Japan launches a search more important for the victims of the earthquake

The members of the Japanese self-defense forces are carrying research more still for 12 000 people who have been missing after the earthquake on March 11 and the tsunami.

The US Army and the Japanese police also took part in the research, which will involve 25,000 persons, 90 aircraft and 50 ships over the next two days.

The research is covering areas coastal and inland of the prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima, with the waters off the coast. It will also include areas within a radius of 30 kilometres of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power which was not already covered.

Official figures show that the earthquake and tsunami, with replicas on April 7 and 11, killed approximately 14 300 people.

An activist with an anti-nuclear mask takes part in a rally against nuclear power plants in Tokyo on Sunday. Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters

In the town of Shichigahamamachi, Monday, a line of about two dozen Japanese soldiers walked in unison through soggy and muddy Earth, plunging their poles about 60 centimetres into the muck to ensure that they lack any body buried below.

The research focused on a marsh drained in recent weeks by members of the infantry regiment 22 of the army with special pump trucks.

Several dozens of other soldiers cleared mountains of rubble by hand to a waterfront neighborhood filled with houses emptied and teetering. Four people in the neighborhood were missing, said 67 Sannojo Watanabe.

"It was my home here," he said, pointing to a foundation with nothing at the top of it.

He surveyed the District: "There is nothing left here."

In all, 370 soldiers of the regiment were looking for a dozen people still missing from the Shichigahamamachi. The regiment was to research the area with a quota more small, but have tripled the number of soldiers, he was with intense research of two days, said colonel Akira Kun itomo, the Commander of the regiment.

The research is much more difficult than that for the earthquake victims, which would mainly be buried under the rubble, said Michihiro Ose, a spokesman for the regiment. The tsunami may have left victims anywhere, or even withdrawn their towards the sea.

"We just don't know where are the bodies," he said.

Bodies found both weeks after the disaster are likely to be unrecognizable, black and swollen, dare to say.

"We would not even know if they are male or female," he said.

First intense scanning of the Army being for body discovered 339, while his second place 99 spokesperson of the Ministry of defence, Norikazu Muratani, said. Numbers in the search for Monday were not immediately available.

After the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, body found along the Indonesian coast for several months later as people cleared debris in reconstruction efforts. However, 37,000 of 164 000 people who died in Indonesia simply disappeared, their bodies washed likely to the sea.

Last week, two underwater robots provided by the Institute of International rescue systems, non profit led to the research of five days in the waters off the coast of the northeastern coast of the Japan close to three cities devastated.

Robots are cars, houses and other debris in the sea, but no body, said Mika Murata, an official of the Institute.

The Japanese Government has been criticized for his response to the earthquake, tsunami and the subsequent nuclear disaster, with some members of the opposition of the country, urging Prime Minister Naoto Kan to resign.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan answers question from a legislator to a budget Committee meeting in the upper House of Parliament in Tokyo on Monday. Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters

Monday, Kan said in a sometimes hostile Parliament that his Government is that its possible to take control of the radiation leaks at nuclear plant, which prompted the Government to evacuate residents of an area of 20 km autour shut down reactors.

"The nuclear accident is still underway," he said. "The priority is now to stabilize it."

In Fukushima Prefecture, the Government launched an operation to euthanize some of farm animals in the area of renaming to the left.

Six officials, including veterinarians, entered the area Monday, the first day of the mission. There are more than 370 livestock farms, in the exclusion zone horses with 4,000 cattle, 30 000 pigs, 630 000 chickens and 100. But many of these animals died or faced with famine because their owners have been evacuated from the region. Some of them remain outside.

The plan is to kill weakened animals and disinfecting carcasses. A veterinarian said animals found living will get medical examinations. The Prefecture said it will not animals kill unless their owners agree because there was no law stipulating what should be done in such a situation.

People are concerned about pets, in the exclusion zone too.

A coalition of welfare of the animals to the Japan hope that the Government will enable it to continue to search for animals which have been abandoned.

