It'sJustMe
Deceased
So, do we assume that the water cannon trucks are not throwing water at the buildings now? The TV channel does not seem to be mentioning that anymore.
DISASTER Fukushima Reactor Disaster: MAIN THREAD - Five Year Anniversary
- Thread starter Red Baron
- Start date
Finally. Been watching for this for days now. So has Archetype. 
Now finally some confirmation.
"natlsecuritycnn
1. Air Force deploying Constant Phoenix radiation detecting plane to fly missions over #Japan about 1 hour ago via Twitter for BlackBerry® "
AND
From: http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/03/16/6282458-us-boosts-radiation-sniffing-system
"U.S. boosts radiation-sniffing system
Federal agencies are beefing up their radiation-monitoring capabilities at home and abroad, even as they insist that significant amounts of fallout won’t waft from Japan onto U.S. territory.
At home, the Environmental Protection Agency said it's adding seven monitors in Alaska, Hawaii and Guam to its RadNet radiation-tracking system, which operates about 100 air-sniffing stations nationwide. Putting in those extra stations "allows us to gather data from a position closer to Japan," EPA said in an online question-and-answer guide.
Looking beyond America's borders, the U.S. Air Force is sending out a high-tech aircraft to sniff the air over Japan for radiation. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration are also sending experts to Japan to help counter the growing crisis at Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant complex.
The NRC and the NNSA have teams who track how hazardous materials spread through the atmosphere, based on computer modeling and other methods. It was the NRC's revised analysis that led to today's advisory telling Americans to evacuate the area within 50 miles (80 kilometers) of the Fukushima reactors.
White House spokesman Jay Carney acknowledged that the NRC's advice goes far beyond what the Japanese government is telling its own citizens — that is, for residents to evacuate the area within a 12-mile (20-kilometer) radius of the plant, and to take shelter if they're within 19 miles (30 kilometers).
"The advice the Japanese government is giving, based on information it has, is different from the advice that we would be giving if this incident were happening in the United States of America," Carney said. "It is not about the quality of information. It is about the standards set by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission here in the United States and the kind of advice it would be giving should this incident happen in the United States."
For what it's worth, the NRC calls for protective action when projected doses exceed 10 millisieverts (1 rem) or 50 millisieverts (5 rem) to the thyroid. Radiation levels at the damaged plants rose as high as 400 millisieverts per hour.
How the calculations are made
The NRC's analysts make detailed calculations to work out what the potential radiation exposure would be at various distances.
"Usually these calculations are very specific," NRC spokeswoman Viktoria Mitlyng told me. "You have to consider the particular radioisotope, and at what concentration it's going to occur, and what distance it is going to travel, and whether it's going to travel at all toward the United States. ... The farther away you are from the radiation source, the less impact it's going to have."
Commercial sales of Geiger counters are, um, hot in the United States — but EPA's RadNet provides a much more reliable read when it comes to detecting radioactive fallout if it ever comes across the Pacific. The radiation-monitoring network not only sniffs the air, but also samples drinking water, milk and precipitation. The first elements of the system were set up back in 1959, even before the EPA was created, to monitor U.S. military nuclear testing.
You can check the EPA's archived radiation readings for your own locale by clicking through an online database, or reviewing the quarterly data journals. By the way, radiation measurements for Japan are available via this Web page.
Pentagon watches radiation, too
The Department of Defense is keeping close tabs on radiation levels in the Fukushima area and beyond — not only because it has thousands of people working on the humanitarian relief effort, but also because of the potential risk to 50,000 military personnel in Japan and the impact on military installations in the Pacific.
Air-monitoring equipment on the aircraft carrier USS George Washington detected low levels of radioactivity while the ship was in port at Yokosuka in Japan, a military spokesman said Tuesday. On another carrier, the USS Ronald Reagan, 17 helicopter crew members had to be decontaminated with a soap-and-water scrubdown after returning from search-and-rescue duty. Potassium iodide pills, which can guard against the uptake of radioactive iodine, were issued to some of those crew members, the Defense Department said.
The radioactive plume from Fukushima's reactors can't be detected by satellites in orbit, but it can be tracked by the U.S. Air Force's Constant Phoenix WC-135 jets, which are designed to monitor airborne fallout from nuclear weapons tests. Constant Phoenix came into play after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine to sample the air over the Atlantic. "Most recently, WC-135 was used to detect seismic events associated with North Korea's claim of a nuclear test in October 2006 and again in May 2009," an Air Force spokesman, Maj. Chad Steffey, told me in an e-mail.
Steffey confirmed that a Constant Phoenix WC-135 would be sent to sample the air wafting from Japan, in response to a Japanese government request. The planes would be brought from Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska. Steffey said he didn't yet have details about the timing of the operation.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior U.S. defense official told NBC News that Constant Phoenix's involvement was "absolutely" a significant event. "We are using it to help out a nation," the official said. "It's significant."..."
ETA: They're deploying to Alaska.
From: http://alert5.com/2011/03/17/pentag...se/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
"Pentagon deploys WC-135W Constant Phoenix to Eielson Air Force Base
The Pentagon said Wednesday that it has deployed a WC-135W Constant Phoenix to Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska to monitor radiation from Japan."
Now finally some confirmation.
"natlsecuritycnn
1. Air Force deploying Constant Phoenix radiation detecting plane to fly missions over #Japan about 1 hour ago via Twitter for BlackBerry® "
AND
From: http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/03/16/6282458-us-boosts-radiation-sniffing-system
"U.S. boosts radiation-sniffing system
Federal agencies are beefing up their radiation-monitoring capabilities at home and abroad, even as they insist that significant amounts of fallout won’t waft from Japan onto U.S. territory.
At home, the Environmental Protection Agency said it's adding seven monitors in Alaska, Hawaii and Guam to its RadNet radiation-tracking system, which operates about 100 air-sniffing stations nationwide. Putting in those extra stations "allows us to gather data from a position closer to Japan," EPA said in an online question-and-answer guide.
Looking beyond America's borders, the U.S. Air Force is sending out a high-tech aircraft to sniff the air over Japan for radiation. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration are also sending experts to Japan to help counter the growing crisis at Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant complex.
The NRC and the NNSA have teams who track how hazardous materials spread through the atmosphere, based on computer modeling and other methods. It was the NRC's revised analysis that led to today's advisory telling Americans to evacuate the area within 50 miles (80 kilometers) of the Fukushima reactors.
White House spokesman Jay Carney acknowledged that the NRC's advice goes far beyond what the Japanese government is telling its own citizens — that is, for residents to evacuate the area within a 12-mile (20-kilometer) radius of the plant, and to take shelter if they're within 19 miles (30 kilometers).
"The advice the Japanese government is giving, based on information it has, is different from the advice that we would be giving if this incident were happening in the United States of America," Carney said. "It is not about the quality of information. It is about the standards set by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission here in the United States and the kind of advice it would be giving should this incident happen in the United States."
For what it's worth, the NRC calls for protective action when projected doses exceed 10 millisieverts (1 rem) or 50 millisieverts (5 rem) to the thyroid. Radiation levels at the damaged plants rose as high as 400 millisieverts per hour.
How the calculations are made
The NRC's analysts make detailed calculations to work out what the potential radiation exposure would be at various distances.
"Usually these calculations are very specific," NRC spokeswoman Viktoria Mitlyng told me. "You have to consider the particular radioisotope, and at what concentration it's going to occur, and what distance it is going to travel, and whether it's going to travel at all toward the United States. ... The farther away you are from the radiation source, the less impact it's going to have."
Commercial sales of Geiger counters are, um, hot in the United States — but EPA's RadNet provides a much more reliable read when it comes to detecting radioactive fallout if it ever comes across the Pacific. The radiation-monitoring network not only sniffs the air, but also samples drinking water, milk and precipitation. The first elements of the system were set up back in 1959, even before the EPA was created, to monitor U.S. military nuclear testing.
You can check the EPA's archived radiation readings for your own locale by clicking through an online database, or reviewing the quarterly data journals. By the way, radiation measurements for Japan are available via this Web page.
Pentagon watches radiation, too
The Department of Defense is keeping close tabs on radiation levels in the Fukushima area and beyond — not only because it has thousands of people working on the humanitarian relief effort, but also because of the potential risk to 50,000 military personnel in Japan and the impact on military installations in the Pacific.
Air-monitoring equipment on the aircraft carrier USS George Washington detected low levels of radioactivity while the ship was in port at Yokosuka in Japan, a military spokesman said Tuesday. On another carrier, the USS Ronald Reagan, 17 helicopter crew members had to be decontaminated with a soap-and-water scrubdown after returning from search-and-rescue duty. Potassium iodide pills, which can guard against the uptake of radioactive iodine, were issued to some of those crew members, the Defense Department said.
The radioactive plume from Fukushima's reactors can't be detected by satellites in orbit, but it can be tracked by the U.S. Air Force's Constant Phoenix WC-135 jets, which are designed to monitor airborne fallout from nuclear weapons tests. Constant Phoenix came into play after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine to sample the air over the Atlantic. "Most recently, WC-135 was used to detect seismic events associated with North Korea's claim of a nuclear test in October 2006 and again in May 2009," an Air Force spokesman, Maj. Chad Steffey, told me in an e-mail.
Steffey confirmed that a Constant Phoenix WC-135 would be sent to sample the air wafting from Japan, in response to a Japanese government request. The planes would be brought from Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska. Steffey said he didn't yet have details about the timing of the operation.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior U.S. defense official told NBC News that Constant Phoenix's involvement was "absolutely" a significant event. "We are using it to help out a nation," the official said. "It's significant."..."
ETA: They're deploying to Alaska.
From: http://alert5.com/2011/03/17/pentag...se/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
"Pentagon deploys WC-135W Constant Phoenix to Eielson Air Force Base
The Pentagon said Wednesday that it has deployed a WC-135W Constant Phoenix to Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska to monitor radiation from Japan."
