April 28, Thursday

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so many
need your help !
Fukushima Daruma


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Gabi reports:


岩手県陸前高田市 四十九日 法要

It was 49 days after the disaster - a time to have a memorial service for the dead and appeasement of their souls. Many Buddhist temples held memorial services, especially in Rikuzentakata, where they had 1,422 dead and 795 still missing.
After this day, the souls make their way to the other world.

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With all the aftermath problems and destruction, people are not in the mood to spend.
Official figures show a sharp drop in household spending for March - not surprising. No buy of new cars or TV, no going out for dinner or travel, Nikko is empty and so are many other resort towns and hot springs, like Atami.

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. . . . . at18:28
Earthquake M5.7, off the coast of Fukushima

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I had a visit from an old lady living in Nikko, telling about her experience of the huge earthquake and her fear, that even the rocks around the Kegon waterfall might break up and let the whole of lake Chuzenji come down on her village .. what a nightmare, never to leave her. Now she sleeps fully dressed to be ready to run should bad things happen . . .

She moved to her family in Okayama after two weeks of relentless aftershocks.


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Bulletins from NHK Online

source : www3.nhk.or.jp

Thursday, April 28, 2011 04:02
TEPCO to rid 200,000 tons of radioactive water
The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says it aims to begin disposing of highly radioactive water starting in June.
The contaminated water is hampering efforts to reactivate the cooling systems in the plant's reactors.
On Wednesday, Tokyo Electric Power Company announced it would set up the treatment system to eliminate radioactive materials.
The utility firm says 87,500 tons of contaminated water has accumulated in the No.1 to 4 reactors.
It estimates that up to 200,000 tons of highly contaminated water will be produced by the year end if all the water used to cool the reactors becomes highly radioactive.
The company says it plans to start installing the system in early May and begin operating in June.
It hopes to dispose of 1,200 tons of highly contaminated water per day once the system is in place.
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TEPCO: Water isn't leaking from No. 4 reactor pool
Tokyo Electric Power Company now says it is unlikely that water is leaking from the spent fuel rod pool of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant's No.4 reactor.
Water is being injected into the pool to replace coolant that is evaporating due to the high temperature of its 1,535 spent fuel rods.
Despite sporadically injecting 140 to 210 tons of water a day, the company says the water level in the storage pool is still 10 to 40 centimeters lower than estimated.
TEPCO initially believed that the pool could have suffered damage in an explosion soon after the March 11th quake and tsunami disaster.
But the company said on Wednesday that it now believes that the water has been evaporating at a rate in line with calculations by experts.
The storage pool is to be reinforced by July.


Thursday, April 28, 2011 04:02
Qatar to give 100 million dollars to rebuild Japan
Qatar has announced it will provide 100 million dollars to help rebuild quake-hit regions in Japan.
The pledge came during a meeting between Qatar's International Cooperation Minister Khalid Bin Mohamed Al-Attiyah and Japan's Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto on Wednesday.
The Qatari minister expressed readiness to provide support to help Japan rebuild as soon as possible.
Japan's Foreign Ministry says the sum of 100 million dollars in more than total the amount of donations sent from 76 nations and territories.
The Qatari government says it wants the money to be spent on building hospitals and schools in the disaster areas.
The 2 countries will set up a joint committee to decide where the money will go.
The Gulf state earlier announced it will increase its shipment of liquefied natural gas to Japan to help the country operate thermal power plants to make up a power shortage since the disaster.


Thursday, April 28, 2011 04:02
Japan explains its food safety in Thailand
Japan has explained its food safety measures to Thai officials. This follows increasing concerns over radioactive materials contaminating Japanese food caused by the leak at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
The Japanese embassy and the Japan External Trade Organization held an event in Bangkok on Wednesday. About 500 people, including Thai government officials and business people in charge of food products and distribution, attended. ...


Thursday, April 28, 2011 07:59
Radiation detected in Fukushima fish, vegetable
Radioactivity exceeding safety limits has been detected in fish and spinach from Fukushima Prefecture, where the battle to stabilize a disaster-hit nuclear power plant continues.
On Tuesday, 2,600 to 3,200 becquerels per kilogram of radioactive cesium was detected in 2 samples of a fish species called the sand lance caught off Iwaki City. That's 5 to 6 times higher than the permissible level.
Spinach harvested in Otama Village on Sunday was also found to contain 960 becquerels of cesium.
510 becquerels of cesium was detected in spinach from Tamura City on Monday.
The government set the safety standard for the leafy vegetable at 500 becquerels.
The government has already banned shipments of some kinds of vegetables and fish harvested or caught in Fukushima Prefecture and is warning people not to eat them.


