JAPAN's QUAKE & NUCLEAR DISASTER !!!

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Lengthy Struggle ahead to contain Japan Nuclear Crisis

By Scott DiSavino | Reuters – Sat, Mar 26, 2011 5:50 AM SGT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New radioactive leaks and worker injuries at Japan's stricken nuclear power plant show that the worst atomic crisis in 25 years is far from over, with months of hard work still ahead.

Restoration of cooling water supplies to overheating fuel rods should help prevent conditions from deteriorating much further within the Fukushima Daiichi reactors. Still, radioactive material is scattered around the plants and workers must prevent more radiation from escaping.

On Thursday, three workers suffered radiation burns to their legs while laying electric cable in the Unit 3 turbine building as part of the effort to restore power to equipment used to cool the fuel.

Nuclear experts said plant owner Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) was in for a long hard slog as workers risk their lives to prevent more radiation from poisoning air, food and water.

"The story is not yet over because the reactors and spent fuel pools have not yet been brought under control," Richard Meserve, former chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and current President of the Carnegie Institute told Reuters.

"On the one hand, the challenge is getting easier over time because the rate of heat generation by the fuel is steadily declining. On the other hand, there is growing contamination in the buildings and grounds which makes the conduct of work more difficult. There will be ups and downs, but based on what I know, the overall trend is favorable," Meserve said.

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Friday said the situation at the plant remained precarious. He sought to temper hopes of a quick resolution.

"We are making efforts to prevent it from getting worse, but I feel we cannot become complacent," he told reporters. "We must continue to be on our guard."

HOPES DASHED

When TEPCO restored power to the plant late last week, some thought the crisis would soon be over. But two weeks after the earthquake, lingering high levels of radiation from the damaged reactors has kept hampering worker progress.

At Three Mile Island, the worst nuclear power accident in the United States, workers took just four days to stabilize the reactor, which suffered a partial meltdown. No one was injured and there was no radiation release above the legal limit.

At Chernobyl in the Ukraine, the worst nuclear accident in the world, it took weeks to "stabilize" what remained of the plant and months to clean up radioactive materials and cover the site with a concrete and steel sarcophagus.

In Japan, the fact that there was high levels of radiation in the turbine building, which is isolated from the containment building and spent fuel pools, makes it difficult for TEPCO to know where workers can operate safely.

Nuclear experts said they were uncertain how the radiation got into the turbine building. Most believe it leaked in from the spent fuel pools, but a few said it could have come from a possible breach in the reactor vessel.

"The data we're getting is very sketchy and makes it impossible for us to do the analysis," said David Lochbaum, nuclear scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists. "It's hard to connect the dots when there are so few dots."

Regardless of the source of the radiation, it could be weeks before TEPCO has the situation under control and many years before workers clean up the mess completely.

"I have no idea how long this can go on. The immediate crisis ends when the Japanese authorities say there is no chance of further radiation releases," said James Acton, Associate in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

"Worst case this can be another BP oil spill with the constant risk of radioactive release for a long period of time," Acton warned. The BP Plc oil spill in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico took more than three months to stop.

(Reporting by Scott DiSavino in New York and Eileen O'Grady in Houston; Editing by David Gregorio)

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Radiation spike in SEA near Japan Nuclear Plant

By Huw Griffith | AFP News – Sun, Mar 27, 2011 4:07 AM SGT

Radiation levels have surged in seawater near a tsunami-stricken nuclear power station in Japan, officials said Saturday, as engineers battled to stabilise the plant in hazardous conditions.

Urgent efforts were under way to drain pools of highly radioactive water near the reactors after several workers suffered radiation burns while installing cables as part of efforts to restore the critical cooling systems.

The new safety worries further complicated efforts to bring the ageing facility under control, and raised fears that the fuel rod vessels or their valves and pipes are leaking.

"It is becoming very important to get rid of the puddles quickly," said an official at the nuclear safety agency, Hidehiko Nishiyama.

One of the worst-case scenarios at reactor three would be that the fuel inside the reactor core -- a volatile uranium-plutonium mix -- has already started to burn its way through its steel pressure vessel.

"Highly radioactive water is flowing inside the buildings and then into the sea, which is worrying for fish and marine vegetation," said Olivier Isnard, an expert at France's Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety.

"One hypothesis is that the reactor vessel is breached and highly radioactive corium is coming out."

Fire engines have hosed thousands of tons of seawater onto the plant in a bid to keep the fuel rods inside reactor cores and pools from being exposed to the air, where they could reach critical stage and go into full meltdown.

Several hundred metres offshore in the Pacific Ocean, levels of iodine-131 some 1,250 times the legal limit were detected on Saturday, a tenfold increase from just days earlier, operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said.

Scene: Power crunch in Tokyo

Drinking a half-litre (20-ounce) bottle of fresh water with the same concentration would expose a person to their annual safe dose, Nishiyama said, but he ruled out an immediate threat to marine life and seafood safety.

"Generally speaking, radioactive material released into the sea will spread due to tides, so you need much more for seaweed and sea life to absorb it," he said.

Because iodine-131 decays relatively quickly, with a half-life of eight days, "by the time people eat the sea products, its amount is likely to have diminished significantly," he said.

However, TEPCO also reported levels of caesium-137 -- which has a half life of about 30 years -- almost 80 times the legal maximum. Scientists say both radioactive substances can cause cancer if absorbed by humans.

Government assurances did little to lift the gloom that has hung over Japan since a 9.0-magnitude quake struck on March 11, sending a huge tsunami crashing into the northeast coast in the country's worst post-war disaster.

The wave easily overwhelmed the world's biggest sea defences and swallowed entire communities. The confirmed death toll stood at 10,489 as of 9:00 pm (1200 GMT) on Saturday, Kyodo News said, citing the National Police Agency, with 16,621 listed as missing.

Scene: Tsunami defences exposed

The tsunami knocked out the cooling systems for the six reactors of the Fukushima plant, leading to suspected partial meltdowns in three of them. Hydrogen explosions and fires have also ripped through the facility.

High-voltage electric cables have since been linked up to the reactors again and power has been partially restored in two reactor control rooms.

Worried about the salt buildup in the crippled plant, engineers have started pumping in fresh water into some of the reactors. The US military is supporting the effort by sending two full water barges from a naval base near Tokyo.

"I believe we have prevented the current situation worsening, taking steps towards real progress such as resuming power and injecting water," chief government spokesman Yukio Edano told reporters.

Radioactive vapour from the plant has contaminated farm produce and dairy products in the region, leading to shipment halts in Japan as well as the United States, European Union, China and a host of other nations.

Singapore extended a ban on food imports from Japan on Saturday, suspending imports of all fruit and vegetables from the whole Kanto region, a large area including greater Tokyo.

Higher than normal radiation has also been detected in tap water in and around Tokyo, some 250 kilometres (155 miles) from the plant, leading authorities at one stage to warn against using it for baby milk formula.

Japan widened the zone around the plant from which it suggests people evacuate to 30 kilometres -- still below the 80 kilometres advised by the United States.

Environmental watchdog Greenpeace started its own monitoring near the plant, saying "authorities have consistently appeared to underestimate both the risks and extent of radioactive contamination".

The campaign group said it would provide "an alternative to the often contradictory information released by nuclear regulators".

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Japan's PET Survivors face Post-Tsunami Struggle

By Giles Hewitt | AFP News – 41 minutes ago

Hungry, hurt and separated from owners who are either dead or in evacuation centres, hundreds of family pets are struggling to survive in the desolation of Japan's tsunami-ravaged northeast coast.

Among the many rescue teams sent from around the world to search for survivors and bodies after Japan's worst natural disaster for nearly a century, a handful of specialised animal rescue groups have also been at work.

In the days immediately after the March 11 tsunami that wiped out dozens of thriving coastal towns, the prospects looked grim.

"In the hardest hit areas, we saw no animal life whatsoever," said Ashley Fruno, from animal rights group PETA.

"We did see some paw prints in the mud at one point, but they didn't lead anywhere, and we could not find any animals nearby."

Slowly but surely, however, abandoned pets began to emerge, often from damaged homes where they had managed to ride out the destructive force of the tsunami.

Many pet owners left their cats and dogs when the tsunami warning sounded, never imagining that the wave would be as large and powerful as it eventually was.

The animals were left to fend for themselves in a hostile environment with no food or fresh water.

Japan Earthquake Animal Rescue and Support (JEARS), a hastily assembled coalition of animal welfare groups, has spent the last two weeks searching what's left of the worst-hit coastal towns.

The teams, which include several volunteer vets, provide food and treatment for injured animals and try to find temporary shelters for those that have lost their owners.

They also visit evacuation centres where those people who escaped the tsunami with their pets are having trouble holding on to them in difficult, cramped surroundings where animals are not always welcome.

"There have been some problems in the centres, with tensions between those with pets and those without," said vet Kazumasu Sasaki.

"Some people have pet allergies, and they complain that the dogs are barking and fighting. It's understandable."

There have been cases of people choosing to stay in their ruined houses because shelters refused to accommodate pets, and JEARS coordinator Isabella Gallaon-Aoki said it was difficult to persuade those in the centres that their animals would be better off in a temporary shelter.

"People here see pets as family members. For some, after everything that has happened, their pet is the only thing they can cling on to -- the only thing that brings them comfort," she said.

Timo Takazawa, who survived the tsunami along with her husband, refused to give up their dog, Momo, despite complaints from other evacuees in their crowded shelter in the city of Sendai.

"When we escaped from the tsunami we didn't take anything, just Momo," said Takazawa, 65.

"I can't imagine not being here together. If anybody said to me I couldn't keep Momo here, we would leave with her, we would go somewhere else."

Animals have featured in a number of unusual tsunami survival stories, most notably a porpoise rescued from a rice field after it was washed two kilometres (1.2 miles) inland.

Then there was the case of Tashirojima island in Miyagi Prefecture, known locally as "Cat Island" for its feral feline population that vastly outnumbers the 100 or so human residents.

The tiny island was engulfed by the tsunami -- but a rescue team that flew in by helicopter reported that both cats and people had come out unscathed.

