Japanese Earthquake, Tsunami, and Nuclear Reactors

[Olympia]

One group I felt especially terrible for from the WTC cleanup was American Indian construction workers. For those of you from other countries, Native Americans from the Mohawk and related groups have long been famous as high-altitude ironworkers on skyscrapers. They have helped to put up many of the skyscrapers and bridges in the Northeast and elsewhere, and they have even traveled abroad for this purpose. Many of the workers helping in the ruins had had fathers, grandfathers, and uncles who helped build the towers. So groups from upstate New York felt duty-bound to help with the cleanup. I heard a talk given by some of them, and one guy said that he found a girder that had a relative's mark on it. Has anyone done a special study of the Native American group's health situation? I imagine they must have even less access to medical care than retired police officers and firefighters.

[dorispulaski]

Blue Bead, I don't have any details about the containers yet-I imagine they will use stuff similar to whatever is used at the Idaho National Lab, where the US military has the results of the cleanup of Three Mile Island, SL-1 reactor, parts of Hanford, and the innards of a number of nuclear submarines corralled. When things get radioactively colder, they are shipped to the WIPP, (Waste Isolation Pilot Plant) which is in a salt formation in New Mexico. WIPP has been in use for some time now; I think about 12 years, perhaps.

Oddly enough, the US doesn't need Yucca Mt--it just needs to expand the WIPP. It's an interesting story, and is in the book "Power to Save the World" by Gwyneth Cravens.

I imagine that the containers will stay right where they are put in some region of the Daiichi site. TEPCO was scheduling to build 2 more reactors at Daiichi. That build has been cancelled. There is plenty of room to store the containers, whatever they are.

Olympia, The St. Regis Mohawks have a huge bingo hall and a casino, and what sounds like a fairly organized health operation whose budget is $15,000,000 a year. They also run their own pharmacy. The Senecas also have a recently opened casino, and a serious health care plan. I hope that the high steel workers are getting adequate care.
http://www.sni.org/node/4

Meanwhile, JAIF has an update, and there are some NHK stories that are new> TEPCO is moving the contaminated water to the Contamination Storage Tank from Unit 1 & Unit 2:

April 9th:

03:29 Nitrogen injection valve was closed in order to switch to the high purity nitrogen gas generator. (04:10 The valve was reopened.)
13:10 Transfer of water from the main condenser to the CST was completed at Unit 2.
April 10th:
09:30 Transfer of water from the main condenser to the CST was completed at Unit 1.

JAIF has up their plot of radiation readings in the areas about Daiichi. All trends are down. Data runs up throught April 8th.
http://www.jaif.or.jp/english/news_i...302486267P.pdf

Meanwhile, from NHK:

G20 to discuss Japan's nuclear disaster issues
Finance ministers and central bank chiefs of the Group of 20 nations will likely discuss Japan's efforts to overcome the March 11 disaster and to deal with the nuclear emergency at their next meeting.

The meeting will be held on Thursday and Friday in Washington. Japanese Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda and Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa will be attending.

With a number of Japanese factories still closed, G20 nations are becoming increasingly concerned that shortages of machinery parts made in Japan may have an impact overseas. Concerns are also mounting over the prolonged troubles at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Observers say participants will likely discuss how Japan could deal with the aftermath of the disaster. The Japanese side is expected to explain various measures, including supplementary budgets. Japan will pledge all-out efforts to get its economy back on a recovery track, despite forecasts saying it may slow down temporarily.

Some nations are expected to express concerns over a possible delay in Japan's fiscal restructuring. Japan will likely highlight the importance of reconstructing itself, while keeping its fiscal condition in order.

Finance ministers and central bank governors of the Group of 7 industrialized nations will have a separate meeting before the G20 meeting. Attention is focused on whether Japan can show the international community a persuasive roadmap to its reconstruction and to end their worries.
Monday, April 11, 2011 06:48 +0900 (JST)

Kan vows to help rebuild fishery industry
Prime Minister Naoto Kan has vowed to provide full support to disaster-hit coastal areas in northeastern Japan to help reconstruct the local fishing industry.

Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Kan made the pledge during his visit to Ishinomaki City in Miyagi Prefecture.

The prime minister said he realizes how badly the fishing industry has been hit by the March 11th earthquake and tsunami and how much effort and resources are needed to rebuild it.

He stressed that the government should do all it can to restore the industry, which has provided people with their livelihood for centuries.

In response to requests from the prefectural governor and city mayor, Kan also pledged the government would build 70,000 temporary houses as quickly as possible for those who have lost their homes.

During a visit to a shelter for disaster survivors, Kan was seen asking them what is needed most.

At a Self-Defense Force base in Sendai City, Kan told personnel of SDF and the US military that US troops have been very supportive of both relief efforts in disaster-affected areas and responses to problems unfolding at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Kan said he will never forget Operation Tomodachi, which he believes has strengthened bilateral ties.
Sunday, April 10, 2011 17:00 +0900 (JST)

The US Military has been very active in helping as much as it can since the beginning of the disaster. The operations even have a wikipedia page already. It's very touching that Kan particularly mentioned that he will never forget it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Tomodachi
Operation Tomodachi (トモダチ作戦, tomodachi sakusen?, lit. Operation Friend(s)) is a United States Armed Forces assistance operation to support Japan in disaster relief following the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. As of 29 March 2011, the operation, including relief supplies provided to victims of the disaster, was expected to cost a total of $80 million.[1]

[dorispulaski]

There was a 7.0 quake in Japan last night (April 11, 5:16 PM local Japanese time)

NHK says:

M 7.0 quake hits northeastern Japan
A strong earthquake struck north-eastern Japan at 5:16 PM, local time, on Monday. The Meteorological Agency at one time issued tsunami warnings for the coastal areas of Ibaraki Prefecture.

The agency said the earthquake's magnitude was 7.0, and that its focus was in Fukushima Prefecture at a depth of 10 kilometers.

Intensities of 6 minus on the Japanese scale of 0 to 7 were registered in some areas of Fukushima and Ibaraki prefectures, including Furudono Town, Nakajima Village and Hokota City. An intensity of 5 plus was registered in many areas in the southern Tohoku and northern Kanto regions.

The Meteorological Agency lifted the tsunami warnings about fifty minutes later. A tsunami advisory for the coastal areas of neighboring prefectures was also lifted.

Several minor quakes occurred following the major quake at 5:16. The agency is also warning of possible aftershocks with intensities of 6 plus or 6 minus.

The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, Tokyo Electric Power Company, says radiation figures at monitoring posts around the plant remain unchanged. The utility firm also says outdoor workers had been ordered to temporarily evacuate.
Monday, April 11, 2011 18:46 +0900 (JST)

If there is a tsunami warning (as there was with the quake a couple days ago, the workers are sent to higher ground, not evacuated off site.)

and

Water injection resumed at Fukushima Daiichi plant
The operator of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says water injection into the crippled reactors was briefly suspended after outside power lines were shut down by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake on Monday evening.

Tokyo Electric Power Company said that outside power was restored for reactors No.1, 2 and 3. Water injection was resumed for these reactors after a suspension of about 50 minutes.

This was reported April 11th at 6:34 PM.

Monday, April 11, 2011 18:34 +0900 (JST)


TEPCO"s 9 AM April 11 STATUS (This is of course, before the quake)

Gamma Radiation
Daini April 11, 3:00 PM 2.8 microSieverts per hour
Daiichi April 11, 3:00 PM West Gate 33.5 microSieverts per hour

Radiation Dose
Daiichi Main Buliding 0.59 milliSieverts per hour
Daiichi Main Gate 80 microSieverts per hour
Daiichi West Gate 35 microSieverts per hour
Daiichi 8 peripheral measuring points (12, 39, 38, 37, 70, 112, 235, 198) microSieverts per hour

It's the one month anniversary of the earthquake. The president of TEPCO issued a letter apologizing to TEPCO's customers and the Japanese people for the incident at Daiichi, and acknowledging the help TEPCO had received, from both the Japanese government and foreign companies and governments. He mentioned the US and France particularly. He also said that rolling blackouts will not be implemented this summer.