It'sJustMe
Deceased
OK, I think maybe this is why we aren't hearing about the water truckpumping. According to Kyoto, the radiation levels have not hcanged any since the drops. Fair use.
http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/03/78838.html
Radiation level unchanged despite choppers dousing reactor
TOKYO, March 17, Kyodo
The radiation level remained unchanged at the troubled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant Thursday morning even after Self-Defense Force helicopters dropped tons of water onto the hardest-hit reactor there, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said.
Two copters dumped seawater onto the No. 3 reactor four times shortly before 10 a.m., but the radiation level was unchanged past 10 a.m., the utility said.
The level around the plant's quake-proof building at which workers are standing by has risen to about 3,000 microsievert per hour, it said. The level compares to 1,000 microsievert, or 1 millisievert, to which people can be safely exposed in one year.
Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa said earlier in the day he had given the go-ahead for the helicopters to drop water as the radiation level was 4.13 millisievert per hour at an altitude of 1,000 feet and 87.7 millisievert at 300 feet.
The choppers actually did so at a height less than 300 feet, said SDF chief Ryoichi Oriki.
http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/03/78838.html
Radiation level unchanged despite choppers dousing reactor
TOKYO, March 17, Kyodo
The radiation level remained unchanged at the troubled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant Thursday morning even after Self-Defense Force helicopters dropped tons of water onto the hardest-hit reactor there, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said.
Two copters dumped seawater onto the No. 3 reactor four times shortly before 10 a.m., but the radiation level was unchanged past 10 a.m., the utility said.
The level around the plant's quake-proof building at which workers are standing by has risen to about 3,000 microsievert per hour, it said. The level compares to 1,000 microsievert, or 1 millisievert, to which people can be safely exposed in one year.
Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa said earlier in the day he had given the go-ahead for the helicopters to drop water as the radiation level was 4.13 millisievert per hour at an altitude of 1,000 feet and 87.7 millisievert at 300 feet.
The choppers actually did so at a height less than 300 feet, said SDF chief Ryoichi Oriki.
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Heliobas Disciple
TB Fanatic
Some practical things we can be doing in the meantime that won't go to waste if you don't need them.
In addition to prepping for price increases, these are items to buy that you may not be able to get at all if there is some contamination. If it gets bad, there will be a run on them - beat the crowd. Prep in advance. If you don't use dairy, fruits or veggies - don't buy these. But if you will use them anyway- why not buy ahead?
Buy extra milk. If you look at the Organic Milk in your grocery store, it's dated out for more than a month. I just bought 2 half gallons of Milk that don't expire until May (as long as they're not opened). If this gets worse tomorrow, I'll buy another 2 gallons worth. It'll only get us through May, but hopefully by then there will be clean milk around. We can go through all 3 gallons easily by May - so it's not wasted money and it won't get thrown out.
Buy extra cheese and butter and other dairy products you use (yogurt, sour cream, egg whites, egg beaters) that have a longer shelf life. Dairy will be one of the first things effected if radiation spreads.
Buy your bottled water now.
Buy frozen or canned vegetables or fruit now.
Buy frozen fruit juices now. These will keep for a long time (as long as you have clean water to use to make them).
If you can bake your own bread, or have a bread making machine, buy a few mixes. Same for pasta and rice.
Buy some meat/chicken you can freeze. Buy chop meat and break it down into smaller packages and freeze it so that you can pull some out for each meal you need.
Again, only buy what you will use. Don't buy stuff to throw out if the crisis doesn't happen - there are too many hungry people in this world for someone to be throwing food out because they panicked. DON'T WASTE FOOD. I'm just suggesting that if you are concerned, do something constructive.
HD
In addition to prepping for price increases, these are items to buy that you may not be able to get at all if there is some contamination. If it gets bad, there will be a run on them - beat the crowd. Prep in advance. If you don't use dairy, fruits or veggies - don't buy these. But if you will use them anyway- why not buy ahead?
Buy extra milk. If you look at the Organic Milk in your grocery store, it's dated out for more than a month. I just bought 2 half gallons of Milk that don't expire until May (as long as they're not opened). If this gets worse tomorrow, I'll buy another 2 gallons worth. It'll only get us through May, but hopefully by then there will be clean milk around. We can go through all 3 gallons easily by May - so it's not wasted money and it won't get thrown out.
Buy extra cheese and butter and other dairy products you use (yogurt, sour cream, egg whites, egg beaters) that have a longer shelf life. Dairy will be one of the first things effected if radiation spreads.
Buy your bottled water now.
Buy frozen or canned vegetables or fruit now.
Buy frozen fruit juices now. These will keep for a long time (as long as you have clean water to use to make them).
If you can bake your own bread, or have a bread making machine, buy a few mixes. Same for pasta and rice.
Buy some meat/chicken you can freeze. Buy chop meat and break it down into smaller packages and freeze it so that you can pull some out for each meal you need.
Again, only buy what you will use. Don't buy stuff to throw out if the crisis doesn't happen - there are too many hungry people in this world for someone to be throwing food out because they panicked. DON'T WASTE FOOD. I'm just suggesting that if you are concerned, do something constructive.
HD
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Border guard
Inactive
For those that don't trust TPTB here is some information on a rad detector - Gamma Scout http://www.gammascout.com/ I have one and it is relatively simple to use and can be connected to your PC for data downloads to graph changes in background radiation. Cost is similar to an I-Pad. Of course there is a waiting list now. - BG
Hfcomms
EN66iq
I have a gamma scout as well but this instrument is only capable of measuring very low levels of radiation so it's not a real survey instrument. When the gamma scount maxes out you don't know if your in an area that is receiving a leathal amount of radiation, enough to make you sick or just enough to make you a little worried. If your going to get a gamma scout then get a nuke alert or a calabrated CD meter and a dosimeter so you actually know how potent the radiation is that you have stumbled into.
Border guard
Inactive
Very true, but when the gamma or beta readings start rising it will be time to go. I also have a Nuke Alert and rad badges from Shane. We aren't going to have an immediate problem with the radiation from Japan but it's the concentration of radioactive elements in the food supply that will have to be monitored closely, like milk and vegetables. - BG
Trivium Pursuit
Has No Life - Lives on TB
per NHK TV, a 5.8 eq just occurred in the ocean off of Chiba province; no tsunami expected. Also, they are planning on repeating the helicopter water drop tomorrow(it's night there now).
2Trish
Veteran Member
Hi,
It may be over kill on my part but yesterday I went out back (Michigan) and put plastic bags over my yard planters that still had soil in them from last year. I also bought a couple bags of top soil and growing mix and put them in the garage for future use. I'll need the new stuff anyway and the bags would have been disposed of. So no harm no foil. Is there a way to test the soil if radiation does pass over?
It may be over kill on my part but yesterday I went out back (Michigan) and put plastic bags over my yard planters that still had soil in them from last year. I also bought a couple bags of top soil and growing mix and put them in the garage for future use. I'll need the new stuff anyway and the bags would have been disposed of. So no harm no foil. Is there a way to test the soil if radiation does pass over?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/mar/16/japan-nuclear-crisis-tsunami-aftermath-live
10.10 pm The damaged No 3 reactor remains the highest priority, because of the presence of Mox (Mixed oxide) fuel which contains highly dangerous plutonium.
12.28 am: The International Atomic Energy Agency has more bad news that temperatures within Fukushima Daiichi reactors number 4, 5 and 6 have been rising.
Until today there had been little to say about the 5 and 6 reactors, which along with reactor No 4 had been shut down at the time of the earthquake. But all three contain spent fuel.
2.14 am: So far there have been four attempts by helicopters to dump giants buckets of water on the No 3 reactor at Fukushima Daiichi, and only one has succeeded in hitting the target.
3.04 am: Mizhuo Bank says all its automated teller machines have stopped working across Japan.
11.41am: Kyodo news has more on those reports that water cannon trucks are now pumping water into the reactors.
The Japanese news agency says trucks have joined in the mission to pump water onto the no 3 reactor in a bid to replenish the spent fuel pool.
The trucks had been used to pump water in earlier today, but their use reportedly had to be suspended after the level of radiation being emitted was too high.
1.25pm: In our 12.14pm post we reported that a Tepco official said radiation levels at Fukushima Daiichi soon after 9.30 am "were at 3,750 millisieverts per hour".
This was wrong – the radiation level was actually 3,750 microsiverts per hour – equivalent to 3.75 millisieverts per hour, sincere apologies.
10.10 pm The damaged No 3 reactor remains the highest priority, because of the presence of Mox (Mixed oxide) fuel which contains highly dangerous plutonium.
12.28 am: The International Atomic Energy Agency has more bad news that temperatures within Fukushima Daiichi reactors number 4, 5 and 6 have been rising.
Until today there had been little to say about the 5 and 6 reactors, which along with reactor No 4 had been shut down at the time of the earthquake. But all three contain spent fuel.
2.14 am: So far there have been four attempts by helicopters to dump giants buckets of water on the No 3 reactor at Fukushima Daiichi, and only one has succeeded in hitting the target.
3.04 am: Mizhuo Bank says all its automated teller machines have stopped working across Japan.
11.41am: Kyodo news has more on those reports that water cannon trucks are now pumping water into the reactors.
The Japanese news agency says trucks have joined in the mission to pump water onto the no 3 reactor in a bid to replenish the spent fuel pool.
The trucks had been used to pump water in earlier today, but their use reportedly had to be suspended after the level of radiation being emitted was too high.
1.25pm: In our 12.14pm post we reported that a Tepco official said radiation levels at Fukushima Daiichi soon after 9.30 am "were at 3,750 millisieverts per hour".
This was wrong – the radiation level was actually 3,750 microsiverts per hour – equivalent to 3.75 millisieverts per hour, sincere apologies.
