On site radiation levels at 20 millisieverts (20,000 microsieverts) per hour. This is why attempts to hook up outside electrical power has not taken place.
Tokyo Fire Department staging to take over cooling operations at the plant, when the JSDF has completed their cooling operations.
Officials confirming that water levels still falling in reactors 1, 2 & 3. Reactor 3 has priority. Overall situation has not changed from day before. Indicates water dropping efforts not successful.
Latest press conference from Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano.
Officials still not sure about water levels at the reactors & spent fuel pools. Deciding if radiation levels are low enough to fly recon aircraft over to take photos.
Officials still evaluating the effects of yesterday’s water dropping & spraying.
Workers still struggling to get new power lines hooked up to the plant. Power panels on reactors need to be replaced. Radiation levels on site still a problem.
Priority and progress of work affected by number of workers, radiation levels, and other factors.
Help from the United States is appreciated, and specific requests have been made. Reports say U.S. Secretary of State Clinton announced that coolant specifically for nuclear reactors is in short supply. Japanese officials say they will have to continue using water (which is not optimal).
General Motors (GM) has announced that due to auto parts shortages, caused by the disasters in Japan, they will have to shut down some production in the United States.
A GM plant in Louisiana is the first to be closed, for a week, as a result.
Toyota had announced that it would slow production in its U.S. factories. Officials say production will not be affected at their engine plants. Instead of closing plants altogether, Toyota has eliminated overtime work.
Ford says so far their U.S. operations are not affected, Honda said the same thing.
There are dozens of U.S. military bases on Honshu, with thousands of dependents. At this point the evacuation order is voluntary, it’s called “military-assisted voluntary departure.”
The plan involves taking military dependents to Korea. Because the it is a voluntary evacuation, commercial flights would be used. There is a potential for thousands of people wanting out, in that case they will start using military transports.
Potassium Iodide pills are being shipping in, mainly for JSDF troops, and U.S. personnel involved in fighting to keep Fukushima Daiichi plant cool.
President Medvedev has ordered the creation of a multi-use card, that will act as ID, passport, insurance, drivers license and debit card.
The cards will contain micro-chips. It’s part of a plan for a “…better digital culture…”. A new national payment system will be created, so people can use the IDs for bill payments.
The system could cost Russia $5 billion, and it’s hoped to get it up and running by January 2012.
Stock markets in Japan closed down again. Blame being put on the increase in the Yen’s value. Bank of Japan injected more cash, for the 4th day. Japanese investors are becoming disheartened with what seems like futile efforts to stop a nuclear disaster. It is predicted that trading in Japanese stock markets will become more volatile in the days to come. There are signs that Japanese authorities will intervene in the currency market.
Earlier press conference it was disclosed that reactor 3, Fukushima Daiichi plant, had reached its “limits”. Gamma radiation detected.
Officials have also stated that the use of sea water had damaged cooling pumps, which is why they had to replace them.
Reactors 5 & 6 spent fuel rod pools are showing increasing temperature. At the current rate of heat build up, they believe the pools could hit boiling within a week. This is why they are trying to connect new power lines to the plant, in order to restart coolant pumps.
17MAR2011
The situation in Japan, with Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, is similar to the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, in that nuclear fuel was exposed. The Japanese are trying to deal with the situation by dumping water onto the reactors and spent fuel pools. At this point only partial melting of fuel rods have occurred. How did the Soviets deal with Chernobyl, where full melt down of the entire reactor took place?
CNES SPOT/EOSAT satellite image, 1986.
After a series of attempts to restrain the nuclear melt down failed, resulting literally in melting of the reactor (in the U.S. it’s called China Syndrome, because jokingly it was said it would melt it’s way to China), the Soviets began to air drop sand, lead and boric acid. 5,000 metric tons worth in one week! The reactor was eventually sealed in a concrete coffin.
Most people working to fight the Chernobyl disaster died from radiation exposure. One firefighter said it felt like pins & needles on his face, and the air tasted like metal, then he died. Most of the vehicles used are still parked at the Chernobyl compound.
Soviet scientist were concerned with the melting reactor reaching ground water. They decided to pour huge amounts of concrete in the bottom of the reactor building, which seems to have worked.
For perspective: Chernobyl was ONE reactor, no spent fuel pools. Japan is dealing, officially, with SIX reactors & their spent fuel pools (1,000+ fuel rods).
Fukushima 2011: JAPAN DISASTER START OF GLOBAL GREAT DEPRESSION
IDAHO NATIONAL LABRATORY WATCHING EVENTS IN JAPAN, SEA WATER MAY NOT WORK
JAPAN QUAKE = NO ECONOMIC RECOVERY
The U.S. dollar has fallen in value against the Japanese Yen. This is because Japanese government and corporations are cashing in their chips. They are cashing in the foreign bonds they hold, in order to raise cash to help deal with the disasters. Corporations, including insurance companies which expect pay out huge claims, are trying to acquire as much Japanese Yen as they can. This is called “repatriation” in the financial markets.
The Bank of Japan will take advantage of the rising value of the Yen, by selling Yen to foreign buyers in order to bring in foreign cash to the national bank.
Japan has been one of the most prolific buyers of U.S. debt, in the form of U.S. bonds. Japan itself is in huge debt, but until now was able to continue buying U.S. bonds, helping the U.S. government. The disasters have forced Japan to sell back bonds in order to raise cash to help deal with ongoing crisis, and for rebuilding. Japanese corporations have to raise cash due to the fact that most factories have shut down, which means they’re not making anything to sell. So Japanese corporations have to sell the foreign bonds they hold.
This is the beginning of a possible economic dominoes affect on the World Economy.
For a third day, the DOW fell big, along with other U.S. stock markets. Stock markets around the world being affected. This is because Japan has become the “parts” supplier to the global economy. Auto parts to electronic chips are made in Japan. This production has come to a virtual stand still. One analyst said that if this situation lasts a few weeks (best case) consumers can expect noticeable increases in prices.
It must be remembered that the Great Depression, that hit the United States in the 1930s, was not solely caused by the investment/finance crash of ’29. What put the U.S. into a Great Depression was the loss of its main industry at the time; agriculture. Because of the quake, tsunami, and now nuclear disaster, Japan has essentially lost its main industries.
Until the Second World War, agriculture was the biggest industry in the U.S. Most Americans worked in farming, or agriculture related jobs. The industry was hit by a disaster that was a combination of Mother Earth, and man made. The plain states, and mid west, had been dealing with a major drought, and, farming techniques destroyed the top soil. This is where the term “Dust Bowl” came from.
The result was that hundreds of thousands of Americans lost their jobs and their homes, just from the collapse of the agriculture industry. Combined with the losses of the finance/investment industries (which affected manufacturing) this created the Great Depression.
The World is already in a major financial crisis, bigger than what hit the world prior to the Great Depression in the U.S. (other countries, like Germany had already experience a depression). Now we have the natural/man made disasters that could push the World into a Great Depression.
Never before have the economies of the World been so tied together. We have a dominoes situation. Japan, being a major parts supplier, could be the dominoe that starts the fall.