With Craig Dale files back the CBC links to accessibility

View the original article here

Tsunami speeds "Terminal decline" of the industry of fish of the Japan

Translate Request has too much data
Parameter name: request
Translate Request has too much data
Parameter name: request
April 25, 2011, 6:16 AM EDT By Stuart Biggs, Kanoko Matsuyama and Frederik Balfour

(Adds release of radioactive water in 24th paragraph)

April 25 (Bloomberg) -- The wreckage of a 379-metric ton tuna boat blocks the road to the deserted fish market in Kesennuma, once Japan’s largest port for bonito and swordfish. Even after the debris from last month’s tsunami has been cleared away, the industry may never recover.

“Thirty years ago we used to think Japan was the number one fishing country in the world, with the best catching and processing methods, but that’s really no longer the case,” Ryosuke Sato, chairman of the Kesennuma Fisheries Cooperative Association, said in an interview in the town, 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of Tokyo. “We’ve been in terminal decline.”

Traffic at the port had dropped by 90 percent over the last 20 years as seafood imports rose, even before the country’s northeastern coast was devastated on March 11. Destruction of boats, harbors and processing plants, coupled with fears of radioactive contamination in marine life, threatens to hasten Japan’s turn to overseas for its most important food staple after rice.

Japanese eat more fish per capita than any other developed country, consuming 56.7 kilograms (128 pounds) annually, compared with a global average of 17.1 kilograms, according to the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization. Fish accounts for 23 percent of protein in the daily Japanese diet, compared with four percent in the U.S.

Fish Broth

Consumption begins with breakfast in Japan, an archipelago of nearly 7,000 islands, where a traditional morning meal consists of rice and grilled fish. In addition to sushi, staples including miso soup also contain fish broth. To feed the habit, Japan is the world’s largest importer of fish, buying $14.4 billion worth in 2008, according to data from the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization.

“We’re the biggest fish lovers among the major industrial nations and the number one consumer,” said Masayuki Komatsu, a professor at Tokyo’s National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies specializing in ocean and marine resources. “It’s like water and air to us.”

Auctions at Tokyo’s Tsukiji, the world’s largest fish market that stretches over an area the size of 43 football fields, influences prices all over the world, according to Sasha Issenberg, author of ‘The Sushi Economy.’

“It’s like a combination of Wall Street and Sotheby’s in the art market and a commodities trading floor,” he said.

Five Years

Last month’s earthquake and tsunami, which left almost 28,000 dead or missing, disproportionately affected Japan’s northeastern fishing ports and towns. In Iwate prefecture, the tsunami caused about 106.6 billion yen ($1.3 billion) of damage to the fishing industry, according to data from the government. That’s about ten times the combined total for the prefecture’s agriculture and forestry industries.

Fishermen in Kesennuma, which has a population of 73,000, expect it to take as long as five years to rebuild the port and market, central to a fishing industry that provides 85 percent of the town’s jobs.

The city government says 837 townspeople died and 1,196 were listed as missing as of April 22. A further 5,838 people, or 7.8 percent of the population, are in evacuation centers. In addition to the destruction of maintenance and refueling facilities, about 40 fishing vessels were lost, the cooperative’s Sato said.

‘Not Alone’

“There’s so much damage, this is a crisis for the town and the fishing industry,” said the 69-year old Sato, whose Kanedai Co. fish company has sales of 9.4 billion yen in Japan and China, with 230 employees. A poster on the wall signed by wholesalers and customers reads: “You’re not alone, everyone is with you. Thank you always for the delicious fish.”

South Kesennuma, where most of the fish processing plants were located, was the first area to be hit by the tsunami after it passed the island of Oshima that creates the entrance to Kesennuma’s harbor about two kilometers off shore. In the harbor, trawlers and a refueling tank were slammed together, spewing fuel. Fire spread across the fuel-water mix, creating an inferno.

The 50-meter-long Myojin Maru No.3, licensed to catch yellowfin and albacore tuna in the Indian Ocean, is one of at least 10 giant vessels dumped around the town. It towers over gutted two-storey buildings owned by fishing companies about 500 meters from the fish market.

“Companies may have the money to rebuild but people are saying they don’t want to come back,” Yaeko Komatsu, 53, said as she gazed at the rubble of her seafood company employer she didn’t identify. “They say it’s dangerous.”

