Japan admits twice as much radiation released

ELEANOR HALL: To Japan now where nearly three months after the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster, Japan's nuclear authority has dramatically revised up its estimates of the amount of radiation emitted from the Fukushima nuclear plants in the week after the earthquake.

In a statement overnight, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency more than doubled its original estimate of the radiation in the atmosphere.

Plutonium has also been found for the first time in soil just a few kilometres from the plant. Tests have confirmed the plutonium came from the plant, but researchers say the levels are not a cause for alarm.

A short time ago I spoke to Tokyo correspondent Mark Willacy.

ELEANOR HALL: Mark this is an extraordinary admission from Japan's nuclear safety agency isn't it, that the earlier estimates of the danger were out by more than 100 per cent?

MARK WILLACY: Well the safety agency says that it was taking on board figures that were provided to it by TEPCO because they're based on basically water injection assumptions. Now that's quite technical but that water was pumped in to try and stop the meltdown - as we know now there were partial meltdowns in three of the reactors.

Now the nuclear safety agency is saying it's pushing up - it's doubling the amount of radiation released in the week after the crisis. It's more than doubling it to 770,000 terabecquerels. Now that probably doesn't mean much to people but it is quite a lot of radiation escaping into the atmosphere.

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http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2011/s3237652.htm

Chernobyl impact felt 25 years later

Natalia Manzurova, 59, arrived in Chernobyl just nine days after the April 26, 1986, explosion at the nuclear power plant in Ukraine created a radiation cloud that stretched across Europe.

She says that at the time, she and other experts in the region had no idea how much radiation had been released in the nuclear disaster at reactor No. 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.

Manzurova has been marking the 25th anniversary of the explosion with speaking engagements — including one in Washington earlier this month — aimed at raising awareness of the potential consequences of nuclear energy, which March’s nuclear disaster in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan brought back to the forefront.

Manzurova, a nuclear engineer who was called to Chernobyl from her job in Ozersk, Russia, spent four and a half years studying the effect of the radiation on the environment in Chernobyl, and helping cleanup workers, or liquidators.

She says that she would work in the zone 20 days and then go home for 10, and that she experienced many side effects.

“I would get huge headaches and nose bleeds,” says Manzurova, who was later diagnosed with thyroid cancer she attributes to that experience.

How many illnesses resulted from radiation exposure at the Chernobyl cleanup are unclear.

Gregory Hartl, a World Health Organization spokesman, says 6,000 cases of thyroid cancer have been detected in the region affected by Chernobyl’s disaster

Japan launches massive search for tsunami bodies

TAGAJO, Japan (AP) — Some 25,000 Japanese troops are fanning out on the wreckage-strewn northeastern coast Monday in a massive search for thousands of bodies still missing from last month's earthquake and tsunami.

Backed by dozens of boats and aircraft, the soldiers are scouring the region for remains swept to sea or buried under masses of rubble.

The operation is the third intensive military search for bodies since the disaster that killed up to 26,000 people. Some 12,000 remain missing and are believed dead. Monday's search is an all-out effort to recover any remains for their families.

The soldiers are combing through the rubble and navy boats and divers are searching the waters up to 12 miles (20 kilometers) off the coast.

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Japan earmarks first $50 billion for post-quake rebuild

Wakana Kumagai, 6, waits for her mother Yoshiko after visiting the grave of her father, who was killed by the March 11 tsunami

Japan's cabinet approved on Friday almost $50 billion of spending for post-earthquake rebuilding, a downpayment on the country's biggest public works effort in six decades.

The emergency budget of 4 trillion yen ($48.5 billion), which is likely be followed by more reconstruction spending packages, is still dwarfed by the overall cost of damages caused by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, estimated at $300 billion.

"With this budget, we are taking one step forward toward reconstruction ... and toward restarting the economy," Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda told reporters after a cabinet meeting.

The magnitude 9.0 earthquake and 15 meter tsunami that followed caused Japan's gravest crisis since World War Two, killing up to 28,000 people and destroying tens of thousands of homes.

