Solo se revisaron tres veces en 35 años las medidas antisísmicas de las centrales
FRANCISCO PEREGIL- Madrid - 17/03/2011
Japón tenía un punto débil en sus centrales nucleares y el Organismo Internacional de la Energía Atómica (OIEA) se lo dejó bien dicho durante un encuentro celebrado en Tokio en diciembre de 2008. En un cable difundido por Wikileaks, la Embajada de Estados Unidos informaba de que el OIEA advirtió de que las guías de seguridad contra los seísmos solo habían sido revisadas tres veces en los últimos 35 años. El organismo insistió en que Japón debería aprender de "las experiencias recientes".
"Recientes seísmos han sobrepasado en algunos casos el diseño con que fueron construidas algunas plantas y esto es un serio problema hacia el que ha de dirigirse ahora el trabajo sobre seguridad", señala el cable del que se hacía eco ayer el diario británico The Daily Telegraph. Los "casos recientes" aludían al terremoto de magnitud 6,8 en la escala Richter que dañó el 16 de julio de 2007 la central nuclear japonesa de Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, la mayor del mundo. En aquella ocasión, el propio Gobierno reconoció que la compañía eléctrica Tepco, propietaria de la central, había informado de forma lenta y poco rigurosa sobre los verdaderos daños.
En 2006, el año anterior al seísmo que provocó la paralización de actividades en la central de Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, los diplomáticos estadounidenses informaban en otro telegrama de que un tribunal japonés ordenó la paralización de las actividades en el segundo reactor de la central de Shika ante la posibilidad de que no pudiese resistir terremotos de gran magnitud. Un grupo de 135 demandantes civiles había denunciado a Rikuden, la empresa eléctrica propietaria, en mayo de 2005. "La denuncia contra Rikuden afirmando que la planta de Shika es insegura debido a la preocupación por los terremotos no es sorprendente, dadas las muchas denuncias que se han presentado en el pasado", indicaba el despacho de la Embajada. "Lo que es sorprendente en este caso es que los demandantes finalmente ganasen el caso", añadía.
Sin embargo, un funcionario de la agencia japonesa de seguridad nuclear (NISA) informó a la Embajada de que, al tratarse de una demanda civil, la eléctrica Rikuden no estaba obligada a detener el reactor. El entonces presidente de la compañía, Isao Nagahara, declaró que le parecía "profundamente lamentable" la sentencia y que pensaba recurrirla. El director de la agencia japonesa de seguridad, Kenkichi Hirose, apoyó a la empresa y declaró: "Nunca pensé que una corte judicial pudiera ordenar el cese de la actividad en una planta".
La Embajada precisó que aunque la compañía eléctrica no estaba obligada a cesar la actividad del reactor debería afrontar una dura batalla para ganarse el apoyo de unos ciudadanos poco dispuestos a tener frente a sus casas una central. "Especialmente, si no están convencidos de que el próximo gran terremoto ocasionará una gran devastación", concluía el informe.
El gobierno alemán aconsejó el día 16 a sus ciudadanos que abandonen el área metropolitana de Tokio y otras regiones del norte de Japón debido a los crecientes temores generados por la radiación que se propaga desde una planta nuclear afectada por el terremoto.
"Pedimos a todos los alemanes que abandonen la región de Tokio y Yokohama" y que se dirijan a la ciudad sureña de Osaka o que abandonen el país vía Osaka, dijo en una sesión de información el vocero del Ministerio del Exterior alemán, Andreas Peschke.
El ministerio también advirtió que no se realicen viajes a la parte afectada por el terremoto en Japón, donde un sismo de 9,0 grados y el subsecuente tsunami ocurridos el viernes dejaron miles de muertos y pérdidas incalculables.
Desde el sábado, varias explosiones e incendios han sacudido la planta nuclear costera de Fukushima debido a lo cual la radiación se ha acercado a niveles dañinos. Algunos reactores podrían registrar una fuga radiactiva.
El gobierno japonés ha establecido una zona de exclusión de 20 kilómetros alrededor de la planta nuclear y pidió a las personas que viven más allá de 10 kilómetros de la zona que permanezcan dentro de sus casas.
En la capital japonesa de Tokio, a 250 kilómetros de distancia de la planta en crisis, se detectaron niveles de radiación mayores que el nivel normal. Funcionarios dijeron que en este momento aún no son niveles peligrosos.
El Ministerio del Exterior alemán dijo que su embajada en Tokio aún está trabajando, pero algunas de sus funciones han sido trasladadas a su oficina en Osaka con el fin de mejorar la coordinación y la evacuación.
La aerolínea alemana Lufthansa anunció el martes que desviará todos sus vuelos con destino a Tokio a otras ciudades japonesas al menos hasta el domingo.(Xinhua) 17/03/2011
A volta da CPMF (Contribuição Provisória sobre Movimentação Financeira) para ajudar a financiar a saúde no país é desaprovada por 72% dos brasileiros, indica pesquisa do Ibope divulgada nesta quarta-feira pela CNI (Confederação Nacional da Indústria).