Planned Reopening

The fish market is planning to partially re-open in June to provide a sales floor for the expected arrival of bonito boats. Longer-term plans depend on the amount of central government assistance, the cooperative’s Sato said.

Reconstruction needs to happen fast to prevent workers from leaving the town for good, Itsunori Onodera, a Diet Member representing Kesennuma, said in an interview at the city hall.

Like many ports in Japan, Kesennuma developed a reputation for handling specific kinds of fish. Ships from all over Japan came to the town to sell saury, sharks and tuna. By adding maintenance and refueling facilities, Kesennuma became one of Japan’s 10 largest fishing ports, Sato said.

The importance of fishing and towns like Kesennuma in Japanese culture belies the fishing industry’s declining status in the economy. Fishing contributes about 0.2 percent of Japan’s GDP, and the number of fishermen has dropped to about 200,000 from about a million after World War II, according to the National Graduate Institute’s Komatsu, also a former official at Japan’s Fisheries Agency.

Indonesian Workers

For fishermen like Tokio Takatsuka, who returned to Shiogama Port, 315 kilometers north of Tokyo and 80 kilometers south of Kesennuma, earlier this month to sell yellowfin tuna from the Pacific, that means hiring more crew members from the Philippines and Indonesia to make up for the shortage of Japanese applicants. They come as part of a government plan to ease labor shortages, and signs at the port are now written in Bahasa as well as Japanese.

“My generation never considered doing anything besides fishing,” Takatsuka, 62, said in an interview last week next to his boat. “It’s different for young people now.”

Even as the government hurries to rebuild facilities, fishermen and consumers are worried about radiation from Tokyo Electric Co.’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant, Akira Sato, mayor of Shiogama, said in an interview after the town’s first fresh tuna auction since the March 11 earthquake. The fisherman Takatsuka sailed more than 60 kilometers wide of the plant on the way to the port, rather than hugging the coast, in order to reassure buyers.

About 520,000 liters of water with a level of radioactivity that was 20,000 times the legal limit leaked into the ocean between April 1 and 6, Junichi Matsumoto , a Tepco general manager, said last week.

‘People Are Spooked’

“It puts a cloud over the entire fishing industry and Japan’s food culture is suffering as a result,” Jeff Kingston, director of the Department of Asian Studies at Temple University’s Japan campus said. “People are spooked.”

The level of radioactivity in water leaked from the No. 2 reactor of the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant was 20,000 times the regulatory limit, Tepco said on April 21. A total of 520 tons of contaminated water leaked between April 1 and April 6, said Junichi Matsumoto, a general manager at the utility.

At Tokyo’s Tsukiji fish market, sales of fresh fish fell to an average 583 metric tons per day in the week ended March 17, down 28 percent from a year earlier. The following week they dropped by 44 percent.

“If this continues for two or three years we don’t know what will happen to our bodies from consuming contaminated fish,” Yasuo Kawada, a 59-year-old manufacturing employee said in an interview. “I do worry.”

Fish Bans

Radiation from fish and lobsters near the U.K.’s biggest nuclear polluter suggest radioactive material dumped into the sea from Tepco’s Fukushima power plant isn’t a long-term health threat, according to Richard Wakeford, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Manchester’s Dalton Nuclear Institute.

The Sellafield nuclear-processing plant in northwest England has discharged at least 320,000 times more radioactive material into the Irish Sea since 1952 than what Tepco released from Fukushima this month, according to Bloomberg calculations based on data from both sites. Still, average radiation doses by seafood-consumers near Sellafield over 15 years have been half the recommended limit, studies show.

That hasn’t stopped China, Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong from banning fish imports from parts of Japan. The countries accounted for about 70 percent of Japan’s fish exports in 2009, according to Japan External Trade Organization figures.

“Radiation is a grim reaper, you can’t see it and you can’t smell it,” said Ken Banwell who has worked as a fish importer in Tokyo for 22 years. “I would say it would have a profound effect on sales from those areas.”

Still, overall sales at Tsukiji recovered to pre-quake levels last week, indicating Japanese consumers are returning to fish. Prime Minister Naoto Kan proposed a 4-trillion yen ($49 billion) extra budget that is likely to be the first of several packages to rebuild areas devastated by last month’s record earthquake and tsunami, which will include assistance for the industry, the government said in an April 22 statement.

