[Quvwcxqx]

Japan tsunami survivor Hiromitsu Shinkawa found 10 miles out at sea

Rescuers spot 60-year-old from Fukushima prefecture
clinging to the roof of his home two days after the tsunami struck



guardian.co.uk
Justin McCurry in Tokyo
Sunday 13 March 2011

A 60-year-old man has been found on the roof of his floating house nearly 10 miles out at sea, two days after the tsunami that devastated the north-east coast of Japan.

Hiromitsu Shinkawa must have resigned himself to his fate when he was swept away by the retreating tsunami that roared ashore in his home town of Minami Soma in Fukushima prefecture.

As the wave approached, Shinkawa took the fateful decision to return home to collect belongings. Minutes later he was out at sea clinging to a piece of the roof from his own home.

Incredibly, he was spotted by a maritime self-defence force destroyer taking part in the rescue effort as he clung to the wreckage with one hand and waved a self-made red flag with the other. He had been at sea for two days ...

© Guardian News and Media Limited 2011

***

[HOTgirlsXXL]

BBC
15 March 2011 Last updated at 00:29 ET

Radiation fears after Japan blast


As radiation levels near the plant rise, people are being checked for exposure

Prime Minister Naoto Kan has urged those living within 30km (18 miles) of the plant to stay indoors.
Earlier, reactor 2 at the Fukushima Daiichi plant was hit by a blast - the third reactor to explode in four days - leading to fears of a meltdown.
The crisis was sparked by a 9.0-magnitude quake and tsunami on Friday.
Thousands of people are believed to have died.
Exclusion zone A fresh explosion rocked reactor 2 at the Fukushima Daiichi plant - 250km (155 miles) north-east of Tokyo - in the early hours of Tuesday.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said, "Now we are talking about levels that can impact human health."
Continue reading the main story JAPAN NUCLEAR EMERGENCY

• Explosions in three reactors at Fukushima plant
• Fourth reactor on fire
• Containment chamber damaged at reactor 2
• Radiation levels at plant rise more than four fold
• 20km (12 mile) exclusion zone
• People living within 30km to stay indoors

• US asks nuclear questions

He stressed that such levels were recorded at the plant and that the "further away you get from the power plant or reactor, the value should go down".
In his televised address, Prime Minister Kan said: "There is still a very high risk of more radiation coming out."
He added that the last remaining people within a 20km (12 mile) exclusion zone around the plant had to leave, and that those living between 20km and 30km from the site should remain indoors.
Radiation levels around Fukushima for one hour's exposure rose to eight times the legal limit for exposure in one year, said the plant's operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco).
The radiation reading at 0831 local time (2331 GMT) climbed to 8,217 microsieverts an hour from 1,941 about 40 minutes earlier, Tepco said. The annual legal limit is 1,000 microsieverts.


Japan's PM says there is a 'very high' risk of further radiation leaks

Higher radiation levels were recorded on Tuesday south of Fukushima, Kyodo news agency reported.
The French embassy said low-level radioactive wind could reach Tokyo within hours.
Mr Kan also said a fire had broken out at the plant's reactor 4. It now appears to have been put out.
Shares on the Tokyo stock exchange plummeted 13%. The leading Nikkei index had already fallen by 7% on Monday.
On Monday, a hydrogen blast at the Fukushima plant's reactor 3 was felt 40km (25 miles) away. It followed a blast at reactor 1 on Saturday.