Ao todo, 20% das pessoas aprovam a volta da cobrança e o restante não sabe ou não comentou.
O levantamento mostra, porém, que o conhecimento da população acerca do tributo ainda é reduzido.
Apenas 37% dos entrevistados sabiam responder o que é a CPMF. O questionamento só pode ser levado adiante após a explicação sobre do que se tratava a contribuição.
Governadores já pediram a volta do tributo ou a criação de uma contribuição semelhante para financiar as despesas com saúde. A presidente Dilma Rousseff já acenou positivamente para esse debate.
Contudo, a pesquisa da CNI mostra que a população brasileira não só é contrária à volta da CPMF como 67% discordam em algum grau da criação de um novo tributo com objetivo de melhorar os serviços de saúde.
De acordo com 75% dos entrevistados, a CPMF é um imposto injusto porque afeta as pessoas independente da renda, e 63% dos entrevistados a creditam que a recriação da CPMF poderá provocar uma alta nos preços.
Na opinião dos brasileiros, o governo já arrecada o suficiente. Para 87% dos entrevistados, a carga tributária é considerada elevada ou muito elevada. Para 79% dos pesquisados, a percepção é de que o valor dos impostos está aumentando.
Na mesma pesquisa, o Ibope perguntou aos entrevistados sobre a percepção deles a respeito da qualidade dos serviços públicos.
De 12 serviços apresentados, apenas quatro --fornecimento de energia elétrica, fornecimento de água, iluminação pública e educação superior-- foram aprovados.
Da mesma forma, 81% dos entrevistados apontaram que, em vista da quantidade de impostos que são cobrados, os serviços públicos deveriam ser melhores e 82% acreditam que o governo já arrecada muito e não precisa aumentar impostos para melhorar os serviços públicos.
Para 81% dos brasileiros, a má qualidade dos serviços públicos é responsabilidade mais da má gestão dos recursos do que da falta deles.
A pesquisa CNI-Ibope foi realizada entre 4 e 7 de dezembro de 2010 com 2.002 pessoas em 140 municípios. A margem de erro é de dois pontos percentuais, para mais ou para menos, e o grau de confiança de 95%.
* Says it is "Allah's will" to build a nuclear station
(Adds dropped letter in word "parts" in first bullet point)
By Raushan Nurshayeva ASTANA, March 16 (Reuters) - Kazakhstan, the world's largest uranium miner, will press ahead with plans to build its first nuclear power plant, undeterred by Japan's post-earthquake nuclear crisis, a senior Kazakh official said on Wednesday. "The well-known events in Japan have given rise to radiophobia," Duisenbai Turganov, deputy minister of industry and new technologies, told a conference on power engineering.
"But all the same, we believe that the construction of a nuclear power plant should take place in Kazakhstan, the more so as we have all the necessary conditions for this," he said.
Parts of Kazakhstan are also in seismically active zones. But officials have repeatedly issued assurances that the sparsely populated nation five times the size of France has enough space to safely accommodate a nuclear power plant.
"We hold the world's second-largest uranium reserves, and we are in front of everyone in terms of production. Therefore it is indeed Allah's will that we must deal with these issues," Turganov said, referring to plans to build a nuclear station.
"It goes without saying that there must be a thorough selection of (power plant) projects and significant attention must be paid to security."
Kazakhstan, which holds more than 15 percent of global uranium reserves, surpassed Canada as the world's largest producer of the metal in 2009. Only Australia holds more known uranium reserves in the ground.
Kazakhstan plans to produce 19,600 tonnes of uranium this year, up from 17,803 tonnes last year, and expects to raise annual production to more than 25,000 tonnes by 2015 by developing several joint ventures with international companies.
Kazakhstan voluntarily gave up a nuclear arsenal that it inherited after the break-up of the Soviet Union, shut down the Cold War-era Semipalatinsk nuclear test site and dismantled a nuclear reactor in Aktau near its Caspian Sea coast.
As global demand for nuclear energy has grown in recent years, state nuclear company Kazatomprom has unveiled plans to build a reactor as the culmination of plans to take its uranium through the entire nuclear fuel cycle by 2020.
Turganov declined to give more details about the reactor.
Kazatomprom operates its own uranium mines in Kazakhstan as well as several joint ventures with foreign investors such as Cameco Corp (CCO.TO), Areva (CEPFi.PA), Toshiba Corp (6502.T) and Russian state nuclear firm Rosatom. (Writing by Robin Paxton and Dmitry Solovyov, editing by Jane Baird)
Japan was warned more than two years ago by the international nuclear watchdog that its nuclear power plants were not capable of withstanding powerful earthquakes, leaked diplomatic cables reveal.
Evacuees are screened for radiation contamination at a testing center in Koriyama City, Fukushima PrefecturePhoto: AP
By Steven Swinford, and Christopher Hope9:30PM GMT 15 Mar 2011
An official from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in December 2008 that safety rules were out of date and strong earthquakes would pose a "serious problem" for nuclear power stations.
