Archive

Archive for the ‘Japan’ Category

MELTDOWN: Plutonium Found In Soil At Fukushima As Cover Up Continues

March 29, 2011 Comments off

Steve Watson
infowars.com

Japanese news is reporting that most highly radioactive isotope known to man, plutonium, has been discovered in the soil in multiple different locations at the ailing Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Even so, the Japanese government and the plant operators maintain there is no risk to human health.

Authorities have confirmed that three different kinds of plutonium have been discovered.

From Kyodo news:

Plutonium has been detected in soil at five locations at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Monday.

The operator of the nuclear complex said that the plutonium is believed to have been discharged from nuclear fuel at the plant, which was damaged by the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

While noting that the concentration level does not pose a risk to human health, the utility firm said it will strengthen monitoring on the environment in and around the nuclear plant.

Further details suggest that this information has been known for some time and has been kept Read more…

Breach suspected at troubled Japanese power plant

March 26, 2011 Comments off

yahoo.com

TOKYO – Two weeks after an earthquake and tsunami triggered a crisis at a nuclear plant, the government said Friday there is a suspected breach at a reactor — another setback that would mean radioactive contamination at the facility is more serious than once thought.

Japanese leaders defended their decision not to evacuate people from a wider area around the plant, insisting they are safe if they stay indoors. But officials also said residents may want to voluntarily move to areas with better facilities, since supplies in the tsunami-devastated region are running short.

The escalation in the nuclear plant crisis came as the death toll from the quake and tsunami passed the grim milestone of 10,000 on Friday. Across the battered northeast coast, hundreds of thousands of people whose homes were destroyed still have no power, no hot meals and, in many cases, no showers for 14 days.

The uncertain nuclear situation again halted work at the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex, where authorities have been scrambling to stop the overheated facility from leaking Read more…

Chernobyl-Style Yellow Rain Causes Panic In Japan

March 25, 2011 1 comment

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
March 24, 2011

Radioactive yellow rain that fell in Tokyo and surrounding areas last night caused panic amongst Japanese citizens and prompted a flood of phone calls to Japan’s Meteorological Agency this morning, with people concerned that they were being fed the same lies as victims of Chernobyl, who were told that yellow rain which fell over Russia and surrounding countries after the 1986 disaster was merely pollen, the same explanation now being offered by Japanese authorities.

“After two days of rain in Tokyo I woke up to a thick coating of this yellow stuff all over my car. What looks like a glare between the glass and the body of the car is actually pollen. My first thought was Read more…

Geologists warn another earthquake could tear Tokyo in two after weakening of fault line below capital

March 24, 2011 Comments off

dailymail.co.uk

Geologists have warned that another powerful earthquake could inflict terrible damage on Tokyo because the Size 9 monster which struck on March 11 has altered the earth’s surface.

The quake has put pressure on the fault lines near the Japanese capital and experts have suggested that a size 7.5 magnitude earthquake could hit.

The structure of the tectonic plates and fault lines around the city makes it unlikely that Tokyo, home to 13million people, would be hit by a quake anywhere near the intensity of the one 10 days ago, said Roger Musson of the British Geological Survey.

Bustling: The busy Japanese capital Tokyo has 13million people living in its centre - and it could be hit by another earthquake very soonBustling: The busy Japanese capital Tokyo has 13million people living in its centre – and it could be Read more…

US bars some Japan foods over radiation fears

March 24, 2011 Comments off

AFP

WASHINGTON – The United States has announced it was barring some food imports from Japan due to fears of radiation and nuclear contamination in the wake of an earthquake and tsunami disaster.

The US Food and Drug Administration said it had placed an import alert on all milk, milk products, fresh vegetables and fruits from certain regions.

This means that no products of these types from the prefectures of Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi and Gunma can enter the United States without first being shown to be safe.

“In addition, FDA will continue to flag all entries from Japan in order to determine whether they originated from the affected area. FDA will test all food and feed shipments from the affected area,” an email statement said.

“FDA import investigators operating at ports of entry have radiation detection devices (radiation pagers) available to them for their personal safety,” the statement Read more…

Japan battles crippled nuclear plant, radiation fears grow

March 23, 2011 Comments off

www.jpost.com

Radiation found in sea water, milk, vegetables; IAEA: Overall situation at Fukushima plant remains serious; 21,000 dead or missing.