TEPCO lists the two bolded items as new. I take the first one to mean that they have checked out the Central Radioactive Waste Disposal facility, to determine that it is completely empty, probably while checking out that it is in good shape.

From 7:03 pm, April 4th, we are discharging the low level radioactive wastewater stored in the Central Radioactive Waste Disposal Facility to the south of the water discharge canal. We're confirming whether there is stored waste water or not. Also, from 9:00 pm, April 4th, we are discharging the low level radioactive wastewater stored in the sub drain pits of Unit 5 and 6 by using one pump via the water discharge canal of Units 5 and 6. After that, at 6:52 pm, April 9th we finished discharging water. The amount of water was approximately 1,323 tons.

*From 3:59 pm and 4:28 pm on April 10th , we conducted video recording of Unit 1 to 4 reactor buildings from the air by using an unmanned helicopter to check the current status of the buildings.

JAIF Status 2 PM April 11 is also before the earthquake.

Onegawa
All 5 external power lines have become available by Apr. 10th.

They also had done some graphing and mapping to try to make some sense of the seawater sampling program.

http://www.jaif.or.jp/english/news_i...302497619P.pdf

Data for the 10 TEPCO seawater sampling points, which are closer to shore than the MEXT sampling points, were reported by JAIF. Points T1-T4 were sampled on April 7th. Points T5-T10 were sampled on April 9th. Measureable concentrations of I 131 were found in all samples

The MEXT sampling points are located 30 km off shore, except for MA and MB, north of Daiichi, and M9 and M10, which closes the area measured to the south of Daiichi. None of the points actually 30 km out showed any concentration of radioactive materials when sampled at depths. M9 and M10, which are closer to shore, showed 10 Becquerels per liter on April 9th, and 12 Becquerels per liter on April 7th, respectively, at depth. M9 is at about the line of the TEPCO sampling spots, and M10 is closer in still.

MA, MB, M1, and M2 did not show any surface contamination either. This reflects the fact that there are inshore currenst running south in Daiichi rather than north. Daiichi is at the spot where the warm current meets the cold current and the flows are not simple there.

It's hard to make sense of this data, since some of it was taken on the 7th, and some on the ninth, and there were the circumstances of the inadvertent release of highly radioactive water and the deliberate pumping of less radioactive water. However, the highest surface points were at M3 (77.4 Becquerels per liter just north of Daiichi, measured on April 9th, and M6, off the Ibaraki coast welll south of Daini, measured on April 7th, at 56.3 Becquerels per liter).

JAIF also reported this today.

French and Japanese Leaders Meet to Discuss Responses to Fukushima Crisis
On March 31, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan met with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who was making an urgent visit to Japan to discussdevelopments at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (NPS). The two leaders then spoke to the press.

Prime Minister Kan stated that Japanese people were determined to work together to face and overcome the national crisis. He went on to say that it was Japan’s responsibility to examine the lessons learned and share them with the international community, so as to prevent similar occurrences from happening again. He said that Japan would do its utmost to prevent the disaster from expanding, and that it would thoroughly examine the entire sequence of events once things have settled down. President Sarkozy said that he was moved by the composed response and the courageous actions of the people of Japan in the face of the major crisis, the worst for the nation since 1945. He also stated that it was necessary to establish international safety standards to make nuclear energy safe– preferably as early as the end of this year – in the wake of the occurrences at Fukushima.
In response to a request from the French president, Prime Minister Kan said that he would make an opening statement at the G8 summit meeting to take place in France on May 26-27, appear at a G20 meeting that France wants to convene in May to discuss the international nuclear safety standards, and discuss the issues at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Ministerial-level Conference in June. Regarding the particular situation at Fukushima, France declared its offer of “maximum possible support” as an advanced nuclear nation to control the situation at the NPS. It will do such things as supply a robot that can work in areas of high radioactivity and provide technological advice on reactor decommissioning.

[dorispulaski]

My rollup of April 11, 12:01 PM Eastern Daylight Time


TEPCO Daiichi reports on the earthquake of April 11th:

Wind is in the north.