The Japanese government pledged to upgrade safety at all of its nuclear plants, but will now face inevitable questions over whether it did enough.
While it responded to the warnings by building an emergency response centre at the Fukushima plant, it was only designed to withstand magnitude 7.0 tremors. Friday's devastating earthquake was a magnitude 9.0 shock.
The news is likely to put further pressure on Japan's Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, who has been criticised for "dithering" over the country's response to the ongoing crisis at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
Panic started to spread throughout Japan yesterday following the news that a third explosion at the plant might have damaged the protective casing around the reactor core, increasing the threat of radioactive leaks.
The government was considering using helicopters to spray water over the Fukushima site to limit the spread of radioactive particles as part of its increasingly desperate attempts to keep the situation under control.
Meanwhile the FTSE-100 share index fell by 1.4 per cent as stock markets around the world slumped in response to a 10.6 per cent drop in Japan's Nikkei index.
Warnings about the safety of nuclear power plants in Japan, one of the most seismologically active countries in the world, were raised during a meeting of the G8's Nuclear Safety and Security Group in Tokyo in 2008.
A US embassy cable obtained by the WikiLeaks website and seen by The Daily Telegraph quoted an unnamed expert who expressed concern that guidance on how to protect nuclear power stations from earthquakes had only been updated three times in the past 35 years.
The document states: "He [the IAEA official] explained that safety guides for seismic safety have only been revised three times in the last 35 years and that the IAEA is now re-examining them.
"Also, the presenter noted recent earthquakes in some cases have exceeded the design basis for some nuclear plants, and that this is a serious problem that is now driving seismic safety work."
The cables also disclose how the Japanese government opposed a court order to shut down another nuclear power plant in western Japan because of concerns it could not withstand powerful earthquakes.
The court ruled that there was a possibility local people might be exposed to radiation if there was an accident at the plant, which was built to out of date specifications and only to withstand a "6.5 magnitude" earthquake. Last Friday's earthquake, 81 miles off the shore of Japan, was a magnitude 9.0 tremor.
However, a cable from March 2006 reported that the court's concerns were not shared by the country's nuclear safety agency.
It says: "Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency believes the reactor is safe and that all safety analyses were appropriately conducted."
The Government successfully overturned the ruling in 2009.
Another cable reported to Washington local concerns that a new generation of Japanese power stations that recycle nuclear fuel were jeopardising safety.
The cable, quoting a local newspaper, reports: "There is something precarious about the way all electric power companies are falling in step with each other under the banner of the national policy. We have seen too many cases of cost reduction competition through heightened efficiency jeopardizing safety."
The cables also disclose how Taro Kono, a high-profile member of Japan's lower house, told US diplomats in October 2008 that the government was "covering up" nuclear accidents.
He alleged that the government was ignoring alternative forms of energy, such as wind power.
The cable states: "He also accused METI [the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry] of covering up nuclear accidents, and obscuring the true costs and problems associated with the nuclear industry." He added that the Japan's "extensive seismic" activity raised safety concerns about storing nuclear material.
Mr Kan was not in office at the time the nuclear warnings were made. He became science and technology minister in 2009 and prime minister in June 2010.
SANTIAGO (Reuters) - A magnitude 5.3 earthquake rattled central Chile on Wednesday, shaking buildings in the capital Santiago, but there were no reports of any damage or injuries, the government said.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake struck 45 miles north-northeast of the central Chilean port city of Valparaiso, at a depth of 15.3 miles.
Reuters witnesses said buildings swayed in Santiago, 75 miles miles to the east.
"There are no reports of any damage or injuries," a spokeswoman for state emergency office Onemi told Reuters.
Quake-prone Chile's economy is still recovering from a massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake a year ago, which hammered towns, infrastructure and industries in south-central Chile and killed more than 500 people.
OTSUCHI, Japan (Reuters) - Nearly a week after their home town was annihilated in a catastrophic tsunami, the 1,000-plus survivors of the small Japanese fishing town of Otsuchi are hanging by a thread.
With no water or electricity, and scant food, survivors keep each other company at one of three emergency shelters on the outskirts of what remains of the town. "You can't wash your hands or face," says 72-year-old Katsu Sawayama, seated in the middle of the high school gymnasium, the biggest of the shelters in a town where more than half the 17,000 residents are still missing.
Adding to their woes, an unseasonal snowstorm sent temperatures plunging to below zero and blanketed acres of tsunami debris in white.
While international attention has been focused on Japan's efforts to stop damage at a quake-hit nuclear power plant from spiraling out of control, a massive salvage and rescue operation has slowly been gathering steam.
Scores of villages, hamlets and towns lining Japan's northeast coast were flattened by tsunami waves that rolled in minutes after Friday's 9.0 magnitude earthquake.
While the official toll stands at less than 5,000, thousands more are listed as missing and the final tally is likely to soar.
About 850,000 households in the north were still without electricity in near-freezing weather, Tohuku Electric Power Co. said, while the government said at least 1.5 million households lacked running water.