All explosions have been preceded by cooling system breakdowns. Engineers are trying to prevent meltdowns by flooding the chambers of the nuclear reactors with sea water.
After the third explosion, officials said the containment vessel around reactor 2 had been damaged.
Complete devastation Meanwhile, five days after the tsunami triggered by the earthquake, the relief operation is continuing.
The latest official death toll stands at about 2,400 - but some estimates suggest 10,000 may have been killed.
One of the worst-hit towns, Minamisanriku, is now just a scene of complete devastation, says the BBC's Rachel Harvey.
Everything was flattened by the force of the tsunami, with only the town's hospital and a government building remaining, our correspondent says.
Thousands are still unaccounted for - including hundreds of tourists - while many remote towns and villages have not been reached.
More than 500,000 people have been made homeless.
The government has deployed 100,000 troops to lead the aid effort.
The UK Foreign Office has updated its travel advice to warn against all non-essential travel to Tokyo and north-eastern Japan. British nationals and friends and relatives of those in Japan can contact the Foreign Office on +44(0) 20 7008 0000.
#j-exp { padding-bottom: 10px; }

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-12740843

[Nafheense]

Japan crisis worse than Three Mile Island, experts say

One reactor shield might be compromised; spent fuel pool leaking radioactivity


msnbc.com staff and news service reports
updated 21 minutes ago 2011-03-15T16:54:22

SOMA, Japan — The catastrophe at Japan's stricken nuclear complex is now worse than Three Mile Island, experts said Tuesday, after the two most recent blasts exposed a spent fuel pool to outside air and might have compromised a reactor shield.
Japanese officials told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that the spent fuel storage area had caught fire and that radioactivity was "being released directly into the atmosphere."
After the fire was extinguished, a Japanese official said the spent fuel pool might still be boiling, though the reported levels of radiation had dropped dramatically by evening.
Experts noted that much of the leaking radiation was apparently in steam from boiling water. It had not been emitted directly by fuel rods, which would be far more virulent, they said.
"It's not good, but I don't think it's a disaster," said Steve Crossley, an Australia-based radiation physicist.
The IAEA said Tuesday that an explosion Monday at the plant, this one within Unit 2, "may have affected the integrity of its primary containment vessel." That means radioactivity could be leaking from the containment vessel.
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said low levels of radiation had spread from the complex along Japan's northeastern coast.
The radiation releases prompted Japan to order 140,000 people to seal themselves indoors and a 30-kilometer (19-mile) no-fly zone was imposed around the site Tuesday.
About the only good news Tuesday was that the winds were expected to blow most of the radioactivity out to sea.
Advertise | AdChoices

Soon after the latest events, France's nuclear safety authority ASN said the disaster ranks as a level 6 on the international scale of 1 to 7.
Level 7 was used only once, for Chernobyl in Ukraine in 1986. The 1979 accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania was rated a level 5.
'Catastrophe'
"It is very clear that we are at a level 6," ASN President Andre-Claude Lacoste told a news conference in Paris. "We are clearly in a catastrophe."
Video: At least 15,000 people missing in Japan (on this page) "This event is now closer to a level 6, and it may unfortunately reach a level 7," added David Albright, head of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington, D.C.
At Three Mile Island, the radiation leak was held inside the containment shell — thick concrete armor around the reactor. The Chernobyl reactor had no shell and was also operational when the disaster struck. The Japanese reactors automatically shut down when the quake hit.




The IAEA said about 150 people in Japan had received monitoring for radiation levels and that measures to "decontaminate" 23 of them had been taken.
Clearing up nuclear questions Though Japanese officials urged calm, Tuesday's developments fueled a growing panic amid widespread uncertainty over what would happen next.
In the worst-case scenario, one or more reactor cores would completely melt down, a disaster that would spew large amounts of radioactivity into the atmosphere.
Officials in Tokyo — 150 miles to the south of the plant — said radiation in the capital was 10 times normal by evening but there was no threat to human health.
Closer to the stricken nuclear complex, the streets in the coastal city of Soma were empty as the few residents who remained there heeded the government's warning to stay indoors.
Interactive: How a nuclear plant works Officials just south of Fukushima reported up to 100 times the normal levels of radiation Tuesday morning. While those figures are worrying if there is prolonged exposure, they are far from fatal.


