Off the coast of Fukushima, sand lance fish are contaminated with high levels of cesium-137.
Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said the latest samples, taken as far away as 37km (22.9 miles) from Fukushima Daiichi, show the fish have 12,500 becquerels per kilogram of cesium!
The safe limit, under Japanese current 2011 Food Sanitation Law, is 500 becquerels.
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.
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.
‘‘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.