In Sendai, tsunami warden Mr Kamata tried to return for his dog -- a large pedigree Akita -- after warning neighbours about the incoming wave, but found his way blocked by the churning water.

"I thought there was no way he could have survived. It was terribly sad," Kamata said.

But later that night, as he sheltered in a refuge with hundreds of other residents, Kamata heard that a dog had been found outside.

"It was him. He'd swum and found me. He'd ingested a lot of sea water and kept throwing up and I thought I was going to lose him anyway, but he pulled through," Kamata said.

Heartwarming stories of survival aside, PETA's Fruno said that animal welfare groups would be busy in tsunami-affected areas for some time to come.

"Recovery from this disaster is going to take months, if not years," she said.

"People in the hardest hit areas will continue to need pet food and veterinary supplies, as will the animal shelters, which will also need to house animals until their homeless guardians are able to find somewhere to live."

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Kan: Japan on 'Maximum Alert' over NUKE Crisis

By YURI KAGEYAMA and MARI YAMAGUCHI, Associated Press Yuri Kageyama And Mari Yamaguchi, Associated Press 31 mins ago

TOKYO Japan's leader insisted Tuesday that the country was on "maximum alert" to bring its nuclear crisis under control, but the spread of radiation raised concerns about the ability of experts to stabilize the crippled reactor complex.

Wan but resolute, Prime Minister Naoto Kan told parliament that Japan was grappling with its worst problems since World War II.

"This quake, tsunami and the nuclear accident are the biggest crises for Japan" in decades, Kan said, dressed in one of the blue work jackets that have become ubiquitous among bureaucrats since the tsunami. He said the crises remained unpredictable, but added: "From now on, we will continue to handle it in a state of maximum alert."

The magnitude-9.0 offshore earthquake on March 11 triggered a tsunami that slammed minutes later into Japan's northeast, wiping out towns and knocking out power and backup systems at the coastal Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.

Police said more than 11,000 bodies have been recovered, but the final death toll is expected to exceed 18,000. Hundreds of thousands remain homeless, their homes and livelihoods destroyed. Damage could amount to $310 billion the most expensive natural disaster on record, the government said.

Against the backdrop of the humanitarian disaster, the drama at the power plant has continued to develop, with workers fighting fires, explosions, radiation scares and miscalculations in the frantic bid to prevent a complete meltdown.

The plant has been leaking radiation that has made its way into vegetables, raw milk and tap water as far as Tokyo. Residents within 12 miles (20 kilometers) of the plant were ordered to leave and some nations banned the imports of food products from the Fukushima region.

Highly toxic plutonium was the latest contaminant found seeping into the soil outside the plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said.

Safety officials said the amounts did not pose a risk to humans, but they said the finding supports suspicions that dangerously radioactive water is leaking from damaged nuclear fuel rods.

"The situation is very grave," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters Tuesday. "We are doing our utmost to contain the damage."

A series of missteps and accidents, meanwhile, have raised questions about the handling of the disaster, with the government revealing growing frustration with TEPCO.

The Yomiuri daily newspaper reported that the government was considering temporarily nationalizing the troubled nuclear plant operator, but Edano and TEPCO officials denied holding any such discussions.

Kan, meanwhile, faced stinging criticism from opposition lawmakers over the handling of a nuclear disaster stretching into a third week.

"We cannot let you handle the crisis," lawmaker Yosuke Isozaki said in parliament. "We cannot let you be in charge of Japan's crisis management."

The urgent mission to stabilize the Fukushima plant has been fraught with setbacks.

Workers succeeded last week in reconnecting some parts of the plant to the power grid. But as they pumped water into units to cool the reactors down, they discovered pools of contaminated water in numerous spots, including the basements of several buildings and in tunnels outside them.

The contaminated water has been emitting radiation exposures more than four times the amount the government considers safe for workers and must be pumped out before electricity can be restored to the cooling system.

That has left officials struggling with two crucial but sometimes-contradictory efforts: pumping in water to keep the fuel rods cool and pumping out contaminated water and safely storing it.

Nuclear safety official Hidehiko Nishiyama called it "delicate work." He acknowledged that cooling the reactors had taken precedence over concerns about leakage.

"The removal of the contaminated water is the most urgent task now, and hopefully we can adjust the amount of cooling water going in," he said, adding that workers were building sandbag dikes to keep contaminated water from seeping into the soil outside.

The discovery of plutonium, released from fuel rods only when temperatures are extremely high, confirms the severity of the damage, Nishiyama said.

When plutonium decays, it emits what is known as an alpha particle, a relatively big particle that carries a lot of energy. When an alpha particle hits body tissue, it can damage the DNA of a cell and lead to a cancer-causing mutation.

Plutonium also breaks down very slowly, so it remains dangerously radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years.

"If you inhale it, it's there and it stays there forever," said Alan Lockwood, a professor of Neurology and Nuclear Medicine at the University at Buffalo and a member of the board of directors of Physicians for Social Responsibility, an advocacy group.

Associated Press writers Shino Yuasa in Tokyo and Jonathan Fahey in New York contributed to this report.

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Japan battles to stop Radiation Leak into Sea

By Shingo Ito | AFP News – Mon, Apr 4, 2011 6:17 AM SGT

Workers at Japan's crippled nuclear plant Sunday struggled to stop a radioactive water leak into the Pacific, as the government warned the facility may spread contamination for months.

Along the tsunami-ravaged coast, 25,000 Japanese and US military and rescue crew completed a massive three-day search for bodies, more than three weeks after the catastrophe struck.

While cherry blossoms opened in Tokyo, temperatures plunged again, leaving tens of thousands of homeless shivering in evacuation camps along the ravaged northeast coast of Japan's main Honshu island.

There was no quick end in sight for the world's worst nuclear emergency since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, warned a government lawmaker who has advised Prime Minister Naoto Kan on the crisis at the six-reactor plant.

"This is going to be a long battle," said Goshi Hosono, who highlighted the threat from 4.5 metre (15 foot) long spent fuel rods that remain volatile for months and need to be cooled in pools with circulating water.

"The biggest challenge at this plant is that there are more than 10,000 spent fuel rods," Hosono said on Fuji TV. "It will take a very long time to reprocess them, and we sincerely apologise for that.

"It is unacceptable that radioactive substances keep being released, causing anxiety among the people. Probably it will take several months before we reach the point" where all radiation leaks stop, he said.

Outside the headquarters of plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), about 100 protesters, outnumbered by police, shouted: "No more nuclear plants!" and "TEPCO, government -- be responsible!"

"This accident has burdened the socially weak, the farmers and fishermen," said Mitsue Matsuda, 47, from tsunami-hit Iwate prefecture, who said she had friends living near the Fukushima plant.

"The land will stay contaminated for decades or more."

Interview: Japan tsunami survivor returns to help save nuclear plant

The health ministry said tests on mushrooms in Iwaki, in Fukushima prefecture, had found radioactive iodine and caesium above legal limits and local authorities had asked farmers not to ship fungi, Kyodo news agency reported. Other foodstuffs have tested within official limits.

Authorities have stressed there is no immediate public health threat from seafood because fishing within a 20-kilometre (12 mile) radius is banned, arguing that ocean currents will quickly dilute the contaminants.

At the crippled plant, workers, troops and firefighters have pumped water into reactors whose cooling systems were knocked out by the March 11 tsunami, sparking partial meltdowns and chemical explosions.

A second US military barge carrying fresh water for pumping Saturday docked off the plant, where cement boom pumps have been pouring in water, a task that was initially handled by helicopter water drops and then fire engines.

Radiation leaked into the air, soil and ocean, and the emergency water pumping itself has increased the environmental contamination.

The run-off from the plant has measured more than 1,000 millisieverts and is believed to be the source of radioactive iodine-131 readings in ocean waters of more than 4,000 times the legal limit.

TEPCO workers were using a polymer and even newspapers and sawdust to try to close off pipes through which the water has flowed into a cracked concrete pit, from where it has run into the sea. An earlier attempt to seal the crack with cement failed to stop the leak.

"From the afternoon, the workers began pouring polymeric powder, sawdust, newspaper -- things we could think of to clog up the holes," said Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for the nuclear safety agency.

"So far, there has not been any clear indication that the volume of leaking water has been reduced."

In a grim discovery, the remains of two TEPCO workers killed in the tsunami have been recovered in the facility, the operator said.

The huge earthquake and resulting tsunami on March 11 killed 12,020 people and left 15,512 missing, according to the latest national police count.

Just over 115 billion yen (more than $1.3 billion) had been donated for disaster victims by Saturday, Kyodo quoted two major Japanese charities as saying.

Some 18,000 Japanese military personnel and 7,000 US forces, as well as police, firefighters and coastguard rescue and dive teams, carried out a three-day search for victims along the disaster-ravaged coast.

But the massive operation, which ended Sunday, suggested that many of the missing will never be found. Japan's military said only 306 bodies were newly recovered in coastal and inland areas.

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Is Indonesia prepared for the next Tsunami ???

By Olivia Rondonuwu | Reuters 1 hour 39 minutes ago

JAKARTA (Reuters) - In daily games and quizzes with his children, Hardimansyah slips in these questions: Where's your rucksack? What can you do with a candle? Where do you run to if I'm not with you when a tsunami is closing in?

Hardimansyah's family lives on the small Mentawai islands off Indonesia's Sumatra, which experts predict will see an earthquake sometime in the next decade followed by a tsunami just seven minutes later, even faster than the one that hit Japan in March.

"I didn't know what a tsunami looked like until I saw it on TV. All of a sudden I felt like I was there, I almost couldn't bear to witness it," said Hardimansyah, in a shaky voice.

He works on the beach in the fishing industry but was away from the coast last year when a giant wave killed hundreds in the Mentawai islands.

In 2004 a tsunami as high as 30 metres swept away 160,000 lives in the Sumatran province of Aceh alone, plus more than 60,000 from Thailand to Africa.

Sumatran residents found footage of Japan's tsunami horrendous, but also inspiring because of the composure of the Japanese people. This has led Indonesia to reassess its own preparedness.