'Please do not go outside'
Officials warned there is danger of more leaks and told people living within 19 miles of the Dai-ichi complex to stay indoors.
"Please do not go outside. Please stay indoors. Please close windows and make your homes airtight," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told residents in the danger zone.
"These are figures that potentially affect health. There is no mistake about that," he said.
Some 70,000 people had already been evacuated from a 12-mile radius from the Dai-ichi complex. About 140,000 are in the new warning zone.

Friday's 9.0-magnitude earthquake and the ensuing tsunami have killed more than 10,000 people.
Desperate efforts
Workers were desperately trying to stabilize the three reactors at Units 1, 2 and 3 that were working when the quake and tsunami struck. Releases of hydrogen gas caused explosions that destroyed the outer structures at each unit.
Unit 4, where the pool is, had been under maintenance and was not operating at the time of the quake and tsunami.



With power out and the regular coolant gone, engineers are now injecting seawater into the reactors as a last-ditch coolant. Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the plant, said it might use helicopters to inject seawater inside the pool area within three days.
Officials said 50 workers were still at the Fukushima site. About 800 other staff were evacuated. The fires and explosions at the reactors have injured 15 workers and military personnel.
The death toll from last week's earthquake and tsunami jumped as police confirmed the number killed had topped 2,400. Officials say that at least 10,000 people may have died in Miyagi province alone, but those deaths are not confirmed.
Story: Millions in Japan freeze without electricity, heat Hajime Sato, a government official in Iwate prefecture, one of the hardest-hit, said deliveries of supplies were only 10 percent of what is needed. Body bags and coffins were running so short that the government may turn to foreign funeral homes for help, he said.


Rescuers also found a 70-year-old woman alive four days after the disaster .
Osaka fire department spokesman Yuko Kotani said the woman was found inside her house that was washed away by the tsunami in northeastern Japan's Iwate prefecture.
Another survivor, described as being in his 20s, was shown on television being pulled from a building further down the coast in the city of Ishimaki after rescue workers heard him calling for help.
Video: Glimmers of hope amid tragedy in Japan (on this page) The impact of the earthquake and tsunami dragged down stock markets. The benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average plunged for a second day Tuesday , nose-diving more than 10 percent to close at 8,605.15 while the broader Topix lost more than 8 percent.
To lessen the damage, Japan's central bank made two cash injections totaling $98 billion Tuesday into the money markets after pumping in $184 billion on Monday.
Initial estimates put repair costs in the tens of billions of dollars , costs that would likely add to a massive public debt that, at 200 percent of gross domestic product, is the biggest among industrialized nations.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42084187...ific?GT1=43001

You see babies getting checked for radiation, a man getting rescued 10 miles at sea, a woman worried about her daughter who was ripped from her arms by the tsunami current, families reuniting. As much as we have a hard time here of processing all this, I can't even begin to imagine what they're going through. And the horror is just beginning.

[Enrivaanonock]

Green energy showing its ugly side...

[SeftyJokipl]

Nuclear energy isn't green energy (not yet).

[SergeyMaikov]

It is more a deep glowing red....

[WertyNtont]

Someone has to define green.

There is a plan on the table to build a giant wind farm off the Cap Cod coast. The locals, including a few Kennedys are up in arms? Is this green or not? Actually I would say yes. But obviously a bunch of people up there don't agree.

Nuke plants aren't pretty, do present risks (which have been actualized in Japan right now), but they do have environmental and functional advantages.

The plant in crisis right now is 40 YO. Maybe we've learned how to build these things better in four decades? Maybe they need to be replaced ever once in a while? Maybe they need to be sited better?

Nuclear energy isn't green energy (not yet).

[Kvkcgktl]

The wind farm is green. It is suffering from a bout of NIMBY-itis and may look a bit pale, but it is decidedly green.

The nuke plant is only green in the sense that it produces waste that can be contained. But it still produces waste. You have to find a place to put all this stuff for a few thousand years, and as has been shown, it carries its own risks no matter how well you originally design it.