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rafter
Since 1999
Ditto! Bought several gallons of milk yesterday and put them in the freezer. That way we don't have to worry about them going bad. Pretty much stocked up on everything else. If I buy much more I will have to plug in our second freezer as the #1 is full.
MickeyMouse
Inactive
Really? Units 1 and 2 also contain plutonium because all reactors produce it. So is MOX all that much more dangerous? It isn't the actual fuel that is a big risk anyway; rather the fission fragments that accumulate in the fuel assemblies.
MickeyMouse
Inactive
I have multiple YEARS worth of dry powdered milk stored away. A couple years of most other things. Just packed 100 LB of rice last night - should last quite a while for one person! Will buy more frozen veggies and can some more meat.
It isn't that I am concerned about radiation coming to the US. I AM concerned about the panic buying and the insane price increases that may occurr because of all the unwarranted fear!
Jeffrey Thomason
Inactive
I expect this has been posted but is a good basic explanatory video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rijr5YvZ5o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rijr5YvZ5o
Old Gray Mare
TB Fanatic
delete
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BertaBurtonLake
Inactive
Just keep in mind that the longer it is stored, the sharper it will get. If you have a vacuum sealer, you can vacuum seal the cheese. I have done that with good results.
Take a look at this folks. We're looking at level 7x2! The radio has also been reporting there was thousands of spent rods being stored in the blow reactor buildings. In my opinion, this may end up being the worst disaster in human history.
http://www.propublica.org/article/s...-in-question-at-crippled-japanese-power-plant
http://www.propublica.org/article/s...-in-question-at-crippled-japanese-power-plant
Cascadians
Leska Emerald Adams
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12307698
1320: The head of the UN atomic energy body hopes to visit Japan's crippled plant, according to Reuters. "We wish to go to the site, but we will discuss it upon our arrival," Yukiya Amano said as he left Vienna for Tokyo.
1309: Japan's Kyodo news agency reports that 14 patients died after being evacuated from the hospital where they were being treated and transferred to shelters in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture.
1256: TepcoDisaster tweets: "Water shot from trucks effective in cooling fuel pool as steam rose at #Fukushima Daiichi No.1 Nuclear power plant."
1252: Germany's Angela Merkel says that she aims to accelerate Germany's move away from nuclear energy. "We want to reach the age of renewable energy as quickly as possible," she said, according to Reuters.
1246: Martyn Williams, Tokyo bureau chief at IDG News Service tweets: "Fairly strong earthquake off Chiba at 9:32pm, 4 on Japanese scale, magnitude 5.8 at 40kms deep off chiba coast"
1245: Steve Herman, Voice of America Bureau Chief tweets: "Got rad tested in Koriyama: My body 1500cpm, my boots 3000 cpm. Another reporter: 10,000 cpm on her shoes."
1241: Robert Conrad, who lives in Niigata, in central Japan, writes: "TV drama has now replaced the days of disaster footage on every channel. No-one is thinking of the worst-case scenario except the expats. Japan needs more access to foreign media". Have Your Say
1234: Japan will start dropping water from the air on the No 2 reactor of the damaged nuclear\rpower plant on Friday, the country's nuclear safety agency has said, Reuters reports.
1226: More from the senior official at the Japanese embassy in London. Asked why the evacuation radius imposed by the government was much lower than that recommended by UK and US officials he said: "I cannot comment on the advice of other countries, they have the right to provide travel advice to their citizens. That is something we respect," Daisuke Tsuchiya told BBC News.
1218: Darren tweets: "Got a personal call from the aus embassy asking me to leave. I am comfortable and not scared in #fukushima city."
1214: The BBC's Colette Hume, in London, says the UK Foreign Office says it cannot offer each and every British citizen a free flight out of Japan as commerical flights are still available from Tokyo airport. It says to do so would be to undercut airlines offering those flights. The FCO advice line, once again, is +44 207 008 6900.
1149: A wind-up radio and high energy sweets are just two of the items that the Japanese government recommends that all its citizens have in a grab bag.
1127: Becky, from Tokyo, writes: "I live in Tokyo and think the whole issue on radiation has been completely blown out of proportion. It is being misrepresented by the Western media and is causing nothing but worry and grief for those with family and friends in Japan." Have Your Say
1052: The BBC's diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus says that China's call for Japan to provide more information about the unfolding nuclear crisis is yet another indication of how the often reticent government in Beijing is being drawn more and more into events in its own region and beyond.
1048: Ken Mogi in Tokyo tweets: "Just in: NHK says spraying of water from ground onto reactor abandoned due to operation difficulty and high radiation"
1040: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev describes the situation at Japan's nuclear power plant as a "colossal national disaster" and catastrophe, Reuters report. He said he hopes it will not cause serious problems elsewhere.
1032: Japanese police were unable to use a water cannon to help release water on to the Fukushima nuclear power plant because of high radiation levels, the country's NHK broadcaster reports, according to AFP.
1018: Don't blame Japan for the surge in the yen argues currency strategist Sean Callow in a viewpoint feature looking at the impact of the quake on the currency markets.
1012: Japan's speaker of the upper house has suggested the country should consider closing the Tokyo stock market and foreign exchange market for a week, Kyodo news agency reports.
1001: The director of nuclear engineering at Imperial College, London, Professor Robin Grimes, says he is not convinced using helicopters is the best way to flood the plant with water: "The sea water is dispersing quite a lot as it impacts onto those reactors. Actually in some ways, that's good because you wouldn't want the full force of all that water which is, of course, many, many tonnes of water hitting in one place."
0953: Graham Chave is a New Zealander who lives in Fukushima with his wife and two sons, about 60km (40 miles) away from the plant. He says there is no rush to leave, but if the wind direction changes, he will consider leaving the area: "If a significant amount of the bad radiation comes out and looks like it's going to be coming this way then, absolutely, I'm in the car with the kids and we're out of here. At the moment radiation in Fukushima City is barely above normal limits. It's a slight increase, but nothing more."
0940: Behind Japan's escalating crisis sits a "scandal-ridden energy industry in a comfy relationship with government regulators often willing to overlook safety lapses", AP reports in a piece looking at bungling and cover-ups in Japan's nuclear industry.
0934: The Daily Yomiuri in Tokyo tweets: "The U.S. Embassy has begun offering regular civilians USG transportation to Asian safe havens. Flights start today from Narita&Haneda."
0924: TepcoDisaster tweets: "Radiation Readings starting from 20km away from #Fukushima Daiichi No.1 Nuclear power plant. http://t.co/xtrKrTe"
0921: TepcoDisaster tweets: "About to beginning fire-fighting and cooling reactors 3&4 from ground-based team at #Fukushima Daiichi No.1 Nuclear power plant."
0918: China has urged Japan to tell the world swiftly and accurately about the radiation risk from the Fukushima nuclear plant. The intervention came as Japanese military helicopters dropped tonnes of seawater on the damaged reactors, trying to reduce the critical temperatures which could lead to massive leaks of radiation.
0841: Japanese government spokesman Yukio Edano has denied the authorities are withholding information on the situation around the nuclear facilities: "The information that we're collecting on the Japanese side, we naturally pass to authorities in the United States. But there is a time delay in delivering this information. This was especially the case with information regarding reactor No.4. However, we have heard that the situation in the cooling pool of reactor No.3 is more of a priority, and so we are dropping water on that first. We are also concentrating on the situation in the cooling pool of reactor No.4, but we still haven't come to a firm conclusion about its situation."
0825: Low concentrations of radioactive particles are heading eastwards from Fukushima towards North America, a Swedish official is quoted as saying by Reuters. Lars-Erik De Geer, research director at the Swedish Defence Research Institute, a government agency, was citing data from a network of international monitoring stations, but stressed the levels were not dangerous for people.
0740: A reminder that the British government is advising people against all non-essential travel to Tokyo and north-eastern Japan, and says those in Tokyo and to the north of Tokyo should consider leaving. If they can't get a seat on a commercial flight, they can register their interest in taking a flight chartered by the Foreign Office to take them to Hong Kong.
0735: Mark MacKinnon from The Globe and Mail newspaper tweets: "Just got a call from the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo. They agree with US call for 80-km exclusion zone around Fukushima reactors."
0730: More on China's nuclear plans: It has the world's most ambitious nuclear power programme, and intends to build more than 100 new reactors over the next few years. It is building 27 new reactors - nearly half of those currently under construction across the world. It is trying to reduce its reliance on coal, which at the moment supplies about three-quarters of its energy needs.
0726: The New York Times has an interactive graphic forecasting the plant's plume path, which shows how weather patterns might disperse radiation from Fukushima over the week.
0721: And the Chinese government has urged Japan to tell the world in an "accurate and swift way" about any developments concerning radiation risks from its endangered nuclear power plant, a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman has said, according to Reuters.
0717: China has temporarily suspended approval for new nuclear power stations following the accident at Fukushima. Officials have also ordered inspections at all the country's existing nuclear power stations - and those currently being built. China says nuclear safety standards need revising before any new power plants in the country are approved. This is perhaps the clearest signal yet that the problems at Japan's nuclear power plant will affect the industry across the world, says the BBC's Michael Bristow in Beijing.
0641: The number of partially or completely destroyed buildings has reached more than 100,000, according to the country's fire and disaster management agency.
0558: Japanese government spokesman Yukio Edano says there was a "slight delay" in passing information to the US about the damaged reactors - Kyodo. ''There was a slight delay conveying to the US side the information about whether or not there is water [in the pool holding spent fuel rods]," he tells reporters. His comments come in response to a senior US nuclear official's remark that there was not much water in the pool.
0554: A reminder that riot police are due to be deployed at the nuclear plant today to try to replenish Reactor 4's storage pool using water cannon.
