The Bolivian government will nationalize all gas stations within 50km (31 miles) of their border. The move is part of the new Law on Development and Security.
About 30 gas stations are within the 50km nationalization zone.
Bolivia is surrounded by Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile and Peru.
The government said they are in the process of negotiating a purchase price for the gas stations.
“The Japan-U.S. alliance could collapse, completely contrary to [the recent trend of] being strengthened.”-Nagashima Akihisa, Democratic Party of Japan House of Representatives
The Daily Yomiuri is reporting that from the beginning, U.S. offers of help with the nuke crisis at Fukushima Daiichi, were given the cold shoulder by Japan’s government.
On 12 March, the U.S. ambassador made several calls to Prime Minister Kan’s office, asking him to allow nuclear experts from the U.S. to be involved with the decision making in the Prime Minister’s cabinet. The answer was no.
U.S. officials pointed out that their B5B measures could offer fast response to the Fukushima Daiichi disaster. B5B was developed after the 9/11/2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City. It is designed to provide fast response to any attack on a U.S. nuclear plant, with one of the objectives to provide continuous electrical power to the plants.
Lack of electrical power at the Fukushima Daiichi plant accelerated the disaster. So far the worst case scenario, created by U.S. officials, seems to be playing out. The real reason why the U.S. imposed a much larger evacuation zone, than the Japanese government, was because U.S. analyst said things were going to get worse.
Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, repeatedly told Japanese officials that they should NOT let Tokyo Electric Power Company handle the situation. He even threatened to have all U.S. citizens evacuated from Japan, not just military families.
Supposedly an official with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, when visiting TEPCo headquarters on 18 March, asked who was really in charge of Japan’s government.
Apparently, it is only after the Japanese government thought it would lose support of the United States, that it got serious about Fukushima Daiichi.
‘‘Neither the government nor we would be able to say it is okay to operate (the reactors) unless it is confirmed that they would be able to handle (accidents) in light of the latest findings.’’-Mizoguchi Zembee, Governor of Shimane Prefecture
Chugoku Electric Power Company (CEPCo) runs the Shimane nuclear power plant, and, apparently they have a worse track record than TEPCo. Reactor 1 is currently shut down due to gross safety violations, and operation of Reactor 2 is under review.
The governor of the prefecture says he will not OK the powering up of Reactor 1, until the Japanese central government enforces new safety standards. Governor Mizoguchi says the current safety standards are part of the reason for the ongoing disaster at Fukushima Daiichi.
The violation of current safety standards, with the operation of reactor 1, were discovered in March of last year.
In June of 2010, CEPCo officially admitted they had violated safety regulations at their Shimane nuclear power plant.
‘‘The radiation leak has not stopped completely and our concern is that the amount of leakage could eventually reach that of Chernobyl or exceed it.”-Official statement from Tokyo Electric Power Company
Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency says most of the radioactive material spewed from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is coming from Reactor 2. Reactor 2 building exploded on 15 March. They now know the reactor containment vessel was damaged, possibly breached, resulting in highly radioactive isotopes being emitted.
Also, radiation has been spread by the spent fuel rods, after the explosions, because the spent fuel pools were located on the top of the buildings.
The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency says the current readings of radiation emitted is 10% of the Chernobyl disaster, but, TEPCo believes it’s likely Fukushima Daiichi will exceed the contamination caused by Chernobyl.
Kyodo News says Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was on fire.
Tokyo Electric Power Company said the fire occurred in a huge battery storage box near a water outlet of Reactor 4. The fire was spotted by a worker, and put out. The cause of the fire is being investigated.
An aftershock in the low 5 range hit yet another part of eastern Japan, tonight (Tuesday morning Japan time). Several rail lines have been shut down for possible damage.
Tohoku, Tokai shinkansen lines, and, Joetsu, Nagano shinkansen lines halted after quakes.
Kyodo News reporting that a 6.3 aftershock has hit Chiba Prefecture. Narita airport has been shut down to check for cracks in the runways.
The epicenter is off the coast of Chiba Prefecture, which is just east of Tokyo, basically the east central coast of Japan, south of where the March 11 quake happened.
Less than an hour prior, Nagano Prefecture got hit with a 5.5 quake.
Tokyo Disneyland is set to open on April 15. Even thought it is more than 200 miles from the epicenter of the 11 March 2011, 9.0 earthquake, Tokyo Disneyland suffered damage from liquefaction.
They hope to open Tokyo DisneySea by April 28. One of the conditions to opening, is a steady and reliable source of electrical power, to run the amusement parks.
Initial reports say a 5.5 quake hit Nagano Prefecture.
Also, the Japanese Meteorological Agency warned that more aftershocks of 7.0 or greater could hit Japan. Keiji Doi, earthquake prediction division chief, said the chance of aftershocks of 7.0 could continue for at least a year.
So far, more than 400 aftershocks of magnitude 5.0 or larger have occurred since the catastrophic March 11 quake.
The Japanese government just raised the level of the disaster at Fukushima Daiichi to 7. That is the same level as Chernobyl.
The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency made the decision to raise it to the worst condition, under the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale, because of the extremely high levels of radiation that is being spewed. Also, it is based on the size of the area that is being contaminated, and the threat to life.
At one point Fukushima Daiichi was emitting up to 10,000 terabecquerels of radioactive materials per hour!