoku Electric Power Co., lost their cooling functions for 20 to 80 minutes after the quake, the temperature hardly rose, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

Unreleased data obtained by NHK suggest that the failure to maintain the cooling functions of the No. 1 reactor at the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant possibly triggered a hydrogen explosion at an early stage.

The data show that the water level inside the No. 1 reactor dropped to 45 centimeters above the fuel rods, or about one-tenth the normal level, nearly 7 hours after the March 11th earthquake and tsunami. The fuel rods become exposed 11 hours later.

Water levels in the No. 2 and No. 3 reactors were kept at around 4 meters through the use of emergency generators despite the power outages. It was a day and a half to 3 days before their fuel rods were exposed.

The U.S. Navy asked the Japanese government to hand over detailed data about the release of radiation-contaminated water into the sea from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, government sources said Friday.

After Tokyo Electric Power Co. began discharging the water with a relatively low level of radiation, the U.S. Navy asked the Defense Ministry and the Self-Defense Forces to provide the data, such as the schedule of water discharge, its extent and spread within the sea, as well as the density of radioactive substances.

The U.S. Navy said it made the request over concern that its vessels, which have equipment to desalinate seawater for drinking and other daily needs, could take in radioactive water and damage the health of its sailors.

The plant operator says a strong aftershock on Thursday night did not damage any facilities of the compound, but the surface temperature of the Number 1 reactor rose sharply immediately after the tremor that hit northeastern Japan minutes before midnight.

The reading stood at 223 degrees Celsius at 7 PM, but it rose nearly 40 degrees just after the quake. The temperature had fallen back to 240 degrees at 6 AM on Saturday.

TEPCO says it will continue close monitoring as what caused the sudden rise in temperature is not known.

Companies dispatching workers to Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant are refusing to adopt the government-imposed provisional limit on radiation exposure for those workers at the plant, saying it would not be accepted by those at the site, Kyodo News learned Saturday.

The limit was lifted from 100 millisieverts to 250 millisieverts in an announcement made March 15 by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare at the request of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, which has the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency under its wing, and other bodies.

The increase was requested to enable workers to engage in longer hours of assignments and to secure more workers who meet the restriction.

The advisability of the hastily decided limit may be called into question as workers have to handle a wider range of work over an extended period of time. They are now faced with tasks such as removing rubble and disposing of contaminated water in addition to their initial job of restoring the lost power sources at the plant that was crippled by the March 11 quake and tsunami.

The contract companies say they are sticking to the previous limit.

Workers trying to stabilize a crippled nuclear power plant started Saturday to install enclosing materials in the sea just outside the facility to prevent radioactive water from spreading further into the Pacific Ocean.

Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Banri Kaieda, meanwhile, met with Fukushima Gov. Yuhei Sato in the city of Fukushima, Fukushima Prefecture, in the morning, and plans to visit the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station later in the day.

The visit, aimed at encouraging those engaged in stabilization efforts and checking on the plant's damaged reactors, would be the first by a Cabinet minister after the six-reactor plant was rocked by explosions and began spewing radioactive materials in mid-March.

The plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., plans to enclose a seawater intake for the No. 2 reactor at the plant with seven steel sheets and a 120-meter-wide ''silt curtain'' near the intake and two other locations nearby.

The operator of the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says the facility was hit by a tsunami as high as 15 meters on March 11th.

Tokyo Electric Power Company was reporting on Saturday on its survey of high-water marks left on the plant's buildings.

It says it found that the tsunami reached up to 15 meters on the ocean side of the reactor and turbine buildings. The figure is far beyond the company's originally estimated height of 5.7 meters.

TEPCO confirmed that the 6 reactors at Fukushima Daiichi power plant had been under as much as 5 meters of water.

Modern sea walls failed to protect coastal towns from Japan's destructive tsunami last month. But in the hamlet of Aneyoshi, a single centuries-old tablet saved the day.

"High dwellings are the peace and harmony of our descendants," the stone slab reads. "Remember the calamity of the great tsunamis. Do not build any homes below this point."

It was advice the dozen or so households of Aneyoshi heeded, and their homes emerged unscathed from a disaster that flattened low-lying communities elsewhere and killed thousands along Japan's northeastern shore.