1320: The head of the UN atomic energy body hopes to visit Japan's crippled plant, according to Reuters. "We wish to go to the site, but we will discuss it upon our arrival," Yukiya Amano said as he left Vienna for Tokyo.
1309: Japan's Kyodo news agency reports that 14 patients died after being evacuated from the hospital where they were being treated and transferred to shelters in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture.
1256: TepcoDisaster tweets: "Water shot from trucks effective in cooling fuel pool as steam rose at #Fukushima Daiichi No.1 Nuclear power plant."
1252: Germany's Angela Merkel says that she aims to accelerate Germany's move away from nuclear energy. "We want to reach the age of renewable energy as quickly as possible," she said, according to Reuters.
1246: Martyn Williams, Tokyo bureau chief at IDG News Service tweets: "Fairly strong earthquake off Chiba at 9:32pm, 4 on Japanese scale, magnitude 5.8 at 40kms deep off chiba coast"
1245: Steve Herman, Voice of America Bureau Chief tweets: "Got rad tested in Koriyama: My body 1500cpm, my boots 3000 cpm. Another reporter: 10,000 cpm on her shoes."
1241: Robert Conrad, who lives in Niigata, in central Japan, writes: "TV drama has now replaced the days of disaster footage on every channel. No-one is thinking of the worst-case scenario except the expats. Japan needs more access to foreign media". Have Your Say
1234: Japan will start dropping water from the air on the No 2 reactor of the damaged nuclear\rpower plant on Friday, the country's nuclear safety agency has said, Reuters reports.
1226: More from the senior official at the Japanese embassy in London. Asked why the evacuation radius imposed by the government was much lower than that recommended by UK and US officials he said: "I cannot comment on the advice of other countries, they have the right to provide travel advice to their citizens. That is something we respect," Daisuke Tsuchiya told BBC News.
1218: Darren tweets: "Got a personal call from the aus embassy asking me to leave. I am comfortable and not scared in #fukushima city."
1214: The BBC's Colette Hume, in London, says the UK Foreign Office says it cannot offer each and every British citizen a free flight out of Japan as commerical flights are still available from Tokyo airport. It says to do so would be to undercut airlines offering those flights. The FCO advice line, once again, is +44 207 008 6900.
1149: A wind-up radio and high energy sweets are just two of the items that the Japanese government recommends that all its citizens have in a grab bag.
1127: Becky, from Tokyo, writes: "I live in Tokyo and think the whole issue on radiation has been completely blown out of proportion. It is being misrepresented by the Western media and is causing nothing but worry and grief for those with family and friends in Japan." Have Your Say
1052: The BBC's diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus says that China's call for Japan to provide more information about the unfolding nuclear crisis is yet another indication of how the often reticent government in Beijing is being drawn more and more into events in its own region and beyond.
1048: Ken Mogi in Tokyo tweets: "Just in: NHK says spraying of water from ground onto reactor abandoned due to operation difficulty and high radiation"
1040: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev describes the situation at Japan's nuclear power plant as a "colossal national disaster" and catastrophe, Reuters report. He said he hopes it will not cause serious problems elsewhere.
1032: Japanese police were unable to use a water cannon to help release water on to the Fukushima nuclear power plant because of high radiation levels, the country's NHK broadcaster reports, according to AFP.
1018: Don't blame Japan for the surge in the yen argues currency strategist Sean Callow in a viewpoint feature looking at the impact of the quake on the currency markets.
1012: Japan's speaker of the upper house has suggested the country should consider closing the Tokyo stock market and foreign exchange market for a week, Kyodo news agency reports.
1001: The director of nuclear engineering at Imperial College, London, Professor Robin Grimes, says he is not convinced using helicopters is the best way to flood the plant with water: "The sea water is dispersing quite a lot as it impacts onto those reactors. Actually in some ways, that's good because you wouldn't want the full force of all that water which is, of course, many, many tonnes of water hitting in one place."
0953: Graham Chave is a New Zealander who lives in Fukushima with his wife and two sons, about 60km (40 miles) away from the plant. He says there is no rush to leave, but if the wind direction changes, he will consider leaving the area: "If a significant amount of the bad radiation comes out and looks like it's going to be coming this way then, absolutely, I'm in the car with the kids and we're out of here. At the moment radiation in Fukushima City is barely above normal limits. It's a slight increase, but nothing more."
0940: Behind Japan's escalating crisis sits a "scandal-ridden energy industry in a comfy relationship with government regulators often willing to overlook safety lapses", AP reports in a piece looking at bungling and cover-ups in Japan's nuclear industry.
0934: The Daily Yomiuri in Tokyo tweets: "The U.S. Embassy has begun offering regular civilians USG transportation to Asian safe havens. Flights start today from Narita&Haneda."
0924: TepcoDisaster tweets: "Radiation Readings starting from 20km away from #Fukushima Daiichi No.1 Nuclear power plant. http://t.co/xtrKrTe"
0921: TepcoDisaster tweets: "About to beginning fire-fighting and cooling reactors 3&4 from ground-based team at #Fukushima Daiichi No.1 Nuclear power plant."
0918: China has urged Japan to tell the world swiftly and accurately about the radiation risk from the Fukushima nuclear plant. The intervention came as Japanese military helicopters dropped tonnes of seawater on the damaged reactors, trying to reduce the critical temperatures which could lead to massive leaks of radiation.
0841: Japanese government spokesman Yukio Edano has denied the authorities are withholding information on the situation around the nuclear facilities: "The information that we're collecting on the Japanese side, we naturally pass to authorities in the United States. But there is a time delay in delivering this information. This was especially the case with information regarding reactor No.4. However, we have heard that the situation in the cooling pool of reactor No.3 is more of a priority, and so we are dropping water on that first. We are also concentrating on the situation in the cooling pool of reactor No.4, but we still haven't come to a firm conclusion about its situation."
0825: Low concentrations of radioactive particles are heading eastwards from Fukushima towards North America, a Swedish official is quoted as saying by Reuters. Lars-Erik De Geer, research director at the Swedish Defence Research Institute, a government agency, was citing data from a network of international monitoring stations, but stressed the levels were not dangerous for people.
0740: A reminder that the British government is advising people against all non-essential travel to Tokyo and north-eastern Japan, and says those in Tokyo and to the north of Tokyo should consider leaving. If they can't get a seat on a commercial flight, they can register their interest in taking a flight chartered by the Foreign Office to take them to Hong Kong.
0735: Mark MacKinnon from The Globe and Mail newspaper tweets: "Just got a call from the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo. They agree with US call for 80-km exclusion zone around Fukushima reactors."
0730: More on China's nuclear plans: It has the world's most ambitious nuclear power programme, and intends to build more than 100 new reactors over the next few years. It is building 27 new reactors - nearly half of those currently under construction across the world. It is trying to reduce its reliance on coal, which at the moment supplies about three-quarters of its energy needs.
0726: The New York Times has an interactive graphic forecasting the plant's plume path, which shows how weather patterns might disperse radiation from Fukushima over the week.
0721: And the Chinese government has urged Japan to tell the world in an "accurate and swift way" about any developments concerning radiation risks from its endangered nuclear power plant, a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman has said, according to Reuters.
0717: China has temporarily suspended approval for new nuclear power stations following the accident at Fukushima. Officials have also ordered inspections at all the country's existing nuclear power stations - and those currently being built. China says nuclear safety standards need revising before any new power plants in the country are approved. This is perhaps the clearest signal yet that the problems at Japan's nuclear power plant will affect the industry across the world, says the BBC's Michael Bristow in Beijing.
0641: The number of partially or completely destroyed buildings has reached more than 100,000, according to the country's fire and disaster management agency.
0558: Japanese government spokesman Yukio Edano says there was a "slight delay" in passing information to the US about the damaged reactors - Kyodo. ''There was a slight delay conveying to the US side the information about whether or not there is water [in the pool holding spent fuel rods]," he tells reporters. His comments come in response to a senior US nuclear official's remark that there was not much water in the pool.
0554: A reminder that riot police are due to be deployed at the nuclear plant today to try to replenish Reactor 4's storage pool using water cannon.
Okay, I gotta say this: SOME of you, particularly the folks in the heartland and eastern US, are, IMO, way overreacting. the likelihood of any meaningful radiation levels reaching you is pretty much flat-out zero. Now on the west coast, particularly in Alaska, Washington and Oregon, have more to be concerned about. As for the rest of us though, I think we're going to be okay.
Con-tractor
The Mad in Genius
1.25pm: In our 12.14pm post we reported that a Tepco official said radiation levels at Fukushima Daiichi soon after 9.30 am "were at 3,750 millisieverts per hour".
This was wrong – the radiation level was actually 3,750 microsiverts per hour – equivalent to 3.75 millisieverts per hour, sincere apologies.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/mar/17/japan-nuclear-crisis-tsunami-aftermath
This was wrong – the radiation level was actually 3,750 microsiverts per hour – equivalent to 3.75 millisieverts per hour, sincere apologies.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/mar/17/japan-nuclear-crisis-tsunami-aftermath
Cascadians
Leska Emerald Adams
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/mar/17/japan-nuclear-crisis-tsunami-aftermath
1.38pm: The Japan Atomic Industrial Forum is posting regular updates on the state of the reactors at Fukushima Daiich, my colleague Simon Rogers says, as well as information on the success of the operations to pump more water into those that are stricken.
"Water level is low at the spent fuel pools of unit-3," Jaif said. Considering possibility of damage to fuel rods in the pool outside the containment vessel, operation for filling the pool with water were conducted three times.
• 1st operation
Japan Self-Defense Forces dropped 4 huge buckets of seawater from helicopters in this morning. Lead plates were installed at the bottom of the helicopters to shield radiation and crew members wore radiation protection suits.
• 2nd operation
The National Police Agency tried to pour water from the ground with pumper truck in the evening. However, they were not able to come close because of high radiation and water did not reach the pool.