It also smashed a nuclear power plant which began leaking radiation, a situation the plant's operator says could take all year to bring under control.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/22/us-japan-idUSTRE72A0SS20110422

BP Agrees to Pay $1 Billion for Start of Gulf Restoration

WASHINGTON — BP will provide $1 billion for early oil spill restoration efforts in the Gulf of Mexico in a voluntary agreement with the federal government and five states, company and government officials announced on Thursday.

The agreement, the largest of its kind in an oil pollution case, does not absolve BP of legal liability for the explosion and spill that occurred April 20, 2010, or from the costs of any additional economic and environmental damages. The company faces fines and penalties of as much as $21 billion as a result of the disaster, the worst offshore drilling accident in United States history. The company could face additional penalties under a Justice Department criminal and civil investigation.

The advance payment, to be divided among the states and the two lead federal agencies overseeing restoration efforts, will be used to rebuild coastal marshes, replenish damaged beaches, conserve ocean habitat and restore barrier islands.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/22/science/earth/22spill.html

Japan bans entry into Fukushima evacuation zone

Japan has made it illegal to enter a 20km (12-mile) evacuation zone around the stricken Fukushima nuclear reactor.

People were urged to leave the area shortly after the 11 March earthquake and tsunami crippled the plant, but the order was not enforced by law.

Cooling systems were knocked out by the twin disasters and radiation has been leaking from the plant.

Brief re-entry will be allowed to the area's 80,000 former residents to collect belongings.

It is not clear how many people are living in the evacuation zone, but reports said police had counted at least 60 families.

After the disaster the government also declared a wider 10km zone around the 20km evacuation area where people should either stay indoors or leave.

It later recommended that people also evacuate that area as well.

"The plant has not been stable," said chief government spokesman Yukio Edano.

"We have been asking residents not to enter the area as there is a huge risk to their safety," he said. "Unfortunately, there are still some people in the areas."

"Today... we have decided to designate the area an emergency area based on disaster law."

Long wait

Most of the evacuees are living in sports hall and gymnasiums waiting to return home.

It could be a long wait, says the BBC's Roland Buerk in Tokyo, as the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco), has said it aims to bring the reactors to a cold shutdown within nine months.

The evacuation zone will be reassessed then, adds our correspondent.

Residents would be allowed supervised visits of two hours to collect belongings, which would be screened for radiation contamination.

Workers at the Fukushima Daiichi plant are attempting to remove highly radioactive water from a reactor building to allow repair work to the cooling systems knocked out on 11 March.

Emergency workers have been unable to enter any of the damaged reactor buildings at the plant since then.

Nearly 14,000 people have been confirmed to have died in the earthquake and tsunami and more than 13,000 people are missing.

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13153339

Ukraine wants $1b for new Chernobyl shelter

Chernobyl veterans walk along Kiev main Khreshchatyk street holding Ukraine's Chernobyl Union banner during a rally in Kiev, Ukraine, Sunday, April 17, 2011. Some two thousands of Chernobyl veterans and invalids protested government plan to cut their social benefits ahead of the 25th anniversary of the deadly explosion at Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

Ukraine is seeking more than $1 billion in donations to help build a new concrete structure to seal the remains of the Chernobyl nuclear plant.

A makeshift shelter erected over the damaged reactor within eight months of the accident in 1986 has developed cracks and holes and is no longer considered reliable.

World leaders are gathering in the Ukranian capital Kiev for a conference marking 25 years since the Chernobyl disaster.

Ukraine also needs the money to fund a project to build safe storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel from the plant, which still contains radioactive magma and fuel rods after it exploded during a planned test by engineers.

The projects are administered by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and have jointly already raised more than 1.1 billion euros in international funding.

Yesterday the Ukrainian minister of emergency situations told journalists touring the power station he expected delegates at the Kiev conference to offer "historic" contributions.

"We expect to collect the most part of this amount at tomorrow's conference," Viktor Baloga said.

"We hope each participant of this historic conference will make a historic contribution."

Ukraine did not issue a list of delegates, although French prime minister Francois Fillon was confirmed as coming.

Organisers said Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin and Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev were also expected.

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http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/04/19/3195744.htm?section=justin

Eerie Hush Descends on Japan's Nuclear Zone

FUTABA, Japan—In the Coin Laundry, a dryer is still loaded with clothes: an orange hooded sweatshirt, a green worker's vest and two pairs of jeans, damp and smelling of mildew.