All your suggestions are valid, but the fact is, nothing is green until it can operate WITHOUT having to deal with its byproducts later. Wind is about the greenest we have if all you count is dead birds....

[SAUNDERSAN]

Someone has to define green.

Green = sustainable

The locals, including a few Kennedys are up in arms? Is this green or not? Green = universal acceptance? No.

Maybe they need to be sited better? Maybe not in a place where four plates meet (Japan).

[delnisfernan]

In point of fact, nuclear has proven pretty sustainable. Perfect, no, but sustainable yes.

[CreativeSuiteDown]

Sustainable, possibly, but also everlasting. The problem of long term containment for spent fuel has not been solved, as has been shown in the terrible events in Japan. The nuclear refuse must be monitored and controlled, so that the radiation is contained and to assure that there is no contamination of future generations. What we're seeing now shows how fragile that effort can be.

[Wr8dIAUk]

What is pretty sustainable?

And what does sustainable have to do with perfect?

[interznakinfo]

What is pretty sustainable?

Grinding away for decades producing a tiny (relative to other commercially viable) amount of (admitted vastly toxic but containable) waste. The fuel waste could be reprocessed into more useable fuel (and there are new designs that essentially self reprocess the spend fuel and only need refueling after several decades.)


And what does sustainable have to do with perfect? There have been accidents (what got this conversation going.) But given the time and the number of units in use, very few.

[911_993_911]

Grinding away for decades...

Your personal definition. Decades is a minute number compared to half-life.

producing a tiny (relative to other commercially viable) amount of (admitted vastly toxic but containable) waste. Tiny? What do you mean?

The fuel waste could be reprocessed into more useable fuel (and there are new designs that essentially self reprocess the spend fuel and only need refueling after several decades.) As I said at first, "Not yet."

There have been accidents (what got this conversation going.) But given the time and the number of units in use, very few. Backwards.

I meant - what has sustainable (or green) energy to do with being perfect. Who says green energy is perfect?

Accidents will always happen. Do accidents make wind farms not-green? Can you say the same for nuclear power plants?

[enurihent]

It's not my definition. All of these plants in this country are a few decades old, and except for a few that have been retired, have been churning out electicity for most of that time.

As far as saying the amount of waste is tiny, compare that by weight or volume to any of the other technologies that we've been using (except hydro, of course). I'm thinking in terms of exhaust gasses, since lately, more green means less carbon. I'd also consider other polluting gasses.

They were planning to put all the spent fuel from all the reactors in the US on one site (Yucca Mountain, in NV). If it can all fit in one large hole in the ground, there isn't very much of it.

I think, if properly run, nuclear can be very green.

Look at one of the advantages nuclear has over wind or solar (not that either can really replace it), It's much more compact. A single reactor can put out 1,000 megawatts (give or take). The new ones will go to 1,500 MW or more. Usually they do these in pairs. How much ground do you have to cover with wind turbines or solar panels to produce this much power. At a certain point, when you carpeting vast swaths of land with these things, they start to seem less green. People are already bitching.

Your personal definition. Decades is a minute number compared to half-life.

Tiny? What do you mean?

As I said at first, "Not yet."

Backwards.

I meant - what has sustainable (or green) energy to do with being perfect. Who says green energy is perfect?

Accidents will always happen. Do accidents make wind farms not-green? Can you say the same for nuclear power plants?

[Acalsenunse]

BBMW, your definition of "tiny" is subject to debate.

How much CO2 does it take to kill someone? How much otehr industrial waste does it take? Do any of these products break down over time? Do they effect other things around them?