• 3rd operation
Japan Self-Defense Forces poured 30 tons of water from the ground with 5 special pumper trucks from 19:45 to 20:09. Because these trucks are special, they were able to do this operation without getting off the trucks. Effect of this operation is under evaluation.
1.38pm: The Japan Atomic Industrial Forum is posting regular updates on the state of the reactors at Fukushima Daiich, my colleague Simon Rogers says, as well as information on the success of the operations to pump more water into those that are stricken.
"Water level is low at the spent fuel pools of unit-3," Jaif said. Considering possibility of damage to fuel rods in the pool outside the containment vessel, operation for filling the pool with water were conducted three times.
• 1st operation
Japan Self-Defense Forces dropped 4 huge buckets of seawater from helicopters in this morning. Lead plates were installed at the bottom of the helicopters to shield radiation and crew members wore radiation protection suits.
• 2nd operation
The National Police Agency tried to pour water from the ground with pumper truck in the evening. However, they were not able to come close because of high radiation and water did not reach the pool.
• 3rd operation
Japan Self-Defense Forces poured 30 tons of water from the ground with 5 special pumper trucks from 19:45 to 20:09. Because these trucks are special, they were able to do this operation without getting off the trucks. Effect of this operation is under evaluation.
D
Dazed
Guest
How's that crow taste, Dennis? Same as mine, I think....
We were both wrong here.
Cascadians
Leska Emerald Adams
Google News "nuclear" -- overwhelming # of new articles -- just hit mass consciousness radar in media
Cascadians
Leska Emerald Adams
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/17/japan-nuclear-crisis-fukushima-seawater-reactors
Thursday 17 March 2011 14.04 GMT, by Justin McCurry in Osaka
Japan nuclear reactor water-bombing has little effect
Radiation levels rising rather than falling after No 3 reactor doused with hoses, while helicopters appear to miss their target
Attempts to cool down a stricken reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan have suffered a further setback with radiation levels rising rather than falling after attempts to douse it with high-pressure hoses.
Six fire engines and a police water cannon were sent in on Thursday evening to spray the plant's No 3 reactor. But afterwards radiation emissions rose from 3,700 microsieverts per hour to 4,000 per hour, the Kyodo news agency quoted Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) as saying.
An earlier attempt in which military helicopters dropped thousands of litres of water on the plant also appeared to have failed.
As part of the desperate new tactics to avert nuclear meltdown, Chinook helicopters targeted the No 3 reactor's spent fuel rod pool, which is overheating and at risk of releasing dangerous radioactive steam.
Two helicopters flying at less than 300 feet dumped four loads of water. Footage suggested much of it missed the target.
Emergency crews and the military are trying to cool the reactor and replenish a pool containing spent fuel rods. Tepco has been unable to take precise measurements but the pool at No 3 is feared to be almost empty, raising the risk that the rods will overheat and melt, releasing dangerous levels of radiation.
Steam believed to have been caused by water boiling in the pool has been seen rising from it since Wednesday.
Officials are also worried that the No 4 reactor's spent fuel pool might be running low.
'"The highest priority now is to pour adequate water onto the No 3 and No 4 reactors, especially in their spent fuel pools,'' said Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for the government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency who was quoted by the Kyodo agency.
Gregory Jackzo, the chairman of the US nuclear regulatory commission, has told a congressional hearing in Washington that the storage pool at No 4 was in danger of giving off more radioactive material.
Hikaru Kuroda, a Tepco official, said: "We are afraid that the water level at [the No 4 reactor] is the lowest. Because we cannot get near it, the only way to monitor the situation is visually from far away."
Tepco said a military helicopter crew had seen some water in the No 4 pool but this could not be confirmed.
Hydrogen explosions on Monday and Tuesday blew the roofs off the No 3 and No 4 reactors, removing the last line of defence against radiation leaks.
Tepco has said it is attempting to open a temporary power line to the plant so it can pump water directly into the storage pools and reactor cores.
Japan's nuclear safety agency has said it hopes the power supply will be partially operational within hours.
"Once we establish the temporary power supply we will be able to pump seawater into the reactors," a Tepco spokesman said.
"We believe the operation will help cool down the fuel pools," the defence minister, Toshimi Kitazawa, told reporters.
Each helicopter can carry 7.5 tonnes of water per load but the pools each hold 2,000 tonnes, an expert has told public broadcaster NHK.
"It will be possible as long as the rods are fully submerged. That means the storage pool would need to be about a third full. But the dousing has to be done repeatedly."
About 70,000 people have been evacuated from a 12-mile (20km) radius around Fukushima Daiichi. Another 140,000 living outside 12 miles but within 18 miles (30km) have been told to stay indoors.
Japan's cabinet spokesman, Yukio Edano, said there was no need to widen the exclusion zone but signs were emerging that other countries were taking a more cautious approach.
The worsening situation prompted the US to ask citizens living within 80km to evacuate.
''We are recommending, as a precaution, that American citizens who live within 50 miles of the Fukushima nuclear power plant evacuate the area or to take shelter indoors if safe evacuation is not practical,'' the US embassy said in a statement.
The British embassy has since issued similar advice and asked citizens living in Tokyo and northern Japan to consider leaving.
Elevated but not hazardous levels of radiation have been detected well outside the Fukushima evacuation zone. In Ibaraki prefecture to the south, officials said radiation levels were about 300 times normal levels by late Wednesday morning.
It would take three years of constant exposure to these higher levels to raise a person's risk of cancer.
Thursday 17 March 2011 14.04 GMT, by Justin McCurry in Osaka
Japan nuclear reactor water-bombing has little effect
Radiation levels rising rather than falling after No 3 reactor doused with hoses, while helicopters appear to miss their target
Attempts to cool down a stricken reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan have suffered a further setback with radiation levels rising rather than falling after attempts to douse it with high-pressure hoses.
Six fire engines and a police water cannon were sent in on Thursday evening to spray the plant's No 3 reactor. But afterwards radiation emissions rose from 3,700 microsieverts per hour to 4,000 per hour, the Kyodo news agency quoted Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) as saying.
An earlier attempt in which military helicopters dropped thousands of litres of water on the plant also appeared to have failed.
As part of the desperate new tactics to avert nuclear meltdown, Chinook helicopters targeted the No 3 reactor's spent fuel rod pool, which is overheating and at risk of releasing dangerous radioactive steam.
Two helicopters flying at less than 300 feet dumped four loads of water. Footage suggested much of it missed the target.
Emergency crews and the military are trying to cool the reactor and replenish a pool containing spent fuel rods. Tepco has been unable to take precise measurements but the pool at No 3 is feared to be almost empty, raising the risk that the rods will overheat and melt, releasing dangerous levels of radiation.
Steam believed to have been caused by water boiling in the pool has been seen rising from it since Wednesday.
Officials are also worried that the No 4 reactor's spent fuel pool might be running low.
'"The highest priority now is to pour adequate water onto the No 3 and No 4 reactors, especially in their spent fuel pools,'' said Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for the government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency who was quoted by the Kyodo agency.
Gregory Jackzo, the chairman of the US nuclear regulatory commission, has told a congressional hearing in Washington that the storage pool at No 4 was in danger of giving off more radioactive material.
Hikaru Kuroda, a Tepco official, said: "We are afraid that the water level at [the No 4 reactor] is the lowest. Because we cannot get near it, the only way to monitor the situation is visually from far away."
Tepco said a military helicopter crew had seen some water in the No 4 pool but this could not be confirmed.
Hydrogen explosions on Monday and Tuesday blew the roofs off the No 3 and No 4 reactors, removing the last line of defence against radiation leaks.
Tepco has said it is attempting to open a temporary power line to the plant so it can pump water directly into the storage pools and reactor cores.
Japan's nuclear safety agency has said it hopes the power supply will be partially operational within hours.
"Once we establish the temporary power supply we will be able to pump seawater into the reactors," a Tepco spokesman said.
"We believe the operation will help cool down the fuel pools," the defence minister, Toshimi Kitazawa, told reporters.
Each helicopter can carry 7.5 tonnes of water per load but the pools each hold 2,000 tonnes, an expert has told public broadcaster NHK.
"It will be possible as long as the rods are fully submerged. That means the storage pool would need to be about a third full. But the dousing has to be done repeatedly."
About 70,000 people have been evacuated from a 12-mile (20km) radius around Fukushima Daiichi. Another 140,000 living outside 12 miles but within 18 miles (30km) have been told to stay indoors.
Japan's cabinet spokesman, Yukio Edano, said there was no need to widen the exclusion zone but signs were emerging that other countries were taking a more cautious approach.
The worsening situation prompted the US to ask citizens living within 80km to evacuate.
''We are recommending, as a precaution, that American citizens who live within 50 miles of the Fukushima nuclear power plant evacuate the area or to take shelter indoors if safe evacuation is not practical,'' the US embassy said in a statement.
The British embassy has since issued similar advice and asked citizens living in Tokyo and northern Japan to consider leaving.
Elevated but not hazardous levels of radiation have been detected well outside the Fukushima evacuation zone. In Ibaraki prefecture to the south, officials said radiation levels were about 300 times normal levels by late Wednesday morning.
It would take three years of constant exposure to these higher levels to raise a person's risk of cancer.
MickeyMouse
Inactive
Friggin reporters..............
I wondered when the report came out at the higher amount, 1000 times higher, if it was in error, the fuel pools had gone bone dry or the "information management" had collapsed.
I still wonder. While 3750 Milli was HUGE, 3750 micro is awfully low for all that has taken place. I would REALLY like to have accurate figures.
You better put down your NCAA grid too!
It' already a global disaster with two! If they don't get the generators fired back up today, the other two could also blow. There sure is alot of farm land world wide that will have radiation dust coming down on it. Look at all the contaminated food, and meat that people will eat and die. Are you still sure you feel this way?