At Joe's Man restaurant near the train station, a menu lists the lunch specials, starting with bacon-and-eggplant pasta in a tomato-cream sauce. A flyer on the open doors of the Nishio clothes shop promotes a five-day "inventory clearance" sale. Over the road that runs through the town center, a white-and-blue sign proclaims: "Understanding Nuclear Power Correctly Will Lead to an Abundant Life."

But life, by and large, is what is absent in this town, just a few miles away from the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Futaba, once home to 7,000 residents, is one of eight towns forced to evacuate the day after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami damaged the nuclear plant. In the following days, tens of thousands of residents living within 12 miles of the damaged reactors fled. Last Monday, the Japanese government expanded the mandatory evacuation zone to encompass more towns.

On Sunday, the nuclear complex's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., said it aims to get the crippled plant under control with a so-called cold shutdown that brings down pressure and temperatures inside the reactors in six to nine months. Japan Trade Minister Banri Kaieda said some of the evacuees may be able to return after that but acknowledged it wouldn't be possible for all of them to come back then.

Futaba Mayor Katsutaka Idogawa, meanwhile, said it will be "years" before the residents of his town can return. The utility on Friday said it would begin initial compensation payments of up to ¥1 million, or about $12,000, to residents from an 18-mile zone around the plant—an offer some evacuees called an insufficient, short-term sop.

Police have established road blocks on Route 6, the main surface road running north and south through the zone. Authorities have declared evacuation mandatory for the area up to 12 miles from the plant and advised people who are six miles beyond that to stay inside. Police cars, ambulances or fire trucks occasionally patrol the towns inside the mandatory zone. While it isn't illegal to enter the area, it's strongly discouraged.

"What are you doing here?" a fireman asked a reporter walking in the street. From the passenger seat, another firefighter held up a radiation monitor. "You are not supposed to be here. It's dangerous," he said. "Please leave soon."

Some locals are evading the road blocks, traveling into the area by narrow side streets to gather possessions—confronting the possibility of never returning to live in Futaba.

On Thursday, a woman who identified herself as Ms. Takasaki rushed in and out of a beautiful, traditional Japanese home. She said her family is living with relatives in Fukushima City, about 60 miles inland. She had traveled to Futaba with her husband, daughter and father-in-law to pack as many of their possessions as they could in 30 minutes.

She wore a clear rain poncho, a face mask and sunglasses. Her shoes were covered with clear plastic bags, taped around her ankles.

"We're in a big hurry," she said as she carried boxes of clothes to the open trunk of a sedan, handing a stranger an armful of winter coats to carry to the car. "But since this is probably the last time we'll come back here, there are things we needed to get."

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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703648304576264434143952142.html

In Japan, Aftershocks Are Also Felt From Within

TOKYO — Aguri Suzuki, a 44-year-old real estate agent, says she sometimes thinks the ground is shaking even when it is not. When she sees a tree branch swaying in the wind, she worries there has been an earthquake.

Doctors here say they are seeing more people who are experiencing such phantom quakes, as well as other symptoms of “earthquake sickness” like dizziness and anxiety.

And it is no wonder. As if the threat of radiation from a crippled nuclear power plant were not enough, Tokyo and the region to its northeast have been under a constant barrage of aftershocks since the magnitude 9.0 earthquake that set off a devastating tsunami on March 11. Two earthquakes were felt in Tokyo on Wednesday morning, three on Tuesday, a large one on Monday and a very large one of magnitude 7.1 last Thursday.

Over all, there have been 400 aftershocks of magnitude 5.0 or greater in northeastern Japan since March 11. That is as many sizable quakes in one month as Japan typically experiences in two and a half years, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

The quakes are complicating efforts to control the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. For instance, the quake on Monday knocked out cooling at the Fukushima plant for nearly an hour.

Every time a sizable quake occurs, the first question on many people’s minds is whether the nuclear plant has been further damaged and whether a new cloud of radiation is on the way. A spokesman for the Tokyo Electric Power Company, the plant’s owner, is then hustled onto television to reassure viewers.

