The End

I think during this whole thing all the attention has been on the plant and what could happen next. Also all the attention on what it could do to the enviornment of Japan and surronding countires that are so close to each other and how radiation is being leaked into the water and the air just makes the risks that much worse. But we often forget about the true victoms in all this , the ones that actually suffered and those are the citizens of Japan and those areas that got hit the worst. The lives for the past 13 weeeks have been indescribable and one could only imagine what they may be in fact going through. There are over 100,000 evacutees in numerous shelters that are over crowded. And then you have the death toll and those missing. 15,401 have been confirmed dead amd another 8,146 still considered missing. No one has ever given much thought to these people, just the drama around the plant. To us that may seem like the only thing actually going on. But in reality so much pain and suffering is going on. So to end this i thought i would step away from the enviornmental issues and give some attention and tribute to those who have suffered, they need all the help and support they can get.

No one saw it coming

It came as a shook when the 9.0 earthquake hit the coast of Japan on March 11. This is because it was never thought that that area could get a earthquake that powerful. So that is why the area of Sendai wasnt prepared for anything like this, it wasnt suppose to happen. See on the crust on the ocean floor off the coast is old in fact its over 140 million years old, older crust is cooler and denser unlike its younger counter part. And history was on there scientists side to back that up. Worst part was Sendai was considered to be one of Japan's best prepared city's for a Tsunami.

April 7
Another earthquake hit Japan today with this one reaching up to a 7.1 magnitude. Much like other earthquakes that followed the 9.0 on March 11 this was an aftershock but the strongest one on recored yet. This even caused a Tsunami warning to be issued but was eventually lifted an hour later. It fourtunetly didn't cause anymore damage to the already crippled Fukushima nuclear plant which has been out since all this started March 11

Massive Earthquake hits Japan, sparks Tsunami

One of the biggest earthquakes in Japans' history sparked a Tsunami on it's east coast.It swept homes, cars, and boats as fires burned out of control. Warnings of a Tsunami blanketed the entire west coast going as far away as Canada, South America, Alaska and the entire U.S. west coast. Officials confirmed that 60 people had already died and that 56 people were reported missing. The death toll is expected to grow given the next few days. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the Japan had closed four nuclear plants as a precaution. One plant declared a state of emergency as a result of the cooling systems as a mechanical failure. Thousands of residents close to the plant were ordered to evacuate.

Change of pace

Well when I started this it was after the crisis began. So i never got a chance to talk about the beggining stages but only the results of the crisis. So I figure I should describe the original problems.

Good News....With bad news (depends on your view)

Well today the U.S. Nuclear indusrty said they dont expect a lot of health problems as a result from the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear plant. "Tony Pietrangelo, chief nuclear officer of the Nuclear Energy Institute, credited what he described as the Japanese government's speedy response in evacuating a 20-kilometer zone around the stricken nuclear plant". But in other news today it was announced that Japan's green tea is contaminated with radiation.

Water Problem Fixed

The problem every one faced at the crippled Fukushima plant was their D Day on June 20th ; the day that the first of the reactors are due to over flow. But problem solved folks. Tanks started on there on Saturday to the plant. The new tanks should help prevent any further enviornmental damage in the area. There are 370 tanks due to arrive at the plant from now through August, and the first two were due to arrive on Saturday. All the tanks are expected to house a total of 40, 000 tons of radioactive water. The plant has been leaking water since the disaster on March 11.

Levels of Radiation in the air after accident

On the same day the report was released that fuel melted through the reactrors, they also released the measurements of the radiation leaked into the air as well. I'll start off by saying that the Japanese government more then doubled their estimate on radiation leaked into the air. They think that 770,000 terabecquerels got leaked into the air during the first six days. A number much greater then 370,000 terabecquerels. This number though equals to about 15 percent of what the 1986 Chernobyl disaster released. But the bigger issue is there was more radiation leaked into the air then intially thought.

Japan Says that fuel may have melted through three reactors

The Japanese government finally admited Tuesday that the damage to the Fukushima nuclear plant was worse then they oringinaly expected. And as well they werent prepared for the inncident. In a report being submitted to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Japanese government says the fuel in three reactors may not have just melted the core but the containment vessels as well. The report (750 pages) awknowledges the flaws in the reactors. Among those flaws was the location of the spent fuel cooling pools that were high up in the buildings.