Cascadians
Leska Emerald Adams
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/sp...ot-afraid-to-die/story-fn7zkbgs-1226023576121
Janet Fife-Yeomans From: Herald Sun March 18, 2011 12:00AM
Japan nuclear crisis: Atomic samurai not afraid to die
THEY are being hailed as the modern-day samurai - the 180 brave men who stayed behind to fight the crisis at Fukushima nuclear power plant knowing it was very likely they had volunteered for a suicide mission.
It is virtually impossible to talk to the workers by phone. But the message came out from one that he was "not afraid to die" - that was his job.
The families of these brave men may never see them again, but they are proud of their sacrifice.
A 27-year-old woman, whose Twitter name is @NamicoAoto, tweeted that her father had volunteered for Fukushima duty.
"I heard that he volunteered even though he will be retiring in just half a year and my eyes are filling up with tears," she said.
"At home, he doesn't seem like someone who could handle big jobs. But today, I was really proud of him. I pray for his safe return."
Another loved one says in an email: "My father is still working at the plant. He says he's accepted his fate, much like a death sentence."
Prime Minister Naota Kan told the volunteers: "You are the only ones who can resolve a crisis. Retreat is unthinkable."
In shifts of 50, they are working in total darkness using flashlights or helmets with lamps on them.
Wearing head-to-toe protective gear and breathing through oxygen tanks as radiation reaches potentially lethal levels and temperatures soar, they crawl through dark mazes of pipes to make an adjustment on a valve, to read a gauge.
Nuclear experts say the skeleton crew is most likely not made up of managers but technicians, including firefighters, who know the plant inside out.
They are more likely to be skilled older men than fit young ones because they have already had children and even if they are exposed to massive amounts of radiation their cancers are unlikely to develop to a fatal stage in their lifetime.
The volunteers are being rotated in and out of the danger zone, often for only 10 or 15 minutes at a time, to limit their exposure.
Health Minister Yoko Komiyama raised the limit on the amount of radiation to which each worker can lawfully be exposed from 100 millisieverts to 250.
The average annual exposure for nuclear power plant workers is 20 millisieverts and most don't absorb more than one millisievert in a year.
Keiichi Nakagawa, associate professor of the Department of Radiology at the University of Tokyo Hospital, said: "I don't know any other way to say it, but this is like suicide fighters in a war."
Two workers are missing after the four explosions and fires at the plant since Friday.
One worker who was opening a valve to let out a build-up of steam was taken to hospital complaining of nausea and exhaustion after being exposed to 10 minutes of radiation.
Another 23 have been injured and 19, plus an unknown number of firemen, have been exposed to lower levels of radiation.
Plant operator the Tokyo Electric Power Company has said almost nothing about the workers, who remain anonymous, but made it clear they are racing against time to prevent a "critical meltdown".
A team of 34 US atomic experts is also now on the ground in Japan, equipped with ground and aerial hardware to monitor the radiation leaks.
American ambassador John Roos denied their presence shows a lack of trust in Japan's handling of the crisis.
Janet Fife-Yeomans From: Herald Sun March 18, 2011 12:00AM
Japan nuclear crisis: Atomic samurai not afraid to die
THEY are being hailed as the modern-day samurai - the 180 brave men who stayed behind to fight the crisis at Fukushima nuclear power plant knowing it was very likely they had volunteered for a suicide mission.
It is virtually impossible to talk to the workers by phone. But the message came out from one that he was "not afraid to die" - that was his job.
The families of these brave men may never see them again, but they are proud of their sacrifice.
A 27-year-old woman, whose Twitter name is @NamicoAoto, tweeted that her father had volunteered for Fukushima duty.
"I heard that he volunteered even though he will be retiring in just half a year and my eyes are filling up with tears," she said.
"At home, he doesn't seem like someone who could handle big jobs. But today, I was really proud of him. I pray for his safe return."
Another loved one says in an email: "My father is still working at the plant. He says he's accepted his fate, much like a death sentence."
Prime Minister Naota Kan told the volunteers: "You are the only ones who can resolve a crisis. Retreat is unthinkable."
In shifts of 50, they are working in total darkness using flashlights or helmets with lamps on them.
Wearing head-to-toe protective gear and breathing through oxygen tanks as radiation reaches potentially lethal levels and temperatures soar, they crawl through dark mazes of pipes to make an adjustment on a valve, to read a gauge.
Nuclear experts say the skeleton crew is most likely not made up of managers but technicians, including firefighters, who know the plant inside out.
They are more likely to be skilled older men than fit young ones because they have already had children and even if they are exposed to massive amounts of radiation their cancers are unlikely to develop to a fatal stage in their lifetime.
The volunteers are being rotated in and out of the danger zone, often for only 10 or 15 minutes at a time, to limit their exposure.
Health Minister Yoko Komiyama raised the limit on the amount of radiation to which each worker can lawfully be exposed from 100 millisieverts to 250.
The average annual exposure for nuclear power plant workers is 20 millisieverts and most don't absorb more than one millisievert in a year.
Keiichi Nakagawa, associate professor of the Department of Radiology at the University of Tokyo Hospital, said: "I don't know any other way to say it, but this is like suicide fighters in a war."
Two workers are missing after the four explosions and fires at the plant since Friday.
One worker who was opening a valve to let out a build-up of steam was taken to hospital complaining of nausea and exhaustion after being exposed to 10 minutes of radiation.
Another 23 have been injured and 19, plus an unknown number of firemen, have been exposed to lower levels of radiation.
Plant operator the Tokyo Electric Power Company has said almost nothing about the workers, who remain anonymous, but made it clear they are racing against time to prevent a "critical meltdown".
A team of 34 US atomic experts is also now on the ground in Japan, equipped with ground and aerial hardware to monitor the radiation leaks.
American ambassador John Roos denied their presence shows a lack of trust in Japan's handling of the crisis.
D
Dazed
Guest
Jeffrey Thomason
Inactive
Rex Jackson
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Thats like bringing a BB gun to a battle field.
willowlady
Veteran Member
Come on, people. I lived in the PNW when the Russkies were testing back in the 50's and 60's. Some of those bombs put TONS of radioactive material into the air. We had fallout alerts on the news, then. I'm 63 yrs old now. Do you want to live forever? The problems at the Japanese nuke plants, while horrible, are localized. The stuff isn't going high into the air. That said: Did the reactors that blew their tops also blow spent rods off their tops? THAT might increase my pucker factor!
Rex Jackson
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Heroes....
They deserve to be enshrined at Yasukuni....
That is a FOOLISH WATSE of good men and a GREAT EXAMPLE of LEADERSHIP BEING LIED TO. Its obvious the leaders were lied to by those reponsible for placing the reactors close together, and placing them in a very very bad spot. They were also lied to regarding the dangers following this disaster. Those advisers should be held accountable, even if they were American.
I have seen people praise the Japanese's handling of this disaster but all I see are lies, delays, and silent wispers instead of warning sirens.
ON DAY ONE I would have evacuated everyone from the entire region.
wow this pisses me off.
Border guard
Inactive
Rex Jackson
Has No Life - Lives on TB
This will destroy Japan. That is my only concern at this time. Toyota, Honda, Nissan, etc., probably done. Their stock markets, done. Banks, done. Wait till the other 2-6 blow. Every time the wind blows South they will need to evacuate Tokyo? Never happen. Before they even get a chance to bury the reactors in rocks, sand and cement, another EQ/Tsunami will probably hit. They need prayers for a long time.
Cascadians
Leska Emerald Adams
Cooling pool for spent fuel rods has 'boiled dry at reactor number four
Cooling pool for spent fuel rods has 'boiled dry at reactor number four
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-UN-predicts-nuclear-plume-hit-US-Friday.html
12:23 PM on 17th March 2011
UN predicts nuclear plume could hit U.S. by FRIDAY as Obama finally falls in line with the rest of the world and starts evacuating American citizens from Japan
French minister: 'Let's not beat about the bush, they've essentially lost control'
Cooling pool for spent fuel rods has 'boiled dry at reactor number four
Japanese have 48 hours to avoid 'another Chernobyl'
Radioactive steam spews into atmosphere from reactor number three
Experts warn that crisis is 'approaching point of no return' as officials run out of options
Officials commandeer police water cannon to spray complex
Attempts to dump water on reactors by helicopter fail
The United Nations has predicted that a nuclear plume from a crisis-hit reactor in Japan could drift across the Pacific and over the U.S. by Friday.
The chilling forecast came as the United States began evacuating Americans out of
Japan amid escalating fears that the quake-ravaged country is facing disaster.
Terrified passengers are packing Tokyo airport after scores of other governments advised their citizens to flee - as Japanese military helicopters today dropped sea water on the over-heating reactors in a last-ditch attempt to avoid a catastrophic meltdown.
Radiation from the toxic plume spewing from the reactor is set to hit California and the West Coast on Friday, according to the UN's Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organisation. It predicts the plume will head into Southern California and further into Nevada, Utah and Arizona.
While the organisation did not give any further details on the level of radiation to hit the U.S., health officials emphasised that - as with the Chernobyl disaster 26 years ago - most radiation in the atmosphere is set to dissipate throughout its journey over the Pacific.
On Sunday, the U.S. Nuclear Regulator Commission said it expected no harmful levels of radiation would reach the U.S. from Japan given the thousands of miles between the two countries.
The UN's projection, which was calculated according to wind patterns on Tuesday, was first reported by the New York Times.
The data assumes that radiation is spewing from the crippled nuclear reactor at a continuous rate and forms a rising plume, amid heightened suspicion that the crisis at the plant – already ranked the second-worst nuclear disaster after Chernobyl – is worse than the Japanese authorities have publicly let on.
Two CH-47 Chinook helicopters began dumping seawater on the damaged reactor of Unit 3 at the Fukushima complex at 9.48am local time this morning as Defence Minister Toshifumi Kitazawa told reporters that emergency workers had no choice but to try the water dumps before it was too late.