"Japan is very prepared, and looking at Japan, I know we have a lot of homework to do," said Wisnu Wijaya, a director at the National Disaster Mitigation Agency.

Indonesia's government started to prepare for tsunami after 2004, but by contrast Japan started building awareness and relevant technology in the 1960s and yet still struggled to cope with the devastating impact of the wave that struck last month.

The areas at risk in the Indonesian archipelago are mostly not industrialised, in contrast to Japan.

The United Nations has told governments in Asia's most catastrophe-prone areas that they should set aside 10 percent of their development funds to limit the risk of disaster, but Indonesia struggles to fund basic infrastructure normally.

The government is spending 13 trillion Indonesian rupiah ($1.49 billion) on disaster mitigation this year, or just 1 percent of its 2011 budget. This was also only about 5 percent of what Japan spent in 2007, the disaster agency said.

SHORT MEMORY

Aceh has been rebuilt after funds poured in for reconstruction from around the world, and the national economy and stock market grew strongly in early 2005.

While there is a rule to build away from the Aceh coast, protective mangroves have not been planted and some residents want to return to live on the beach.

"The Japan tsunami has become a sobering reminder for me that my biggest fear right now is if we are still not ready when tsunami comes again," said Aceh resident Rony Muchtar. "Our knowledge is very low on the risks and I'm not confident we have learned enough lessons from the 2004 tsunami."

Japan's March 11 tsunami reached eastern Indonesia as a fast-moving one metre wave, but despite hours of warning, a man in Papua was killed, apparently drowned. Days later a false alarm in Aceh led people to flee to the hills and two people died in the panic.

In terms of monitoring earthquakes and detecting the possibility of a tsunami, Indonesia has lifted the number of its seismographs to about 150, versus 50 before the 2004 tsunami, but compared to Japan's 1,000.

In recent years, an early warning system has been wired to sirens in public places and mosques, a few tsunami-proof escape buildings have been built, and the government has designed maps showing the areas most at risk in Sumatra.

However, other islands such as Java and Bali also run along a faultline between plates in the earth's crust in the Pacific "Rim of Fire", and so are also tsunami-prone but lag behind in terms of preparedness.

These areas, including the traffic-logged capital Jakarta with 10 million people, do not yet have equivalent detailed disaster maps to understand the threats nor evacuation schemes, said a spokesman for the national disaster agency.

The country also lacks the national disaster mitigation laws of Japan, and cannot match the mental preparedness of the Japanese, where the topic is part of the school curriculum and has become ingrained in the population.

THREE MINUTES

Danny Hilman Natawidjaja, of the Indonesia Science Institutes, who has studied the crust under Mentawai since the 1990s, said a clash in the plates in the next 10 years could cause a quake measuring 8.9 on the Richter scale, followed by an 8-metre high tsunami.

The country's early warning system, using German technology, can decide tsunami potential from a quake in four minutes. So for Hardimansyah on the Mentawai islands, that means he has about three minutes to escape to the hills.

The television footage from Japan is the reason he continues to remind his three children what they should do.

"If Daddy is not home when the tsunami hits, get out of the house and follow the crowd. Daddy will be waiting for you on higher ground," the 41-year-old tells them. He has prepared bags for each of his children containing a blanket, a jacket, instant noodles, matches and a candle.

"We can't defy nature," he said. "What we can do is to prepare as much as we can."

($1 = 8707.5 Rupiah)

(Additional reporting by Reza Munawir in BANDA ACEH; Editing by Neil Chatterjee)

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Japan Nuke Plant dumps Radioactive Water into SEA

By MARI YAMAGUCHI and YURI KAGEYAMA, Associated Press

Mon Apr 4, 9:19 pm ET

TOKYO – Workers began pumping more than 3 million gallons of contaminated water from Japan's tsunami-ravaged nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean on Monday, freeing storage space for even more highly radioactive water that has hampered efforts to stabilize the reactors.

It will take about two days to pump most of the less-radioactive water out of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex, whose cooling systems were knocked out by the magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami on March 11.

Radioactivity is quickly diluted in the ocean, and government officials said the dump should not affect the safety of seafood in the area.

Since the disaster, water with different levels of radioactivity has been pooling throughout the plant. People who live within 12 miles (20 kilometers) have been evacuated and have not been allowed to return.

The pooling water has damaged systems and the radiation hazard has prevented workers from getting close enough to power up cooling systems needed to stabilize dangerously vulnerable fuel rods.

On Saturday, they discovered that some radioactive water was pouring into the ocean.

The less-radioactive water that officials are purposely dumping into the sea is up to 500 times the legal limit for radiation.

"We think releasing water with low levels of radiation is preferable to allowing water with high levels of radiation to be released into the environment," said Junichi Matsumoto, an official with plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co.

Workers need to get rid of the highly radioactive water, but first they need somewhere safe to put it. Much of the less-radioactive water being dumped into the sea is from the tsunami and had accumulated in a nuclear waste storage building.

The building is not meant to hold water, but it's also not leaking, so engineers decided to empty it so they can pump in the more-radioactive water. The rest of the water going into the sea is coming from a trench beneath two of the plant's six reactors.

More water keeps pooling because TEPCO has been forced to rely on makeshift methods of bringing down temperatures and pressure by pumping water into the reactors and allowing it to gush out wherever it can. It is a messy process, but it is preventing a full meltdown of the fuel rods that would release even more radioactivity into the environment.

"We must keep putting water into the reactors to cool to prevent further fuel damage, even though we know that there is a side effect, which is the leakage," said Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for Japan's Nuclear Safety and Industrial Agency. "We want to get rid of the stagnant water and decontaminate the place so that we can return to our primary task to restore the sustainable cooling capacity as quickly as possible."

Engineers have been using unusual methods to try to stop the more highly radioactive water leaking into the sea.

They thought it was coming from a crack in a maintenance pit they discovered Saturday, but an attempt to seal the crack with concrete failed, and clogging it with a special polymer mixed with sawdust and shredded newspapers didn't work, either.

They dumped milky white bath salts into the system around the pit Monday to try to figure out the source of the leak, but it never splashed out into the ocean.

In the meantime, workers plan to install screens made of polyester fabric to try to stop some of the contamination in the ocean from spreading.

Although the government eventually authorized the dumping of the less-radioactive water, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said officials were growing concerned about the sheer volume of radioactive materials spilling into the Pacific. It is not clear how much water has leaked in addition to what is being dumped purposely.

"Even if they say the contamination will be diluted in the ocean, the longer this continues, the more radioactive particles will be released and the greater the impact on the ocean," Edano said. "We are strongly urging TEPCO that they have to take immediate action to deal with this."

Experts said Monday that at this point, they don't expect the discharges to pose widespread danger to sea animals or people who might eat them.

"It's a very large ocean" with considerable powers of dilution, noted William Burnett of Florida State University.

Very close to the nuclear plant — less than half a mile (800 meters) or so — sea creatures might be in danger of problems like genetic mutations if the dumping goes on a long time, he said. But there shouldn't be any serious hazard farther away "unless this escalates into something much, much larger than it has so far," he said.

Also Monday, a spokesman for the Russian nuclear agency Rosatom, Sergei Novikov, told reporters that Japan has requested Russia send it a vessel used to decommission nuclear submarines, and that Moscow was considering the request.

"If the Japanese side arranges answers to the questions we sent them, it can be transferred ... within a very short period," Novikov said, according to a statement on Rosatom's website. The nature of the questions wasn't specified.

Novikov said the vessel, called the Landysh, was built with Japanese funds under the "Global Partnership" program to help dispose of liquid nuclear waste from decommissioned submarines.

The crisis has unfolded as Japan deals with the aftermath of twin natural disasters that devastated much of its northeastern coast. Up to 25,000 people are believed to have died and tens of thousands lost their homes.

The situation at the Fukushima plant has brought protests in Japan and raised questions around the world about the safety of nuclear power. Yukiya Amano, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told delegates at a nuclear safety conference Monday that the industry cannot afford to ignore these concerns.

"We cannot take a business-as-usual approach," Amano said.

General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt, who was in Tokyo this week to meet with TEPCO's chairman, defended the industry when asked by a reporter if the Fukushima incident would cause global concern about nuclear safety.

"This is an industry that's had an extremely safe track record for more than 40 years," Immelt said. "We have had more than 1,000 engineers working around the clock since the incident began and we will continue in the short, medium and long term working with TEPCO due to this horrific natural disaster."

All of the plant's reactors were designed by GE, and Immelt offered assistance in dealing with the electricity shortage brought on by damage to the Fukushima Dai-ichi facility and other power plants. Japan is expecting a shortfall of at least 10 million kilowatts in summer, and Immelt said gas turbines with both short- and long-term capabilities are on their way from the U.S.

Associated Press writers Ryan Nakashima and Noriko Kitano in Tokyo and Jim Heintz in Moscow and science writer Malcolm Ritter in New York contributed to this report.

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Japan's Disaster in Figures

40 mins ago

(Reuters) - The following lists the impact of the earthquake and tsunami that hit northeast Japan on March 11 and the subsequent crisis at a nuclear power plant. Skip related content

On Thursday, a major aftershock rocked northeast Japan and a tsunami warning was briefly issued for the coast devastated by last month's massive quake and tsunami.

Asterisk indicates a new or updated entry.

DEATH TOLL

* A total of 12,690 people were confirmed dead by Japan's National Police Agency as of 8 p.m. Japan time (1100 GMT) on Thursday, while 14,736 were missing.

NUMBER OF PEOPLE EVACUATED

* Around 157,600 people were in shelters around the country as of 1100 GMT on Thursday following evacuation, the National Police Agency said.

The government has set up an evacuation area around Tokyo Electric Power Co's quake-stricken nuclear plant in Fukushima 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, with a 20-km (12-mile) radius. More than 70,000 people lived in the largely rural area within the 20 km zone. It is unclear how many of them have been evacuated, but most are believed to have left.

Another 136,000 people were within a zone extending a further 10 km in which residents are recommended to leave or stay indoors.

HOUSEHOLDS WITHOUT ELECTRICITY

* As a result of the March 11 quake and tsunami, a total of 159,071 households in the north were still without electricity as of 0700 GMT on Thursday, Tohoku Electric Power Co said.

