Honda is suspending May orders from U.S. Honda dealers.
Typically, dealers order cars six weeks in advance. Honda hopes to resume partial production in Japan by Wednesday, but doesn’t know when production will return to full capacity due to the developing nuclear disaster.
This will affect the availability of the Fit, CR-Z, Civic Hybrid, Insight, Acura TSX, Acura RL and a small number of CR-Vs.
Japanes Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, said milk & spinach from Fukushima & Ibaraki Prefectures.
Edano says they believe that none of the contaminated products made it into the supply chain, and down played any health risks.
In a press conference Japanese Fire Fighting officials have expressed sorrow for the literal sacrifice that fire crews, at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, are making.
They stated that many of the fire fighters insisted they were willing to endure high levels of radiation if it would help solve the crisis. One official said his own wife understood that it could be necessary for him to become a “savior” for Japan.
Officials are now saying that some workers at the plant have radiation exposure equivalent of 10 chest X-rays every hour.
War monger Sarkozy said “If there is not an immediate cease-fire and withdrawal of the forces that have been attacking civilian populations in the last few weeks, our countries will have recourse to military means.”
French President Sarkozy made the statement around 17:30 (5:30pm) Libyan time, yet, while he was demanding a ceasefire French aircraft were already in Libyan airspace attacking Libyan aircraft. Shortly after Sarkozy made the statement regarding ceasefire he admitted they were already attacking Libya: “As of now, our aircraft are preventing planes from attacking the town. Our French aircraft are ready to intervene against tanks.”
Earlier in the day rebels apparently shot down a Libyan Su-24 (might have been a single engined MiG-23) attack aircraft. The Sukhoi Su-24 is made in Russia (as is the MiG-23). Also, there is video of rebels armed with the latest brand new short range anti aircraft missiles, it is not possible they “captured” them from Gaddafi’s forces. Some rebels are wearing brand new U.S. BDU (Battle Dress Uniform, no longer used by U.S. forces) style desert camo uniforms. To me it is clear that this “revolution” in Libya was planned by outside, non-Libyan parties.
President Obama told the U.S. Congress that the military operations against Libya would days, not weeks or months. He better be right. Don’t forget, his predecessor (Bush Jr) made similar comments about Iraq.
Alexei Arbatov, the head of the International Security Center of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said attacking Libya will prove that obtaining WMDs is necessary to keep from being attacked by the West.
“An attack against Libya would be a gift for all violators of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. If Libya becomes an object of a military operation, it will lead some countries to believe that no one would think of threatening Gaddhafi with a military operation now if he had not voluntarily given up his nuclear program several years ago.”
In order to receive financing from western countries, and gain favor from western governments, Gaddafi revealed his WMD program and allowed international inspection and dismantlement of that program. That’s why President Bush Jr removed Gaddafi from the terrorist list. Now the West is about to attack him.
Arbatov says “This will lead Iran, Syria, and some other countries violating the non-proliferation regime to make a new powerful step towards obtaining nuclear weapons.”
Japan’s Nuclear Safety Commission recommended that people near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant should take iodide. That recommendation was made to local officials on 16 March 2011.
Japanese Cabinet Secretary, Yukio Edano, announced that milk and spinach has tested positive for radiation contamination.
The milk tested came from Fukushima Prefecture. The spinach came from Ibaraki Prefecture. 6 samples of spinach were tested. The radiation levels exceeded Japanese Food Safety codes. They are now trying to determine if any contaminated milk, or spinach was actually shipped out.
Ministry of Health officials will be issuing more detailed info later.
Water spraying with fire trucks resumed. The target is the spent fuel pool on reactor 3, Fukushima Daiichi plant. Temperatures are still rising.
They will attempt to spray water for 7 hours on Saturday for a total of 60 tons of water. They also say the trucks are set up so they do not have to be manned while the spraying takes place.
Hopes for reactor 5 are increasing, as signs that cooling has resumed after workers got the cooling pump running.
Japanese scientist say there is a new threat associated with tsunamis: Fire.
Thanks to our reliance on petroleum products, especially fuel, coastal cities face destruction by fire, as well as water.
Several Japanese coastal towns burned to the ground because of fires started by the tsunami. Boats, cars and fuel storage facilities hit by the tsunami, spilled fuel onto the water, catching fire, apparently by sparks from metal being clashed together in the tsunami, or electrical shorts in boats and cars.
Those fires then spread to buildings. Local fire departments discovered that water lines for fire hydrants had been destroyed by the quake/tsunami.
Hardest hit by the fires, Kesennuma, suffered intense fire. Witnesses say that fire spread throughout the city in less than 3 hours after the tsunami hit. The city was still burning 5 days later.
A nuclear safety expert in Japan admitted that no one prepares for more than one reactor failure. Multiple reactor failures have always been considered highly improbable.
NHK obtained video of last year’s emergency training at a nuclear plant in Japan. It is obvious that they did not expect anything but a low level emergency involving only one reactor.