The International Atomic Energy Agency stated that one of the criteria for ordering mandatory evacuations, around Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, has been reached.
The IAEA says they found dangerous radiation levels in a town outside the current 20km (12.4 miles) evacuation zone. The town is about 40km (24.8 miles) away from the nuclear plant. Earlier in the day Greenpeace activists made similar statements.
The IAEA is urging the Japanese government to take action.
Japanese scientist, going over the damage from 11 March tsunami, say buildings made of the toughest concrete, and several stories tall, were totally destroyed by the tsunami. That included building that were thought to be safe for use as emergency shelters, of course most people in those shelters died.
The scientist say the most damage was not caused by the in rushing tsunami, but by the tsunami rushing back out to sea. They point out that anything that rushes uphill, will go faster when it rolls back downhill. They say the same is true with tsunami, and of course, the bigger the tsunami the more dangerous its backwash is.
The strongest buildings, that were wiped out, show evidence that they were destroyed by the tsunami backwash.
A Japanese industry analyst, interviewed on NHK, said most of Japan’s industries will be hurt more than thought by rolling blackouts.
For several days NHK has been running reports on different industries that would be affected by power outages. Some of those industries, like bread factories, would have to shut down for longer than the planned 3 hour blackout. This is because of the process for making bread. The bread factory official said they would end up being shut down for 6 hours.
Most factories need to control heat processes for a long period of time, and they can’t do that with power outages. It’s also interesting to see that most factories in Japan do not have any back up power source. Most of Japan’s industries are totally dependent on nuclear power.
The analyst said on NHK, that Japan’s industry must be prepared to move factories to other parts of Japan, or even to other countries. In the future Japan’s industries must be built so that they can operate independently of any single power source.
Farm fields 30km away from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant are showing contamination with cesium-137, more than 2,000 times standard limits. Cesium-137 has a half life of 30 years.
Greenpeace representatives are demanding that the Japanese government issue mandatory evacuation orders. They say it is based on their own radiation sampling. The Japanese government said they are monitoring the situation and will be the ones who will decide necessary actions.
Efforts to control higher radiation levels being emitted by the damaged nuclear plant, could include using treated cloth/tarps over the reactors, to try and catch particles. And, spraying the ground with a resin, to prevent the particles from entering the soil.
To add to the problem, smoke was seen coming from the Fukushima DaiNi nuclear plant (sister plant to Daiichi). TEPCo officials say it could be an electrical problem (could be?).
TEPCo officials have finally admitted that the four damaged reactors at Fukushima Daiichi are a total loss: ‘‘We have no choice but to scrap reactors 1 to 4 if we look at their conditions objectively.’’-Tsunehisa Katsumata, TEPCo Chairman.
Can you say “no brainer?” (I like the phrase “no sh*t Sherlock!”). It took them this long to realize this? Now we know why they haven’t started pouring concrete on them, they really thought they could save them.
Kyodo News reporting that sub-contracting, and even sub-sub-contracting, is rampant at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, and is playing a major role in the problems there.
Kyodo News interviewed one of the workers that was sent to the hospital with Beta Burns last week. It turns out the worker is a sub-sub-contractor. He said the reason they didn’t have protective gear is the fact that TEPCo has a lack of communication with its sub contractors. Tokyo Electric calls its sub-contractors ”associate enterprises”.
The injured worker suggests that the most dangerous work is being forced on the sub-sub-contractors. He claimed lack of supervision, and lack of radiation monitoring for the workers. Also, he says the problem with radiation levels is worse than what’s being reported. Many highly radioactive materials litter the nuclear plant’s compound, after the hydrogen gas explosions. They can not be removed because of their high levels of radiation.
Kyodo News found other sub-contractor employees who are no longer working at the plant. They said their employers begged them to come back to work, even offering 80,000 yen per day. They said no way, not with the amount of radiation there.
I have worked for corporations here in the U.S. that sub-contract, and my experience is that once a company sub-contracts, anything regarding safety & training is quickly forgotten, because it becomes the responsibility of the sub-contractor. Companies like to sub-contract, not just because it saves them money, but because it passes on legal liabilities to the sub-contractor. My experience is that sub-contractors are even less capable when it comes to providing training, or enforcing safety. The sub-contractors I worked for expected training to be done by senior employees, but in many cases the ‘senior’ employees had recently been hired and didn’t really understand their job.
Also, the managers of the sub-contractors would hold so called ‘safety meetings’, where they would force employees to sign papers saying they attended a safety meeting. The problem is that nothing was discussed at the so called meeting. The safety meetings were ‘held’ on paydays, and the managers held back the paychecks until the employees signed the safety meeting documents. I refused to sign the document, and threatened legal action if they didn’t give me my paycheck. That works, because it’s the law. But, to my amazement, 90% of my fellow co-workers did what the management told them to do, for fear of losing their job. Even my example of refusing to go along with sub-contractor management wasn’t enough to ease their fear. I quit most of my jobs with sub-contractors because of training and safety issues (work environment was getting too dangerous). I think only once was my job threatened for my demanding they follow regulations (that’s because I actually turned them into state officials), so I don’t know why so many employees are afraid of losing their job.
This is just another example of why corporations suck!
By the way I began to see a similar situation developing within the U.S. military (specifically National Guard). I did complain about regulation violations to superiors, and it did affect my continued enlistment (they wouldn’t let me re-enlist after 13 years).
Tokyo Electric President, Shimizu Masataka, is in the hospital. Hypertension and dizziness are the reasons given. He has not appeared in public since attending a press conference on 13 March.
TEPCo runs the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
The Idaho National Laboratory is sending robots hardened against radiation, along with hardened cameras to Japan.
That’s according to officials with the U.S. Department of Energy. The robots will be used where radiation levels are too high for people, at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. The statements by Energy Department officials, about the INL robots, were made to a U.S. Senate panel on 29 March.
The U.S. department of Energy has sent, or is sending, 70 employees, along with tons of equipment, to help fight the nuclear disaster.
Just remember, this nuclear disaster is due to the lax disaster preparations of a Japanese capitalist corporation, and yet, the taxpayers of Japan are paying for it, and we taxpayers in the U.S. are paying for it. Corporations suck!
The situation at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant now has Japan officially on maximum alert.
To give an idea of just how much highly contaminated water they must try to remove before any more work can continue on the damage plant: Just one of the tunnel/trenches under the reactors holds 6,000 cubic meters of contaminated water, more than two Olympic swimming pools.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Edano Yukio says they have no choice but to keep pumping water in, to keep the reactors from melting down.
Due to continued parts supply shortages caused by the 11 March disasters, Toyota is now telling dealers NOT to replace damaged parts.
Toyota wants dealer auto shops to make in-house repairs of damaged parts, when possible. Toyota says there could be at least 233 parts that are not available. They did not specify which parts, but could involve parts for suspensions and air bags.
Starting March 30, Honda will cut back on production within Canada and the United States.
Honda officials say the cut backs are due to prolonged shut down of parts suppliers in Japan. They do not know how long their production cut backs will last.
Honda has also warned car dealers that parts for their auto repair shops are dwindling. They told the dealers to expect shortages.
Honda did not give specifics regarding their production cut backs, but they hoped it would be enough to avoid total factory shut downs.