The aircraft dumped at least four loads of at least 2,000 gallons each, on the reactor, though much of the water appeared to be dispersed in the air.
The dumping was intended both to help cool the reactor and to replenish water in a pool holding spent fuel rods. The plant's owner, Tokyo Electric Power Co., said earlier that the pool was nearly empty, which might cause the rods to overheat.
American officials have also said that they believe the fuel holding pools at reactor three and four are empty of water after boiling dry.
Even when removed from reactors, uranium rods are still extremely hot and must be cooled for months, possibly longer, to prevent them from heating up again and emitting radioactivity.
Emergency workers are struggling to keep a constant supply of water pumping into the holding pools and officials last night admitted that much of the monitoring equipment in the plant was broken and it was impossible to monitor the situation.
'We haven't been able to get any of the latest data at any spent fuel pools. We don't have latest water levels, temperatures, none of the latest information,' an official said. There are also frantic efforts to restore power to the coolant pumping system that was knocked out by the tsunami on Friday.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said that along with the helicopter water drops, special police units would use water cannons - normally used to quell rioters - to spray water onto the Unit 4 storage pool. The high-pressure water cannons will allow emergency workers to stay farther away.
One French expert warned that the plant is just hours away from disaster. Thierry Charles of the Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety told the Telegraph: 'The next 48 hours will be decisive. I am pessimistic because, since Sunday, I have seen that almost none of the solutions has worked.'
It followed the alarm from the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organisation, which does radiation projections as a matter of routine in an attempt to predict which of its stations scattered around the globe need to be activated as it monitors a global ban on nuclear arms testing.
Its 60 stations test the air for radiation, and use computer models and weather forecasts to model how that radiation could be transported by wind.
'It’s simply an indication,' Lassina Zerbo, head of the agency’s International Data Center, told the newspaper.
'We have global coverage. So when something happens, it’s important for us to know which station can pick up the event.'
Early this morning the Obama administration fell in line with the rest of the world and began evacuating citizens from Tokyo in defiance of Japanese assurances that the capital is not yet in danger.
Mr Obama had promised to support Japan in its efforts to contain the crisis. But as a desperate last-ditch attempt to prevent total nuclear meltdown began last night, the President finally made a tough decision.
Gregory Jaczko did not say how the information was obtained, but the NRC and U.S. department of energy both have experts on site at the Fukushima complex of six reactors.
'We believe that around the reactor site there are high levels of radiation,' he said. 'It would be very difficult for emergency workers to get near the reactors. The doses they could experience would potentially be lethal doses in a very short period of time.'
Frantic attempts to cool down the reactors at the Fukushima plant following Friday's earthquake and tsunami had to be suspended after high radiation levels were recorded. Technicians later returned, but it was another setback in Japanese efforts to avoid a nuclear catastrophe.
40 YEARS OF DOUBT ON DESIGN OF FUKUSHIMA POWER PLANT
The design of the reactors at the stricken Fukushima power plant has been called into question for almost 40 years.
As far back as 1972, experts said the Mark 1 should be discontinued because its containment vessel was not as robust as alternatives.
One report said such reactors had a 90 per cent probability of bursting should the fuel rods overheat and melt in an accident.
A clutch of engineers also resigned their posts rather than carry on with a project they deemed to be unsafe.
In a nuclear reactor the containment vessel is considered the last line of defence to stop a meltdown.
It is usually a steel and cement ‘tomb’ and is designed to stop the melting fuel rods sending lethal radiation into the atmosphere.
The cheaper Mark 1s, however, are less robust, smaller, and have long been thought to be more likely to fail in an emergency.
They were designed in the U.S. in the 1960s by the utility giant General Electric.Five of the six reactors at the Fukushima plant are Mark 1s.
In 1972, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission said the design should be discontinued because it was more susceptible to explosion and rupture from a build-up in hydrogen – which may have happened at Fukushima. In 1975 engineer Dale Bridenbaugh and two of his colleagues at General Electric quit work on a Mark 1 because they did not feel comfortable about safety.
The travel warning extends to U.S. citizens already in the country and urges them to consider leaving. The authorised departure offers voluntary evacuation to family members and dependents of U.S. personnel in Tokyo, Yokohama and Nagoya and affects some 600 people.
Senior State Department official Patrick Kennedy said chartered planes will be brought in to help private American citizens wishing to leave.
People face less risk in southern Japan, but changing weather and wind conditions could raise radiation levels elsewhere in the coming days, he said.
After a hastily arranged teleconference with officials from the State and Energy departments, the order was given to get Americans out.
It heightened suspicions that the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear plant in north-east Japan – already ranked the second-worst nuclear disaster after Chernobyl – is worse than the Japanese authorities have publicly let on. Yesterday ‘last-ditch’ efforts were continuing at Fukushima to prevent a catastrophe.
The chief of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) warned last night that all the cooling water has gone from one of the spent fuel pools.
That means there is nothing to stop the fuel rods getting hotter and ultimately melting down. The outer shell of the rods could also ignite with enough force to propel the radioactive fuel inside over a wide area.
Tokyo, which is about 170 miles from the stricken nuclear complex, has reported slightly elevated radiation levels, though Japanese officials have said the increase was too small to threaten the 39 million people in and around the capital.
Anxious to safeguard the U.S. relationship with its closest Asian ally, Mr Obama told Mr Kan about the steps the U.S. was taking, shortly before the State Department announced the first evacuations.
But the alliance looked likely to be strained, with the U.S. taking more dramatic safety precautions than Japan and issuing dire warnings that contradicted Japan's more upbeat assessments.
Earlier yesterday, the Obama administration urged the evacuation of Americans from a 50-mile radius of the stricken nuclear plant, raising questions about U.S.
confidence in Tokyo's risk assessments. Japan's government was urging people within 20 miles to stay indoors if they could not evacuate.
White House spokesman Jay Carney sought to minimize any rift between the two allies, saying U.S. officials were making their recommendations based on their independent analysis of the data coming out of the region following Friday's massive earthquake and tsunami.
'I will not from here judge the Japanese evaluation of the data,' Mr Carney told reporters.
'This is what we would do if this incident were happening in the United States.'
Thousands face terrifying radiation checks
Until last night, the U.S. had advised its citizens to follow the recommendations of the Japanese government.
As late as Tuesday, Mr Carney had said those recommendations were 'the same that we would take in the situation'.
But conditions at the nuclear plant continued to deteriorate, with surging radiation forcing Japan to order workers to temporarily withdraw. Last night Japan was making a desperate last-ditch attempt to cool the reactor by using helicopters to dump sea water. One official told the Mail: 'There is no other option. This has to work.'
State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the U.S. had consular personnel in the Miyagi and Ibaraki prefectures and was sending officials out to check on Americans.
Extreme measures: There are temporary radiation cleaning shelter, set up by across the affected area including Nihonmatsu city in Fukushima
'We have consular teams on the ground,' Mr Toner said.
'Where they can, they are going door to door. They are going to hospitals. They are trying everything in their power to reach out and find American citizens.'
The Pentagon said U.S. troops working on relief missions can only go within 50 miles to the plant with approval. Spokesman Col. David Lapan said the U.S. would review requests from the Japanese for assistance that would require troops to move within that radius, though no approval for such movement had been given since the stricter guidelines were enacted.
The Pentagon said troops are receiving anti-radiation pills before missions to areas where radiation exposure is likely.
With the arrival of three more ships to the massive humanitarian mission, there were 17,000 sailors and Marines afloat on 14 vessels in waters off Japan.
Several thousand Army and Air Force service members already stationed at U.S. bases in Japan have also been mobilised for the relief efforts.
Airmen have been flying search and rescue missions and operating Global Hawk drones and U-2 reconnaissance planes to help the Japanese assess damage from the disasters.
The operation is fraught with challenges - mainly, figuring out how to continue to provide help amid some low-level releases of radiation from the facility, which officials fear could be facing a meltdown.
Weather also temporarily hampered some relief plans Wednesday. Pilots couldn't fly helicopters off the deck of aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan until late afternoon because of poor visibility.
The 7th Fleet said 15 flights with relief supplies were launched from the eight-ship carrier group, about half as many as the 29 flights reported the previous day to deliver food, water, blankets and other supplies.
Several water pumps and hoses were being sent from U.S. bases around Japan to help at Fukushima, where technicians were dousing the overheating nuclear reactors with seawater in a frantic effort to cool them.
The U.S. had already sent two fire trucks to the area to be operated by Japanese firefighters, said Cmdr. Leslie Hull-Ryde, a Pentagon spokeswoman.
Cooling pool for spent fuel rods has 'boiled dry at reactor number four
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-UN-predicts-nuclear-plume-hit-US-Friday.html
12:23 PM on 17th March 2011
UN predicts nuclear plume could hit U.S. by FRIDAY as Obama finally falls in line with the rest of the world and starts evacuating American citizens from Japan
French minister: 'Let's not beat about the bush, they've essentially lost control'
Cooling pool for spent fuel rods has 'boiled dry at reactor number four
Japanese have 48 hours to avoid 'another Chernobyl'
Radioactive steam spews into atmosphere from reactor number three
Experts warn that crisis is 'approaching point of no return' as officials run out of options
Officials commandeer police water cannon to spray complex
Attempts to dump water on reactors by helicopter fail
The United Nations has predicted that a nuclear plume from a crisis-hit reactor in Japan could drift across the Pacific and over the U.S. by Friday.
The chilling forecast came as the United States began evacuating Americans out of
Japan amid escalating fears that the quake-ravaged country is facing disaster.
Terrified passengers are packing Tokyo airport after scores of other governments advised their citizens to flee - as Japanese military helicopters today dropped sea water on the over-heating reactors in a last-ditch attempt to avoid a catastrophic meltdown.
