Tag Archives: nuclear

Fukushima

Hospitals within evacuation zone still waiting for help, More proof you can’t rely on the government

A hospital in Minami-Soma, Fukushima Prefecture, inside the zone where people have been instructed to stay indoors, more than half the hospital’s staff have evacuated.  But, about 170 inpatients are still at the hospital.

“We’re reaching the limits of our ability to provide treatment,” hospital director Yukio Kanazawa said. Only a small number of hospital staff stayed behind to care for the patients.

Ohmachi Hospital staff is now less than 40%.  The hospital is rationing meals for patients, two meals a day.

Doctors who normally work at Tono Hospital, cannot get there because of a fuel shortage.

Ninohe Hospital has run out of supplies, including heating fuel.  “It’s as if some enemy is starving us out,” a hospital official said.

Kunihiro Mashiko, chief of the emergency treatment center of Nippon Medical School Chiba Hokusoh Hospital says “Lives that were saved once may be lost because of the shortage of both doctors and medicine.”

At Ishinomaki Hospital, tap water, electricity and gas have been cut off.  Requests for help with about 120 inpatients were declined.

 

 

Fukushima

Russians trapped in Sendai, asking for air rescue

150 Russians, including rescue workers sent to help Japan, and Russian news reporters, are trapped in Sendai, dozens of kilometers from the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

They ran out of fuel for their vehicles, and where apparently left behind by rescue workers from other countries.  It sounds as if there was a panic to escape the area after the Japanese government order evacuations.

Fukushima

Workers fighting nuclear disaster in Japan expected to die, being called ‘Kesshitai’

A Japanese newspaper (Sankei Shimbun) has named the workers fighting the nuclear disaster ‘Kesshitai’. It means ‘unit that expects to die’.

A daughter of one of the workers says her father told the family that he will die.  The wife of another worker received a message that said: “Please continue to live well, I cannot be home for a while.”

So far, at least 20 people are confirmed to have radiation contamination.

Fukushima

IAEA asks Japan to disclose more info on nuclear disaster

The International Atomic Energy Agency chief, Yukiya Amano, says Japan’s nuclear crisis requires international cooperation.

Yukiya Amano met with Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Friday, and expressed the need for more information from Japanese officials.

A four man team from the IAEA is now in Japan for monitoring of the situation.

Fukushima

Japan considers Chernobyl solution

Japanese engineers are considering the possibility they will have to bury some of the reactors, at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.  This was the final action taken by the Soviets with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

Sand and concrete would be the main ingredients. The Soviets also used boric acid.  South Korea has sent samples of boric acid to Japan to test for possible use on the reactors.  Japanese officials say they want to continue to attempt to cool down the reactors first.

Japan raised the level of seriousness of the disaster to 5 on the INES scale.  International observers had placed it at 6 last week.  Obviously there is a difference of opinion.  Three Mile Island is rated at 5.  Chernobyl is rated at 7, the highest, on the INES scale.

Fukushima, U.S.

U.S. Nuclear Power Plants NOT required to have disaster plans

In the 1980’s the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled 5-4 that there was no reason to require nuclear plants to create earthquake disaster plans.

In 2003, an earthquake in California, prompted the Diablo Canyon plant officials to come up with a plan.  But, for some unknown reason, they have yet to publish that plan. The plant operators were not required to include earthquakes in its emergency response plan, when the plant was first licensed.

In fact according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, nuclear plants in the U.S. are required to have only a general emergency response plan.  In other words they don’t plan for specific types of disasters.

Some officials say no planning is needed because the plants were supposedly built to withstand earthquakes.  Tell that to the Japanese.  Two workers at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, who survived the 9.0 quake/tsunami, say the plant was falling apart.  One of those workers said he was surprised because everyone had been told the plant was earthquake proof.

Fukushima

Fire Truck water spraying to begin

An attempt to hit reactor 3 with the water cannon of fire truck was successful.

Plans are to rotate 6 to 7 fire trucks to spray 50 tons of water per day, on reactor 3 of the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

The initial attempt using a fire truck, by the Japanese Self Defense Forces, demonstrated that the reactor can be hit.  Now the Tokyo Fire Department will take over operations.

Fukushima

High radiation at Fukushima Daiichi, Water dropping Ops not effective

On site radiation levels at 20 millisieverts (20,000 microsieverts) per hour.  This is why attempts to hook up outside electrical power has not taken place.

Tokyo Fire Department staging to take over cooling operations at the plant, when the JSDF has completed their cooling operations.

Officials confirming that water levels still falling in reactors 1, 2 & 3.  Reactor 3 has priority.  Overall situation has not changed from day before.  Indicates water dropping efforts not successful.