* After Thursday's quake, more than 3.2 million households in the north were without electricity as of 0000 GMT on Friday, including those affected by the March 11 quake.

HOUSEHOLDS WITHOUT WATER

* At least 150,000 households in eight prefectures were without running water as of early on Thursday, the Health Ministry said.

NUMBER OF BUILDINGS DAMAGED

* At least 48,640 buildings have been fully destroyed, washed away or burnt down, the National Police Agency of Japan said as of 1100 GMT on Thursday.

IMPACT ON ECONOMY

The government has estimated damage from the earthquake and tsunami at 16-25 trillion yen $190-295 billion). The top estimate would make it the world's costliest natural disaster.

The estimate covers damage to roads, homes, factories and other infrastructure, but excludes lost economic activity from power outages and costs arising from damage to the Fukushima nuclear power plant, as well as the impact of swings in financial markets and business sentiment.

The yen initially spiked to a record high against the dollar after the quake, prompting the first joint intervention by the Group of Seven rich nations in 11 years to help shield Japan's export-reliant economy.

Japan's reconstruction spending will almost certainly exceed that of the 1995 quake in Kobe, when the government needed extra budgets of more than 3 trillion yen.

Deputy Finance Minister Mitsuru Sakurai has signalled the government may need to spend more than 10 trillion yen in emergency budgets for post-quake disaster relief and reconstruction, with part of them possibly covered by new taxes.

NUMBER OF COUNTRIES OFFERING AID

According to the Foreign Ministry, 134 countries and 39 international organisations have offered assistance

(Compiled by Tokyo Political and General News Team)

[kueytoc]

Tsunami Fears Ease After Fresh Japan Quake

7 hours 45 mins ago

© Sky News 2011

A strong earthquake has shaken the northeast of Japan - prompting a tsunami warning for the coast devastated by last month's disaster. Skip related content

The tsunami warning following the 7.1 magnitude quake was subsequently cancelled by the Japanese meterological agency.

No further damage was detected at the crippled Fukushima plant and workers were reported to have been evacuated without reports of any injuries.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage elsewhere, but people in areas covered by the tsunami are being urged to evacuate to higher ground.

US Geological Survey said it struck 40 miles (66 km) east of the coastal city Sendai, at a shallow depth of 15.9 miles (25.6 km).

In the capital, Tokyo, buildings shook.

NHK public television cited police as saying seven people had been injured, two of them seriously.

It comes as the country struggles to bring the Fukushima 1 plant under control after the quake and tsunami on March 11.

The disaster killed, or left missing, about 28,000 people.

[kueytoc]

Major Aftershock shakes Japan's ruined Northeast Coast

By Yoko Kubota and Chizu Nomiyama | Reuters – Fri, Apr 8, 2011 2:09 AM SGT

TOKYO (Reuters) - A major aftershock rocked northeast Japan on Thursday and a tsunami warning was issued for the coast devastated by last month's massive quake and tsunami that crippled a nuclear power plant.

The warning was later lifted and no tsunami were reported. No damage from the quake, measured at magnitude 7.4 by the Japan Meteorological Agency, was detected at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said.

Workers struggling to bring the plant under control were evacuated soon after the aftershock struck, shortly before midnight.

Large parts of northern Japan, where infrastructure was severely damaged by the March 11 quake and tsunami, were without electricity following the latest of many aftershocks, the biggest since last month's killer quake.

Toru Hanai, a Reuters photographer in Oshu, Iwate prefecture, near the epicentre of Thursday's aftershock, said his hotel lost power and a water pipe burst.

"Everything fell. My room is a complete mess and power is widely out in this area," he said.

In the capital, Tokyo, buildings also shook.

"It started out as nothing much, then the building started swaying quite strongly," a Reuters witness said.

As of 01:30 a.m. (1630 GMT) seven people were reported injured, two of them seriously, a spokesman for the National Police Agency said.

Last month's huge 9.0 magnitude quake triggered tsunami waves which swept in along the coast, wiping out towns. About 28,000 people were killed or are missing.

The disaster also disrupted industry and affected supply chains around the world but it was not immediately clear if Thursday's aftershock would compound those problems.

At the Fukushima nuclear plant, TEPCO said it was continuing to inject nitrogen into reactor No.1 after no irregularities were reported.

Engineers, who sealed a leak this week that had allowed highly radioactive water into the sea, are pumping nitrogen into one reactor to prevent the risk of a hydrogen gas explosion, and want to start the process in another two reactors.

There were no abnormalities in radiation levels around Tohoku Electric's Onagawa nuclear power plant, where fuel rods are being cooled with just one outside power source, Japan's nuclear safety agency said.

As well as Fukushima Daiichi and Onagawa, nuclear power plants Higashidori in Aomori prefecture, Tokai No.2 in Ibaraki prefecture, and Fukushima Daini have been out of operation since the March quake.

No abnormalities were reported at those plants after Thursday's quake, which the meteorological agency said was an aftershock from last month's quake.

"Due to the (March 11 quake), the risk of landslides or buildings collapsing is higher than usual and there are possibilities of further damage with aftershocks," deputy chief cabinet secretary Tetsuro Fukuyama told reporters on Friday.

MULTIPLE CRISES

Japan's neighbours have sounded increasingly alarmed over the risk of radiation from the damaged plant 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, while tourists are staying away in what should be the peak season, and the country seeks ways to cut power use.

The world's worst nuclear disaster in 25 years is also raising concern over safety in the United States, which has more atomic reactors than any other country, especially at one plant which is similar to the one in Fukushima wrecked by last month's 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami.

TEPCO said late on Thursday it did not expect it would have to dump any more contaminated water into the ocean after Saturday.

Earlier, TEPCO said the chance of a repeat of the gas explosions that damaged two reactors in the first days of the disaster was "extremely small".

But as engineers battle multiple crises -- some the result of efforts to try to cool reactors -- officials admit it could take months to bring the reactors under control and years to clear up the toxic mess left behind.

"Data shows the reactors are in a stable condition, but we are not out of the woods yet," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters.

The government has already set up a 20 km (12 miles) exclusion zone around the plant, banned fishing along much of the northeast coast and set up evacuation centres for the tens of thousands forced to leave their homes following the crisis.

Trace levels of radioactive material have been detected in the air in 22 Chinese provinces but the amounts did not pose a threat to health or the environment, China's state news agency Xinhua said.

Earlier, China's Health Ministry said traces of radioactivity in spinach had been found in three provinces.

In South Korea, some schools closed because parents were worried that rain could be toxic.

"We've sent out an official communication today that schools should try to refrain from outdoor activities," an education official in South Korea said.

South Korea's nuclear safety agency reported a small level of radioactive iodine and caesium particles in rain but said it was not enough to be a health concern. The few schools that closed were expected to reopen on Friday if the rain stopped.

India said a blanket ban on food items imported from Japan was not warranted, though authorities would monitor the situation every week, a source in the trade ministry said.

India said on April 5 it had imposed a three-month ban on imports of food from Japan on fears that radiation from an earthquake-hit nuclear plant was spreading to other parts of the country.

(Additional reporting by Mayumi Negishi, Chisa Fujioka, Yoko Nishikawa and Hideyuki Sano in Tokyo, Sui-lee Wee in Beijing, Jack Kim in Seoul and Matthias Williams in New Delhi; Writing by Daniel Magnowski; Editing by Robert Birsel)

[kueytoc]

Japan says Economy in "SEVERE" condition after disaster

By Chizu Nomiyama and Yoko Nishikawa | Reuters – Fri, Apr 8, 2011 5:08 PM SGT

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's economy is in a "severe condition" with no quick recovery in sight following a triple disaster triggered by the March 11 earthquake that has sent service-sector sentiment plummeting the most on record, the government said on Friday.

While Japan confronts the economic impact of the disaster, it also faces increasing alarm from its neighbours with China expressing concern at the pumping of radioactive water into the sea from a crippled nuclear plant.

China's Foreign Ministry said it would "closely" monitor Japan's actions to end the crisis at the plant, where engineers are battling to contain radiation leaks. It demanded accurate information from Tokyo.

"As Japan's neighbour, we naturally express our concern about this," ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in a statement.

China is the first nation to publicly express its concern over a crisis that has lasted close to a month. Other countries have banned or restricted food imports from Japan over radiation fears.

"We ask that Japan reports the relevant information to the Chinese side in a swift, comprehensive and accurate way."

Power blackouts and restrictions, factory shutdowns, and a sharp drop in the number of tourists have left the world's third largest economy reeling. Many economists expect it to slip into recession this year as factory output and exports suffer.

The crippled Fukushima Daiicho nuclear power plant north of Tokyo means power shortages and supply disruptions that will leave the economy weak for some time, Japan's central bank said on Friday.

The Cabinet Office's assessment was equally bleak.

"Japan's economy is suddenly in a severe condition due to the effects of the earthquake," it said after releasing a monthly survey of hotel workers, restaurant staff and taxi drivers that showed a record fall in confidence to levels last seen during the depths of the global financial crisis.

In an obvious sign of the downturn; taxis park in long lines in central Tokyo each night, their drivers staying warm by idling the motor as they wait forlornly for a fare.

Japan is facing its worst crisis since World War Two after a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and a huge tsunami battered its northeast coast, leaving nearly 28,000 dead or missing and damaging six nuclear reactors north of Tokyo.

The Tokyo area and regions further north make up half of Japan's economy, Nomura research shows.

A strong 7.1 magnitude aftershock on Thursday night -- one of the biggest of more than 400 aftershocks above magnitude 5.0 -- shook the already ravaged northeast.

It forced two companies, including electronics giant Sony Corp, to stop production due to power cuts. At least two people were killed after the tremor.

There was a brief scare when water leaks were found on Friday at a second nuclear plant, Onagawa, in the northeast, but Japan's nuclear safety agency said it had not detected any change in radiation levels.

NO CHANGE IN RADIATION

A relieved Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), which operates Fukushima, said Thursday's quake had not caused any more damage. It briefly evacuated workers because of a tsunami alert, although that was later withdrawn.