Radiation from the toxic plume spewing from the reactor is set to hit California and the West Coast on Friday, according to the UN's Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organisation. It predicts the plume will head into Southern California and further into Nevada, Utah and Arizona.
While the organisation did not give any further details on the level of radiation to hit the U.S., health officials emphasised that - as with the Chernobyl disaster 26 years ago - most radiation in the atmosphere is set to dissipate throughout its journey over the Pacific.
On Sunday, the U.S. Nuclear Regulator Commission said it expected no harmful levels of radiation would reach the U.S. from Japan given the thousands of miles between the two countries.
The UN's projection, which was calculated according to wind patterns on Tuesday, was first reported by the New York Times.
The data assumes that radiation is spewing from the crippled nuclear reactor at a continuous rate and forms a rising plume, amid heightened suspicion that the crisis at the plant – already ranked the second-worst nuclear disaster after Chernobyl – is worse than the Japanese authorities have publicly let on.
Two CH-47 Chinook helicopters began dumping seawater on the damaged reactor of Unit 3 at the Fukushima complex at 9.48am local time this morning as Defence Minister Toshifumi Kitazawa told reporters that emergency workers had no choice but to try the water dumps before it was too late.
The aircraft dumped at least four loads of at least 2,000 gallons each, on the reactor, though much of the water appeared to be dispersed in the air.
The dumping was intended both to help cool the reactor and to replenish water in a pool holding spent fuel rods. The plant's owner, Tokyo Electric Power Co., said earlier that the pool was nearly empty, which might cause the rods to overheat.
American officials have also said that they believe the fuel holding pools at reactor three and four are empty of water after boiling dry.
Even when removed from reactors, uranium rods are still extremely hot and must be cooled for months, possibly longer, to prevent them from heating up again and emitting radioactivity.
Emergency workers are struggling to keep a constant supply of water pumping into the holding pools and officials last night admitted that much of the monitoring equipment in the plant was broken and it was impossible to monitor the situation.
'We haven't been able to get any of the latest data at any spent fuel pools. We don't have latest water levels, temperatures, none of the latest information,' an official said. There are also frantic efforts to restore power to the coolant pumping system that was knocked out by the tsunami on Friday.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said that along with the helicopter water drops, special police units would use water cannons - normally used to quell rioters - to spray water onto the Unit 4 storage pool. The high-pressure water cannons will allow emergency workers to stay farther away.
One French expert warned that the plant is just hours away from disaster. Thierry Charles of the Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety told the Telegraph: 'The next 48 hours will be decisive. I am pessimistic because, since Sunday, I have seen that almost none of the solutions has worked.'
It followed the alarm from the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organisation, which does radiation projections as a matter of routine in an attempt to predict which of its stations scattered around the globe need to be activated as it monitors a global ban on nuclear arms testing.
Its 60 stations test the air for radiation, and use computer models and weather forecasts to model how that radiation could be transported by wind.
'It’s simply an indication,' Lassina Zerbo, head of the agency’s International Data Center, told the newspaper.
'We have global coverage. So when something happens, it’s important for us to know which station can pick up the event.'
Early this morning the Obama administration fell in line with the rest of the world and began evacuating citizens from Tokyo in defiance of Japanese assurances that the capital is not yet in danger.
Mr Obama had promised to support Japan in its efforts to contain the crisis. But as a desperate last-ditch attempt to prevent total nuclear meltdown began last night, the President finally made a tough decision.
Gregory Jaczko did not say how the information was obtained, but the NRC and U.S. department of energy both have experts on site at the Fukushima complex of six reactors.
'We believe that around the reactor site there are high levels of radiation,' he said. 'It would be very difficult for emergency workers to get near the reactors. The doses they could experience would potentially be lethal doses in a very short period of time.'
Frantic attempts to cool down the reactors at the Fukushima plant following Friday's earthquake and tsunami had to be suspended after high radiation levels were recorded. Technicians later returned, but it was another setback in Japanese efforts to avoid a nuclear catastrophe.
40 YEARS OF DOUBT ON DESIGN OF FUKUSHIMA POWER PLANT
The design of the reactors at the stricken Fukushima power plant has been called into question for almost 40 years.
As far back as 1972, experts said the Mark 1 should be discontinued because its containment vessel was not as robust as alternatives.
One report said such reactors had a 90 per cent probability of bursting should the fuel rods overheat and melt in an accident.
A clutch of engineers also resigned their posts rather than carry on with a project they deemed to be unsafe.
In a nuclear reactor the containment vessel is considered the last line of defence to stop a meltdown.
It is usually a steel and cement ‘tomb’ and is designed to stop the melting fuel rods sending lethal radiation into the atmosphere.
The cheaper Mark 1s, however, are less robust, smaller, and have long been thought to be more likely to fail in an emergency.
They were designed in the U.S. in the 1960s by the utility giant General Electric.Five of the six reactors at the Fukushima plant are Mark 1s.
In 1972, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission said the design should be discontinued because it was more susceptible to explosion and rupture from a build-up in hydrogen – which may have happened at Fukushima. In 1975 engineer Dale Bridenbaugh and two of his colleagues at General Electric quit work on a Mark 1 because they did not feel comfortable about safety.
The travel warning extends to U.S. citizens already in the country and urges them to consider leaving. The authorised departure offers voluntary evacuation to family members and dependents of U.S. personnel in Tokyo, Yokohama and Nagoya and affects some 600 people.
Senior State Department official Patrick Kennedy said chartered planes will be brought in to help private American citizens wishing to leave.
People face less risk in southern Japan, but changing weather and wind conditions could raise radiation levels elsewhere in the coming days, he said.
After a hastily arranged teleconference with officials from the State and Energy departments, the order was given to get Americans out.
It heightened suspicions that the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear plant in north-east Japan – already ranked the second-worst nuclear disaster after Chernobyl – is worse than the Japanese authorities have publicly let on. Yesterday ‘last-ditch’ efforts were continuing at Fukushima to prevent a catastrophe.
The chief of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) warned last night that all the cooling water has gone from one of the spent fuel pools.
That means there is nothing to stop the fuel rods getting hotter and ultimately melting down. The outer shell of the rods could also ignite with enough force to propel the radioactive fuel inside over a wide area.
Tokyo, which is about 170 miles from the stricken nuclear complex, has reported slightly elevated radiation levels, though Japanese officials have said the increase was too small to threaten the 39 million people in and around the capital.
Anxious to safeguard the U.S. relationship with its closest Asian ally, Mr Obama told Mr Kan about the steps the U.S. was taking, shortly before the State Department announced the first evacuations.
But the alliance looked likely to be strained, with the U.S. taking more dramatic safety precautions than Japan and issuing dire warnings that contradicted Japan's more upbeat assessments.
Earlier yesterday, the Obama administration urged the evacuation of Americans from a 50-mile radius of the stricken nuclear plant, raising questions about U.S.
confidence in Tokyo's risk assessments. Japan's government was urging people within 20 miles to stay indoors if they could not evacuate.
White House spokesman Jay Carney sought to minimize any rift between the two allies, saying U.S. officials were making their recommendations based on their independent analysis of the data coming out of the region following Friday's massive earthquake and tsunami.
'I will not from here judge the Japanese evaluation of the data,' Mr Carney told reporters.
'This is what we would do if this incident were happening in the United States.'
Thousands face terrifying radiation checks
Until last night, the U.S. had advised its citizens to follow the recommendations of the Japanese government.
As late as Tuesday, Mr Carney had said those recommendations were 'the same that we would take in the situation'.
But conditions at the nuclear plant continued to deteriorate, with surging radiation forcing Japan to order workers to temporarily withdraw. Last night Japan was making a desperate last-ditch attempt to cool the reactor by using helicopters to dump sea water. One official told the Mail: 'There is no other option. This has to work.'
State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the U.S. had consular personnel in the Miyagi and Ibaraki prefectures and was sending officials out to check on Americans.
Extreme measures: There are temporary radiation cleaning shelter, set up by across the affected area including Nihonmatsu city in Fukushima
'We have consular teams on the ground,' Mr Toner said.
'Where they can, they are going door to door. They are going to hospitals. They are trying everything in their power to reach out and find American citizens.'
The Pentagon said U.S. troops working on relief missions can only go within 50 miles to the plant with approval. Spokesman Col. David Lapan said the U.S. would review requests from the Japanese for assistance that would require troops to move within that radius, though no approval for such movement had been given since the stricter guidelines were enacted.
The Pentagon said troops are receiving anti-radiation pills before missions to areas where radiation exposure is likely.
With the arrival of three more ships to the massive humanitarian mission, there were 17,000 sailors and Marines afloat on 14 vessels in waters off Japan.
Several thousand Army and Air Force service members already stationed at U.S. bases in Japan have also been mobilised for the relief efforts.
Airmen have been flying search and rescue missions and operating Global Hawk drones and U-2 reconnaissance planes to help the Japanese assess damage from the disasters.
The operation is fraught with challenges - mainly, figuring out how to continue to provide help amid some low-level releases of radiation from the facility, which officials fear could be facing a meltdown.
Weather also temporarily hampered some relief plans Wednesday. Pilots couldn't fly helicopters off the deck of aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan until late afternoon because of poor visibility.
The 7th Fleet said 15 flights with relief supplies were launched from the eight-ship carrier group, about half as many as the 29 flights reported the previous day to deliver food, water, blankets and other supplies.
Several water pumps and hoses were being sent from U.S. bases around Japan to help at Fukushima, where technicians were dousing the overheating nuclear reactors with seawater in a frantic effort to cool them.
The U.S. had already sent two fire trucks to the area to be operated by Japanese firefighters, said Cmdr. Leslie Hull-Ryde, a Pentagon spokeswoman.
Jeffrey Thomason
Inactive
Fly over of site from yesterday afternoon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBXqiw6EJUk