The main problem with nuclear is that it is a material that works in many ways:

1. It starts off as a toxic chemical, but is not that dangerous because of its concentrations, weight eic.
2. The radiation is what is deadly. PROXIMITY to is, even w/o ingestion can prove deadly
3. It is cumulative. The longer you are exposed the higher the risk.
4. It contaminates ANY other substance. It can make ANYTHING radioactive, from water to gold.
5. Small amounts can be extremely dangerous.
6. Large amounts cannot be stored together for risk of achieving critical mass (a true "dirty" bomb, not just nuclear material ejected by conventional expolsives).

Fusion power is the only viable alternative right now, until we learn how to re-stabilize the fissive elements produced. Similar problems with radiation will happen, but not in the same manner. I believe that magnetic shielding can provide the protection, much like the van allen belt does for earth against the sun, for our possible fission plants.

Not only that, it CAN be further developed to give us new resources of any element up to about 55 on the chart I believe (Iron?) coming from common elements like Hydrogen, Helium and Carbon.

But calling fission power green now is like calling coal plants green. They just arent.

[zuhraliyana]

It's not my definition.

Whose definition then (of sustainable)?

As far as saying the amount of waste is tiny...I'm thinking in terms of exhaust gasses, since lately, more green means less carbon. That's your definition of sustainable, more or less carbon?

The fuel waste could be reprocessed into more useable fuel (and there are new designs that essentially self reprocess the spend fuel and only need refueling after several decades.) Reprocessing fuel/breeder reactors increase the problem of nuclear proliferation. I don't think that South Korea regards Kim's possession of weapons grade nuclear material as sustainable.

I think, if properly run, nuclear can be very green. Like I said, not now.

Look at one of the advantages nuclear has over wind or solar (not that either can really replace it) Now you're changing the discussion to which is better as an energy source. That involves other criteria besides sustainable.

Nuclear power is a highly complex, potentially dangerous technology. Regarding it as green could lead to a head-in-the-sand approach, passing on problems to the next generation that become difficult to deal with. That's not sustainable.

[Cnbaapuy]

March 16, 2011

U.S. Calls Radiation ‘Extremely High’ and Urges Deeper Caution in Japan

By DAVID E. SANGER and MATTHEW L. WALD

WASHINGTON — The chairman of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission gave a significantly bleaker appraisal of the threat posed by Japan’s nuclear crisis than the Japanese government, saying on Wednesday that the damage at one crippled reactor was much more serious than Japanese officials had acknowledged and advising to Americans to evacuate a wider area around the plant than the perimeter established by Japan.

The announcement marked a new and ominous chapter in the five-day long effort by Japanese engineers to bring four side-by-side reactors under control after their cooling systems were knocked out by an earthquake and tsunami last Friday. It also suggested a serious split between Washington and Tokyo, after American officials concluded that the Japanese warnings were insufficient, and that, deliberately or not, they had understated the potential threat of what is taking place inside the nuclear facility.

Gregory Jaczko, the chairman of the commission, said in Congressional testimony that the commission believed that all the water in the spent fuel pool at the No. 4 reactor of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station had boiled dry, leaving fuel rods stored there exposed and bleeding radiation. As a result, he said, “We believe that radiation levels are extremely high, which could possibly impact the ability to take corrective measures.”

If his analysis is accurate and Japanese workers have been unable to keep the spent fuel at that inoperative reactor properly cooled — it needs to remain covered with water at all times — radiation levels could make it difficult not only to fix the problem at reactor No. 4, but to keep workers at the Daiichi complex from servicing any of the other problem reactors at the plant.

Mr. Jaczko (the name is pronounced YAZZ-koe) said radiation levels may make it impossible to continue what he called the “backup backup” cooling functions that have so far helped check the fuel melting at the other reactors. Those efforts consist of using fire hoses to dump water on overheated fuel and then letting the radioactive steam vent into the atmosphere.

Those emergency measures, implemented by a small squad of workers and firemen, are the main steps Japan is taking at Daiichi to forestall a full blown fuel meltdown that would lead to much higher releases of radioactive material.

