The French company Areva SA is increasing the number of nuclear experts they’ve sent to Japan, to help deal with the Fukushima Daiichi crisis.
Areva SA now has 15 technicians in Japan. Some of the technicians specialize in removing contaminated water, and dismantling nuclear power plants.
France based Areva is also trying to get a uranium enrichment operation built in Idaho, U.S.A.
Despite efforts to stop the contaminated water from spilling into the Pacific Ocean, Tokyo Electric Power Company, and the Japanese government, say contamination levels just off the Fukushima coast are at highest point so far.
Iodine-131 has hit 88.5 becquerels per liter, 30km (18.6 miles) away from Fukushima Daiichi. Cesium-137 levels continue to climb as well, but are still under Japanese safe limits.
Toyota is suspending production at all its European factories.
Plants in Britain, France, Turkey and Poland will be closed for several days on April 21, 22, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 and May 2.
Toyota also said they have yet to decide what they’ll do after that. The parts supply problem in Japan does not show signs of lessening. Toyota might be force to continue with sporadic factory shut downs, with all its plants.
President Benigno Aquino ordered all Filipinos living within 50km of Fukushima Daiichi, to leave the area. Any Filipinos living outside the 50 kilometers (31 miles) zone, can voluntarily leave.
The Philippine government said they would pay all the costs of bringing their citizens back to the Philippines. Any Filipinos who want to stay are ordered to move to the southern part of the big island of Honshu.
The order came when it was officially announced that Fukushima Daiichi was a level 7 nuke disaster (the highest level).
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.
People are preparing for what could be the biggest protest yet of the Michigan government. On Wednesday thousands of people will demonstrate outside the state capitol building.
The issue is collective bargaining rights. The Michigan government what’s to get rid of it. People are also upset by the planned huge cuts to social programs. Then there’s the proposed tax on retirement, which could tax retirement funds the same as regular income.
There is talk of Unions staging mass strikes. Sounds like what’s going on in some European countries.
The mayor of Washington DC, and six city council members were arrested today, while protesting the Federal Government’s budget plans. They sat in front of a big sign that read “No Taxation Without Representation”, which was one of the rallying cries of the American Revolution against the British.
Mayor Vincent Gray said the Federal budget infringes on the District of Columbia’s sovereignty. “Folks in congress will do things to the District of Columbia that they wouldn’t do in their own districts … It’s an outrageous position. We raise our tax dollars just like other states do, just like other cities do.”
41 other protesters were arrested as well.
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
“The Japan-U.S. alliance could collapse, completely contrary to [the recent trend of] being strengthened.”-Nagashima Akihisa, Democratic Party of Japan House of Representatives
The Daily Yomiuri is reporting that from the beginning, U.S. offers of help with the nuke crisis at Fukushima Daiichi, were given the cold shoulder by Japan’s government.
On 12 March, the U.S. ambassador made several calls to Prime Minister Kan’s office, asking him to allow nuclear experts from the U.S. to be involved with the decision making in the Prime Minister’s cabinet. The answer was no.
U.S. officials pointed out that their B5B measures could offer fast response to the Fukushima Daiichi disaster. B5B was developed after the 9/11/2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City. It is designed to provide fast response to any attack on a U.S. nuclear plant, with one of the objectives to provide continuous electrical power to the plants.
Lack of electrical power at the Fukushima Daiichi plant accelerated the disaster. So far the worst case scenario, created by U.S. officials, seems to be playing out. The real reason why the U.S. imposed a much larger evacuation zone, than the Japanese government, was because U.S. analyst said things were going to get worse.
Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, repeatedly told Japanese officials that they should NOT let Tokyo Electric Power Company handle the situation. He even threatened to have all U.S. citizens evacuated from Japan, not just military families.
Supposedly an official with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, when visiting TEPCo headquarters on 18 March, asked who was really in charge of Japan’s government.
Apparently, it is only after the Japanese government thought it would lose support of the United States, that it got serious about Fukushima Daiichi.