On 21 March, a ship of the Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd, arrived in Xiamen, China. After inspection by port officials it was discovered that the ship had “abnormal” levels of radiation on the deck, and surface containers.
The ship, the MOL Presence, had passed within 67 nautical miles (124 km) of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, on its way to China.
The ship is on its way back to Kobe, Japan.
The economy of agriculture, in the areas affected directly by the radioactive food ban (Fukushima & Ibaraki Prefectures), is being hit hard.
One dairy farmer has dumped at least 3.5 tons of milk.
Spinach and Parsley farmers, who’ve spent 25 years or more growing their crops, have to let this year’s crops die, and maybe bury them. No one has told them what to do with the contaminated crops, and, no one told them if they will be financially compensated for their loss. One farmers says 30,000 of his Spinach plants will be lost because of the nuclear disaster.
‘‘Since the state has been promoting nuclear energy as its policy, it is necessary for the state to ultimately take responsibility.’’-Gemba Koichiro, Minister of National Policy
There is speculation in the Japanese media that the government should take over the corporate run nuclear power plants. This is due to the fact that the Prime Minister has indicated that TEPCo was not honest about the disaster at Fukushima Daiichi, and, that it looks like TEPCo will not be able to pay for damages associated with the nuclear disaster, which means the government will have to pick up the tab anyway.
Cabinet Secretary, Edano Yukio, down played such talk of nationalizing nuclear power plants; ”not at the moment considering nationalization,” but added that the priority now is to deal with the nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi.
Before anymore work can be done on the Fukushima Daiichi plant, the highly radioactive water that is leaking into turbine rooms must be removed.
Japan’s Nuclear Safety Commission said the deadly water must not get into ground water, and it is a threat to the workers. It has become priority over all other work at the plant.
Operation Tomodachi, the name of the relief effort by the U.S. military, includes several state, and territorial, Army and Air National Guard units.
Kentucky, Mississippi, Alabama and U.S. Territory of Guam Guard units have been activated to take part in helping Japan deal with a series of disasters, and to help with the evacuation of U.S. personnel and their families.
Thanks to the ongoing nuclear power plant disaster in Japan, Chrysler is now limiting color options on their cars.
Ford already announced the unavailability of Tuxedo Black, and three shades of red. They rely on pigments from Japan.
Chrysler is also doing the same thing, except they haven’t specified which colors are going to be affected, only that it will affect ten color options.
TEPCo president Shimizu Masataka, 66, became sick on 16 March and took a week off.
Officials say he was in bed most of the time. TEPCo runs the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
Now he is back at work in the at the TEPCo liaison office. Despite that claim by TEPCo officials, Shimizu still has not been seen in public.
“This is the biggest impact ever in the history of the automobile industry.”-Koji Endo, Advanced Research Japan
Parts, from electronics, to mechanical parts for cars, to paint pigments, are shipped by slow boat. That means that the U.S., Europe and other parts of Asia have NOT begun to feel the true impact of the Japanese shut down.
Warehouses in Japan are almost out of the parts they had on hand at the time of the March 11 earthquake/tsunami, and the ongoing nuclear power plant disaster. Since then, Japanese factories have had trouble after trouble trying to get their factories restarted.
The United States, Europe and the rest of Asia can expect the full impact of Japan’s shut down to begin in April.
Many factories in Japan are without power to operate. Some factories have lost employees to the disaster.
This disaster in Japan reveals the weakness of a truly global economy. If one part of the chain breaks, it’s in trouble. It should be viewed more like dominoes, if one domino falls, others will be brought down with it. Japan has become the trigger domino, because it has basically become the parts supplier to the world.
Here’s why this is so bad for the worldwide auto industry: About 3,000 parts can go into one car. Those parts come from dozens of factories, and most are in Japan. But it gets worse, some of the “parts” are made up of many tiny parts. And, you guessed it, those tiny parts also come from dozens of other factories. It’s a friggin’ logistical nightmare, it’s a wounder the auto industry didn’t collapse because of parts supply issue sooner!
It’s not just cars. Get ready to see shortages of computers, video game systems, printer ink and even batteries. So much for a global economy! Can you say idiot in Japanese? It’s Baka!
Cabinet Secretary Edano Yukio, stated that no one should enter the 20km (12.4 miles) evacuation zone around Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
The reason; high radiation contamination. The situation has gotten much worse now that it looks like partial melt down of reactor cores. Reactor 2 is thought to have experienced partial melt down.
TEPCo officials now admitting that the cause of the high radiation, and the leaking of deadly water into the turbine rooms, might be the result of fuel rods in the reactors melting. The deadly water has been found in reactors 1, 2, 3 & 4 turbine rooms.
Specifically it is believed reactor 2 is at least in partial melt down. Cabinet Secretary, Edano Yukio, said the partial melt down was temporary.
Those people who voluntarily evacuated are being told, that for now, they can not return to their homes.