The U.N.'s nuclear watchdog sounded an encouraging note when one of its officials said there were signs of progress in stabilising the Fukushima plant, though the situation remained very serious.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it had not detected any change in radiation levels following Thursday night's quake.

"The situation at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant remains very serious ... (but) there are early signs of recovery in some functions such as electrical power and instrumentation," the IAEA's head of nuclear safety, Denis Flory, said.

The agency said radiation in the region around the plant, as measured by gamma dose rates, had peaked in the early days of the crisis, and aside from a rise on March 22, had since fallen to "a level very close to background".

DISRUPTS BUSINESS

Japan's neighbours have grown increasingly anxious at the risk of contamination from radiation, with some schools in South Korea closing because of fears of toxic rain. Officials there said the radiation levels in the atmosphere were harmless.

China's health ministry said this week traces of radioactivity had been found in spinach in three provinces and the state news agency Xinhua reported trace levels of radioactivity detected in 22 provinces.

To cope with power shortages, Japan's government has asked major companies to cut electricity use in the peak summer months by up to a quarter and the Tokyo Stock Exchange said the power cuts meant it would have to delay plans to extend trading hours.

The impact of the quake meant both output and exports, major pillars of the economy, would remain weak, the central bank said.

"Output will hover at a low level for the time being but then start to increase as supply constraints are mitigated," the Bank of Japan said in its monthly report for April.

Companies and households will need to cut back significantly on power usage this summer when demand is at its peak, Trade Minister Banri Kaieda said after a cabinet meeting. He urged major companies to cut electricity consumption by 25 percent.

But some ministers at Friday's cabinet meeting called for an end to a campaign of "self restraint" by ordinary people that was adopted immediately after March 11 to cut fuel or electricity use and discourage stockpiling of necessities.

"Some cabinet ministers said excessive self-restraint could worsen the economy, weakening economic power for reconstruction," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters.

PREVENTING MORE EXPLOSIONS

Utility TEPCO said it was continuing to inject nitrogen into one of its Fukushima reactors to prevent a repeat of last month's hydrogen explosions.

The plant is far from under control and engineers have been forced to pump in tonnes of water to cool down reactors, in the process making it radioactive. The water then has to be stored, though some has been released into the sea.

Officials say it could take months to bring the reactors under control and years to clear up the toxic mess left behind.

The government has set up a 20-km (12-mile) exclusion zone around the plant, banned fishing along much of the northeast coast and set up evacuation centres for the tens of thousands forced to leave their homes following the crisis.

(Additional reporting by Mayumi Negishi, Chisa Fujioka, Yoko Nishikawa and Kiyoshi Takenaka in Tokyo, Ben Blanchard and Sui-lee Wee in Beijing, Jack Kim in Seoul; Writing by Jonathan Thatcher and Michael Perry; Editing by Neil Fullick)

[kueytoc]

Mysterious Light spotted during Japan Earthquake

Friday, April 8 05:59 pm

A mysterious flashing light was captured on video over Japan as yet another earthquake hit the beleaguered country on Thursday, but what was it? Skip related content

The footage clearly shows a ball of light pulsing for around eight seconds on the horizon in Tokyo during the aftershock.

It registered 7.1 on the Richter scale and struck 40 miles east of Sendai along the same fault line as last month's quake.

We take a look at several theories as to what could have caused the bizarre phenomenon, from the plausible to the wacky, and get some insight from an expert seismologist.

Earthquake light

The most widely circulating explanation is that this was an 'earthquake light' - literally a light that appears in the sky during times of seismic activity.

There have been a number of recorded instances of these - at Kalapana in 1975, L'Aquilla in 2009 and Chile in 2010 - but the phenomenon is not universally accepted in the scientific community.

Dr David Robinson, an earthquake researcher at Oxford University, told Yahoo! News one reason why these might happen.

"The idea is that just before an earthquake, you might get some build up of stress just prior to the event.

"People have invented all kinds of mechanisms whereby this stress gets released as an electromagnetic excitation of the upper atmosphere, which can cause things like lights appearing, similar to the Northern Lights."

The problem with this theory, said Dr Robinson, was that no-one has yet come up with a plausible reason for why this actually happens. "Anything which is caused by an unknown mechanism is dubious," he said.

A second issue is that while there have been several recorded instances of 'earthquake lights', they don't happen during every earthquake.

"There are satellites up there that record every thunderstorm that happens on earth. If you're getting something similar to a flash of lightning during an earthquake then they're going to measure it, but that's not happening."

There are a couple of other explanations that could explain this though. The first concerns quartz. When tectonic plates containing the mineral rub against each other, they create intense electric fields (called piezoelectricity). This could manifest itself as flashes of light.

A second, tantalizing possibility is these lights could actually predict upcoming quakes. This theory suggests that before a quake, the ground 'exhales' radon, which results in light emissions in the atmosphere. Dr Robinson says this is "clutching at straws" though.

He doesn't rule out earthquake lights, but feels the subject needs more study.

"Just because they can't be explained doesn't necessarily make them not true. But until anyone comes up with a plausible mechanism it will be on the fringes of earthquake study."

Electrical explosion

Another possible theory for the burst of light is that it was some kind of electrical explosion. It's been speculated that the flash was an electrical transformer exploding after being struck by the quake.

During Thursday'squake 3.6million homes in North East Japan area lost power, traffic signals and road lights also stopped working. 900,000 houses were still affected on Friday afternoon.

A spokesman for the Tohuku Electric Power Company said six power plants in the area went down after the tremor and power lines throughout the area were damaged, making this explanation a possibility.

A US 'superweapon'

We're into the outlandish territory now. Many commentators, including oddball conspiracy theorist David Icke, have said the footage was evidence of 'Haarp' (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program).

Based in Alaska, this weather program was set up by the US Air Force, Navy and University of Alaska to research the upper atmosphere (the ionosphere) with a view to improving satellite communication.

Some have speculated that Haarp can physically change weather conditions, and the project's been blamed for triggering floods, hurricanes, droughts, the earthquakes in Haiti and Pakistan and even Gulf War Syndrome. Mind control is another one of its supposed capabilities.

Suffice to say the events in Japan have also been attributed to this 'superweapon' - with former governor of Minnesota and pro-wrestler Jesse Ventura telling Piers Morgan recently:

"The US's HAARP weapon system can cause natural disasters, including earthquakes and tsunamis like the one that happened in Japan."

UFOs

Whenever grainy handheld footage of a glowing light in the sky surfaces, it's only a matter of time before it's held up as evidence of UFOs. This video is no exception.

A quick YouTube search reveals a spate of alien sightings in the build up to the Japan earthquake, with little green men spotted above Kyoto and the Sakurajima Volcano. Even Chinese news agency Xinyua reported UFOs flying over Mount Fuji in February.

An alien spacecraft was also spotted during recent Japanese news coverage of the Earthquake, but this was later confirmed to be a helicopter.

Written by Orlando Parfitt

[kueytoc]

SAFES, CASH wash up on Japan shores after Tsunami

In a country that keeps cash at home, safes swept away in tsunami wash up on Japan's shores

Tomoko A. Hosaka, Associated Press, On Monday 11 April 2011, 11:29 SGT

OFUNATO, Japan (AP) -- There are no cars inside the parking garage at Ofunato police headquarters. Instead, hundreds of dented metal safes, swept out of homes and businesses by last month's tsunami, crowd the long rectangular building.

Any one could hold someone's life savings.

Safes are washing up along the tsunami-battered coast, and police are trying to find their owners -- a unique problem in a country where many people, especially the elderly, still stash their cash at home. By one estimate, some $350 billion worth of yen doesn't circulate.

There's even a term for this hidden money in Japanese: "tansu yokin." Or literally, "wardrobe savings."

So the massive post-tsunami cleanup under way along hundreds of miles (kilometers) of Japan's ravaged northeastern coast involves the delicate business of separating junk from valuables. As workers and residents pick through the wreckage, they are increasingly stumbling upon cash and locked safes.

One month after the March 11 tsunami devastated Ofunato and other nearby cities, police departments already stretched thin now face the growing task of managing lost wealth.

"At first we put all the safes in the station," said Noriyoshi Goto, head of the Ofunato Police Department's financial affairs department, which is in charge of lost-and-found items. "But then there were too many, so we had to move them."

Goto couldn't specify how many safes his department has collected so far, saying only that there were "several hundreds" with more coming in every day.

Identifying the owners of lost safes is hard enough. But it's nearly impossible when it comes to wads of cash being found in envelopes, unmarked bags, boxes and furniture.

Yasuo Kimura, 67, considers himself one of the lucky ones. The tsunami swallowed and gutted his home in Onagawa, about 50 miles (75 kilometers) south of Ofunato. He escaped with his 90-year-old father and the clothes on his back. But he still has money in the bank.

That's not the case for many of his longtime friends and acquaintances, said Kimura, a former bank employee.

"I spent my career trying to convince them to deposit their money in a bank," he said, staring out at his flattened city. "They always thought it was safer to keep it at home."

The number of safes that have turned up in Ofunato alone is a reflection of the area's population: In Iwate prefecture, where this Pacific fishing town is located, nearly 30 percent of the population is over 65.

Many of them keep money at home out of habit and convenience, said Koetsu Saiki of the Miyagi Prefectural Police's financial affairs department. This practice is likely compounded by persistently low interest rates, leaving little financial incentive for depositing money in a bank.

As in Iwate, local police stations in Miyagi are reporting "very high numbers" of safes and cash being turned in.

"It's just how people have operated their entire lives," he said. "When they need money, they'd rather have their money close by. It's not necessarily that they don't trust banks. But there are a lot of people who don't feel comfortable using ATMs, especially the elderly."

A 2008 report by Japan's central bank estimated that more than a third of 10,000-yen ($118) bank notes issued don't actually circulate. That amounts to some 30 trillion yen, or $354 billion at current exchange rates, ferreted away.

The government has estimated that the cost of the earthquake and tsunami could reach $309 billion, making it the world's most expensive natural disaster on record. The figure includes direct losses from damaged houses, roads and utilities. But it doesn't take into account individual losses from home-held cash washed away by the powerful waves.