“It’ll take three years, at most five years to rebuild the fish market,” said Sato, in his ninth year as head of the Kesennuma Fisheries Association. “In the meantime we need to know how we can continue to live here today, tomorrow, without jobs at plants which don’t exist anymore.”

--With assistance by Chisaki Watanabe and Shunichi Ozasa in Tokyo. Editors: Bret Okeson, Brian Fowler

To contact the reporters on this story: Stuart Biggs in Tokyo at sbiggs3@bloomberg.net. Kanoko Matsuyama in Tokyo at kmatsuyama2@bloomberg.net; Frederik Balfour in Hong Kong at fbalfour@bloomberg.net;

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Bret Okeson at bokeson@bloomberg.net

View the original article here

Zone of disaster in the Japan touring in Australia PM

The first leader to visit the coast ravaged by the tsunami of the Japan, the Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, has expressed shock and sadness to the devastation and visited evacuees in shelters Saturday, giving the toy and kangaroos koalas to the excited children.

Through a fishing village where hundreds of people are dead and missing, she said that minamisanriku looked as if she was "bombed into oblivion."

Mayor Jin Sato showed him the Red skeleton of the building of disaster management, where he is was then of a mammoth wave tore its shell on March 11. Exterior stairs were ripped off walls. A small shrine of flowers has been created on a heap of rubble.

Gillard, "It is a scene from the incredible tragedy and incredible sadness," said the last day of a four-day trip.

More than 27 000 people are dead or missing since the earthquake and tsunami. Tens of thousands live in shelters after a 90,000 houses approximately have been destroyed or damaged.

Recovery efforts were complicated by the crisis of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, where the tsunami wiped out power and cooling systems. Workers fought to stop leaks of radiation, and the utility said bring the factory fully under control may take all year.

Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co., said Saturday that 30 workers at the plant had exceeded the former limit of exposure to radiation. This limit, 100 millisieverts per year, grew up in the crisis to 250 millisieverts. None of the workers had reached this limit, the company said. Leaks from reactors of plant are stabilized somewhat since the beginning of the crisis, but some interior spaces in the Earth and the tsunami earthquake damaged buildings that have high levels of radiation workers are not able to penetrate.

Hundreds of workers were upsetting to rotating shifts at the plant since the beginning of the disaster, most of them middle-aged men employed by TEPCO or affiliates.

TEPCO spokesman Junichi Matsumoto said managers have been instructed to closely monitor employees arriving to their radiation limits. Measures could be taken include passing workers tasks more risky, as the compensation of radioactive debris, to jobs in the Interior, as Office tasks.

The United States nuclear industry workers are allowed to an upper limit of 50 millisieverts per year. A typical individual would absorb six millisieverts per year from natural and artificial sources such as x-ray.

Radiation experts said the cumulative doses of 500 millisieverts have been demonstrated that raise the risk of future cancers. Evidence is less clear on smaller quantities, but in theory, any increased radiation exposure raises risk of cancer.

Irradiation, which develops from acute exposure, sets 1,000 millisieverts. Symptoms include nausea, vomiting and hair loss.

Workers also face problems of health based on fatigue and the stress of work in the harsh environment, a doctor who speaks told them this week. He stated that the workers of insomnia, dehydration and high blood pressure; run the risk of developing depression or heart problems.

Accessibility links

View the original article here

Increase in Stocks of the Japan for the first time in four days on U.S. housing starts

April 20, 2011, 2: 47 PM EDT by Norie Kuboyama and Satoshi Kawano

April 20 (Bloomberg) - Japanese stocks advanced near two weeks after the U.S. implemented construction increased and revenues exceeded estimates to companies, including Johnson & Johnson, the largest in the world of signaling economy is recovering.