Government officials are becoming concerned that in the rush to cool the reactors and prevent hydrogen explosions, the plant’s vulnerability to another tsunami has been overlooked.

“A week ago we thought the major risk was a hydrogen explosion,” a senior official in the office of the prime minister said Tuesday. “I think the major risk at the moment is an aftershock and tsunami.”

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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/14/world/asia/14quake.html?src=mv#h[]

Japanese Declare Crisis at Level of Chernobyl

TOKYO—The Japanese government raised its assessment of the monthlong crisis at its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to the highest severity level by international standards—a rating only conferred so far upon the Chernobyl accident.

Japan's nuclear regulators said the plant has likely released so much radiation into the environment that it must boost the accident's severity rating on the International Nuclear Event scale to a 7 from 5 currently. That is the same level reached by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the former Soviet Union, which struck almost exactly 25 years ago, on April 26, 1986.

"Based on the cumulative data we've gathered, we can finally give an estimate of total radioactive materials emitted,'' Hidehiko Nishiyama, spokesman for Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, said at a press conference Tuesday.

Even as they upgraded their assessment of the situation, Japanese officials went to lengths to say that the problem they are struggling to contain isn't anywhere near the disaster of Chernobyl.

"It is quite different from Chernobyl," said Mr. Nishiyama. "First, the amount of released radiation is about a tenth of Chernobyl," he said, adding that while there were 29 deaths resulting from short-term exposure to high doses of radiation at Chernobyl, there were no such deaths at Fukushima.

"At Chernobyl, the nuclear reactor itself exploded," he said, adding that at the Fukushima plant, the pressure vessel and the containment vessel were largely intact.

Still, Fukushima Daiichi operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. warned Tuesday that since the Fukushima Daiichi plant is still releasing radioactive materials, the total level of radiation released could eventually exceed that of Chernobyl, a spokesman said.

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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703841904576256742249147126.html

Japan Nuclear Plant Plugs Highly Radioactive Leak

Workers at Japan's tsunami-damaged nuclear power plant on Wednesday finally halted a leak that was sending a tide of radioactive water into the Pacific and exacerbating concerns over the safety of seafood, the operator said.

It was a rare bit of good news for the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex and the coastal areas surrounding it, where high levels of seawater contamination have angered fishermen and prompted the government to set limits for the first time on the amount of radiation permitted in fish.

But in a sign that workers still face several challenges before the overheating reactors are stabilized, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said it plans to inject nitrogen gas into one of the reactors. Nitrogen can prevent highly combustible hydrogen from exploding — as it did three times at the compound in the early days of the crisis.

There is no immediate possibility of an explosion, but the "nitrogen injection is being considered as a cautionary measure," said spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama of Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.

TEPCO said the process could begin as early as Wednesday evening in Unit 1 — where pressure and temperatures are the highest — according to spokesman Junichi Matsumoto. The same measures will eventually be taken at the other two troubled reactors.

The 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami that followed are believed to have killed as many as 25,000 people. Hundreds of miles (kilometers) of coastline have been destroyed and the country's fishing industry devastated.

Since the crush of water flooded the plant and knocked out cooling systems, workers there have been desperately trying to cool overheated reactors. The effort has required spraying large amounts of water and allowing it to gush out wherever it can escape, sometimes into the sea.

While officials have said the crack in a maintenance pit plugged early Wednesday was the only one found, they have not explicitly ruled out that radioactive water is leaking into the sea from another point.


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Japanese nuclear plant continues to leak radioactive water into ocean

Workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant are unable to plug a leak of radioactive water. Meanwhile, Japan's prime minister says it will take months to resolve the problems at the plant. Red Cross says aid payments will begin soon.



Radioactive water continued to seep into the sea Monday after a failed attempt to seal the leak at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant using an absorbent polymer, sawdust and shredded paper.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. officials think the leak has been coming from an 8-inch crack in the concrete pit holding power cables near reactor No. 2. On Monday, Tepco said it would use a dye to try to trace the path of the leak, Kyodo News reported. Radiation levels in the pit water are an estimated 1,000 millisieverts per hour, a high but not immediately lethal dose.

