Tag Archives: fukushima

Fukushima

NBC Tanks to be used against nulcear plant

Officials dealing with the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, said they will use military battle tanks as bulldozers, to clear away debris from around the reactors.

Japan’s military tanks have NBC protection. In the western militaries NBC stands for Nuclear Biological Chemical.  They have filtration and sealing systems to help prevent crews from contamination on the battlefield, in case of NBC attacks.

The damaged reactors have too much debris around them, and the sacrificial workers need it cleared way in order to complete their missions.

Fukushima

Sushi Bars don’t like the smell of the nuclear fish

Fears of radiation contamination in fish supplies has Sushi restaurants   dropping fresh fish from their menus.

So far, the prevailing winds have been blowing radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, out over the Pacific Ocean, prompting concerns by those who rely on fish from the ocean.

Those concerns are also being expressed by the governments of South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, India, Singapore and the Philippines.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration claims it’s monitoring Japanese food for contamination.

Fukushima, Technology

People still can’t get their money out of Japanese banks

A week after the 9.0 quake, computer system problems continue for Japanese banks.

Mizuho Bank is unable to process salary payments for more than half a million people.

Also, Internet banking and ATMs would be offline over Japan’s upcoming three-day weekend.

On Thursday, Mizuho bank’s nationwide ATM network of more than 5,600 machines went offline until midday, then failed again in the evening, and more  problems on Friday.

Like I said before, another good reason to keep your money under the mattress (unless you think it’ll float away in the flood).

Business/Economics, Fukushima

General Motors continues to get hit by Japan disaster

As a result of the ongoing disaster in Japan, General Motors suspended all nonessential spending and global travel, a GM spokesman announced.

In addition, GM will suspend production in Spain, and cancel two shifts in Germany.

Even a small supplier of products that are fed to a bigger supplier that feeds the automaker’s assembly plants can delay or halt vehicle production.

Think of the “always a bigger fish” example, but in reverse.  If there are no little fish to eat, what can the bigger fish do?

Fukushima

Japanese public television better prepared than nuclear plant?

NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation in English) has covered hundreds of natural disasters in Japan.   NHK has eight broadcasting centers, 46 local stations, 14 helicopters on permanent standby all over the country, and 460 remote-controlled cameras at ports and other key locations from which it can beam live footage at any moment.  (wow, I wish the stations I worked for here in western U.S. had that stuff!)

There’s also a hotline to the Meteorological Agency and automated access to the earthquake early warning system.  In fact NHK viewers got a 90 seconds warning before the 9.0 quake struck.

One reason why NHK is so prepared to cover disasters: NHK holds emergency broadcast drills every night at midnight.

Fukushima

Sea water may be cause of pressure in Reactor 3

TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) officials say sea water entering the suppression chamber (containment vessel?) might be causing the pressure build up in reactor 3.

They noticed when spraying of sea water the pressure increased, also, when they stopped the pressure went down, but it is still higher than before the sea water was sprayed.

Business/Economics, Fukushima

Honda stops sales to the United States

Honda is suspending May orders from U.S. Honda dealers.

Typically, dealers order cars six weeks in advance.  Honda hopes to resume partial production in Japan by Wednesday, but doesn’t know when production will return to full capacity due to the developing nuclear disaster.

This will affect the availability of the Fit, CR-Z, Civic Hybrid, Insight, Acura TSX, Acura RL and a small number of CR-Vs.