Toyota is suspending production at all its European factories.
Plants in Britain, France, Turkey and Poland will be closed for several days on April 21, 22, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 and May 2.
Toyota also said they have yet to decide what they’ll do after that. The parts supply problem in Japan does not show signs of lessening. Toyota might be force to continue with sporadic factory shut downs, with all its plants.
President Benigno Aquino ordered all Filipinos living within 50km of Fukushima Daiichi, to leave the area. Any Filipinos living outside the 50 kilometers (31 miles) zone, can voluntarily leave.
The Philippine government said they would pay all the costs of bringing their citizens back to the Philippines. Any Filipinos who want to stay are ordered to move to the southern part of the big island of Honshu.
The order came when it was officially announced that Fukushima Daiichi was a level 7 nuke disaster (the highest level).
Ibaraki Prefecture hit with a 5.8 aftershock, Wednesday morning (Japan time). The day before Ibaraki suffered a 6.3 aftershock.
More info on the strontium contamination found more than 30km from Fukushima Daiichi.
Namie Town and Iitate Village have evidence of strontium 90 contamination, they are 30km (18.6 miles) from the reactors. Strontium 90 was also found in plant samples from Motomiya City, Ono Town and Otama and Nishigo Villages. They are between 40 to 80 kilometers (24.8 to 49.7 miles) from Fukushima Daiichi.
The strontium was detected between 16 & 19 March. One nuclear engineer points out that is immediately after Reactor 3 exploded. Strontium would only come from fuel rods, and it’s a possible indicator that the reactor itself was damaged.
Text: AAron Hutchins
Photo by: Alex Hutchins
Across a cold windswept east Idaho desert, people say you can hear the nuke train haulin’ its contaminated cargo. The short track rails start nowhere, and end nowhere. You might even see the sickly yellow locomotive yourself, if your lucky and don’t miss the turn off (for directions see earlier posting “Ancient Nuclear Powered Jet…”).
Lead-lined train in the Arco desert in Eastern Idaho.
OK, so there’s no ghost train, but, in the middle of nowhere, along side the world’s first nuclear powered jet engine, sits an odd shaped yellow locomotive. It’s not nuclear powered, but it is lead lined, to protect the crew from radiation exposure when hauling the huge HTRE units that make up the nuclear jet engine.
General Electric, who ran the nuke jet project, had rail lines built to haul the huge engine from one test area to the next. In a 2005 document, the Department of Energy explained that “shielding” of various equipment from radiation, like the lead-lined locomotive, were based on 1950s understandings of radiation.
Two sets of tracks were laid for the program. The locomotive rode on the inner rails of the two tracks, pulling, or pushing the HTRE units. The HTRE units rode on both sets of tracks, they were that wide. (More pics in the “Galleries” section, click on the “INL Nuclear Power Site” pic. Click on the pics to make them bigger.).
The nuke train had a top speed of 3.5 miles per hour, but, for safety reasons traveled at 2.5 mph. For a detailed (and boring) explanation you can go to this website: www.inl.gov/technicalpublications/Documents/3028280.pdf Supposedly there are period photos in the document, but they didn’t show up for me.
The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) used to be known as INEEL, before that INEL, before that ERDA and before that NRTS. The names changes coincide with changes in government agencies controlling the “site”, in the early days, and changes in contractors who now run the site.
Yes, people are still protesting in Egypt. This time they want the pro-U.S. military leaders out, replaced by civilian leaders. They’ve also been demanding the prosecution of Hosni Mubarak, which the military leaders seem reluctant to do.
After 5 days of protest, the military moved in, rounding up protesters and tearing down barricades.
The Army claims a deal to clear Tahrir Square was made with protesters, but several protesters interviewed by the press said no such deal was made.
Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, will not get a warm welcome when he speaks in Vermont on Wednesday.
Vermont Unions plan to protest Priebus, because they see him as the architect of Wisconsin’s anti-collective bargaining rights bill. The protest will be in solidarity with Wisconsin’s Unions.
Priebus is speaking at a $100 per plate dinner, to raise money for the Vermont GOP.
People are preparing for what could be the biggest protest yet of the Michigan government. On Wednesday thousands of people will demonstrate outside the state capitol building.
The issue is collective bargaining rights. The Michigan government what’s to get rid of it. People are also upset by the planned huge cuts to social programs. Then there’s the proposed tax on retirement, which could tax retirement funds the same as regular income.
There is talk of Unions staging mass strikes. Sounds like what’s going on in some European countries.
The mayor of Washington DC, and six city council members were arrested today, while protesting the Federal Government’s budget plans. They sat in front of a big sign that read “No Taxation Without Representation”, which was one of the rallying cries of the American Revolution against the British.
Mayor Vincent Gray said the Federal budget infringes on the District of Columbia’s sovereignty. “Folks in congress will do things to the District of Columbia that they wouldn’t do in their own districts … It’s an outrageous position. We raise our tax dollars just like other states do, just like other cities do.”
41 other protesters were arrested as well.
Since the March 11 disasters, more than 560,000 hotel reservations have been canceled in Japan. It goes in hand with the recent report that tourism has dropped by 75%.
The Japan Tourism Agency expects hotel cancellations to continue, as Japan keeps getting hit with intense aftershocks. Also, hotel reservations for April and May are down as much as 45% from last year.