Engineers also planned to begin injecting nitrogen gas into reactors No. 1, 2 and 3 in an attempt to prevent possible explosions from the buildup of hydrogen gas. Explosions at the three reactors in the first four days after the magnitude 9 earthquake and accompanying tsunami March 11 badly damaged the reactor buildings and disabled the cooling pumps that provided water to the reactors. Government officials say it may take months to fully restore the cooling systems.

Japan's official death toll from the disaster topped 12,000 on Sunday, as about 25,000 U.S. and Japanese troops finished an intensive three-day recovery effort. The search located 78 bodies, but more than 15,000 people are still officially listed as missing. About 160,000 survivors remain in shelters.

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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-japan-reactor-damage-20110403,0,1606193.story?track=rss

Japan says battle to save nuclear reactors has failed

Japanese officials have conceded that the battle to salvage four crippled reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant has been lost.

The plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power [Tepco], said the reactors would be scrapped, and warned that the operation to contain the nuclear crisis, now well into its third week, could last months.

Tepco's announcement came as new readings showed a dramatic increase in radioactive contamination in the sea near the atomic complex.

The firm's chairman, Tsunehisa Katsumata, said it had "no choice" but to scrap the Nos 1-4 reactors, but held out hope that the remaining two could continue to operate. It is the first time the company has conceded that the at least part of the plant will have to be decommissioned.

But the government's chief spokesman, Yukio Edano, repeated an earlier call for all six reactors at the 40-year-old plant to be decommissioned. "It is very clear looking at the social circumstances," he said.

Tens of thousands of people living near the plants have been evacuated or ordered to stay indoors, while the plant has leaked radioactive materials in to the sea, soil and air.

On Thursday, the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] suggested widening the 30-kilometre exclusion zone around the plant after finding that radiation levels at a village 40 kilometres from the plant exceeded the criteria for evacuation.

"We have advised [Japanese officials] to carefully assess the situation, and they have indicated that it is already under assessment," Denis Flory, a deputy director of the IAEA, said.

The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, was due to arrive in Tokyo on Thursday to show support for the Fukushima operation and for talks with his Japanese counterpart, Naoto Kan. Sarkozy, the current G8 chair, is the first foreign leader to visit Japan since the 11 March earthquake and tsunami.

An emotional Kastumata apologised for the anxiety the crisis has caused.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/31/japan-battle-save-nuclear-reactors-failed

Japan earthquake: strong quake prompts tsunami warning for disaster zone

The earthquake, measuring 6.5 on the Richter Scale, was pinpointed to 50 miles east of Oshika peninsula in Miyagi prefecture, an area still recovering from the devastation of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

Following the new earthquake, the Japanese authorities issued a 20 inch tsunami warning for the Pacific coastal region which was later lifted, with no reports of immediate casualties or further damage.

Japan's weather agency said that the strong tremor was believed to be the latest in a string of aftershocks to hit the region following the massive earthquake just over two weeks ago.

A large clean-up and restoration project remains in place across the northeast of Japan following widespread devastation and the loss of more than 27,000 lives.

Fears of radiation contamination are continuing to hamper procedures and are causing widespread unease following damage to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Teams of workers at the nuclear plant located 150 miles north of Tokyo are continuing a tense battle around the clock to stem radiation leaks and restore control inside four of its six reactors.

Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), the operators of the plant, caused confusion on Sunday when they erroneously reported that radiation levels in water within one of the reactors was 10 million times higher than normal.

After correcting this to 100,000 times higher the government strongly criticised TEPCO for the "absolutely unacceptable" mistake.

The highly contaminated water has now been attributed to the partial melting of the Number 2 reactor's fuel rods after it was hit by the March 11 earthquake and subsequent tsunami.

Yukio Edano, the chief cabinet secretary, said: "The radiation seems to have come from the fuel rods that were partially melted down and came into contact with the water used to cool the reactor.

"Steam may have condensed [ ] carrying water from within the containment vessel."

Rolling blackouts to cut back on electricity use in the Kanto region of Japan were resumed today to help counter the energy shortages caused by damage to the nuclear plant.


