Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant must be shut down. Aborigines to block uranium mining after Japan disaster - Australasia, World. The Mirarr are the traditional owners of land where uranium has been mined for more than 30 years and exported all over the world. Tepco, which operates the Fukushima plant, is a long-standing customer of Ranger, the principal mine. The senior traditional elder in the area, Yvonne Margarula, has written to the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, expressing her people's sorrow about Japan's suffering, and their concern about the nuclear emergency. "Given the long history between Japanese nuclear companies and Australian uranium miners, it is likely that the radiation problems at Fukushima are, at least in part, being fuelled by uranium derived from our traditional lands," she said.
"This makes us feel very sad. " Ms Margarula also told Mr Ban that events in Japan had strengthened the Mirarr's resolve to oppose work at a second mine, named Jabiluka – the world's largest known undeveloped uranium deposit. Uranium mining has a troubled history in the area. Japan Sendai Earthquake Data Portal. In response to the Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami Mar 11th 2011, the Harvard Center for Geographic Analysis has launched this web portal. If you have data to share, or need an upload point for inter-agency data exchange, please contact us: The main point of contact of the Japanese Government for Earthquakes, is here. The USGS Earthquake Hazards Program Summary of the Honshu event is here. An excellent background series on the regional geography and impact of the event has been assembled by the Tohoku Geographical Association here. Viewpoint: Fukushima makes case for renewable energy.
4 April 2011Last updated at 18:44 By Antony Froggatt Senior Research Fellow, Chatham House The Fukushima accident has highlighted one of the most important issues concerning nuclear power - that of safety and risk. The risk of containment damage at Fukushima was put at one in a million, per reactor per year The accepted wisdom has been that the consequences of a catastrophic nuclear accident may be large, but that the frequency is low.
The industry and nuclear regulators calculate this on the basis of the likelihood of an accident for any one operating year. In the case of the design of the first four reactors at Fukushima, the Japanese Nuclear Energy Safety Organization estimated in 2002: "The frequency of occurrence of a core damage accident is 1/100,000 or less per one year for one reactor and the frequency of occurrence of an accident leading to containment damage is 1/1,000,000 or less per one year for one reactor. " Energy efficiency Continue reading the main story “Start Quote End Quote. Ordeal Continues for Japan's Nuclear Evacuees | News. In a televised address to the nation, Japan’s Prime Minister Naoto Kan has said the evacuation of residents from around the stricken Fukushima power plant will be long term.
An estimated 70,000 people have been moved from settlements near the plant. Much of the population of Futaba town were evacuated to a huge stadium on the outskirts of the capital, Tokyo. They are now being moved on to yet another shelter. Evacuating the population of an entire town is no simple task. It is a cavernous concrete stadium. The facility could hardly be described as homey. He says, "It has been tough. No one knows when Futaba’s people will return to what’s left of their homes. The full impact of the radiation leaks on the local environment is not yet known. Volunteers arrived at Saitama Super Arena in their thousands. In a corner of the arena Yoshige Tadashii plays his ukelele to a small crowd. But the evacuees’ ordeal continues. For 12-year-old Aya Nakai it is yet another strain. Japanese Plant Had Barebones Risk Plan. GE's Immelt to meet with Tepco officials in Japan.
2011年東北地方太平洋沖地震）Earthquake Damage to Libraries」 Panoramic image from inside the passenger terminal of the airport in Sendai, Japan. About 1,200 people were trapped inside the Sendai Airport passenger terminal when the earthquake and resulting tsunami struck on March 11. They remained cut off from all outside contact and had to survive on their own for more than two days until help arrived.
This panoramic image, made on March 17, shows the damage to the interior of the airport. (Masaki Furumaya / Sankei Shimbun / MSN Japan) Mark Baker / AP Computer laptops lie damaged on the floor of an airport building at Sendai Airport, March 19. The U.S. military have been asked to help clear the debris and get the airport fully operational as soon as possible.