Like tens of thousands of people along Japan's northeast coast, the Otsuchi survivors have nowhere else to go. Meals are barely enough to sustain them -- half a rice ball and a small bowl of miso soup is a luxury; a slice of bread might have to feed a family of three.
"Whatever they give us, we just gratefully receive. At least they're feeding us three times a day," said Sayawama.
RADIATION FEARS DETRACT FROM OTHER PROBLEMS
International experts say that panic over fears of radiation leaks from the Daiichi nuclear plant could detract from problems likely to affect survivors of the quake and tsunami, such as the cold, access to clean water and getting enough food.
"People are getting so concerned about what are at the moment pretty low levels of radiation," said Dr Richard Wakeford of Britain's University of Manchester, "but the real problems ... are in dealing with the earthquake and the tsunami."
"If this was a developing country, we'd have people going down in their hundreds and thousands with the likes of typhoid and cholera by now. The questions should be: Where is the sewage going? What is the state of the drinking water? If I were a public health official, that would be my principle concern."
Ayumi Yamazaki, 21, is already concerned and worries her 1-1/2-year-old daughter is not getting enough to eat.
"We rarely get to eat rice, so I'm a little concerned," she said, "but it's better than not eating at all."
Maths teacher, Naoshi Moriya, volunteering at the evacuation site's make-shift logistics office, says he's worried that it is only a matter of time before food runs out.
Despite the privations there's a sense of order in the evacuation center. In late afternoon, a neat queue forms in one hallway of the refuge shelter for men under 60 years old to collect clean undergarments sent in through charity. "Long-sleeve undergarments are reserved for the elderly," a volunteer who lost her home says, apologizing to one man.
Outside help is slowly and sparingly arriving. A Self Defense Forces truck carrying a fresh supply of water arrived late afternoon on Wednesday, and two Red Cross teams arrived for the first time to treat patients.
"It's cold today so many people have fallen ill, getting diarrhea and other symptoms," said Takanori Watanabe, a Red Cross doctor from Himeji, western Japan. He says 80 people queued up when they arrived.
Elsewhere there were signs of human touches.
Two soldiers picked through the rubble and placed personal effects such as photographs in a box so that survivors might be able to reclaim cherished memories.
"They belong to someone. You never know," said one.
OTSUCHI, Japan (Reuters) - Nearly a week after their home town was annihilated in a catastrophic tsunami, the 1,000-plus survivors of the small Japanese fishing town of Otsuchi are hanging by a thread.
With no water or electricity, and scant food, survivors keep each other company at one of three emergency shelters on the outskirts of what remains of the town. "You can't wash your hands or face," says 72-year-old Katsu Sawayama, seated in the middle of the high school gymnasium, the biggest of the shelters in a town where more than half the 17,000 residents are still missing.
Adding to their woes, an unseasonal snowstorm sent temperatures plunging to below zero and blanketed acres of tsunami debris in white.
While international attention has been focused on Japan's efforts to stop damage at a quake-hit nuclear power plant from spiraling out of control, a massive salvage and rescue operation has slowly been gathering steam.
Scores of villages, hamlets and towns lining Japan's northeast coast were flattened by tsunami waves that rolled in minutes after Friday's 9.0 magnitude earthquake.
While the official toll stands at less than 5,000, thousands more are listed as missing and the final tally is likely to soar.
About 850,000 households in the north were still without electricity in near-freezing weather, Tohuku Electric Power Co. said, while the government said at least 1.5 million households lacked running water.
Like tens of thousands of people along Japan's northeast coast, the Otsuchi survivors have nowhere else to go. Meals are barely enough to sustain them -- half a rice ball and a small bowl of miso soup is a luxury; a slice of bread might have to feed a family of three.
"Whatever they give us, we just gratefully receive. At least they're feeding us three times a day," said Sayawama.
RADIATION FEARS DETRACT FROM OTHER PROBLEMS
International experts say that panic over fears of radiation leaks from the Daiichi nuclear plant could detract from problems likely to affect survivors of the quake and tsunami, such as the cold, access to clean water and getting enough food.
"People are getting so concerned about what are at the moment pretty low levels of radiation," said Dr Richard Wakeford of Britain's University of Manchester, "but the real problems ... are in dealing with the earthquake and the tsunami."
"If this was a developing country, we'd have people going down in their hundreds and thousands with the likes of typhoid and cholera by now. The questions should be: Where is the sewage going? What is the state of the drinking water? If I were a public health official, that would be my principle concern."
Ayumi Yamazaki, 21, is already concerned and worries her 1-1/2-year-old daughter is not getting enough to eat.
"We rarely get to eat rice, so I'm a little concerned," she said, "but it's better than not eating at all."
Maths teacher, Naoshi Moriya, volunteering at the evacuation site's make-shift logistics office, says he's worried that it is only a matter of time before food runs out.