Mr. Jaczko’s testimony came as the American Embassy in Tokyo, on advice from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, told Americans to evacuate a radius of “approximately 50 miles” from the Fukushima plant.

The advice represents a graver assessment of the risk in the immediate vicinity of Daiichi than the warnings made by the Japanese themselves, who have told everyone within 20 kilometers, about 12 miles, to evacuate, and those between 20 and 30 kilometers to take shelter.

Mr. Jaczko’s testimony, the most extended comments by a senior American official on Japan’s nuclear disaster, described what amounts to an agonizing choice for Japanese authorities: Send a small number of workers into a increasingly radioactive area in a last-ditch effort to cover the spent fuel, and fuel in other reactors, — with water, or do more to protect the workers but risk burning off the pools of water protecting the fuel — and thus risk a broader meltdown.

The Japanese authorities have never been as specific as Mr. Jascko was in his testimony about the situation at reactor No. 4, where they have been battling fires for more than 24 hours. It is possible the authorities there disagree with Mr. Jascko’s conclusion about the exposure of the spent fuel, or that they have chosen not to discuss the matter for fear of panicking people.

Experts say workers at the plant probably could not approach a fuel pool that was dry, because radiation levels would be so high. In a normally operating pool, the water provides not only cooling but also shields workers from gamma radiation. A plan to dump water into the pool, and others like it, from helicopters was suspended because the crews would be flying right into a radioactive plume.

Mr. Jaczko’s analysis suggests that a potentially dangerous chain of events could unfold, as workers trying to cool the adjacent reactors at the facility could also be exposed to intolerable levels of radiation. If they, too, had to withdraw, the problem could worsen, as reactor cores were go uncooled and spent fuel pools run dry.

Earlier in the day, Japanese authorities announced a different escalation of the crisis at Daiichi when they said that a second reactor unit at the plant may have suffered damage to its primary containment structure and appeared to be releasing radioactive steam.

The break, at the No. 3 reactor unit, worsened the already perilous conditions at the plant, a day after officials said the containment vessel in the No. 2 reactor had also cracked.

The possibility of high radiation levels above the plant prompted the Japanese military to put off a highly unusual plan to dump water from helicopters — a tactic normally used to combat forest fires — to lower temperatures in a pool containing spent fuel rods that was dangerously overheating at the No. 4 reactor. The operation would have meant flying a helicopter into the steam rising from the plant.

But in one of a series of rapid and at times confusing pronouncements on the crisis, the authorities insisted that damage to the containment vessel at the No. 3 reactor — the main focus of concern earlier on Wednesday — was unlikely to be severe.

Yukio Edano, the chief cabinet secretary, said the possibility that the No. 3 reactor had “suffered severe damage to its containment vessel is low.” Earlier he said only that the vessel might have been damaged; columns of steam were seen rising from it in live television coverage.

The reactor’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company, said it had been able to double the number of people battling the crisis at the plant to 100 from 50, but that was before the clouds of radioactive steam began billowing from the plant. On Tuesday, 750 workers were evacuated, leaving a skeleton crew of 50 struggling to reduce temperatures in the damaged facility. An increasing proportion of the people at the plant are soldiers, but the exact number is not known.

The Pentagon said Wednesday that American military forces in Japan were not allowed within 50 miles of the plant and that some flight crews who might take part in relief missions were being given potassium iodide to protect against the effects of radiation. Tokyo Electric said Wednesday that some of those at the plant had taken cover for 45 minutes on site, and left water pumps running at reactors Nos. 1, 2 and 3. There was no suspension of cooling operations, said Kazuo Yamanaka, an official at Tokyo Electric. The vessel that possibly ruptured on Wednesday had been seen as the last fully intact line of defense against large-scale releases of radioactive material from the stricken reactor, but it was not clear how serious the possible breach might be.

The possible rupture, five days after a devastating earthquake and tsunami crippled the plant, followed a series of explosions and other problems there that have resulted in the world’s worst nuclear crisis since the Chernobyl accident in 1986.