Plant Could Leak More Radioactive water

The plant has nearly has 110,000 tons of contaminated water stored. That could fill 40 olympic size pools. Managing those growiing pools of water is going to be a major challange with the beggining of the month long rain season to begin soon. And the plant is running out of storage space. So engineers have begun
installing equipment supplied by the French company Areva to decontaminate the water. Tepco plans to start operating the equipment June 15. But if the method doesnt work one of the reactors could run out of storage space June 20 and it could leak into the sea. The same could happen to a second reactor the next day. The Utility has alread dumped 10,000 tons of water in the ocean in early April

Two Workers Exceed Government's Exposure Limits

At the Fukishima plant two workes have more then double the government's limit. The announcement was made today by the Japanese government. TEPCO says the more workers could hav been exposed to high levels of radtiaon and are getting tested. The two workers are in good health now, but to give you an idea of how much exposure they had it would equal out to more then 1,000 abdomial x-rays. The two workers ad been wqorking on the third and fourth reactors, the reactors the company has had ahard time keeoing control of. Exposure can lead to long term health problems like cancer and massive doses can quickly be deadly but no one has died in the Fukishima disater, on of the worst in the history of nuclear power.

Update on Reactors

With the news of the rapture taking over headlines , the japan crisis has taken a bit of the back seat in the last few days and may be staying there until Octoer 21 (the day Harold Camping has predicted the world to end). You can say that is going to be headline news with his now two previous failures and with a third back pocket prediction the Japense Government and all those helping with the Fukishima crisis now have a chance to get as much done as they can with the spot light going to be off them for the next five months. So here are "quiet updates" on the plant. The fuel rods on units 2 and 3 may have melted in the early few days of the crisis.  Fuel in 3 of the 6 reactors leaked after the tsunami knocking out the cooling systems leading to raditaion being leaked into the atmosphere.  The plant now is still leaking but in lower levels after the accident and officials aim to have the plant in a cold shutdown to stop all raditation leaks by as late as January. An image released Tuesday also suggests that Units 2 & 3's fuel rods melted as well.  Unit 4 had no Fuel rods at the time but workers still struggle to keep the plant cool.  Units 5 & 6 have been in a cold shutdown since late March.

Japan extends no safe zone to 20 km

Japan officials decided to prohibited citizens from going no closer then 20 km of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on Thursday. This would be to control evacuees with the fear of radition leaks. The prime minister Naoto Kan hada 35 minute meeting with Fukushima Gov. Yuhei Sato. The topic of the meeting was for Sato to upgrade the current evacuation insturctions for civilions that comes close to the no entry ban. This will come into affect at midnight tonight local time.      April 21

The Due Date is Nine Months

The doctor has a full and normal nine month terms for the baby to be born. This is also the case for the crippled giant the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. To get the power plant under control it will take about nine months. Tokyo Eletric Power the (TEPCO) the team that will carry out the work say they wil do it in two stages. The first stage will take about three months and that is the progress of reducing radiation levels steadily. The second stage will take around six months which will see the managing releases of radioactive material as well as substantially reducing radiation levels.

The industry says that this is rated as a level seven disaster, rated the same as the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, which is the worlds worst nuclear accident.

To have successfuly complete stage one , the team must insure that they do not cause hydrogen explosions at the no. 1 and no. 3 reactors. Also they have to make sure not to let some of the 20,000 tons of highly radioactive water in reactor no. 2 doesnt seep into the plant.

Another Leak Found

The Kyodo News is reporting that another nuclear power plant has fuel rod leak that is a radioactive substance. This plant is the Tsuruga nuclear powerplant. The Fukui prefuctural government reported a rise in the level of radioactive substances in coolant water. The Japan Atomatic Power Company is the operator of the plant and said that they will manually shut down the No.2 reactor of the plant to examine its primary cooling system. Therev is no true report the those levels could affect the nearby enviornment.
According to Japan Atomic, 4.2 becquerels of iodine-133 and 3,900 becquerels of xenon gas were detected per cubic centimetre, up from 2.1 and 5.2 becquerels, respectively, during previous measurements conducted last Tuesday.

Robots to be deployed in plant

The Tokyo Elertrical Power Comapny which is thew operator of the damaged Fukishima Daiichi nuclear power station announced would deploy two kinds of remote-control robots. The robots would are to be deployed in the plant to help stabalize the plant while reducing the exposure of radiation to workers as well. The robots are to be introduced into the plant in early May. The Robots, developed by the British Qineti Group Plc are the two Talon models, while a third robot is a Quince model jointly developed by the Chiba Institutew of technology and Tohuku University is to be deployed as well. The Talons were provided by the U.S. Department of Energy, they are eqiupped with gamma-radiation-detecting cameras and as well as a GPS. This model is currently deployed in Afgahnistan. The use of the Talons will be to measure radiation levels around the plant and also to produce contamination maps of the interior. The Quince is built for rugged  work and will be used for spraying water on the damaged storage pools. The robots will be joing two U.S. desgined robots that have been deployed since mid April. There use has been to check radtiation levels, humidity, tempatures and oxygen levels in the plant.

102 Year old man commits suicidie because of Japan Meltdown

A 102 year old man commited suicide yesterday after police asked him to leave his house that happened to be in a newly declared danger zone that is near the Fukushima nuclear plant. The man lived in the Litate village which is 24 miles away from the plant which was considered a safe zone until they expanded the danger zone earlier this week. A press release stated that he was depressed at the idea of leaving hhis home.