Thursday, April 28, 2011 10:48
TEPCO worker may have inhaled radioactive material
The Tokyo Electric Power Company says a female employee who was exposed to radiation levels of more than 3 times the safety limit at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant may have inhaled radioactive substances when indoors.
The woman, in her 50s, was in charge of material management at the plant.
She was found to have been exposed to 17.55 millisieverts of radiation. This is more than triple the 3-month limit for a female worker, which is set at 5 millisieverts.
Closer examination has revealed that the woman suffered 13.6 millisieverts of internal radiation exposure.
The woman was in a building which was contaminated by high-level radioactive substances following a hydrogen explosion on March 12th. She may have inhaled some of the airborne radioactive material as she wasn't wearing a protective mask.
TEPCO has apologized for its lack of precautions against internal radiation exposure. Two more female workers who were in the same building may have also exceeded their exposure limit.
The government's nuclear safety agency has demanded that the utility find out why this happened and draw up prevention measures.


Thursday, April 28, 2011 12:48
.TEPCO monitoring No.1 reactor
Tokyo Electric Power Company is monitoring one of the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant to determine whether more water could be pumped inside to cool the fuel rods.
Tokyo Electric plans to submerge the fuel rods at 2 reactors in water by July this year.
On Wednesday morning, the utility increased the amount of water injected into the No.1 reactor from 6 tons per hour to 10 tons per hour on an experimental basis.
As a result, the temperature at the top of the reactor was 107.3 degrees Celsius Thursday morning, down 24.7 degrees from before the water increase. The temperature at the bottom of the reactor had dropped 12 degrees to 98.5 degrees Celsius.
Pressure inside the reactor containment vessel was also down.
Tokyo Electric says it's not yet known how deep the water inside the reactor container is, but that no leakage outside the reactor building has been confirmed.
The utility had initially planned to increase the amount of water injected to 14 tons per hour on Wednesday, but it says it will continue to monitor temperatures and pressure through Thursday evening.


Thursday, April 28, 2011 15:07
Japan's industrial output marks record plunge
Japan's industrial production marked a record plunge in March due to the impact of last month's earthquake and tsunami.
The Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry said on Thursday that industrial output stood at 82.9 against the base of 100 for 2005. This was a drop of 15.3 percent from the previous month.
The decline was the largest since record-keeping began in January 1953. It also far exceeded the previous record of 8.6 percent logged in February 2009 following the Lehman shock.
The sharp drop is due to the damage to factories caused by the natural disaster, disrupted supply chains and the suspension of auto production. All 16 sectors in the ministry's survey marked falls.
Speaking at a news conference, Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Kaoru Yosano called the industrial data shocking. He said the quake had directly hit manufacturing bases, badly affecting Japan's corporate output.
Yosano said people are working hard to restore supply chains, and that they should be back to normal sooner than originally expected.
The ministry says it expects the index to rise in April and May as factories gradually resume production in disaster-hit areas.


Thursday, April 28, 2011 17:05
Saving arts and crafts in tsunami-hit Ishinomaki
Experts have begun work to restore cultural assets damaged by last month's earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan.
Some 20 people, including art restoration experts and Cultural Affairs Agency officials, visited Ishinomaki Culture Center in Miyagi prefecture on Thursday.
They removed dirt from the surface of paintings after moving them out of the building as an emergency measure.
In their "cultural assets rescue operation," the experts will examine the condition of more than 100,000 paintings, sculptures and other art and craft pieces stored at the center.
The March 11 tsunami flooded the building, soaking many paintings and sculptures in seawater. Many other pieces were swept away by the waves.
Ishinomaki education board official Michio Oka said he wants to encourage local people by preserving historical assets that have been passed down through the generations.
The Cultural Affairs Agency says it has so far confirmed that about 500 cultural assets and historical sites protected by the government were damaged in the disaster.


Thursday, April 28, 2011 19:05
Reassessment on nuclear power plants'quake-safety
Japan's Nuclear Safety Commission has asked the government to reassess the quake-resistance of the country's nuclear power plants.
At an extraordinary meeting on Thursday, the commission said that the string of aftershocks since the March 11th quake was caused by large tectonic shifts.
The commission said that a fault line about 50 kilometers from the troubled Fukushima plant previously believed to be inactive moved during an April 11th aftershock.
The commission decided to ask the industry ministry's Nuclear Safety Agency to reexamine the fault lines and geographical changes where plant operators have so far said the risk of earthquake damage was low.
The commission also wants the government to check for faults near nuclear power plants if aftershocks occur with unusual frequency.
The Nuclear Safety Agency is to follow up by instructing power companies across the country to reassess quake-resistance.
The assessment will likely take several years. Attention is focused on whether local municipalities will allow power companies to operate the plants while the reassessment is underway.
The assessment will also likely affect the start of operations at new nuclear power plants and the construction of new ones.