The head of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, Yukiya Amano, who is Japanese, said he would leave for Japan as soon as possible to assess the situation.

The revised official assessment of the severity of the damage at the No. 3 reactor may have been intended to reduce some concerns about the containment vessel, which encloses the core, but the implications of overheating in the fuel rod pool at No. 4 seemed potentially dire.

There are six reactors at the plant, all of which have pools holding spent fuel rods at the top level of the reactor building. Reactors 4, 5 and 6 were out of service when the earthquake and tsunami struck, and there were concerns about the pools at 5 and 6 as well, and possibly those at the other reactors.

At a hearing in Washington on Wednesday held by two subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said, “We think there is a partial meltdown” at the plant.

“We are trying to monitor it very closely,” he said. “We hear conflicting reports about exactly what is happening in the several reactors now at risk. I would not want to speculate about what is happening.”

He said that his agency had sent 39 people to the American Embassy and to United States consulates in Japan “with the skills, expertise and equipment to help assess, survey and monitor areas.” The department has also shipped survey equipment that can measure radiation levels from the air, he said.

The developments were the latest in Japan’s swirling tragedy since the quake and tsunami struck the country with unbridled ferocity last Friday. Emperor Akihito made his first ever televised appearance on Wednesday to tell the nation he was “deeply worried” about the nuclear crisis.

International alarm about the nuclear crisis appeared to be growing, as several nations urged their citizens in Japan to head to safer areas in the south or leave the country. Prior advisories had largely been limited to simply avoiding nonessential travel. Germany urged its citizens to move to areas farther away from the stricken nuclear plant.

Earlier Wednesday morning, Tokyo Electric reported that a fire was burning at the No. 4 reactor building, just hours after officials said flames that erupted Tuesday had been doused.

A government official at Japan’s nuclear regulatory agency soon after said that flames and smoke were no longer visible, but he cautioned that it was unclear if the fire had died out. He also was not clear if it was a new fire or if the fire Tuesday had never gone out.

Hiroko Tabuchi contributed reporting from Tokyo, and Keith Bradsher from Hong Kong.

Interactive - How a reactor shuts down

© Copyright 2011 The New York Times Company

[conurgenceDen]

It's necessary a battalion of workers willing to die for nuclear radiation in Fukusima. The 'kamikaze' have always been a prototype of Japan culture. In Chernobyl, dozens of helicopter pilots were killed by nuclear radiation in their work after accident to seal the reactor blasted for the explosion.

[antilt]

Shigeru Ban develops shelter for displaced Japanese



architnet
March 16, 2011

We just received the following message from a reader...

My friend and roommate from SCI-Arc, Wataru Sakaki and the people in the office of Shigeru Ban Architects are developing simple shelters for the displaced Japanese of the disaster last week, and they can use the architecture community's help. Below is the link to Shigeru Ban Architects' website with information on the design they are working on and where you can donate.
Please do what you can

***

AIA President offers assistance to Japan’s architects

Editor At Large
March 17, 2011.

President of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Clark Manus issued the following statement regarding the Japan earthquake:

Our hearts go out to the people of Japan as a result of this horrific earthquake and tsunami. We are in contact with our colleagues at AIA Japan and the Japan Institute of Architects to offer not only our condolences but our profession's technical and professional expertise when the initiative begins focusing on rebuilding.

The AIA has members that are able to participate in rapid damage assessments to help people quickly and safely return to structures, or to keep people away from unsafe structures. More than 1,000 AIA members have received specific training to perform this work and the AIA is in touch with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Japan Institute of Architects (JIA) to offer these resources ...

The utterly devastated lives and communities of northern Japan are foremost on our minds. This unimaginable compound natural disaster cries out for a swift response to help alleviate the suffering and salvage the remaining fabric of families, friends, and loved ones.
©2009 JSN Global Media, LLC