TOKYO – Rising temperatures around the core of one of the reactors at Japan’s quake-crippled nuclear plant sparked new concern on Tuesday and more water was needed to cool it down, the plant’s operator said.

Despite hopes of progress in the world’s worst nuclear crisis in a quarter of a century, triggered by an earthquake and tsunami that left at least 21,000 people dead or missing, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said it needed more time before it could say the reactors were stabilized.

Technicians working inside an evacuation zone around the stricken plant on Japan’s northeast Pacific coast, 250 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, have attached power cables to all six reactors and started a pump at one to cool overheating nuclear Read more…

U.S. military considers mandatory evacuations in Yokosuka, Japan

March 23, 2011 Comments off

cnn.com

Sailors move food and other supplies across the USS Ronald Reagan's flight deck for earthquake and tsunami victims in Japan.
Sailors move food and other supplies across the USS Ronald Reagan’s flight deck for earthquake and tsunami victims in Japan.

Washington (CNN) — The U.S. military is considering the mandatory evacuation of thousands of American troops and their families in Japan out of concern over rising radiation levels, a senior defense official tells CNN.

The official, who did not want to be on the record talking about ongoing deliberations, says there are no discussions to evacuate all U.S. troops across the country. The talks have focused exclusively on U.S. troops in Yokosuka, just south of Tokyo, the official said. Yokosuka is home to America’s largest naval base in Japan. The military is monitoring radiation levels on a constant basis.

As of Monday, the U.S. Navy had no more warships Read more…

Japan nuclear crisis on edge as toll of dead or missing surpasses 21,000 Radiation traces found in food and water

March 21, 2011 Comments off
www.vancouversun.com

A woman lights a candle during a vigil in remembrance of the victims of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated parts of Japan outside the Japanese embassy in Amman March 20, 2011.

TOKYO — Japan hoped power lines restored to its stricken nuclear plant may help solve the world’s worst atomic crisis in 25 years, triggered by an earthquake and tsunami that also left more than 21,000 people dead or missing.The Asian nation’s people are in shock at both the ongoing battle to avert deadly radiation at the six-reactor Fukushima plant and a still-rising death toll from the March 11 disaster.

The world’s third largest economy has suffered an estimated $250 billion of damage with entire towns in the northeast obliterated in Japan’s darkest moment since World War Two.

Tokyo’s markets are closed for a holiday on Monday.

Elsewhere, investors will be weighing risks to the global economy from Japan’s multiple crisis, along with conflict in Libya and other unrest in the Arab world.

Easing Japan’s gloom briefly, local TV showed one moving Read more…

Japan crisis: ‘There’s no food, tell people there is no food’

March 21, 2011 Comments off

telegraph.co.uk

A man scavenges for food inside a looted supermarket that was damaged in the tsunami in Ichinomaki, Japan

The unshaven man in a tracksuit stops his bicycle on the roadside and glances over his shoulder to check that he is unobserved. Satisfied, he reaches quickly into the sludge-filled gutter, picks up a discarded ready-meal and stuffs it into a plastic carrier bag.

In another time, another place, Kazuhiro Takahashi could be taken for a tramp, out scavenging for food after a long night on the bottle. In fact, he is just another hungry victim of Japan’s tsunami trying to find food for his family.

“I am so ashamed,” says the 43-year-old construction worker after he realises he has been spotted. “But for three days we haven’t had enough food. I have no money because my house was washed away by the tsunami and the cash machine is not working.”

If his haul wasn’t so pitiful — his bag had two packets of defrosted prawn dumplings and a handful of Read more…

Japan raises nuclear alert level

March 18, 2011 Comments off

Japan holds minute silence one week on from quake

Japan has raised the alert level at a stricken nuclear plant from four to five on a seven-point international scale for atomic incidents.

The crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi site is now two levels below Ukraine’s 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

The head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog warned in Tokyo the battle to stabilise the plant was a race against time.

The crisis was prompted by last week’s huge quake and tsunami, which has left at least 16,000 people dead or missing.

The Japanese nuclear agency’s decision to raise the alert level to five grades Fukushima’s as an “accident with wider consequences”.

It also places the situation there on a par with 1979’s Three Mile Island nuclear accident in Read more…