Jiji Press / AFP - Getty Images The damaged radar room in the control tower at the Sendai airport. See more panoramic images from the disaster in Japan. 株式会社ブリックス. Japan earthquake. Every year, thousands of family members are separated by conflicts, disasters or migration. People suffer terribly when they lose contact with their loved ones and don't know where they are or whether they are safe. The ICRC and National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies work together around the world to locate people and put them back into contact with their relatives. This work includes looking for family members, restoring contact, reuniting families and seeking to clarify the fate of those who remain missing. Crisis Response. Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. The MS plays the role of "leading the ministry" by determining the way the ministry should be headed during the planning process, making the policies of the MIC and during the process of drafting bills.
The MS also oversees the entire MIC and coordinates paperwork within the ministry to ensure it is smoothly conducted,thereby making the ministry livelier. To promote the personnel administration of government officials from a government-wide viewpoint, the PPB sets the basic policies for personnel management within the government and coordinates personnel management comprehensively, while promoting personnel administration as times change. The PPB also enhances and otherwise administers the treatment of people under pension to public servants, which is Japan's oldest pension program and still supports about 770,000 pensioners.
The Administrative Management Bureau (AMB) works to make administrative organizations and administrative service more efficient and reliable for citizens. Up Page. 法務省：Information from the Immigration Bureau Relating to the Tohoku Region Pacific Coast Earthquake. Ground still moving in Japan. Loyal Dog Won't Leave Injured Friend Behind - HELP JAPAN'S LOST & INJURED TSUNAMI PETS. Noriyuki SHIKATA: Japan's Nuclear and Indust... Standing with Japan. Japanese earthquake and tsunami: Kesennuma city's Twitter feed shows how difficult it is to prepare for disaster. - By Alexandra Harney. Good morning (^o^). It's a sunny morning in Kesennuma. As of 8 a.m., the temperature is -0.4 degrees Celsius. A dry weather advisory is in effect. Please take extra care with fire in the dry conditions.
On March 11, the cheerfully reassuring voice of the Kesennuma City Crisis Management Department greeted its Twitter followers, as it did every morning, with a tweet about the weather. That morning, the population of Kesennuma, a picturesque fishing port on the jagged coast of Japan's Miyagi prefecture, was still about 73,000. Of these, almost one-third were over 65 years old. The shark fin capital of Japan, Kesennuma survived by the grace of nature, which provided the mainstays of its economy—fishing and tourism. Kesennuma's mascot and the avatar of its Twitter feed, "the child of the sea, Hoya Bohya," was a cheerful anime character with an orange sea creature for a hat, a scallop for a belt buckle, and a knife for filleting fish held triumphantly aloft like a sword. Japan Quake Map. Factbox: Japan disaster in figures. Thu Mar 17, 2011 1:33am GMT (Reuters) - The following is a list of the likely impact of and response to the devastating earthquake and tsunami that rocked the northeast coast of Japan on Friday, and subsequent crisis at nuclear power plants. * The death toll is expected to exceed 10,000, with northeastern prefectures of Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima most severely hit.
At least 4,314 people were confirmed dead, but 8,606 people are still missing, National Police Agency of Japan says on early Thursday. - More than 440,000 people have been evacuated, NHK says. . - About 850,000 households in the north are still without electricity in near-freezing weather, Tohuku Electric Power Co. says. . * At least 87,894 buildings have been damaged, National Police Agency of Japan says. -- Citigroup expects 5-10 trillion yen in damage to housing and infrastructure, while Barclays Capital estimates economic losses of 15 trillion yen ($183.7 billion) or 3 percent of Japan's GDP.
Asahi.com（朝日新聞社）：東日本大震災 - 福島県関連情報. Outside the frame: 'Complete devastation' in Japan. David Guttenfelder / AP A Japanese survivor of the earthquake and tsunami rides his bicycle through the leveled city of Minamisanriku, in northeastern Japan, Tuesday March 15, 2011. AP photojournalist David Guttenfelder shares his experience covering the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. We’d all covered earthquakes and wars and hurricanes before. But when some fellow AP staffers and I entered the cove at the town of Minamisanriku, we gasped out loud in the car. Japan Earthquake: Rescue, Recovery, and Reaction - Alan Taylor - In Focus.
Search and rescue teams arriving in Japan's hardest hit areas are so far finding very few survivors, after last week's devastating earthquake. The official number of deaths has climbed above 1,800, but officials fear the eventual number may exceed 10,000, as thousands of bodies are now being discovered on remote beaches.