FANUC Corp., largest maker of the Japan of industrial robots, gained 2.3%. Toshiba Corp., Advantest Corp. and other chip manufacturers and related tools of advanced after Intel Corp. sales forecast that can top estimates. Inpex Corp., most of the country's oil Explorer, rose to 3.1% increase in the price of the crude.The Nikkei 225 Stock average reached 1.8% 9,606.82 as of the close in Tokyo, the largest gain since April 8. The broader Topix advanced 1.2% to 837.17. Index has decreased about 10 per cent since the magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami on March 11 which devastated the northeast coast of the Japan and paralyzed a nuclear power plant. "" You are seeing signs in Europe and the United States are always on the road to recovery, "said Hiroichi Nishi, a manager of shares to SMBC Nikko Securities Inc. in Tokyo. "That has helped ease the nerves."The standard & poor 500 Index gained 0.6% yesterday in New York after the Commerce Department said housing starts increased 7.2% in March from February. Work has begun on 549,000 homes, exceeding forecasts median 520 000 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.Exporters ClimbJapan exporters gained after housing report. FANUC, a manufacturer of equipment for factory obtains approximately 80% of sales abroad, increased by 2.3% to 13,190 yen. Sony Corp., most large exporter of the Japan of electronics, increased by 0.9% to 2,458 yen. Automakers including Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co., and Nissan Motor Co. said.Shares also gained after yesterday in Europe and the US companies reported results that beat projections, help boost confidence in the global recovery. Johnson & Johnson, vendor of second largest in the world of health products, forecast earnings of 4.90 $ to $ 5 a share, better than an estimate of $ 4.80 to $ 4.90 in businesses related to the January.Chip advanced after Intel, the world's largest producer in the World Semiconductor, sales in the second quarter forecasts that high may analysts estimates. The demand for processors for powerful machines that manage Web services is outweigh personal computer slower growth, said the company based in Santa Clara, Californie.Intel stimulates the ChipmakersToshiba, the second global manufacturer of chips used to store photos and music in smartphones and other portable devicesrose 3.7% to 416 yen. Advantest, the world's largest manufacturer of semiconductor test equipment and Elpida Memory Inc., exclusive manufacturer of the Japan of PC memory, also rose.Toshiba received boost after Nomura Holdings Inc. reiterated its "buy" rating on the company, saying that chip company would drive earnings, even as sales related to nuclear energy in the fall following the disaster of last month. Shares of the company, which makes everything from semiconductors to atomic plants, have fallen 17 percent since the earthquake and tsunami that caused explosions and radiation leak in Fukushima Dai-Central Ichi of Tokyo Electric Power Co..Currency of weak Japan, giving relief to exporters in the country. The depreciated yen low as 119.67 against the euro today in Tokyo, compared with 117.24 end of stock trading yesterday on speculation, the Central Bank European will raise interest rates. Against the dollar, currency of Japan weakened the 82.44.Oil 83.10 and trading companies of such as the rise in the price of crude oil and metal. Inpex reached 3.1 per cent yen 601,000 after crude oil for may delivery gained $1.03 to $108.15 US per barrel yesterday in New York. Mitsubishi Corp., largest trader of the Japan-based products, advanced after the London Metal Exchange six metals Index had its biggest gain in nearly two weeks.

-With the assistance of Toshiro Hasegawa in Tokyo. Editors: Jason Clenfield, Nick Gentle.

To communicate with journalists for this story: Norie Kuboyama in Tokyo at the nkuboyama@bloomberg.net; Satoshi Kawano in Tokyo, at skawano1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the responsible editor of the story: Nick Gentle at ngentle2@bloomberg.net.

View the original article here

Japan may prohibit access nuclear plant

The Japan plans to prohibit access to the area evacuated around a nuclear plant damaged in the month last earthquake and tsunami.

Up to 80,000 people lived in the area of 20 km around Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plants, but almost all of them have left.

However, a few people have been back to check their home, despite the police.

The nuclear power plant has been leaks radiation since its cooling system has been damaged in the earthquake on March 11 and the subsequent tsunami.

Now, officials are indicating for the first time that the area around the plant can be concluded.

"We are considering implementation areas of caution as an option to limit effectively the entry," said the Secretary General of Government Yukio Edano.

He said that Prime Minister Naoto Kan will discuss the closure when he travels in the region meeting with local officials on Thursday. Kan will also visit a nuclear crisis management centre.

Noriyuki Shikata, Member of Edano, said more details on how the access could be controlled are still developed.