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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/8410322/Japan-earthquake-strong-quake-prompts-tsunami-warning-for-disaster-zone.html

New Problems at Japanese Plant Subdue Optimism

The Japanese electricians who bravely strung wires this week to all six reactor buildings at a stricken nuclear power plant succeeded despite waves of heat and blasts of radioactive steam.

The restoration of electricity at the plant, the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, stirred hopes that the crisis was ebbing. But nuclear engineers say some of the most difficult and dangerous tasks are still ahead — and time is not necessarily on the side of the repair teams.

The tasks include manually draining hundreds of gallons of radioactive water and venting radioactive gas from the pumps and piping of the emergency cooling systems, which are located diagonally underneath the overheated reactor vessels. The urgency of halting the spread of radioactive contamination from the site was underlined on Wednesday by the health warning that infants should not drink tap water — even in Tokyo, 140 miles southwest of the stricken plant — raised alarms about extensive contamination.

“We’ve got at least 10 days to two weeks of potential drama before you can declare the accident over,” said Michael Friedlander, who worked as a nuclear plant operator for 13 years.

Nuclear engineers have become increasingly concerned about a separate problem that may be putting pressure on the Japanese technicians to work faster: salt buildup inside the reactors, which could cause them to heat up more and, in the worst case, cause the uranium to melt, releasing a range of radioactive material.

“A meltdown is looking less likely, but a lot of radiation has been released in the reactor buildings and may continue to seep out,” said a Western nuclear power executive who asked not to be quoted by name because he did not want to risk his broad contacts in Japan. “What we might have is a slow-moving contamination problem rather than a fast-moving contamination problem.”

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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/24/world/asia/24nuclear.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Japan relief roundup: League of Legends and a special Final Fantasy Tactics

Companies, organizations and individuals connected to the games industry continue to come forward with offers of support for the ongoing rescue and relief operations in Japan. We'll be collecting the latest opportunities to lend a hand in end-of-day roundups like this one as they're announced.

Head past the break for details on the today's happenings. If you'd prefer to donate to the efforts directly, you can always do so through the American Red Cross (www.redcross.org).

• From now through noon PST on Sunday, March 27, League of Legends studio Riot Games will be donating 100 percent of the profits from purchases of Nurse Akali or Riot Points spent on the summoner Akali to the Red Cross relief effort. Riot Games is placing Akali and her nurse skin on sale for 50 percent off during the period as well.

• Play for Japan is auctioning off a rare signed copy of Final Fantasy Tactics for PS One featuring cover autographs by character designer Akihiko Yoshida and art director Hideo Minaba. The high big as of this writing is just over $100, with the auction set to close on Sunday, March 27 at 4:34PM PST.

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http://www.joystiq.com/2011/03/21/japan-relief-roundup-league-of-legends-and-a-special-final-fant/

Japanese student learns family is alive thanks to YouTube video

Kosaka's sister held up a sign stating "we are all safe" in hopes that a news crew would catch the message on video.


Akiko Kosaka's family resides in Minamisanriku, a fishing village where half the residents are feared to be dead as a result of last week's tsunami, but thanks to a YouTube video, she knows that her relatives are alive and safe.

CNN reports that Kosaka — who is a student from Japan attending the University of California at Riverside — scoured the Internet for days in hopes of finding something that suggests that her family survived the aftermath of the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

She breathed a bit easier when she received an e-mail explaining that her youngest sister "was likely safe in her middle school's shelter." But there was no word about the rest of her family — until late Sunday night:

[S]he received word Sunday night from a friend in Japan of the existence of a 45-second YouTube video showing her family home as the only one standing amid the rubble. The video highlighted her older sister holding a sign to a TV news crew saying in Japanese "we are all safe."

Kosaka expressed relief upon hearing of the video, but became distraught after she couldn't find it online, despite staying up all night looking for it.

Then a contact through a Japanese social network e-mailed her the link Monday morning.

Kosaka watched the video over and over — she suggests that she'd seen it at least 50 times in 24 hours — and cried in joy and worry. She is still concerned about the health of her family members and wishing that she could get a message to them — just as they got one to her.