With more than 25,000 people believed to have died in the tsunami, many safes could to go unclaimed. Under Japanese law, authorities must store found items for three months. If the owner does not appear within that time, the finder is entitled to the item, unless it contains personal identification such as an address book.

If neither owner nor finder claims it, the government takes possession.

But all those who survived and are seeking to retrieve savings will need to offer proof. That proof could include opening the safe and providing identification that matches any documents inside, said Akihiro Ito, a spokesman for the disaster response unit in Kesennuma, among the worst-hit cities in Miyagi prefecture.

Cold, hard cash is more complicated.

"Even if we receive 50,000 yen ($589) in cash, and someone comes in saying they've lost 50,000 yen, it's nearly impossible to prove exactly whose money we actually have," Saiki of Miyagi's police force said.

Only 10 to 15 percent of valuables found in the tsunami rubble have been returned so far, officials in Miyagi and Iwate prefectures said last week.

Instead of waiting, police in Iwate are considering a more proactive measure. Individual stations will likely start opening safes to try to identify their owners, said Kiyoto Fujii, a spokesman for the prefectural police.

And the safes are likely to keep on coming.

"There's probably a lot of valuables still left in the rubble, including safes," Fujii said. "We are expecting and preparing for that."

[kueytoc]

Japan raises Nuclear Crisis to same level as Chernobyl

By Shinichi Saoshiro and Mayumi Negishi | Reuters – 28 minutes ago

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan put its nuclear calamity on par with the world's worst nuclear disaster, Chernobyl, on Tuesday after new data showed that more radiation had leaked from its earthquake-crippled power plant in the early days of the crisis than first thought.

Officials said it had taken time to measure radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi facility after it was smashed by March 11's massive quake and tsunami, and the upgrade in its severity rating to the highest level on a globally recognised scale did not mean the situation had suddenly become more critical.

"Our preparations for how to measure (the radiation leakage) when such a tsunami and earthquake occurred were insufficient and, as a result, we were late in disseminating information internationally," said a senior official in Prime Minister Naoto Kan's office.

Hidehiko Nishiyama, a deputy director-general of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA), said the decision to raise the severity of the incident from level 5 to 7 -- the same as the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine in 1986 -- was based on cumulative quantities of radiation released.

"Even before this, we had considered this a very serious incident so, in that sense, there will be no big change in the way we deal with it just because it has been designated level 7," an agency official said.

As another major aftershock rattled the earthquake-ravaged east of the country, a fire broke out at the plant, but engineers later extinguished the blaze.

However, the operator of the stricken facility appears to be no closer to restoring cooling systems at the reactors, critical to lowering the temperature of overheated nuclear fuel rods.

The official in Kan's official said that, at a news conference expected later on Tuesday, the prime minister would instruct plant operator Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) to set target dates for when it would halt the radiation leakage as well as restore the cooling systems.

No radiation-linked deaths have been reported since the earthquake struck, and only 21 plant workers have been affected by minor radiation sickness, according to Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano.

"NOWHERE NEAR CHERNOBYL"

A level 7 incident means a major release of radiation with a widespread health and environmental impact, while a 5 level is a limited release of radioactive material, with several deaths, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Several experts said the new rating exaggerated the severity of the crisis, and that the Chernobyl disaster was far worse.

"It's nowhere near that level. Chernobyl was terrible -- it blew and they had no containment, and they were stuck," said nuclear industry specialist Murray Jennex, an associate professor at San Diego State University in California.

"Their (Japan's) containment has been holding, the only thing that hasn't is the fuel pool that caught fire."

The blast at Chernobyl blew the roof off a reactor and sent large amounts of radiation wafting across Europe. The accident contaminated vast areas, particularly in Ukraine and neighbouring Belarus, led to the evacuation of well over 100,000 and affected livestock as far away as Scandinavia and Britain.

Nevertheless, the increase in the severity level heightens the risk of diplomatic tension with Japan's neighbours over radioactive fallout. China and South Korea have already been critical of the operator's decision to pump radioactive water into the sea, a process it has now stopped.

"Raising the level to a 7 has serious diplomatic implications. It is telling people that the accident has the potential to cause trouble to our neighbours," said Kenji Sumita, a nuclear expert at Osaka University.

HUGE ECONOMIC DAMAGE

The March earthquake and tsunami killed up to 28,000 lives and the estimated cost stands at $300 billion, making it the world's most expensive disaster.

Japan's economics minister warned the economic damage was likely to be worse than first thought as power shortages will cut factory output and disrupt supply chains.

The Bank of Japan governor said the economy was in a "severe state", while central bankers were uncertain when efforts to rebuild the northeast would boost growth, according to minutes from a meeting held three days after the earthquake struck.

NISA said the amount of radiation released into the atmosphere from the plant, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, was around 10 percent that of Chernobyl.

"Radiation released into the atmosphere peaked from March 15 to 16. Radiation is still being released, but the amount now has fallen considerably," said NISA's Nishiyama.

(Additional reporting by Risa Maeda, Yoko Nishikawa, Linda Sieg and Nathan Layne in Tokyo, Scott DiSavino in New York and Ron Popeski in Singapore;; Writing by Michael Perry and Daniel Magnowski; Editing by John Chalmers)

[kueytoc]

FACTBOX - International Nuclear Event Scale explained

By Bernie Woodall in Detroit and Scott DiSavino in New York, editing by Miral Fahmy | Reuters Tue, Apr 12, 2011 12:42 PM SGT

REUTERS - Japan on Tuesday raised the severity level of its nuclear crisis to put it on par with the Chernobyl accident 25 years ago, the worst atomic power in history.

But what does that mean?

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) -- an inter-governmental organization for scientific co-operation in the nuclear field -- said it uses the scale to communicate to the public in a consistent way the safety significance of nuclear and radiological events.

The International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale, or INES, ranges from one to seven. The most serious level is a seven, which refers to a "major accident," while a one is an "anomaly". The scale is designed so the severity of an event is about 10 times greater for each increase in level.

The following are some examples of accidents according to their INES level from the IAEA, see http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Factsheets/English/ines.pdf

LEVEL 7 - MAJOR ACCIDENT

A major release of radioactive material with widespread health and environmental effects requiring implementation of planned and extended countermeasures.

* CHERNOBYL, Soviet Union (now Ukraine), 1986 - An explosion and fire released large quantities of radioactive contamination into the atmosphere, which spread over much of Western Russia and Europe.

LEVEL 6 - SERIOUS ACCIDENT:

A significant release of radioactive material likely to require implementation of planned countermeasures.

* KYSHTYM, Soviet Union (now Russia), 1957 - Significant release of radioactive material to the environment from explosion of high activity waste tank.

LEVEL 5 - ACCIDENT WITH WIDER CONSEQUENCES:

A limited release of radioactive material likely to require implementation of some planned countermeasures and several deaths from radiation.

* THREE MILE ISLAND, USA, 1979 - Severe damage to reactor core. This event galvanized opposition to a growing core anti-nuclear power movement in the United States. After this event, energy companies did not start the construction of any new reactors in the United States for over 30 years and stopped work on several reactors that were already under construction.

* WINDSCALE PILE, UK, 1957 - A release of radioactive material following a fire in a reactor core

* GOIANIA, Brazil, 1987 - Four people died and six people received high doses of radiation.

LEVEL 4 - ACCIDENT WITH LOCAL CONSEQUENCES:

A minor release of radioactive material unlikely to result in implementation of planned countermeasures other than local food controls and fuel melt, or damage to fuel resulting in more than 0.1 percent release of core inventory, and the release of significant quantities of radioactive material within an installation with a high probability of significant public exposure.

* TOKAIMURA, Japan, 1999 - Fatal overexposure of workers following a criticality event at a nuclear facility.

* SAINT-LAURENT-DES-EAUX, France, 1980 - Melting of one channel of fuel in the reactor with no release outside the site.

* FLEURUS, Belgium, 2006 - Severe health effects for worker at a commercial irradiation facility as a result of high doses of radiation.

(Reporting by Bernie Woodall in Detroit and Scott DiSavino in New York, editing by Miral Fahmy)

[kueytoc]

Japan Nuclear Crisis at Highest Level

Yesterday, 05:53 am

Officials in Japan have raised the severity of the nuclear emergency at the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant, putting it on a par with the world's worst nuclear accident at Chernobyl after another major aftershock rattled the quake-ravaged east.

Engineers were no closer to restoring the cooling systems at the plant's reactors, critical to bringing down the temperature of overheated nuclear fuel rods, although a fire at the plant appeared to have been extinguished.

The rating of the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was raised to seven, the worst on an internationally recognised scale, from a five-rating. Officials said this reflects the initial severity of the crisis and not the current situation.

"This is a preliminary assessment, and is subject to finalisation by the International Atomic Energy Agency," said a spokesman at the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, the government's nuclear watchdog, which made the announcement with the Nuclear Safety Commission.

Nuclear industry specialist Murray Jennex, an associate professor at San Diego State University in California, dismissed the comparison.

"It's nowhere near that level. Chernobyl was terrible - it blew and they had no containment, and they were stuck. Their (Japan's) containment has been holding, the only thing that hasn't is the fuel pool that caught fire," he said.

A level seven incident entails a major release of radiation with widespread health and environmental effects, while a five-rated event is a limited release of radioactive material, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The scale is designed so the severity of an event is about ten times greater for each increase in level. The 1979 US nuclear accident at Three Mile Island was a five-rated incident.

An aftershock measuring 6.6 hit Fukushima prefecture on Monday evening, temporarily cutting power and forcing workers to evacuate the nuclear plant.

There have been hundreds of aftershocks since March 11, when a massive 9.0 magnitude earthquake and 15 metre tsunami hit northeast Japan, plunging the country into its worst crisis since World War Two.

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Japan says Nuclear Crisis stabilizing, time to Rebuild

10 hours 24 mins ago

Reuters Shinichi Saoshiro and Yoko Nishikawa

Japan's nuclear crisis is slowly stabilizing and the country must now focus on repairing the damage wrought by the devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck the northeast coast a month ago, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said.