Despite the privations there's a sense of order in the evacuation center. In late afternoon, a neat queue forms in one hallway of the refuge shelter for men under 60 years old to collect clean undergarments sent in through charity. "Long-sleeve undergarments are reserved for the elderly," a volunteer who lost her home says, apologizing to one man.
Outside help is slowly and sparingly arriving. A Self Defense Forces truck carrying a fresh supply of water arrived late afternoon on Wednesday, and two Red Cross teams arrived for the first time to treat patients.
"It's cold today so many people have fallen ill, getting diarrhea and other symptoms," said Takanori Watanabe, a Red Cross doctor from Himeji, western Japan. He says 80 people queued up when they arrived.
Elsewhere there were signs of human touches.
Two soldiers picked through the rubble and placed personal effects such as photographs in a box so that survivors might be able to reclaim cherished memories.
"They belong to someone. You never know," said one.
This edition features a story on how Sailors at Navil Air Facility Atsugi have come together to accomplish a variety of tasks to provide support in the aftermath of the earthquake and subsequent Tsunami that hit ... View Video
Package about Sailors at Navil Air Facility Atsugi have come together to accomplish a variety of tasks to provide support in the aftermath of the earthquake and subsequent Tsunami that hit Japan. Personnel assign... View Video
Courtesy Video | Air Force News | Date: 03.16.2011
The Family Assistance Center at Commander Fleet Activities Yokosuka is available twenty-four hours a day to help answer questions and guide those in need of assistance during relief efforts following an 8.9 earth... View Video
Courtesy Video | Air Force News | Date: 03.16.2011
The Family Assistance Center at Commander Fleet Activities Yokosuka is available twenty-four hours a day to help answer questions and guide those in need of assistance during relief efforts following an 8.9 earth... View Video
Courtesy Video | Air Force News | Date: 03.16.2011
The Family Assistance Center at Commander Fleet Activities Yokosuka is available twenty-four hours a day to help answer questions and guide those in need of assistance during relief efforts following an 8.9 earth... View Video
B-roll of Marines from 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, II Marine Expeditionary Force, preparing to depart Marine Corps Air Station Futenma for mainland Japan in support of Government of Japan-led relief operations Marc... View Video
At Yokota Air Base, members from the 374th Airlift Wing and 353rd Special Operations Group work together to deliver supplies, equipment and personnel to Sendai airport and other nearby area to aid in the earthqua... View Video
Courtesy Video | Air Force News | Date: 03.16.2011
This edition features a story on the Operation Tomodachi, a support relief effort at Misawa Air Base, assisting victims of the recent record Earthquake in Japan. Hosted by Staff Sgt. Shannon Ofiara. View Video
Courtesy Video | Air Force News | Date: 03.16.2011
This edition features stories on Misawa’s Bio-Environmental Engineering Flight commander reassuring Misawa’s residents that they are not in danger form radioactive air released when a nuclear power plant’s ... View Video
Courtesy Video | Air Force News | Date: 03.16.2011
This edition features stories on Misawa’s Bio-Environmental Engineering Flight commander reassuring Misawa’s residents that they are not in danger form radioactive air released when a nuclear power plant’s ... View Video
By Nita Bhalla | Yesterday at 6:20 PM | Comments ( 0 )
A family walks past rubble after the earthquake and tsunami in Minamisanriku City, Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan March 16, 2011. REUTERS/Kyodo
NEW DELHI (AlertNet) – As millions around the world watch as Japan struggles to cope with the devastation of Friday’s earthquake and tsunami -- and now a potential nuclear disaster -- many of us want to help.
A quick search on google with keywords “Japan” and “donate” will bring up a list of charities that are more than willing to take your money off your hands
But should we do so? Many believe we shouldn’t.
Japan is an industrialized nation and one of the most well-equipped on earth to cope with such calamities, they argue.
“Japan is a wealthy country which is responding to the disaster, among other things, by printing hundreds of billions of dollars worth of new money. Money is not the bottleneck here: if money is needed, Japan can raise it,” writes reuters.com blogger Felix Salmon.
Others also point to the more complex issue of humanitarian aid, questioning whether it is responsible to impulsively donate to a random non-profit in the wake of a major disaster.
There are currently countless charities, which are taking donations for the disaster, but while they are not working in country, say they will fund trusted local charities who are responding to the crisis.
But some bloggers are skeptical, pointing out since Japan has sought very limited international assistance, it is better to wait until you are sure that your money is going where it should be.
“If you read the fine print in most non-profits appeals for this disaster, you’ll see phrases such as: ‘prepared to assist’, ‘readying a team’, ‘stand at the ready’ and ‘assessing the situation” says this blog from "Good intentions are not enough".
“But few have actually deployed staff. And there is the very real possibility that many of the organisations currently collecting donations for the recovery efforts might not be allowed to operate in Japan,” the article adds.
Humanitarians, who deal with disasters on a regular basis, say donating must be responsible and the public should not forget other major crises around the world which are slowly unfolding such as the political unrest in Ivory Coast.
