Tokyo Electric officials admit they are having trouble controlling temperatures and pressures in the reactors.
The problem is the salty sea water. While it cools down the reactor, it also increases the pressure in the containment chambers. That’s not good, in fact it’s almost as bad as high temperatures. They are looking into ways to bring large amounts of fresh water to the Fukushima Daiichi facility.
Regarding to the employees sent to the hospital with radiation Beta Burns; the water they were standing in was 10,000 times more radioactive than the normal radioactive water in the reactor containment system.
Video aired on NHK, shows multiple tsunami waves racing inland on March 11.
An hour and a half after the 9.0 quake, video was taken by helicopter, which flew from Sendai City south to Iwaki City.
The tsunami waves swallowed everything in their path. People in tall buildings can bee seen scrambling for the roof tops.
Professor Fumihiko Imamura at the Tohoku University Disaster Control Research Center, says he can see a tsunami rare effect, called undular bore, hit Natori City, Miyagi.
Undular Bore is a phenomenon in which a series of tsunami waves surge high near the shore and flood onto land one after another. At least 20 undular bores hit the north east (Pacific) coast of Honshu.
In one north eastern Honshu coastal town, a city employee manned the emergency loudspeaker system, right up to the very end.
In video from NHK you can hear the woman’s voice echoing through the city (it’s truly haunting when you realize what is going on) even as the tsunami sweeps over all the buildings, including the 3 story town hall. Miki Endo told residents to get to higher ground, over and over, with an intensity that caused some residents to think twice about going back home. One woman said if it wasn’t for Miki’s announcements she would not have realized the severity of the situation, and would have returned home instead of seeking higher ground.
Here’s a Spanish language news report that has the haunting NHK video. I had a link to the original NHK report but apparently it’s been removed from the internet.
The 3 story steel I-beam framed town hall is nothing but a skeleton now. The walls, floor and roof are gone. Workers in the building rushed to the roof when they realized the tsunami was taller than the top floor. The roof was still not tall enough, and most lost their lives, the survivors said they held on to exposed pylons for dear life. The whole time Miki Endo, still inside the town hall, stayed at her post telling the towns people to get to higher ground, telling them they must go higher.
From left to right: The top of the 3 story Disaster Center (where people had fled thinking it was safe) completely covered by water, the water begins to recede, in just a few seconds the tsunami had totally striped the 3 story building killing almost everybody.
To update the story, and since so many people continue to read it, it turns out that Miki was not the only one who stayed at her post. Miki’s boss stayed by her side, he also urged residents to get to higher ground, he was lost as well.
Miki has not been seen since, and her parents refuse to leave the devastated town, hoping to find her.
238km (148 miles) away from the damaged nuclear plant in Fukushima, leafy vegetables in Tokyo have tested positive for cesium contamination.
Radiation is spreading across Japan, even though winds had been blowing out towards the Pacific most of the time. Also, more prefectures nearer to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant are turning up signs of radiation contamination, mainly iodine-131. Water supplies as far south as Tokyo have shown signs of iodine-131 contamination.
Mayors of several Japanese townships, hit by the 9.0 quake/tsunami, are considering the reality that the survivors of their towns will have to relocate, especially those being affected by radiation contamination from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
Survivors told reporters that they are now “drifters” because everything was destroyed; they have no homes, no jobs. Some have pointed out that they have no money because the local banks were destroyed. Another problem is documentation, survivors have lost any type of documents that they would need.
There are a lot of examples of how Japanese government officials failed in their reaction to the 9.0 quake/tsunami. The Yakuza even made a show of their own fast disaster relief response.
However, even the Yakuza are no match for Mother Earth. Yakuza leaders are admitting that they are having trouble getting to the hardest hit areas, just like the government: “Because of the devastation, it’s been impossible to make contact with our people in Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima prefectures. We haven’t been able to make contact by telephone, and in some cases, damage to the roads made it impossible to get through to the towns.”
This is proof that the 9.0 quake/tsunami was truly catastrophic.
People who just have to have a hybrid car will be glad to know that Toyota plans to start making them again.
Toyota’s hybrids are made in Japan, and production was shut down due to parts shortage (thank Mother Earth, 11 March 2011 quake-tsunami). They plan to resume production on Monday.
Production of non-hybrid Toyota vehicles, made in Japan, remains halted.
Some farming villages that escaped the tsunami, did not escape radiation from Fukukshima Daiichi nuclear plant.
What has people amazed is that these farming villages are outside the government’s 30km nuclear disaster zone.
Soil samples have revealed that radiation levels are more than 1,000 times normal. Wind and rain is suspected for bringing the radiation outside the 30km zone.
This is proof that nuclear disasters affected far greater areas than what most people think. This will just add to the world’s growing food supply problems.
TEPCO officials report more problems with trying to get their nuclear plant under control.
Reactor 2 continues to emit more and more radiation. Officials are unable to find out why, because radiation levels are so high that no one can go near the reactor.
Several works have been sent to the hospital because of exposure to high radiation. One worker is said to have “Beta Burns”. At least two workers were standing in radioactive water in reactor 3, trying to connect power lines. The water contains radiation levels as high as 180 millisieverts.
