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.

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!

It just doesn’t stop, since April 8, Japan has been hit with dozens of aftershocks of 5.0 or bigger, including two 7.0 quakes.

In the past few hours Japan has been hit with several large aftershocks, and they’re spread all over the big island of Honshu. The latest aftershock hit Fukushima and Ibaraki Prefectures, magnitude 6.3.

Before that, a magnitude 6.4 quake jolted Chiba Prefecture, just east of Tokyo, and a magnitude 5.6 quake rocked Nagano Prefecture in central Japan

‘‘Neither the government nor we would be able to say it is okay to operate (the reactors) unless it is confirmed that they would be able to handle (accidents) in light of the latest findings.’’-Mizoguchi Zembee, Governor of Shimane Prefecture

Chugoku Electric Power Company (CEPCo) runs the Shimane nuclear power plant, and, apparently they have a worse track record than TEPCo.  Reactor 1 is currently shut down due to gross safety violations, and operation of Reactor 2 is under review.

The governor of the prefecture says he will not OK the powering up of Reactor 1, until the Japanese central government enforces new safety standards.  Governor Mizoguchi says the current safety standards are part of the reason for the ongoing disaster at Fukushima Daiichi.

The violation of current safety standards, with the operation of reactor 1, were discovered in March of last year.

In June of 2010, CEPCo officially admitted they had violated safety regulations at their Shimane nuclear power plant.

‘‘The radiation leak has not stopped completely and our concern is that the amount of leakage could eventually reach that of Chernobyl or exceed it.”-Official statement from Tokyo Electric Power Company

Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency says most of the radioactive material spewed from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is coming from Reactor 2.  Reactor 2 building exploded on 15 March.  They now know the reactor containment vessel was damaged, possibly breached, resulting in highly radioactive isotopes being emitted.

Also, radiation has been spread by the spent fuel rods, after the explosions, because the spent fuel pools were located on the top of the buildings.

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency says the current readings of radiation emitted is 10% of the Chernobyl disaster, but, TEPCo believes it’s likely Fukushima Daiichi will exceed the contamination caused by Chernobyl.

Kyodo News says Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was on fire.

Tokyo Electric Power Company said the fire occurred in a huge battery storage box near a water outlet of Reactor 4.  The fire was spotted by a worker, and put out.  The cause of the fire is being investigated.

The Japanese government just raised the level of the disaster at Fukushima Daiichi to 7.  That is the same level as Chernobyl.

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency made the decision to raise it to the worst condition, under the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale, because of the extremely high levels of radiation that is being spewed.  Also, it is based on the size of the area that is being contaminated, and the threat to life.

At one point Fukushima Daiichi was emitting up to 10,000 terabecquerels of radioactive materials per hour!

Tokyo Electric Power Company has received about $24 billion USD in loans from several major banks.

TEPCo officials say they need to money to continue working to deal with the crisis at Fukushima Daiichi.  This is proof that corporations are not prepared for disasters.