"There are a number of people who can enter the area." Under the current regime, we are not able to enforce legally - there is no penalty for entering in the box. There is awareness of the need for a stronger application of the region, said Shikata.

Also, Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the nuclear power plant, said Wednesday that it distributes requests for compensation for persons who were forced to leave the region. The company offers approximately 12 000 US $ per person in initial compensation.

The Associated Back press folders of accessibility links

View the original article here

Japan 1 M without homes

Nearly a million homes suffered blackouts in Japan’s northeast Friday after a new earthquake killed three people and piled more misery on a region buried under the rubble of last month’s devastating tsunami.

The northeastern coast was still reeling from the destruction wrought by a jumbo 9.0-magnitude earthquake on March 11, with tens of thousands of households without power or water. The 7.1-magnitude aftershock Thursday threw even more areas into disarray and sent communities that had made some gains back to square one.

A crack caused by Thursday's big aftershock appears in the ground near a shelter for the March 11 tsunami survivors in Minamisanriku, Miyagi prefecture, Friday. Yomiuri Shimbun/ Hiroshi Adachi/Associated Press

Gasoline was scarce again, and long lines formed at stations. Stores that had only recently restocked their shelves sold out of basics Friday and were forced to ration purchases again.

Still, the latest quake did far less damage, generated no tsunami and largely spared the region’s nuclear plants. Some slightly radioactive water spilled at one plant, but the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi complex reported no new problems.

Matsuko Ito, who has been living in a shelter in the small northeastern city of Natori since the tsunami, said there’s no getting used to the terror of being awoken by shaking. She said she started screaming when the quake struck around 11:30 p.m.

“It’s enough,” the 64-year-old while smoking a cigarette outside. “Something has changed. The world feels strange now. Even the way the clouds move isn’t right.”

The latest tremor — the strongest since the day of the tsunami — cut power to more homes, though it was quickly restored to many. About 950,000 households were still without electricity Friday evening, said Souta Nozu, a spokesman for Tohoku Electric Power Co., which serves northern Japan. That includes homes in prefectures in Japan’s northwest that had been spared in the first quake.

Six conventional plants in the area were knocked out, though three have since come back online and the others should be up again within hours, Nozu said. But with power lines throughout the area damaged, it was not clear whether normal operations would be restored, he said.

In Ichinoseki, lines formed outside a supermarket when it opened Friday morning. An employee with a flashlight escorted each customer around the store and jotted the price of each selected item in a pad.

Most businesses were closed in the city, 390 km northeast of Tokyo. One restaurant owner, Suzuki Koya, bought a small gas stove and made free meals in big boiling pot.

“I saw the meat at the supermarket and I thought, ‘We should do a hot pot,’” the 47-year-old said. “It’s good to keep warm in times like these.”

A police officer directs traffic as traffic lights were off due to a blackout following a big aftershock in Sendai, Japan, early Friday. The quake late Thursday rattled nerves and knocked out power in the northern part of the country. Yomiuri Shimbun/Yasushi Kanno/Associated

Several nuclear power plants briefly switched to diesel generators but were reconnected to the grid by Friday afternoon. One plant north of Sendai briefly lost the ability to cool its spent fuel pools, but quickly got it back.

At a plant in Onagawa, some radioactive water splashed out of the pools but did not leave a containment building, Tohoku Electric said. Such splash-out is “not unusual, although it is preferable that it doesn’t happen,” according to Japanese nuclear safety agency official Tomoho Yamada.

“Closer inspection could find more problems,” said agency spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama, but no radiation was released into the environment at Onagawa.

The plant began leaking oil into the ocean in the first earthquake, and the flow escaped a containment boom in Thursday’s tremor but was contained again by Friday, coast guard spokesman Hideaki Takase said.

Thursday’s quake prompted a tsunami warning of its own, but it was later cancelled. Three people were killed. A 79-year-old man died of shock and a woman in her 60s was killed when power was cut to her oxygen tank, national fire and disaster agency spokesman Junichi Sawada reported Friday. The third death was an 85-year-old man, according to a doctor at the Ishinomaki Red Cross Hospital. He declined to give his name because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

That pales in comparison to the original quake and tsunami, in which more than 25,000 people are believed to have died.