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http://digitallife.today.com/_news/2011/03/17/6288110-japanese-student-learns-family-is-alive-thanks-to-youtube-video?chromedomain=technolog

Helicopter crews struggle to douse nuclear reactor

Japanese crews braved radiation to fly helicopters over the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant Thursday, dumping sea water on the critically damaged Unit 3 reactor.

The crews, using CH-47 Chinook helicopters, worked in 40-minute shifts to limit their exposure. However, strong winds appeared to blow much of the water from the target, limiting the dangerous operation's effectiveness.

Dozens of people have remained at the scene, working against the clock to prevent harmful levels of radioactive material from spewing into the air.

Officials had initially ruled out using helicopters, saying the radiation would be too dangerous.

Meanwhile, at the Unit 4 reactor, there are concerns that water has completely evaporated from a pool for spent fuel rods. If confirmed, it means there is nothing that is preventing the rods from reaching dangerous temperatures.

"There is no water in the spent fuel pool and we believe that radiation levels are extremely high, which could possibly impact the ability to take corrective measures," chief of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Gregory Jaczko said at a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing Wednesday.

If Jaczko is correct, the outer shell of the rods could explode with enough force to propel radioactive fuel over a wide area.

The U.S. is calling on Americans in Japan to stay at least 80 kilometres away from the plant, while Japan's official evacuation zone is only about 20 km. The Obama administration has also authorized plans to transport Americans out of the country as radiation fears grow.

Power line

Thursday brought one potential piece of good news: Tokyo Electric Power Co. said they were close to completing a new power line that could power cooling systems to end the crisis at the nuclear plant.

When completed, it will restore power to pumps that will send a steady supply of water to the six reactors, cooling down any fuel cells.

TEP spokesperson Naoki Tsunoda said officials will test the power line "as soon as possible," but could not say exactly when it would be completed.

The crisis in Japan, sparked by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake that created a monstrous tsunami, prompted a rare address to the nation by 77-year-old Emperor Akihito.

In the televised speech, the emperor urged the Japanese people to give each other hope, despite a horrific death toll expected to exceed 10,000.

"I think it is important for all of us, in various ways and however small, to share the burden of the difficult period that the victims now face," he said.

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http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/World/20110317/japan-nuclear-reactor-radiation-110317/

Survivors return to confront all that was lost

Natori, Japan: One couple rode out the tsunami on top of an irrigation tower, crammed in with three other people. A man had to abandon his car in a field and run for it. Another couple simply got lucky, riding out the torrents in their house, one of the few in a swath of destruction that inexplicably held together.

They began streaming back to this stricken rice farming town on Monday morning, long lines of people returning to see what, if anything, was left of their lives after the waves came. They walked slowly, gazing in bewilderment at a scene that they could only struggle to comprehend.

Officials said the death toll in Friday's tsunami was certain to exceed 10,000. But even that seemed conservative -- a leading Japanese daily reported Monday that 20,000 people in two small coastal towns were missing.

Many returning here Monday were in tears. One couple said between sobs that they were trying to find their elderly mother, whom they had been forced to leave behind. There were many older people in the area, residents said, and many of them were trapped in their houses.

Until last week, Natori's farmers had tilled fields of rice in the summer and, in the winter, vegetables in neat white rows of plastic greenhouses, fields that most of the world saw inundated on Friday by a wall of water, mud, cars and wooden debris.

The devastation extends miles inland, so much so that even some evacuation centers were reportedly engulfed. In satellite images, Natori and nearby Yuriage, just south of the battered city of Sendai, seem to have been swept away without a trace, as if a giant razor had shaved the earth clean.

Kayo Miura said she was upstairs at her house when the earthquake struck, knocking her off her feet. She turned on the radio and heard a tsunami alert, but she had heard those before and nothing had come of them. After all, she thought, the house was almost two miles from the beach.

About 20 to 30 minutes later, she said, she saw a line of cars on her field. "Why are those cars parked in the field?" she wondered. Then she saw them moving, heard screams about a tsunami coming and froze. Her husband, Ken, ran upstairs just as the waves hit. Inexplicably, in an area where virtually every house was destroyed, theirs held together.