Hundreds of such markers dot the coastline, some more than 600 years old. Collectively they form a crude warning system for Japan, whose long coasts along major fault lines have made it a repeated target of earthquakes and tsunamis over the centuries.

The markers don't all indicate where it's safe to build. Some simply stand -- or stood, until they were washed away by the tsunami -- as daily reminders of the risk. "If an earthquake comes, beware of tsunamis," reads one. In the bustle of modern life, many forgot.

Greenpeace Blog :: Greenpeace's radiation monitoring teams have discovered high levels of contamination in crops grown on the outskirts of Minamisoma city in Japan. The data was collected from the gardens of Minamisoma city residents, and registered well over the official limits for spinach and other vegetables. This is bad news amid already serious concerns over the health risks to residents and a lack of official information from Japanese government.

Let's have a look at what that compensation really means:

¥20 million = €163,337 or $235,760 - Let's take the example of the article in Japan Times. Namie (Fukushima Prefacture) has 26,000 inhabitants. A €163,337 | $235,760 (¥20m) compensation, when distributed equally among its residents, would result in €6.28 (or $9.07) per person.

Atlanta (CNN) -- Two of the world's largest concrete pumps will depart the United States later this week as part of the effort to resolve the crisis at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, officials said.

Each pump weighs 190,000 pounds and has a boom reach of over 227 feet, and can pump water and concrete at massive rates. They will be loaded aboard enormous Russian cargo jets Friday.

The pumps' manufacturer, Putzmeister, said in a release the devices are normally used to pour concrete for bridges and high-rise construction projects, but can offer pinpoint accuracy "to directly target hotspots within the reactors" and help with cooling.

There are only three such pumps in the world, said Putzmeister spokeswoman Mary Roberts.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Photos 5

some fairly intense photos of water streaming past the plant in the middle of these

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

"When the plants were originally designed, it was thought that the spent fuel would remain on the sites only two or three months after they came out of the reactor during a refueling outage and then the fuel would be shipped offsite for reprocessing or disposal," said Lochbaum of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

"When those plans changed, we just filled the pools up to capacity without ever rethinking whether we should provide better safety or barriers," he said.

The Japan nuclear crisis has raised concern for U.S. officials because of the areas where safety practices overlap. By contrast, Germany, for example, has relied more heavily on storage of spent fuel in casks that can be hardened against attack or accidents with concrete.

One of problems limiting the wider use of the dry storage units is their upfront costs: each cask costs about $1 million or more. Critics say the costs are roughly comparable with cooling pools over the long run but require initial capital spending that can be a tougher sell to management and shareholders.

Work to dispose of highly radioactive water at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is not proceeding smoothly as more time is needed for preparations.

Heavily contaminated water in turbine buildings and a concrete tunnel is hampering work to restore cooling functions in the troubled reactors. The total amount of water in question is estimated at more than 50,000 tons.

The plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company, plans to transfer the highly radioactive water to a nuclear waste processing facility and turbine condensers.

Fukushima Gov. Yuhei Sato has expressed anger at the central government and Tokyo Electric Power Co., saying both "betrayed" the people of Fukushima Prefecture with repeated assurances about the safety of nuclear power plants.

"We feel we were betrayed [by the central government and TEPCO]," Sato said during an interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun on Thursday, nearly a month after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami and the outbreak of a series of accidents at the Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant. "The central government and TEPCO repeatedly told us, 'Nuclear power plants are safe because they've got multiple protection systems,' and, 'Earthquake-proof measures have been taken,'" Sato said.

"TEPCO used the term 'beyond our expectations' [to describe the natural disaster], but they can't establish effective policies for nuclear energy safety unless they take into account things that are beyond their expectations," Sato said.

....

Asked about a plan to build a seventh and eighth reactor at the Fukushima No. 1 plant, Sato flatly rejected the idea, saying even to suggest it was "unforgivable."

The number of dead or missing in the March 11th disaster and aftershocks that hit northeastern Japan has reached nearly 28,000.

The National Police Agency announced on Sunday morning that 12,985 people have been confirmed dead and 14,809 are listed as missing, bringing the total to 27,794. The figure includes deaths reported after a major aftershock on Thursday night.