Many of those bodies have still not been found: A significant portion were likely washed out to sea and never will be, but some are buried in areas that have been largely off-limits to search teams.

As radiation spilling from the troubled Fukushima Dai-ichi plant has fallen in recent days, however, police have fanned out inside a no-go zone near the complex to dig for the dead.

On Friday, hundreds of police, many mobilized from Tokyo, used their hands or small shovels, pulling four bodies in an hour from one small area in the city of Minami Soma. The had found only five bodies the previous day.

The searchers, wearing white radiation gear and blue gloves, struggled to bring the remains across the rubble to vans and minibuses that would take them to the nearest morgue. Each body was carefully hosed off to rid it of radiation before being placed in the vehicles.

“The area is literally a mountain of debris. It is an extremely difficult task,” said an official with police in Fukushima prefecture who declined to be named because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

This aerial photo shows oil leaking over an oil-spill containment boom from the Onagawa Nuclear Power Station, in Miyagi prefecture on Friday, following Thursday's strong aftershock. Yomiuri Shimbun/Koichi Nakamura/Associated Press

The epicenter of Thursday’s temblor was in about the same location as the original 9.0-magnitude tremor, off the eastern coast and about 65 km from Sendai, an industrial city on the eastern coast, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It was strong enough to shake buildings for about a minute as far away as Tokyo, about 330 km away.

At a Toyota dealership in Sendai, most of a two-story show window was shattered, and thick shards of glass were heaped in front of the building. Police directed cars through intersections throughout the city on Friday because traffic lights were out. Small electrical fires were reported.

At the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, where nuclear workers have been toiling to plug radiation leaks and restore cooling systems ruined in the March 11 quake and tsunami, workers briefly retreated to a shelter and suffered no injuries. The plant operator said the tremor caused no new problems there.

Despite the new aftershock, automakers announced Friday that they were beginning to bounce back from the March monster. Toyota will resume car production at all its plants in Japan at half capacity from April 18 to 27.

The world’s No. 1 automaker said it remained unclear when it would return to full production in Japan.

Nissan also said it would start up domestic production at half capacity from April 11.

Operations had been halted at both companies because of part shortages.

Back to accessibility links

View the original article here

Japan: Radioactive water leak stopped

Expert talks radioactive water EffectsNEW: a top claims Japan's fishing group Tokyo Electric ignored radiation ConcernsOne leak of highly radioactive water, of no. 2 unit in the Pacific StoppedBut says one official, "we can not be optimistic just because we plug this one could" local fishermen could receive short-term payments, of long-term compensation

Tokyo (CNN) --Arbeitnehmer scored an important victory Wednesday in their struggle for the upper hand in the weeks long crisis win nuclear power at the site Fukishima Daiichi, although warned a top Japanese official that the fight near was about.

At dawn, authorities with the Tokyo electric power company noticed that water no longer operated one of the six building of reactor No. 2, in the Pacific Ocean from the turbine of the utility in the work.Gush was.

The tested 7.5 million times of the permitted radiation levels in the water on Saturday. On Tuesday, it was still 5 million copies of the standard.

A first attempt to fill concrete casting the 20 centimeters (8 inches) crack, through which this water was gushing, failed. And there was no immediate evidence to suggest that the injection Sunday titled a silica-based polymer "liquid glass" entweder-- until worked Wednesday morning.

The apparent success in plugging up the broken concrete means wave, that, as Wednesday afternoon, there was no known large radioactive emissions into air, water or soil.

Still, reporters Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano soon, that the Krise--which was marked by spills, explosions and apologies since the earthquake and tsunami from the systems used on 11 March, the cool fuel klopfte-system - not over.

"Is it completely stopped?" "There are no other areas where is released (radioactive) water?" Edano said. "We can not optimistic, be only because we could close this one."

We can not optimistic be, just because we plug this one could
-Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano

Hidehiko Nishiyama, an official with Japan's nuclear and industrial Agency, said Wednesday that authorities is aware that other problems could, especially as excess water still the No. 2 unit turbine can be building basement flooding.

"(We) are aware that water can build more leakage elsewhere lead," he said.