“It’s obvious that you want to help when you see the terrible scenes, but this is what causes the massive flows of money in a major sudden disaster much of which is unspent, but virtually nothing is given for a disaster like the floods in Pakistan last year,” said a disaster expert in New Delhi.
“Yes, Japan has a crisis on its hands with half a million people displaced and shortages of food and water, but Pakistan had up to ten million who had lost their homes.”
Aid workers add that these mass flows of donations can often result in a mess of uncoordinated international charities parachuting in who, while they may have good intentions, end up wasting vital funds such as in Haiti earthquake last year and the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
There is no clear answer, I’m afraid, as whether you should give or not.
But if you do decide to leave moral dilemma of humanitarian aid and its effectiveness in a major disaster out of the equation, then perhaps err on the side of caution and follow some basic principles.
A live stream of video from NHK, Japan’s state broadcaster, with simultaneous English translation. (Click the play button at lower left to watch the video on this blog.)On Wednesday, The Lede continues to supplement reporting from our colleagues in Japan on the aftermath of a devastating 9.0 earthquake, including efforts to regain control of a damaged nuclear plant. Updates below feature reports from other news sites and firsthand accounts and video posted on social networks. A Twitter stream in the right column of this blog includes messages from journalists and officials in Japan.
Tepco/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesA Tokyo Power and Electric Company photograph showing extensive damage to the buildings housing reactor No. 3, left, and reactor No. 4 at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant on Wednesday.
Japan’s Kyodo News reports that the U.S. military plans to deploy “a Global Hawk unmanned high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft, possibly on Thursday, to take images of the inside of the building that houses the No. 4 reactor, according to Japanese government sources.”
That seems to be in line with reported concerns from the Pentagon and American soldiers about trying to help Japan recover from the crisis without exposing U.S. military personnel to radiation.
A Pentagon spokesman said on Wednesday that U.S. military personnel and their families will not be allowed within 50 miles of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, Reuters reports.
Reuters added that the American military “gave Japanese forces firetrucks and water pumps, but stressed Americans will not operate them.”
The news agency also reported that it found signs of trepidation from some American soldiers posting messages on Facebook:
On a Facebook page for U.S. Naval Forces Japan, some Americans voiced concern. One living in Atsugi, Japan, where radiation was detected at a naval base, asked about a potential evacuation.
“Having a toddler and being pregnant, I need to know if they can get us going,” wrote 21-year-old Chelsea Origer.
Another woman, identifying herself as Melanie Cobos Lopez, responded: “You know they will wait (until) the last (minute). Just book a flight and keep them babies safe.”
“Who knows what (they’re) not telling us,” she wrote.
According to an expert who has studied the effects of the Chernobyl disaster, the pregnant female soldier could have reason for concern.
Douglas Almond, a Columbia University economist whose research suggests that children in Sweden who were exposed, in utero, to low levels of radiation from Chernobyl “experienced significantly lower cognitive function” later in life, wrote to The Lede on Wednesday to express concern about possibly inadequate warnings to pregnant women in Japan.
Mr. Almond wrote:
Discussion of the likely public health impacts of nuclear crisis in Japan omit the evidence on developmental impacts, i.e. radiation exposure to pregnant women that damages the fetus and is not resolved/addressed by iodine supplementation.
For this reason, we think pregnant women might be targeted for relocation/remaining indoors at greater distances from the reactors than the non-pregnant population.
Mr. Almond’s research on the possible impact of low levels of radiation on Swedish children from Chernobyl accident was discussed at greater length in a post on our Economix blog by my colleague David Leonhardt.
The Lede’s coverage of the crisis in Japan will resume on Thursday. In the meantime, please visit the NYTimes.com homepage to reader reports from my colleagues in Japan, watch video reports and explore interactive graphics. The Lede’s Japan Crisis Twitter list is also worth keeping an eye on.
Thanks for your comments and tips.
5:20 P.M.|Video Report Shows Sea Walls Ripped Apart by Tsunami
Here is another powerful video report from Alex Thomson of Britain’s Channel 4 News, showing how the tsunami pummeled giant sea walls around a village outside Kamaishi, in Japan’s northeastern Iwate Prefecture:
After some criticism of his agency’s work, Yukiya Amano, the former Japanese diplomat who leads the International Atomic Energy Agency, announced on Wednesday that he plans to visit Japan in person.
I plan to fly to Japan as soon as possible, hopefully tomorrow, to see the situation for myself and learn from our Japanese counterparts how best the I.A.E.A. can help. I will request that the Board of Governors meet upon my return to discuss the situation. My intention is that the first I.A.E.A. experts should leave for Japan as soon as possible.
Since Japan asked the I.A.E.A. to send a team of experts on Monday, Kyodo News reports, “the two parties have been discussing locations where the team should be deployed as well as the duration of its stay in Japan.”
As Jonathan Tirone of Bloomberg News reports, twice in recent days, the I.A.E.A. has given reporters incorrect information: “The agency mixed up reactors over the weekend. On March 14, Amano told media that there was ‘no indication’ of melting fuel, even after Japanese officials had reported a ‘high probability.’”