RIKUZEN-TAKATA, Iwate--The shout came out in Osaka dialect. "Bring your wheelchair, or any other wheeled item for fixing if it's broken!" said a man sitting in front of a shelter set up at Daiichi (No. 1) Middle School in Rikuzen-Takata.

A bicycle shop owner from Suminoe Ward, Osaka, Norio Eto, 66, was working as a volunteer at the shelter to repair bicycles and other wheeled devices in the quake- and tsunami-hit city.

He had traveled more than 1,000 kilometers by car to get there.

Much rubble and debris still litters the town and public transportation systems are yet to be fully restored. Bicycles are a vital means of transportation for people in the city.

This is not Eto's first visit to the disaster-stricken region. From March 19 to 22, he visited Sendai and repaired bicycles at shelters and other locations until gasoline shortages forced him back to Osaka. He then came to Rikuzen-Takata to help.

The crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant has spurred the government to restrict rice planting in soil with more than 5,000 becquerels per kilogram of radioactive cesium, the first time maximum radiation levels have been set for soil.

Radioactive cesium levels exceeding 5,000 becquerels per kilogram have been detected in farmland close to the nuclear plant and farmers in these areas will likely be barred from growing rice this season, government sources said.

The Fukushima prefectural government announced Wednesday that rice paddies in Iitatemura have shown as much as 15,031 becquerels per kilogram of radioactive cesium. Part of Iitatemura is within 20 kilometers to 30 kilometers of the plant, where residents have been instructed to stay indoors.

The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry said it plans to decide on the rice planting restrictions after conducting soil inspections and consulting with the prefecture. According to the ministry, rice production in Fukushima is fourth in the nation at about 450,000 tons.

The government will make the area within a 20-kilometer radius of the crisis-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant covered by its evacuation directive into an off-limits zone before allowing residents to temporarily return home, senior officials said Sunday.

The step is aimed at enhancing its control of the area where residents are temporarily returning home on their own to take out belongings despite radiation fears, with a view to forcing them out in case they refuse to leave, the officials suggested.

The Fukushima prefectural government has already urged Tokyo to accept imposing such an area, and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters Sunday that the government is making final arrangements for the step and will announce it in the near future.

The number of evacuees from coastal areas of Iwate Prefecture is about 47,000, and the prefectural government estimates about 18,000 makeshift houses will be needed. The government aims to complete construction by September.

The Miyagi prefectural government plans to construct 4,385 provisional houses in 13 cities and towns in about a month, including 2,455 houses it has already started building. It estimates about 30,000 houses will ultimately be needed.

....

On Saturday, evacuees began moving into 36 makeshift houses constructed on the premises of Rikuzen-Takata Daiichi (No. 1) Middle School, which is serving as an evacuation center. Each 29-square-meter prefabricated house has two rooms, a dining-kitchen area, a bath and a toilet, and is equipped with an air conditioner. Occupancy is limited to two years in principle.

The municipal government gave priority to single-mother families, those with elderly people aged 70 or older and those with disabled members. It accepted applications for 18 priority slots and 18 general slots, and the final 36 families were chosen from a total of 1,160 applicants. The municipal government selected a group leader and a person responsible for receiving aid supplies, to help ensure unity among the residents. Authorities also tried to place former neighbors close to each other.

(TOKYO, April 10, Kyodo) Workers at the disaster-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant prepared Sunday to start removing highly radioactive water in the plant that is hampering restoration efforts in the prolonged nuclear crisis, the government's nuclear agency said. Toxic water has been found in the basements of the Nos. 1 to 3 reactor turbine buildings, as well as in nearby underground trenches connected to them. Transferring the water, totaling some 60,000 tons, to nearby tanks and other storage places is seen as vital to move ahead with the work to restore the key cooling functions for reactors damaged after the March 11 quake and tsunami.

The workers were to start soon with pumping out water filling a trench near the No. 2 reactor to a ''condenser'' inside the reactor's turbine building, as the level of the water is edging up, apparently because of steps taken to block the water from leaking into the Pacific Ocean, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said. The condenser, where in normal operations steam created from the reactor is converted into water, has a capacity to store 3,000 tons of liquid and work to empty it finished Saturday.