In the days since the earthquake, Japan has experienced an additional 403 aftershocks -- 32 of them with a magnitude greater than 6.0. Fire crews, rescue teams, and volunteers are now digging through the wreckage left by the tsunami, as evacuation efforts continue around the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station and engineers work to regain control of the failing reactors. [Be sure to see earlier entries from When the Quake Struck and Scenes from the Aftermath] [36 photos] Use j/k keys or ←/→ to navigate Choose: A ferry - its deck chairs and tables undisturbed - rests stranded on top of a building in Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, northern Japan, Sunday, March 13, 2011.
U.S. Calls Radiation ‘Extremely High,’ Sees Japan Nuclear Crisis Worsening. What are the health concerns in Japan's nuclear crisis? (FAQ) | Green Tech. Amid a full-blown humanitarian crisis from a massive earthquake and tsunami, Japan is racing against time to avert a nuclear catastrophe. Plant workers at Fukushima Daiichi are struggling to cool the reactors and spent fuel held in pools also on site. Because of explosions caused by the buildup of hydrogen, it is believed that two of the containment structures that hold the reactors have been breached, greatly increasing risk of a release of a large amount or radioactive material.
Although it's still an unstable situation , it's clear the damage at the Fukushima Daiichi plant is worse than the Three Mile Island accident in 1979 and will be studied for years to come. Based on comments from experts and published reports, this FAQ attempts to shed some light on the current situation, with an emphasis on understanding the health implications from radiation. What is the latest on the attempts to cool the reactors? What is the picture on radiation releases? Japan’s Prime Minister Launches English-Language Twitter Account for Quake Updates. The Japanese Prime Minister's Office started an English-language Twitter account Wednesday, providing updates on the Tohoku-Pacific Ocean Earthquake situation. The account, @JPN_PMO, will tweet translations from the Japanese disaster information account @Kantei_Saigai, which the Prime Minister's Office created March 13, two days after the quake.
In its first four hours, the account gained more than 7,000 followers. Although the translation is faulty at times, the tweets provide information about evacuations, press conferences and the country's overall welfare during this time of crisis. Here's the first tweet: Since the 8.9-magnitude earthquake hit Japan Saturday, social media has played a vital role in reconnecting victims with loved ones and providing real-time information about the crisis.
Will you follow @JPN_PMO? Surprise 'critical' warning raises nuclear fears. 16 March 2011Last updated at 20:16 By Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News The building housing reactor 4 (left) appears severely damaged - despite the reactor itself being shut down Over the days of the Fukushima crisis, attention has switched from reactor building 1 to 3, to 2, back to 3 - and now, to 4. This is a surprise. Reactors 4, 5 and 6 were shut down at the time of Friday's earthquake, with some or all of their fuel rods extracted and left in the cooling ponds that each reactor building has under its roof. Once a reactor is turned off, radioactivity and heat generation in the rods die away quickly; down to 7% of the original power within a second of switch-off, 5% within a minute, 0.5% within a day. Transferred to the cooling pond, allowing technicians to do routine maintenance on the reactor, the rods are supposed to sit quietly until the time comes for their re-insertion or their journey towards disposal.
The water keeps them cool and also blocks radiation. Core task. Satellite Photos - Japan Before and After Tsunami - Interactive Feature. Gizmodo. VIDEO: Now There's A Volcano Erupting In Japan. Japan to spray water, acid on stricken nuke plant. March 14 Updates on Japan's Nuclear Crisis and Earthquake Aftermath. In addition to trying to understand what exactly is happening at the damaged nuclear plants in Japan, many people are trying to figure out how dangerous a meltdown at the plant could be in the worst-case scenario.
This video report from Britain’s Channel 4 News includes a good overview of the crisis at at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, 150 miles north of Tokyo, and an interview with John Beddington, the British government’s chief scientific adviser, who insisted that even a full meltdown of the reactors would still not compare to the disaster at Chernobyl 25 years ago, partly because of the different reactor design: Mr. Beddington said that “in Chernobyl the whole top blew off the reactor, there was no covering, the graphite there burned for a long period of time, sending up a plume of radioactive material to several tens of thousands of meters. 1. The three stricken reactors at the Fukushima plant were shut down automatically when the quake was detected.