Mr. Tirone adds that one expert has suggested that the agency is generally too concerned with diplomacy to be trusted in a crisis:
“The first rule of the I.A.E.A. is constant compromise with all the countries, but safety is incompatible with the art of compromise and diplomacy,” wrote Iouli Andreev in response to e-mailed questions. Andreev led the Soviet Spetsatom agency tasked with cleaning up the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown. During that 1986 disaster, the “I.A.E.A. fully agreed with false information from the Politburo and Russian nuclear ministry.”
Mr. Amano, who was a career diplomat working for Japan’s government before taking on his current role, has certainly been less quick than other observers to make dramatic statements about the crisis.
Speaking about the damaged reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, Guenther Oettinger, the European Union’s energy commissioner, said on Tuesday: “There is talk of an apocalypse and I think the word is particularly well chosen.” On Wednesday, after the situation appeared to worsen, Mr. Oettinger told a European Parliament committee: “The site is effectively out of control.”
In further remarks captured on video, Mr. Oettinger cast the disaster in apocalyptic terms, saying: “In the coming hours, further catastrophic events can be expected with danger for the life and limbs of the people on the island.”
Eric Besson, France’s minister of industry and energy, made similar remarks on Wednesday , telling BFM television: “Let’s not beat about the bush: they have visibly lost the essential of control. That is our analysis, in any case, it’s not what they are saying.”
Asked about these remarks later on Wednesday, Mr. Amano told reporters on that the sitation at hte plant is “very serious, ” but “it is not the time to say things are out of control, Reuters reported.
3:21 P.M.|British Advised to Leave Tokyo and Northern Japan
The British Embassy in Tokyo has posted a statement on its Web site saying that, “due to the evolving situation at the Fukushima nuclear facility and potential disruptions to the supply of goods, transport, communications, power and other infrastructure, British nationals in Tokyo and to the north of Tokyo should consider leaving the area.”
Somewhat confusingly, the statement also notes that most recent advice from Britain’s chief scientific adviser, John Beddington, “remains that for those outside the exclusion zone set up by the Japanese authorities there is no real human health issue that people should be concerned about.”
Speaking in Tokyo on Tuesday, Mr. Beddington repeated what he said on Monday, that even in “the worst case scenario,” the crisis in Japan would not rival the one that engulfed the area around Chernobyl in 1986. According to a transcript of his remarks at the British Embassy on Tuesday, Mr. Beddington said:
If the Japanese fail to keep the reactors cool and fail to keep the pressure in the containment vessels at an appropriate level, you can get this, you know, the dramatic word “meltdown.” But what does that actually mean? What a meltdown involves is the basic reactor core melts, and as it melts, nuclear material will fall through to the floor of the container. There it will react with concrete and other materials … that is likely.
Remember this is the reasonable worst case, we don’t think anything worse is going to happen. In this reasonable worst case you get an explosion. You get some radioactive material going up to about 500 meters up into the air. Now, that’s really serious, but it’s serious again for the local area. It’s not serious for elsewhere, even if you get a combination of that explosion it would only have nuclear material going in to the air up to about 500 meters.
If you then couple that with the worst possible weather situation, i.e. prevailing weather taking radioactive material in the direction of Greater Tokyo and you had maybe rainfall which would bring the radioactive material down, do we have a problem? The answer is unequivocally no. Absolutely no issue.
The problems are within 30 km of the reactor. And to give you a flavor for that, when Chernobyl had a massive fire at the graphite core, material was going up not just 500 meters but to 30,000 feet; it was lasting not for the odd hour or so but lasted months, and that was putting nuclear radioactive material up into the upper atmosphere for a very long period of time. But even in the case of Chernobyl, the exclusion zone that they had was about 30 kilometers. And in that exclusion zone, outside that, there is no evidence whatsoever to indicate people had problems from the radiation.
The problems with Chernobyl were people were continuing to drink the water, continuing to eat vegetables and so on and that was where the problems came from. That’s not going to be the case here. So what I would really reemphasize is that this is very problematic for the area and the immediate vicinity and one has to have concerns for the people working there. Beyond that 20 or 30 kilometers, it’s really not an issue for health.
2:45 P.M.|U.S. Urges Wider Evacuation Zone Than Japan
After some confusing statements by Japanese officials about the exact nature of the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in northeastern Japan, the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo has urged Americans within 50 miles of the facility to leave the area, Reuters reports.
In a statement distributed to reporters accompanying Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on a trip to Egypt, the Embassy said: “We are recommending, as a precaution, that American citizens who live within 50 miles of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant evacuate the area or to take shelter indoors if safe evacuation is not practical.”
So far, Japan’s government has ordered the evacuation of people living within 20 kilometers (about 12.5 miles) of the plant and advised people within 30 kilometers (just over 18.5 miles) to evacuate or stay indoors.