Daini 9pm April 11 - 2.8 microSieverts per hour
Daiichi 9 pm April 11 West Gate 42.0 microSieverts per hour

Daichi 8 periphery points (12,38,36,35, 66,107,225,190) microSieverts per hour
Daichi Main Building 0.58 milliSieverts per hour
Daiichi Main Gate 73 microSieverts per hour
Daiichi West Gate 33 microSieverts per hour

We have observed that the maximum seismic acceleration was 55.5 gal at the basement mat of the reactor building of Unit 6. Influence of radioactivity outside: None The figures indicated at monitoring posts at the station boundary are within the usual range, and there is no influence of radioactivity outside as of now

Tepco Daini reported the earthquake was stronger there but:

We have observed that the maximum seismic acceleration was 92.5 gal at the basement mat of the reactor building of Unit 3. Influence of radioactivity outside: None

TEPCO shows the concentration of cesium and iodine in seawater at the quay at Daiichi is now below the value it had on April 3rd, the first day they measured in that position.
http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp...s/110411e5.pdf

The second plot in that group shows that concentration is hugely down at the Unit 2bar screen where the highly contaminated water was pouring out before they stopped it. (from 300,000 becquerels per cubic centimeter ) and the third plot shows the concentration at the Unit 4 bar screen. It has gone down from 10,000 Becquerels per cubic centimeter to about the same as Unit 2 on April 10th. (I131 220 or so, Cs134 160, Cs137 170) becquerels per cubic centimeter.



And here are the daily charts on volatile & particulate iodine and cesium in the air at Daiichi:
http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp...s/110411e2.pdf
and at Daini:
http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp...s/110411e3.pdf

JAIF has some articles from overnight from NHK

●Expanded evacuation considered
The Japanese government is considering expanding its current 20-kilometer evacuation radius around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, taking into account the risks of long-term accumulated radiation exposure. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said on Monday that the government may advise residents in areas between 20 and 30 kilometers from the plant to evacuate, based on accumulated radiation exposure levels. Currently such residents have been advised to remain indoors. Edano also said the government is considering advising residents to evacuate even from areas outside the zone where cumulative radiation exposure risks are higher. He said the possibility that the situation at the plant will worsen cannot be ruled out. Iitate Village in Fukushima Prefecture could be the target of the evacuation instruction, because high levels of accumulated radiation have been recorded in some areas there. Most of Iitate lies farther than 30 kilometers from the power plant. Iitate Mayor Norio Kanno told NHK that the village learned on Sunday that the government may put the entire village under an evacuation instruction for a certain period of time. He said he is opposed to designating the entire village as an evacuation zone, because radiation levels in parts of the village remain low. But he said the government is unlikely to listen to him. He added that he wants to remain in the village and deal with the disaster's aftermath.
Monday, April 11, 2011 14:05 +0900 (JST) 3

JAIF reports the evacuation situation this way:

　<5>The
20km evacuation zone around the Fukushima Daiichi NPS is to be expanded so as to include the area, where annual radiationo exposure is expected to be above 20mSv. People in the expanded zone are ordered to evacuate
within a month or so. People living in the 20 to 30km and other than the expanded evacuation area mentioned above, are asked to get prepared for going and staying indoors or evacuation in an emergency.

●One month since disaster hits nuclear plant
One month after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was crippled by the quake and tsunami that devastated Japan's northeastern coast, the plant's operator is still struggling to regain control. Tokyo Electric Power Company has been striving to restore reactor cooling systems since the March 11th disaster knocked out electricity at the plant. The power station continues to release radioactive substances into the air and sea. Heavily contaminated water in turbine buildings and a concrete tunnel has been hampering restoration efforts and preventing workers from even inspecting the pumping systems. On Sunday, TEPCO began removing debris from the plant using unmanned heavy machinery. It plans to start moving highly radioactive water from the concrete tunnel to another storage facility on Monday. At a news conference on Sunday, TEPCO said it is studying using air instead of seawater for cooling. It said cooling the reactors' containment vessels with water is also under consideration. But a TEPCO executive said that at this point, the company is still examining viable options and cannot say when it will be able to achieve stable cooling and control the radiation.
Monday, April 11, 2011 10:22 +0900 (JST)

From NHK at 10 PM April 11:

These measurements are taken inside a bay,and right next to the Unit 2 intake, so this is looking better, for sure; it will take a while for the bay to flush itself.

