The French company Areva SA is increasing the number of nuclear experts they’ve sent to Japan, to help deal with the Fukushima Daiichi crisis.
Areva SA now has 15 technicians in Japan. Some of the technicians specialize in removing contaminated water, and dismantling nuclear power plants.
France based Areva is also trying to get a uranium enrichment operation built in Idaho, U.S.A.
Despite efforts to stop the contaminated water from spilling into the Pacific Ocean, Tokyo Electric Power Company, and the Japanese government, say contamination levels just off the Fukushima coast are at highest point so far.
Iodine-131 has hit 88.5 becquerels per liter, 30km (18.6 miles) away from Fukushima Daiichi. Cesium-137 levels continue to climb as well, but are still under Japanese safe limits.
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).
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.
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.
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.
Radioactive strontium has been detected in soil and plants, beyond the 30km (18.6 miles) zone around Fukushima Daiichi.
Strontium 90 is produced by nuclear reactors. It’s half life is about 29 years. It is absorbed by your bones, leading to disorders such as bone cancer.
Officially, this is the first time the detection of strontium has been announced. The samples were taken on 15 & 16 March. There have been several nuclear analysts who said not all types of radiation where being reported to the public!
Under Bush Jr, the United States lost two ambassadors in South America. The Obama administration has lost another, bringing the total to three.
Those countries are Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela. So President Obama’s recent trip to Latin America did little to mend relations.
Even U.S. ally Columbia, is leaning towards Hugo Chavez in Venezuela.
Looks like the U.S. just doesn’t get Latin America.
“Our economy is in a severe state.”-Masaaki Shirakawa, Bank of Japan
The Bank of Japan is struggling to figure out how to pull Japan’s economy out of the dumps after the March 11 disasters. Officials now admit the economic situation is worse than first thought.
One analyst pointed out that Japan was already in a recession, this could push Japan into a depression (see my March 17 posting “Japan Disaster start of Global Great Depression”).
The Japanese government is estimating that it will need one trillion yen, to ease employment issues in the disaster struck areas. That’s just to fight unemployment. They estimate actual reconstruction cost will be at least four trillion yen. The problem is, just where are they going to get the money from?