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!

Tokyo Electric Power Company has received about $24 billion USD in loans from several major banks.

TEPCo officials say they need to money to continue working to deal with the crisis at Fukushima Daiichi.  This is proof that corporations are not prepared for disasters.

“Dad chose to go because of his sense of responsibility toward his job. Now he’s working for everyone.”-worried wife to her daughter

They’re desperate, but determined to support their husbands, working in deadly conditions at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

“My Dad’s great. He’s a hero.”-proud daughter

Many wives know their husbands might suffer deadly contamination working at the damaged nuke plant, but they say their husbands are driven by a sense of commitment to the country.  Their children don’t quite understand the seriousness of the situation; dad is a hero, but how long will he be here after exposure to the deadly radiation?

Some wives say relatives criticize them for not stopping their husbands from working in the deadly plant.  Not only do they have to deal with relatives, but their own husbands will not talk about what is going on at Fukushima Daiichi.

“It’s my job as his wife to believe he’s safe and wait for him to come home after work where he’s risking his life.”

A 61-year-old woman, whose husband manages one of the many subcontractors at Fukushima Daiichi, says it is difficult to get info.  In a recent email her husband said only “I’m alright”, after she asked about radiation exposure.

She said when he finally came home for a break he looked exhausted.

Another wife tries to deal with it by planing the usual things, like enrolling her daughter in school.  She said after a week of working at the damaged nuclear plant, her husband came home looking exhausted, with bloodshot eyes.  He told her he had been exposed to high levels of radiation.  She said their daughter seems to know, she no longer asks for piggy back rides.

From The Daily Yomiuri

Several cities and towns in the Fukushima Prefecture have shown higher levels of contamination that first thought.

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology has been taking radiation readings around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.  Since 26 March the radiation readings went up to dangerous levels, and stayed up.

This was part of the government’s decision to expand the evacuation zone.

The International Commission on Radiological Protection recommends 1,000 microsieverts as the long-term yearly limit to radiation exposure.  In Namie Town, 30km (18.6 miles) northwest of the plant, the Ministry of Science found 14,480 microsieverts of radiation had accumulated over 17-days!  They found many more areas with similar radiation levels.

Hiroshima University Professor Shizuma Kiyoshi, says most of the radiation observed in Fukushima Prefecture is probably radioactive cesium.

Shizuma advises residents to wear masks to avoid inhaling radioactive substances mixed with dust.