He was speaking shortly after new data showed more radiation leaked from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in the early days of the crisis than first thought.

That new information put Japan's nuclear calamity in the same category as the world's worst nuclear disaster, Chernobyl, officials said, but the upgrade in its severity rating to the highest level on a globally recognized scale did not mean the situation had suddenly become more critical.

"The situation at the Fukushima Daiichi plant is slowly stabilizing, step by step, and the emission of radioactive substances is on a declining trend," Kan told a press briefing.

"A month has passed. We need to take steps toward restoration and reconstruction."

He said he had instructed a reconstruction panel to create a work blueprint by June.

He also called on opposition parties, whose help he needs to pass bills in a divided parliament, to take part in drafting reconstruction plans from an early stage.

The government is considering spinning off the part of plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) that oversees the stricken facility, Jiji news agency reported on Tuesday.

TEPCO appears to be no closer to restoring cooling systems at the reactors, critical to lowering the temperature of overheated nuclear fuel rods. On Tuesday, Japan's science ministry said small amounts of strontium, one of the most harmful radioactive elements, had been found in soil near Fukushima Daiichi.

Hidehiko Nishiyama, a deputy director-general of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA), said the decision to raise the severity of the incident from level 5 to 7 -- the same as the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine in 1986 -- was based on cumulative quantities of radiation released.

No radiation-linked deaths have been reported since the earthquake struck, and only 21 plant workers have been affected by minor radiation sickness, according to Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano. Late on Tuesday, Edano said he was aware the upgrading of the severity classification would worry people.

"It doesn't mean the situation today is worse than it was yesterday, it means the event as a whole is worse than previously thought," said nuclear expert John Price, a former member of the Safety Policy Unit at the UK's National Nuclear Corporation.

Late on Tuesday, a senior official at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the latest data from food samples in 8 prefectures showed contamination below permitted levels.

Earlier, NISA said the amount of radiation released into the atmosphere from the plant, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, was around 10 percent that of Chernobyl.

"Radiation released into the atmosphere peaked from March 15 to 16. Radiation is still being released, but the amount now has fallen considerably," said NISA's Nishiyama.

"NOWHERE NEAR" AS BAD AS CHERNOBYL

Several experts said the new rating exaggerated the severity of the crisis.

"It's nowhere near that level. Chernobyl was terrible -- it blew and they had no containment, and they were stuck," said nuclear industry specialist Murray Jennex, an associate professor at San Diego State University in California.

"Their (Japan's) containment has been holding, the only thing that hasn't is the fuel pool that caught fire."

The blast at Chernobyl blew the roof off a reactor and sent large amounts of radiation wafting across Europe. The accident contaminated vast areas and led to the evacuation of well over 100,000 people.

Still, the increase in the severity level heightens the risk of diplomatic tension with Japan's neighbors over radioactive fallout. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told Kan on Tuesday he was "concerned" about the release of radiation into the ocean.

China has so far been sympathetic rather than angry, though it and South Korea have criticized TEPCO's decision to pump radioactive water into the sea, a process it has now stopped.

The March earthquake and tsunami killed up to 28,000 people and the estimated financial cost stands at $300 billion, making it the world's most expensive disaster.

Kan appealed to the Japanese people not to stop spending.

"I would like to ask the public not to fall into an excessive self-restraint mood and to live as normally as possible," he said.

Japan's economics minister warned the damage was likely to be worse than first thought as power shortages would cut factory output and disrupt supply chains.

(Additional reporting by Risa Maeda, Yoko Kubota, Linda Sieg, Michael Perry, Paul Eckert and Nathan Layne in Tokyo, Chris Buckley in Beijing, and Ron Popeski in Singapore; Writing by Daniel Magnowski; Editing by Andrew Marshall)

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Japan Nuclear Accident no worse - WHO/IAEA

9 hours 19 mins ago

Stephanie Nebehay and Sylvia Westall

An increase in the severity level of Japan's nuclear accident does not mean the public health risk is any worse or that the disaster resembles Chernobyl in 1986, global expert bodies said on Tuesday.

"Our public health assessment is the same today as it was yesterday," World Health Organization spokesman Gregory Hartl told Reuters, explaining that the higher rating was the result of combining the amounts of radiation leaking from three reactors and counting them as a single incident.

"At the moment there is very little public health risk outside the 30-km (evacuation) zone."

Hartl said the Japanese authorities now had much more information than in the immediate aftermath of the disastrous quake and tsunami that smashed the Fukushima plant in northeast Japan on March 11.

"They are looking at the cumulative dose, but again this is at the reactor itself," he said. "Remember there is no one left ... around the reactor, it has been evacuated."

Separately, the International Atomic Energy Agency said the decision to raise the severity level at Fukushima to the highest rating of 7 from 5 previously did not mean the disaster was comparable to Chernobyl -- the worst nuclear power accident in history -- which was also a 7.

"The Fukushima accident and Chernobyl are very different. Chernobyl had a reactor in power. It was a huge explosion, a power explosion, and then you had a huge graphite fire for a number of days," Deputy Director General Denis Flory told a news conference.

"Also (Chernobyl had) the power to move all this radioactivity in the high atmosphere and then spread it all around the earth."

At Fukushima, the reactors shut down when the earthquake hit and the pressure vessels housing them did not blow up, said Flory, who is in charge of nuclear safety.

He also defended Japan's response to the crisis, saying it did not matter that the severity level had been raised only a month after the accident because this had not stopped authorities acting to protect people and the environment.

Japanese officials said earlier on Tuesday that it had taken them time to measure radiation from the plant. They too said the change to the rating did not mean the situation had suddenly become more critical.

Also on Tuesday, a Romanian laboratory said it had found traces of radioactive particles believed to have come from the Fukushima plant in rainwater and sheep milk in the center of the country.

Romanian researchers said they had found trace amounts of iodine-131, though below levels of concern for human health, state news agency Agerpres said.

(Reporting by Sylvia Westall and Michael Shields in Vienna, Stephanie Nebehay and Andrew Callus in Geneva and by Bucharest bureau; Editing by Jonathan Lynn)

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Q+A: How does Fukushima differ from Chernobyl ???

9 hours 1 min ago

Reuters Mayumi Negishi

Japan on Tuesday raised the severity level of its nuclear crisis to put it on par with the 1986 Chernobyl accident, the world's worst nuclear power disaster.

But for all their criticism of how Tokyo Electric Power Co and Japan's government are handling the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, experts agree with them on one point: Fukushima is not another Chernobyl.

"Fukushima has its own unique risks, but comparing it to Chernobyl is going too far. Fukushima is unlikely to have the kind of impact on the health of people in neighboring countries, the way Chernobyl did," said nuclear specialist Kenji Sumita at Osaka University.

Here are the main points of how the two accidents differ.

ARE THE TWO DESIGNS THE SAME?

Unit 4 at Chernobyl was a water-cooled and graphite-moderated reactor -- a combination that can and did yield a runaway chain reaction. A series of gross errors and misjudgment by operators resulted in an explosion and fire that catapulted radioactivity into the upper atmosphere.

The resulting release of radiation has been compared to 10 times that released by the 1945 U.S. nuclear bomb attack on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.

The boiling water reactors at Fukushima do not have a combustible graphite core. The nuclear fuel in reactors No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 was allowed to melt at least partially, but operators have since succeeded in cooling both the reactors and the spent fuel pools and no chain reaction is happening now.

As long as cooling operations continue and Japan can prepare tanks fast enough to store the contamination overflow, Japan can still hope to buy time to figure out how to bring the reactors to a cold shutdown.

HOW DO THE CONTAINMENT STRUCTURES DIFFER?

Chernobyl had no containment structure and nothing stopped the trajectory of radioactive materials into the air.

Fukushima's reactors are built on granite foundations and are surrounded by steel and concrete structures. The reactor vessels and containment structures, as well as some of the pipes leading from the reactors, are likely to have been damaged by the March 11 tsunami and recurring earthquakes. But with radiation levels now down to a sliver of what they were at the peak, experts say that the structures are still holding.

Chernobyl contaminated an area as far as 500 km (300 miles) from the plant, and an area spanning 30 km (18 miles) around the plant is still an exclusion zone and uninhabited.

HAVE THERE BEEN FALLOUT-LINKED DEATHS IN JAPAN?

At Fukushima, there have been no deaths so far due to radiation. Eight people have been injured. More deadly have been the 9.0 magnitude quake that hit on March 11 and the aftershocks that have rocked the site while workers tried to bring the plant under control. Two have died and three have been critically injured.

At Chernobyl, the initial explosion resulted in the death of two workers. Twenty-eight of the firemen and emergency clean-up workers died in the first three months after the explosion from acute radiation sickness and one died of cardiac arrest.

FLOW OF INFORMATION VERSUS COVER UP

Bungling, yes. Disorganized, incoherent and sometimes contradictory, yes. But it is difficult to accuse Japanese officials or TEPCO of intentionally covering up information, with round-the-clock updates and a steady stream of data.

Chernobyl was initially covered up by the secretive Soviet state, which remained silent for two days. But authorities, obliged by huge radiation releases throughout Europe, gradually disclosed details of the accident, showing unprecedented Soviet-era openness.

DOES FUKUSHIMA POSE A GREATER RISK IF IT ALL GOES WRONG?

It's not over yet. One month since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, workers still have to inject water into the reactors, creating more contaminated water that is hampering the restoration of power to pumps to cool the reactors and bring them to a cold shutdown.

The situation led a frustrated and demoralised TEPCO spokesman to say that the total fallout could exceed that of Chernobyl. Fukushima involves loss of control at four reactors and potentially more radioactive material, that could continue to seep, leak or burst into the environment.

Officials have said that if power cannot be restored to the cooling pumps, there are other measures, such as air cooling, and that in a worst-case scenario, they could try water entombment in the reactors whose containment structures are sound.

(Created by Mayumi Negishi; Editing by David Chance and Ron Popeski)

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Nuclear Fears keep Shippers wary of travel to Japan

By Randy Fabi and Harry Suhartono | Reuters – Wed, Apr 13, 2011 10:20 AM SGT

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Foreign crew members remain hesitant to travel near Japan's quake-crippled nuclear plant, including to some ports outside the exclusion zone, forcing shippers to use Japanese vessels instead to transport goods, senior industry executives said.