Thursday, April 28, 2011 19:40
TEPCO continues test for water injection
One of the damaged reactors at the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is being checked to assess the feasibility of a plan to submerge and cool the hot fuel rods by July.
The test is being conducted by Tokyo Electric Power Company. The utility says the temperature in the reactor of Unit 1 is falling on Thursday, after it increased the amount of water being injected from 6 tons per hour to 10 tons on Wednesday morning.
The temperature at the top of the reactor was 107 degrees Celsius as of 11 AM on Thursday, down 25 degrees from before the water increase.
The pressure inside the reactor has slightly fallen. The utility is watching the pressure carefully and injecting nitrogen to prevent a possible hydrogen explosion.
The firm is monitoring the state of the containment vessel carefully to determine whether to maintain the current level of water injection.
In a separate development, the company says the level of highly radioactive water in a tunnel linked to Unit 2 fell to 90 centimeters from the surface. The water level fell 10 centimeters in the 9 days since TEPCO started moving contaminated water from the tunnel.
But it says the levels of contaminated water are gradually rising at the tunnels of Units 3 and 4.
The water level in a tunnel linked to Unit 3 rose 6 centimeters in 3 days through Thursday.


Thursday, April 28, 2011 20:15
Radioactive level halved at reactor water intake
The operator of the quake-damaged nuclear power plant in northeastern Japan says levels of radioactive iodine in seawater samples taken near one of the plant's crippled reactors are down by more than half from the previous day.
The Tokyo Electric Power Company says the level of radioactive iodine-131 per cubic centimeter in samples collected near the water intake of the No. 2 reactor was 63 becquerels on Wednesday.
The figure is 1,600 times the state limit, but marked the first decline in 3 days.
Highly contaminated water had leaked into the sampling area, where iodine-131 at a level 7.5 million times the limit was detected on April 2nd.
On Wednesday, the level of cesium-134 was 430 times the limit, and that of cesium-137 was 300 times the limit. Both figures were nearly the same as on the previous day.
Levels of radioactive substances detected in samples taken near the facility had nearly leveled off.
Iodine-131 at a level 2.5 times the standard was found in samples taken some 30 meters north of the plant's No. 5 and 6 reactors.
The company says changes in readings are seen as being within a margin of day-to-day volatility. The firm says it will continue monitoring the situation.
Sampling tests farther from the plant were prevented by bad weather.


Thursday, April 28, 2011 22:09
Govt to set up nuclear accident probe committee
Prime Minister Naoto Kan says his government will set up an independent committee by mid-May to investigate the ongoing nuclear crisis.
At a Lower House plenary session on Thursday, Kan said he fully understands he bears most responsibility for bringing the Fukushima Daiichi power plant under control.
He noted that the government will take all necessary measures, including those to decommission the plant's reactors.
Kan said he hopes that thoroughly investigating the accident will help Japan share its experience with other countries through the International Atomic Energy Agency and other organizations.
He added that he hopes the probe will contribute to improving the safety of nuclear power plants across the globe.


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Voices from around

. The Daily Reading List . 　

. Daily Radiation Levels . 　

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Japan Times

Tepco woman took three times radiation limit
Tokyo Electric Power Co. says that one of its female employees at the crisis-hit Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant was exposed to radiation exceeding three times the legal limit of 5 millisieverts in a three-month period.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20110428a3.html

90% of Tohoku's fishing fleet said lost
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20110428a5.html

Fukushima city removing schools' topsoil
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20110428a7.html

Nuke crisis medical response team learns hard lesson
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20110428f3.html

Sendai Tanabata to be held as usual
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20110428b2.html

Supply disruptions to last until fall
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nb20110428a1.html

Carmakers eyeing weekend production
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nb20110428n1.html


Economy feels the effects
... the March 11 catastrophe is causing downward pressure on exports, production and consumption.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/ed20110428a2.html

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Tepco Daruma

Get him on a tee shirt
Tepco Lucky Daruma Doll

source : www.stopobamatees.com


and while checking, I found some

Tepco Sushi



source : Tepoc illustrations
williambanzai7


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