Water radiation levels down
The operator of the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says radiation levels in the seawater near the plant have dropped.

Tokyo Electric Power Company said it detected 200 becquerels of radioactive iodine-131 per cubic centimeter in seawater samples taken around the water intake of the No.2 reactor on Sunday.

The figure is 5,000 times the maximum allowed under government standards, but much lower than the 7.5 million times the standard that was detected at the same spot on April 2nd.

On Wednesday of last week, the company stopped a leak of radioactive water from a concrete pit outside the No.2 reactor after pouring a hardening agent into a layer of gravel around the pit.

In another effort to contain the nuclear trouble at the plant, the utility released 1,320 tons of relatively low-level radioactive water from the plant into the Pacific Ocean outside reactors No.5 and 6 between Monday and Saturday of last week.

TEPCO on Sunday detected 11 becquerels of iodine-131 per cubic centimeter in seawater samples collected 30 meters from outlets in the northern part of the complex. The figure was 280 times the government standard.

Measurements at the same spot were 2,800 times the standard last Thursday.
Monday, April 11, 2011 21:55 +0900 (JST)

Meanwhile some farmers in Fukushima are now shipping milk again
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/11_18.html

Some dairy farms in Fukushima Prefecture have resumed shipping milk after radiation levels in the milk cleared the government's safety standards.

The shipments are the first since the Japanese government lifted a ban last Friday on milk from 7 cities and towns in the prefecture.

The restriction was imposed by the health ministry last month after unsafe levels of radioactive substances were detected in milk from areas around the quake-damaged Fukushima nuclear plant.

A farmer who owns about 100 cows shipped 1.5 tons of milk on Monday. The farmer says he is glad because the milk he produces doesn't have to go to waste anymore.

He says he will do what he can to help other farmers who remain unable to ship their milk due to radiation contamination.

The prefecture will conduct follow-up radiation measurements once a week on milk shipped from the prefecture.

Excessive radiation in areas around Namie Town and Iitate Village.
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/11_35.html

At one location, in Namie Town about 30 kilometers northwest of the plant, 14,480 microsieverts of radiation had accumulated over the 17-day period to Sunday. 8,440 microsieverts of radiation were observed in Iitate Village.

In another location in Namie, the amount reached 6,430 microsieverts. People would be exposed to this accumulated amount of radiation if they had stayed outdoors throughout the entire period.

And someone surveyed 252 evacuees about their lives. In my opinion, this is adding insult to injury.
However,
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/11_22.html

In terms of the future, 55 percent said they are most concerned about the impact of radiation leaks from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which has been out of control since the March 11 massive quake and tsunami.

43 percent said they are concerned about future jobs and their livelihood, and 28 percent said they are wondering how to secure a place to live.

One respondent said he has no idea how to stick it out, although everybody tells him to do so. Another person is worried about how he will manage because has lost both his house and land.

For evacuees, anxiety over their future appears to be growing as life at the shelters is dragging on.
Monday, April 11, 2011 15:51 +0900 (JST)

[dorispulaski]

Meanwhile West Virginia State senator McCabe (Democrat) is talking about lifting the ban on nuclear energy in his state, whose electricity mostly comes from coal-fired plants, and dirty coal-fired plants at that.

Whatever you may or may not think about his conclusions, it's nice to see a politician basing his conclusions on what are primarily facts rather than polls:

http://www.register-herald.com/archi...n-to-be-lifted

“My whole feeling on nuclear power is I just didn’t feel we should exclude a possible, viable source of energy production,” McCabe, D-Kanawha, said.

“The fact that something like that would come to West Virginia is a stretch by any sense of the imagination.”

In fact, even if the ban were dismantled, McCabe said he doesn’t envision a plant being erected in this state in his lifetime.

