Not only has the Japanese government made it a legal offense to enter the evacuation zone around Fukushima Daiichi, they have expanded the zone as well.
Because of high radiation build up, towns outside the original 20km (12.4miles) zone will be evacuated. The towns are Katsurao, Namie, Iitate and some areas of Kawamata and Minamisoma. Residents have until the end of May to leave.
The prefectural government of Fukushima said no to allowing Tokyo Electric Power Company to resume any nuke plant operations. ”A resumption of plant operations must be impossible.”-Sato Yuhei, Fukushima Governor
Governor Sato made the statement after a 15 minute meeting with TEPCo president Shimizu Masataka. TEPCo had tried to meet with the state government of Fukushima twice before, and was unofficially told to take a hike both times. This time Fukushima officials made it official. They told TEPCo there is no way they will allow them to resume any nuclear power functions at the damaged Fukusima Daiichi plant.
Tokyo Electric Power Company says it must cut wages and salaries in order to meet expected compensation payments due to the Fukushima Daiichi disaster.
Wages would be cut by 5%, with bonuses cut in half. Salaries will be cut by 20%. TEPCo will also reduce the number of employees by 100 each year, for the next five years.
Tokyo Electric Power Company has given an estimate on the amount of radiation spilled into the Pacific Ocean, during the first week of April: 4,700 terabecquerels, 20,000 times the safe limits for an entire year! Contaminated water is still getting into the ocean.
Radioactive iodine levels on 02 April 2011, were 7.5 million times safe limits. As of 19 April, iodine levels had dropped to 1,700 times the safe limits.
In another blow to world food supply issues, the nuclear disaster in Japan is making things worse.
Officials say that many livestock left behind in the 20km (12.4 miles) evacuation zone, have starved to death! There were about 30,000 pigs, about 600,000 chickens and about 3,000 cattle the evacuation zone, but the Fukushima Prefectural government believes most have died.
Farmers are demanding that someone go in and humanely put down the remaining livestock, rather than have them starve to death. YouTube video shows many cows starving to death. The farmers fear that their animals are too contaminated with radiation, to try saving.
Robots from the Idaho National Laboratory have been searching through the damaged reactor buildings at Fukushima Daiichi.
They have discovered temperature and radiation levels too high for humans. Tokyo Electric Power Company officials say they will have to use air conditioners, and filtration systems, to bring heat and radiation levels down enough for workers to operate inside the buildings. Latest NHK video
A company that was going to build two reactors in Texas, abandoned the plan.
NRG Energy, in cooperation with Toshiba, was planning on building two reactors in Texas. The company now says the investment environment has become too risky to continue with the plans. They will now write off U.S.$ 481 million on their taxes, for the canceled project.
Tokyo Electric Power Company says high radiation levels, and high humidity, is slowing up robots being used to inspected the reactor buildings at Fukushima Daiichi.
In Reactor 2 building the humidity was so high it fogged the robot’s camera lens.
In Reactor 3, there is too much debris from the hydrogen gas explosion. They will use another robot that can clear the debris, some of which weighs 100kg (220 pounds).
25 years after the deadly nuclear accident at the Chernobyl plant, the Ukraine is still struggling to deal with the disaster.
This week is Black Week, the official anniversary of the nuclear accident, which happened on 26 April 1986. 31 people were killed, as a direct result of the disaster, and many more have suffered cancers, and children being born with defects.
The amazing thing is that clean up efforts continue, and the Ukraine is struggling to pay for it. Officials are trying to raise U.S.$ 1 billion for future clean up projects.
Tokyo Electric Power Company will now put air conditioners in the worker’s rest stations, after at least one worker succumbed to heat stroke.
Temperatures inside their protective suits are hot after only 30 minutes of wearing them. Unlike some military NBC masks, that can allow you to drink water, the nuke suits used at Fukushima Daiichi do not allow the workers to drink water.
There is only one building on the compound that still has working air conditioning. TEPCo will bring in more air conditioning units.