Maritime companies were supplying crew members travelling to the Tokyo Bay area, located 240 km (150 miles) from the damaged Fukushima nuclear complex, with special anti-radiation suits, Geiger counters and medicine.

That was despite daily assurances from Japan's transport ministry that radiation levels in the area, which included the main container ports of Tokyo and Yokohama and the Chiba oil port, were at a "very safe" level.

"Crews do not want to go there. Even Chiba, crews still do not want to go," Kyuho Whang, chief executive of South Korea's SK Shipping, told reporters at an industry conference in Singapore.

"So they rely more on the Japanese vessels than the foreign vessels."

Whang did not say which companies were being forced to use Japanese vessels.

NOT YET WIDESPREAD

The use of Japanese-flagged vessels was not yet widespread, but a senior shipping executive, who wished not to be named, said it could become more routine if more and more foreign crews decide against travelling to the area.

"We have had ships going to Japan since the tsunami," said Morten Arntzen, president of U.S.-listed Overseas Shipholding Group.

"The master of the ship has full authority to say we are not going there and that authority will not be second guessed."

Japan has restricted seaborne traffic 30 km from the Fukushima nuclear plant, while many shipping companies have imposed a minimum 80 km exclusion zone.

To alleviate concerns about contamination from the nuclear plant, Japan said it would begin randomly measuring radiation levels of ships and containers leaving the Tokyo Bay area, and issue to ship owners certificates recording radiation levels confirmed as below a standard level.

Despite this, China's quality watchdog has found 10 cases of ships, aircraft or cargo arriving from Japan with higher than normal levels of radiation since mid-March.

One of the vessels, Mitsui O.S.K. Line's MOL Presence, was denied entry and sent back to Japan. It was later allowed into a Hong Kong port.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told his Japanese counterpart Naoto Kan on Tuesday he was concerned about the release of radiation into the ocean and urged Tokyo to take "very seriously" the possible impact on neighbouring countries.

The head of Japan's third largest shipping company urged countries not to act irrationally to the nuclear crisis and base their trade decisions on science.

"We remain calm, but there is too much overreaction by some countries," Kenichi Kuroya, chief executive of Kawasaki Kisen told Reuters late Tuesday.

"Regrettably in the coming months, many buyers may demand to prove that cargo is safe, even for auto parts. Some buyers want proof it's not radioactive, but we don't know how to."

A handful of container shippers, mostly German owned, suspended stops at Tokyo Bay ports following the March 11 disaster but most have since resumed operations.

(Editing by Himani Sarkar)

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Japan Govt downgrades Economy view on Earthquake

By Kaori Kaneko | Reuters – Wed, Apr 13, 2011 10:03 AM SGT

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's government on Wednesday downgraded its assessment of the economy for the first time in six months, saying it is showing weakness after a devastating earthquake and tsunami last month battered the northeast coast.

The revision is in line with the Bank of Japan, which also cut its assessment of the economy last week in the wake of the March 11 disaster, saying it would remain under "strong downward pressure" for some time.

"The economy is showing weakness recently due to the influence of the Great East Japan Earthquake," the government said in its monthly economic report for April.

That compared with the previous month's report that said the pickup in the economy was only weakly self-sustaining and there was concern about the influence of the quake .

The government also downgraded its views on key aspects of the economy, including exports, industrial production and private consumption, after the disaster and subsequent nuclear safety crisis disrupted supply chains and triggered power shortages.

"The condition of the economy is no longer flat or at a standstill, but rather the direction is downward," said Shigeru Sugihara, director of macroeconomic analysts at the Cabinet Office.

The government expects the weakness to continue for the near term but with a pickup resuming along with a recovery in production, reflecting solid overseas economies and the effects of various policy measures.

The government also warned of downside risks to the outlook that could stem from power supply constraints, slow progress in restoring supply chains and the impact of rising oil prices.

The government also cut its assessment on exports for the first time in four months, saying there are concerns about a decline due to last month's disaster. Previously, it said exports were showing movement towards picking up.

The Cabinet Office also cut its assessment on industrial production for the first time in five months, saying manufacturing activity was stagnating.

The government's monthly report also cut its view on private consumption for the first time in two months, saying that some weakness was seen recently.

(Reporting by Kaori Kaneko; Editing by Edmund Klamann)

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Oil hovers above $106 as traders mull Crude Demand

By ALEX KENNEDY - Associated Press | AP – 52 minutes ago

Oil prices hovered near $106 a barrel Wednesday in Asia as traders mulled whether higher fuel costs will undermine crude demand enough to stymie a two-month rally.

Benchmark crude for May delivery was up 22 cents at $106.47 a barrel at midday Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract gave up $3.67, or 3 percent, to settle at $106.25 on Tuesday.

In London, Brent crude for May delivery was up 75 cents to $121.67 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

Key energy groups sent mixed signals to investors Tuesday about the impact a 33 percent surge in oil prices since mid-February has had on demand.

The International Energy Agency and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said higher prices had begun to chip away at fuel consumption, but left unchanged their crude demand growth forecasts for this year.

"High oil prices are yet to show any considerable impact on oil demand," Barclays Capital said in a report. "It is far too premature to signal that the first signs of demand destruction are already noticeable."

The American Petroleum Institute said late Tuesday that crude inventories fell 1.2 million barrels last week, close to an increase of 1.6 million barrels forecast by analysts surveyed by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.

However, the API also said inventories of gasoline fell by 4.6 million barrels while the Platts survey showed analysts expected a fall of only 1.3 million barrels, suggesting gasoline demand in the U.S. remains strong.

In other Nymex trading in May contracts, heating oil rose 1.9 cents to $3.19 a gallon and gasoline gained 2.0 cents to $3.18 a gallon. Natural gas futures were unchanged at $4.10 per 1,000 cubic feet.

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After Japan, Nuclear Accident Ratings reform sought

By Scott DiSavino and Eileen O'Grady | Reuters Wed, Apr 13, 2011 7:00 AM SGT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The declaration that the Fukushima crisis ranks at the same level as the Chernobyl disaster on the international nuclear accident scale has some experts calling for radical reform of the system.

Before Fukushima, the 1986 Chernobyl disaster was the only event classified as a level 7 event on the scale. The blast at Chernobyl in Ukraine spread radioactive material over much of Europe, killing dozens in and around the plant and many more from cancer over time.

Japan's nuclear regulator, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA), on Tuesday raised the severity of the Fukushima accident from a level 5 to a 7, based on the amount of radiation pouring out of the plant.

"Fukushima was not as bad as Chernobyl. If Fukushima is a level 7 accident, maybe we need to go back and recalibrate the scale and add a level 8 or 9," said Najmedin Meshkati, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Southern California.

NISA itself has said the amount of radiation released was only about 10 percent of that from Chernobyl and no radiation-linked deaths have yet been reported. About 21 plant workers have had minor radiation sickness.

The International Nuclear Event Scale (INES) was designed in 1989 by the International Atomic Energy Agency and others after the Chernobyl disaster to help inform the public about the severity of a nuclear accident.

Its rankings are similar to the Richter or the moment magnitude scale for earthquakes. Each level on the INES scale represents a nuclear accident about ten times more severe than the previous level. The INES scale starts at Level 1 or 'Anomaly' and rises to a Level 7 or 'Major Accident'.

The inconsistency in comparing Fukushima and Chernobyl comes from the fact that "a 7 covers a wide magnitude of sins," said James Acton, an associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

He said both events are categorized as a level 7 on the INES scale because the amount of radiation emitted had reached a defined threshold, not because the accident at Tokyo Electric Power Co's (TEPCO) stricken Fukushima plant was as serious as Chernobyl.

CONFUSING RANKINGS

There can be confusion as to the actual severity of an accident because there is no one authority to rank the event. Depending on the nation concerned, the job is left up to the company that owns the plant, the government agency that regulates the plant or a scientific body.

"Clearly (Fukushima) is not as bad as it can get and not as bad as Chernobyl," said Kenneth Barish, professor of physics at University of California at Riverside.

"Even if the amount of radiation released at Fukushima is of the same order of magnitude as Chernobyl...the effect on health appears to be far lower due to the differences in the event and response to the event," Barish said.

But Fukushima did involve three reactors and seven spent fuel pools, containing thousands of highly radioactive rods. Hydrogen explosions rocked the plant in the first week after an earthquake and tsunami crippled the reactors.

Chernobyl meanwhile involved only one reactor. In fact, the last unit at Chernobyl did not shut until 2000, 14 years after the accident.

"It has been obvious all along this was a 7 ... There are three reactors that are not being cooled and four fuel pools too. Chernobyl was only one core," said Arnie Gundersen, chief engineer at Fairewinds Associates and a 29-year veteran of the nuclear industry who worked on reactors similar to those at Fukushima.

SURPRISE UPGRADE

The experts said Japan could have done a better job of preparing its citizens and neighboring countries for the shock rise in the ranking.

"I think the Japanese government and TEPCO could have emphasized how little they knew about conditions at the reactors and spent fuel ponds when the crisis began," said IHS Energy Asia Pacific analyst Thomas Grieder.

"They could have stated that the crisis rating was based on what information they had available at the time -- with the caveat that this information was severely limited and it would take time to gather on radiation releases and there was a possibility the situation could be worse than they initially believed," Grieder said.

Bad as Fukushima is on the ranking system, experts warn that the plant is still not fully under control and a deterioration is still possible.

Another hydrogen explosion could severely damage the containment facilities, releasing large amounts of radiation, while the aftershocks that keep rocking the plant could lead to a complete core meltdown if the workers cannot keep the cooling water flowing.

"There is still hope of repairing or replacing damaged cooling systems at Fukushima rather than simply burying the entire site," Grieder said.

The damaged reactor at Chernobyl was in such a serious condition that it had to be buried in a concrete and steel sarcophagus.

(Reporting by Scott DiSavino in New York and Eileen O'Grady in Houston, editing by Martin Howell)