Meanwhile, the same official said that almost all of the approximately 10,000 tons of radioactive water from the plant waste water treatment facility in the Pacific Ocean as the clock Wednesday dumped was had.

This happened in the waste water to room building for the much more radioactive water, from in and around the No.2 unit be pumped.

Edano said that it was a trade-off, with authorities argument that as a whole was dumping water, 1 / 200, 000ths the amount of radiation, "inevitable" and a way to minimize damage to the environment.

Edano conceded that not enough good work authorities declared the plan-announced and begun Monday-a total of 11,500 tons (including some from in and around the No. 5 and 6 units) has to take in the Pacific Ocean.

Officials in nearby countries, as well as in Japan, "point out that we have not fully reported," he said on Wednesday.

"We (more information) have reported to the people, which can be affected, in particular on the neighbouring countries," Edano, said amid reports by South Korean media, officials in Seoul among were upset.

"It was a measure to prevent more serious marine contamination, but we want to explain, the better argument."

Locals were among the fishermen angered by the deliberate release of toxic substances into the sea, potentially add to a level of radiation measured several hundred - thousand times the permitted monitoring sends a few dozen meters from the nuclear facilities.

Members of the Association of fisheries of voiced their anger in a Wednesday morning meeting with Tokyo Electric officials. The fishing industry trade group officials often felt she completely ignored, after it the utility not to radioactive water in the sea-dump asked just to, hours later learn, started the process.

In addition, the Association is called Tokyo Electric Company's previous claims that nuclear power safe, and that such accidents would never happen.

The fishermen fear has intensified with the discovery, announced on Tuesday, abnormally high levels of radioactive iodine "in a sample of fresh fish." This led the Japanese authorities to regulate the radiation on seafood for the first time.

Edano acknowledged on Wednesday that could keep the fishing industry and the need for problems which affect large developments, the safety and quality of seafood.

The Japanese Government is considering "provisional compensation" give a direct boost to Fischer, before a more definitive payment plan, that can be set in the future.

Some farmers are likely to receive payments even after the introduction of the limitations of certain products and milk due to radiation safety concerns linked to the nuclear crisis.

The concerns, experts said the release of radiation in seawater-in the light of the current plan, and in particular, if there are no further will not leak of the most poisonous fabrics-likely long-term health risks to humans are still marine life. It also helps that most of the radiation detected iodine-131, is half of its radiation loses every eight days.

The dump being 11,500 tons of radioactive water about five swimming pools full, compared to "about 300 trillion swimming pools of water", which fill the Pacific Ocean, said Timothy Jorgensen safety Chairman of the Committee, radiation at the Georgetown University Medical Center.

"So hopefully that quickly churning of the ocean and the streams that will dissipate so that it gets too much you dilute concentrations relatively quickly."

After a turbulent first weeks, utility and Government officials have described conditions in the plant reactors and spent fuel pools as generally stable. Airborne radiation in the vicinity and long way off, have meanwhile steadily declined.

The existence of significant amounts of collected radioactive water around the plant, nor can it other Lecks-and other problems. And it is still a big problem is that cool to keep more workers to the nuclear fuel inject large amounts of water.

"Conservation of the cooling water is almost impossible, and creates the only exposure to radiation and contaminating more water, soil and the atmosphere," said Tesunari IIDA, a former nuclear engineer, Tuesday.

The Japanese power industry analyst said, that it is important, authorities, as soon as possible, search plug in you far beyond the latest leak, or transmit any contaminated water from one place to another. Does determine that one feasible, effective way to ensure that the nuclear fuel still on the site of Fukushima Daiichi never again is a threat.

"This type of ad-hoc solutions is soon dead end." We need more complete solutions, "a critic of the nuclear power industry said IIDA, now." "We have to think about an exit strategy-with a grave with zinc or Tin, or manure mixed with sand or any other kind of means to cool down and contain the reactors."CNN's Whitney Hurst, Matt Smith and Kyung LAH and journalist Hiroo SASO contributed to this report.

View the original article here

April 1, Google Japan 29 Doodle 4 Google Japan remember regional contest works the national spirit and the come celebrate April Fool's day

Permalink |??I could read view entire page of sorry, not the content Fromt of this page.

View the original article here