Gregory Jaczko, the chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, who is testifying to Congress right now, just said that his body would recommend an evacuation area much larger than has taken place around Japan’s reactors. Mr. Jaczko told the House Energy and Commerce committee, “as a prudent measure, with a comparable situation here in the United States, we would likely be looking at an evacuation of a larger distance.”
Mr. Jaczko said the commission believed that all the water in the spent fuel pool at Fukushima Daiichi unit 4 had boiled dry and that as a result, “we believe that radiation levels are extremely high, which could possibly impact the ability to take corrective measures.”
In fact, experts say that it would be hard to approach a pool that was dry, because radiation levels would be so high. In a normally operating pool, the water provides not only cooling but radiation shielding.
1:39 P.M.|More Than 4,300 Dead and 8,600 Still Missing in Japan
Japan’s Kyodo News reports that the death toll has passed 4,300 and is expected to keep rising:
The National Police Agency said it has confirmed 4,314 deaths in 12 prefectures, as of midnight Wednesday, while 8,606 people remained unaccounted for in six prefectures.
The death toll, however, will inevitably climb higher as the recovery of bodies mainly in the tsunami-hit coastal areas started in full swing after waters there held back and tsunami warnings were lifted.
11:39 A.M.|Town Struck by Tsunami in 1960 Ruined Again
This video report from Alex Thomson of Britain’s Channel 4 News shows survivors camped out in an intact concrete theater in the ruined town of Ofunato, in Japan’s northeastern Iwate Prefecture, on Tuesday night:
Mr. Thomson’s report shows the fairly good conditions inside the town’s shelter in its concrete, brutalist theater, as well as a sign clearly marking the tsunami escape route from the coast.
As my colleagues James Glanz and Norimitsu Onishi reported on Friday, in Ofunato, “which was struck by a major tsunami in 1960, dozens of signs in Japanese and English mark escape routes, and emergency sirens are tested three times a day.”
In May, 1960 The New York Times published this photograph of the destruction of Ofunato by tsunami waves generated by a massive earthquake in Chile:
An image of the destruction of the Japanese town of Ofunato by a tsunami in May, 1960.
This video of the tsunami washing away buildings on Friday was posted on YouTube by a blogger who said that it was filmed in Ofunato during the catastrophe:
Perhaps because the town’s vulnerability to tsunamis is well-known, as the Channel 4 News report mentions, international rescue and recovery crews from China, Britain and the United States were dispatched to Ofunato this week.
A U.S. search-and-rescue team was picking its way through a demolished neighborhood in this coastal village Tuesday when it found a desperate message scrawled on the wall of a collapsed home. The message said an 88-year-old woman had been on the first floor Friday when tsunamis swept through, tossing vehicles, splintering buildings and carrying away hundreds of victims.
The elite USAID search team from Fairfax County, Va., immediately called for rescue dogs and fellow team specialists who were carrying snaking camera gear that could peer into the 2½-foot space beneath the home.
In a 40-minute methodical search, team members found nothing. They could only mark the house with an international symbol indicating that they had not located the woman, who remains among nearly 200 city residents still missing four days after Japan’s largest recorded earthquake.
This video from the U.S. Department of Defense shows some of the American crew combing the rubble for survivors on Tuesday:
Video of Address by Japan’s Emperor
As my colleagues Mark McDonald and Kevin Drew report, “Emperor Akihito of Japan, in an unprecedented television address to the nation, said on Wednesday that he was ‘deeply worried’ about the ongoing nuclear crisis at several stricken reactors and asked for people to act with compassion ‘to overcome these difficult times.’”
Here is video from the address with a simultaneous English translation from NHK, Japan’s state broadcaster, via CNN:
A new aftershock just hit Japan, several journalists reported on Twitter from Tokyo minutes ago.
Martyn Williams a Tokyo-based technology journalist writes that preliminary estimates say that it was a 5.3 magnitude earthquake at a depth of 60 kilometers (more than 30 miles) and that reports say there is “No danger of tsunami.”
Mark MacKinnon of Toronto’s Globe and Mail notes that the pianist at his hotel bar is so used to this by now that he failed to miss a note.
About two hours ago, Sarah Smith, a correspondent for Britain’s Channel 4 News, reported on Twitter that she had “Just spotted HUGE cracks in wall of Tokyo our hotel” caused by the aftershocks and wondered if that was a good or a bad sign of the building’s robustness.
As my colleagues Hiroko Tabuchi and Keith Bradsher report, Japanese authorities announced on Wednesday that “a second reactor unit at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi plant in northeastern Japan may have ruptured and appeared to be releasing radioactive steam.” That caused the Japanese military abandon a highly unusual plan to dump water from helicopters on the plant to lower temperatures in a pool containing spent fuel rods that was overheating dangerously.
This video from Japanese television of smoke rising from the damaged plant was posted online by Britain’s Channel 4 News:
Readers can also follow the crisis in real time by watching the live video stream of NHK, Japan’s state broadcaster, in the player embedded at the top of this blog. The video feed is accompanied by NHK’s own simultaneous English translation.
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