The water inside the basement of the No. 2 reactor turbine building and the trench connected to it is highly contaminated because it is believed to be originating from the No. 2 reactor core, where fuel rods have partially melted.....The nuclear regulator is asking the firm to check issues such as whether the condenser is sound enough to store the liquid and whether the workers' safety would be secured in the mission, agency spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama told an afternoon press conference.

(TOKYO, April 11) While a month has passed since the March 11 killer earthquake and ensuing tsunami, prospects remain bleak that Japan's worst ever nuclear crisis will end any time soon amid a series of challenges left to regain control of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and to clean up radioactive contamination.

Japan also needs to restore confidence overseas by living up to its promise to provide sufficient information on the disaster, as concerns linger especially among neighboring countries over the impact of the recent disposal of low-level radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean and the safety of Japanese products.

The plant's six nuclear reactors are in a relatively stable condition compared with before, and leakage of highly radioactive water into the sea has stopped, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. says. But the utility is still walking a tightrope in its efforts to contain the crisis as many of the units need to have coolant water pumped from outside and nitrogen injected to reduce the risks of hydrogen explosions.

''We are fighting against a monster named nuclear power with human wisdom,'' Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Banri Kaieda told a press conference in late March, as the country grappled with a situation it had never previously faced with its nuclear reactors.

The government will expand evacuation districts near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, its top spokesman said Monday.

With the crisis at the plant dragging on, some municipalities within a 20- to 30-kilometer radius of the power plant will now be designated as additional evacuation areas, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said at a news conference.

The government had earlier ordered residents within the 20-km radius of the power station to evacuate and those in the 20-30 km zone to stay indoors after the plant was hit by a deadly earthquake and tsunami on March 11.

The government changed the radiation exposure level which had been used to determine the evacuation zone.

5:16pm strong quake centered under eastern Fukushima. 6- on Japanese scale of 1-7. 1m tsunami warning for Ibaraki (south of Fukushima)

Martyn Williams (martyn_williams) on Twitter

5:16pm quake was M7.1 at 10kms - JMA and USGS under southeast Fukushima

Martyn Williams (martyn_williams) on Twitter

2. External electricity supply connecting to pumps at Fukushima Daiichi reactors 1,2,3 cut in quake. Using back-up fire pump. - TEPCO

Martyn Williams (martyn_williams) on Twitter

RT @DailyYomiuri: TEPCO says external power restored to reactors at Fukushima nuclear power plant.

Martyn Williams (martyn_williams) on Twitter

5:16pm quake was aftershock to 3/11 quake. Revised magnitude to 7.0 at 6kms depth - JMA

THE crisis in Japan has bruised the country's reputation for excellence. Its hyper-efficient supply chains were shown to have major vulnerabilities. Its prestigious nuclear technology companies look feeble. Its renown for food safety has been undermined by fears of radiation contamination.

At least one Western diplomat and economist believes that the stature of Japanese goods in the minds of consumers overseas may be severely damaged. "People buy 'brand Japan' because it implies a premium--that the quality will be better, or the product is more reliable--and now they don't have that," he says.

Fear of radiation has ruined the area around Fukushima and disrupted the flow of exports well beyond its perimeter, as a story in this week's newspaper explains. The worries overseas are largely irrational. Yet what might be the consequences to "made in Japan" as a brand? The Economist asked a number of firms to follow the data. 

Tokyo Electric Power Company has begun using unmanned heavy equipment to remove radioactive rubble at the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Hydrogen explosions blew off the ceilings and walls of the Number One and Number Three reactor buildings. The debris is emitting hundreds of millisieverts of radiation per hour in some places, hindering the restoration work.

The utility started using remote-controlled power shovels and bulldozers to remove the rubble on Sunday afternoon.

Operators are using cameras attached to the equipment as well as 6 fixed cameras at the site to carry out the work from hundreds of meters away.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. President Masataka Shimizu visited the Fukushima prefectural government office Monday afternoon to apologize for the nuclear disaster at its Fukushima Daiichi power plant, but Gov. Yuhei Sato has declined to meet him, according to officials from the utility and the prefectural government.