Fukushima Prefecture is finally testing for radiation contamination at local elementary schools. Fukushima Prefecture is where the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is.
The tests will only run through Thursday. It was demanded by parents.
It’s amazing to me that it wasn’t already being done, and it’s amazing that they’re only doing it until Thursday. The nuclear disaster is still “critical” according to government officials.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the Japan Meteorological Agency delayed releasing info on radiation data. He also said, that when the data was released it was so confusing that it has added to the problem of getting people out of harms way.
And as an example of overlapping authority, Meteorological Agency officials say they thought the data was only to be reported to the International Atomic Energy Agency. They pointed out that the ‘data’ was a only computer projection, a simulation, of what could happen, not actual real time data!
Nissan says its April production, in Japan, will be about 40% of what was planned before the 11 March 2011 disasters.
Honda says its Japanese production will be half what it was hoping for.
Nissan is actually getting help for its Japanese production, from its engine plant in the United States.
Russia is offering a ‘water cleaner’ used on decommissioned nuclear submarines, to Japan.
State-run Rosatom corporation, which is involved with taking apart old nuclear submarines, has a device that ‘cleans’ low level radiation from water. TEPCo has to periodically release low level radioactive water into the ocean, to maintain operational safety at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi plant.
Also, Reactor 2 continues to dump high level radiation contaminated water into the ocean. However the Russian water cleaner can not handle the higher levels of radiation.
The Russian water cleaner is a 65 meters (213 feet) long floating platform that was build with money from Japan. Rosatom officials say they are ready to tow it to Japan, if requested.
Despite trying to be optimistic, Toyota has now admitted that the parts supply problem is so bad that it will have to close ALL its North American plants.
Toyota spokesman Mike Goss, said the shut downs will take place later in April. At least 25,000 employees will be affected. How long the shut downs last depends on parts supply issues.
Goss said that the North American plants, in Mexico, U.S. and Canada, get only 15% of their parts from Japan, but they are crucial for assembly of the vehicles.
There is about one week’s worth of parts for North America. Toyota, as well as other car makers, are scrambling to find factories outside Japan to make the parts.
According to The Daily Yomiuri, lack of food is not the only reason for bare grocery store shelves. Even food that is abundant is not making it to the Japanese grocery stores because of a lack of packaging.
The problem is a lack of plastic, and plastic wrap, used for food packaging. The 11 March 2011, 9.0 quake severely damaged a petroleum complex in Kamisu, Ibaraki Prefecture, where the chemicals are made for plastics. (another example of how we are dependent on oil)
Even plastic bottle cap producers have shut down.
Cardboard production has been stopped as well. The result is products like milk can not be packaged, according to Nippon Paper-Pak Co, a major beverage packaging firm.
After blasting Tokyo Electric Power Company for the leaking water from Reactor 2, the Japanese national government has given the go ahead to release radioactive water from reactors 3 & 4!
Chief Cabinet secretary, Edano Yukio, said the intentional release of contaminated water from Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is to maintain operational safety!
Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, has order its own ban on Shitake mushrooms after a sample tested positive for contamination.
Iodine and cesium were found on mushrooms grown outdoors in the city of Iwata. No contamination found on indoor grown mushrooms. Iwata is 40 kilometers (24.8 miles) from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
The radiation levels are higher than safe limits set by the national (central) government. It was the local government that set the ban on shipping the contaminated mushrooms, after no order was heard from the central government.
The predominant winds from Japan are bringing radiation spread into the air, to North America. The radiation is, so far, lower level isotopes, and the air disperses it over the long distance.
Now there is highly radioactive isotopes spilling into the Pacific Ocean, in higher concentrations, and the currents could eventually bring it to the North American coast.
The Kuroshio Current (Black Current, or Black Tide) runs northward up the Pacific coast of Japan, then turns eastward into the North Pacific Current heading towards the North American coast.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Edano Yukio, has demanded that Tokyo Electric Power Company stop the leak of highly contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean.
TEPCo has failed at two attempts to stop the leak. They have admitted that they don’t even know where it’s coming from. It’s pouring into a pit connected to Reactor 2, at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
Now TEPCo will try to use silt screens in the ocean, to block the spread of radiation in the water.