Others told harrowing tales of escape. When Naoko Takahashi, 60, and her husband, Hiromichi, 64, saw a jumble of cars and burning fuel bearing down on them, they ran as fast as they could, but the menacing wall kept gaining. Not sure what to do, they caught sight of an irrigation tower that was 12 to 15 feet high and scrambled up just in time, joining two others in riding out the flood.

"The only reason we made it were some earthen walls that slowed the water just enough," Mr. Takahashi said. "They gave us a few seconds."

They made their way home after dark, they said, wading through water that was up to their armpits while fires burned all around. The next day, some soldiers came and took them to a shelter.

As they got home, Ms. Takahashi turned to her husband and said: "Look, there's our house. What is that boat?" Indeed, there was a fishing boat sitting in a rice paddy to the side of their house.

The gloom was occasionally pierced by a ray of humor, of the gallows sort. Ko Miura, 56, a wholesaler, said he tried to drive home after the quake. But he was driving parallel to the wave, so he was forced to abandon his car and run. He just managed to get to a highway overpass before the waters swept by. When he looked up, he said, he saw his car float by.

The immediate future for Natori and its residents is undoubtedly grim. Rescue workers have been hampered by quake-damaged roads and debris, enormous traffic jams and fuel shortages. After a spell of relatively mild weather, temperatures were dropping and snow was in the forecast.

And even as people picked through what little was left in the rubble, the fires continued to burn.

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http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/survivors-return-to-confront-all-that-was-lost-91477

Christchurch earthquake: 'No more survivors'

No more survivors of the earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand, are likely to be found and the task is recovery, not rescue, say relief officials.

Key buildings in the city, struck by a shallow quake of magnitude 6.3 last Tuesday, are being scoured for bodies; the official toll is now 161.

The first foreign victims have been named - two Israeli tourists.

Power, transport and sewage systems are gradually being restored but rebuilding the city is a daunting task.

The Civil Defence national controller John Hamilton announced the shift from rescue to recovery "with considerable sorrow and frustration".

"We now face the reality that there is no chance that anyone could have survived for this long," he said.

Officials say the final toll could be as high as 240; the last person to be pulled alive from the rubble was found over a week ago, one day after the earthquake struck.
Hopes fade

The identification of dead bodies from the quake has been proceeding slowly; officials said seven more had been identified but the families were being informed before the names would be announced.

Two Israelis found in the rubble have been named as Ofer Levy, 22, and Gabi Moshe Ingel, 23.

Scores of foreign students - from Japan, China, Thailand and elsewhere - have not yet been identified.

Police Superintendent Sam Hoyle said 90 of the bodies found so far were pulled from the Canterbury TV Building and that it was important for families that they got the identities right.

Workers at three major buildings - the cathedral, the Grand Chancellor hotel and the Pyne Gould Guinness building - were getting closer to bodies believed to be trapped inside.

A tall reinforced steel frame has been locked onto the cathedral structure to make it safer for rescuers to seek the suspected 20 bodies there.
Timeball Station Lyttelton on February 25, 2011 The 135-year old Timeball Station in Lyttelton Harbour is at risk

"They've now started taking away beams and things from the bell tower, so we are at last going to see some movement in that area," said Superintendent Russell Gibson.
Timeball fear

Tens of thousands of city dwellers are still without power or sewage systems.

Rescue work is also being scaled back in Lyttelton, the harbour town near Christchurch, in favour of body recovery and the restoration of services.

The Timeball Station in Lyttelton is unstable and experts are assessing the extent of the "significant damage" to the historic structure.

It was built in 1876 by local prisoners and from then until 1934 a ball dropped from its mast on its stone tower, signalling the time to ships in the harbour.

Following restoration in 1978, the dropping of the ball resumed daily.

The port is operating at 40% capacity and the tunnel linking it to Christchurch is still only open to emergency vehicles.

Officials are still carrying out checks on people and houses.

"I suppose everyone's taking the double jeopardy approach, that if the doors are knocked on twice, that's better than not being knocked on at all," said Chief fire officer Mark Buckley.

On Wednesday, Police Superintendent Dave Cliff had warned that it might not be possible to recover all the dead from crushed buildings in New Zealand's second city.

Rebuilding costs are put at billions of dollars.

It is estimated that up to a third of the city's buildings have been, or will have to be, demolished.

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12631119