“I would suggest that, at some point in the future, I think rather than these multibillion-dollar power plants, you’re going to see much smaller, in some ways more mobile, nuclear power plants — little, mini-plants, almost like you see in some of these natural gas turbines that are out there,” the senator said.

Fears mounted around the world in the wake of a tragic earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan that rattled a nuclear power facility, focusing new attention on the industry.

Yet, as McCabe emphasized, the real damage wasn’t caused by the quake itself, but, as scientists explained through various news outlets, rather the waves of destructive water. What’s more, the plant was old and in desperate need of upgrading.

“That’s an older plant that hadn’t been retrofitted,” McCabe said.

“There were some engineering design issues that they had already identified, and they were correcting the newer plants and had not corrected that plant. When you drill down to the specifics, there’s a lot of things that are specific to that situation.”

Moreover, the likelihood of a tsunami is on par with oceanfront property in the Mountain State.

“We don’t have to worry about that at all,” he said.

McCabe sees the nuclear industry shifting gears into smaller facilities that are cheaper, less invasive and more readily able to gain permits.
“Even with that, I don’t expect to see nuclear power in West Virginia in my lifetime,” the senator said.

“But the reason to eliminate the ban on it is, assuming there is a viable alternative out there, if we are an energy state, we ought to say we’re an energy state and not exclude anyone. In reality, we’re going to be focusing on coal, natural gas, geo-thermal and wind. And a little bit of biomass, maybe. That’s West Virginia’s future, and it primarily, in the near term, is coal and natural gas, and then, over time, it will move over into renewables.”

From his own view of the energy situation, McCabe said the nation must devise a means of making the country self-sufficient, sooner rather than later.

“Nuclear will have some part of that equation,” he said.

“How big it will be remains to be seen. Probably less substantial than it would have been prior to what’s happened in Japan. But I think technologies are changing and improving.”

And if America’s coal industry pleads against elimination, that position shouldn’t be advocated while at the same time making sure nuclear interests are left out of the picture, McCabe said.

“It’s a significant inconsistency when you start looking at trying to create a national discussion around the value and use of coal going forward,” he said.

Some states have turned to nuclear power since they lack the abundance of coal, natural gas and geothermal enjoyed by West Virginia, he pointed out.

“So, I’m not in any way fearful that by eliminating the ban, that you’re going to see somebody come forward in the next couple of years and say, ‘We’re going to build a big, nuclear plant,’” McCabe said.

“That’s not the issue at all. The issue is a consistency of our story we’re trying to tell at the national level. Recast the discussion of energy toward making this country self-sufficient in the intermediate term, not continue our dependence on foreign oil, and, to do that, it has to be a mix of all the above energy sources — renewable, coal, gas, hydro, geo-thermal, all of that, and nuclear will be some part of it.”

McCabe said he is concerned the federal government isn’t properly balancing a beefing up of environmental regulations with the need to maintain reasonable energy costs, which makes the nation less competitive globally.

“I have a real concern about maintaining affordable cost of electricity in this state so our industry can be competitive at the global level,” he said.

“If we’re not careful, we’re going to price ourselves out of manufacturing, and that would be just an unmitigated disaster.”

[dorispulaski]

Meanwhile, Gov. Scott Walker wants nuclear power back on the table in Wisconsin:

http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/119507734.html

The newspaper agrees with him.

The main points are:

1. Wisconsin is not in danger of a subduction style earthquake or a tsunami.
2. The US government is moving toward emissions standards, and nuclear has a zero carbon footprint. Cost of coal plants in your state is a huge potential issue.
3. New nuclear plants are better designed than the old plants of Fukushima.

(and no one has died of radiation related health problems there, for that matter).

[dorispulaski]

The IAEA has a 1 PM UTC April 11th status

Just as the wide spread mycelium of mushrooms causes them to have higher cesium & iodine content than other vegetables, it looks like the burrowing habits of sand lances might have something to do with their high cesium content--and / or their high surface area to volume ratio?. Apparently other types of seafood have no problems as yet.

IAEA Briefing on Fukushima Nuclear Accident (11 April 2011, 13:00 UTC)
Presentation:
→ Summary of Reactor Status

On Monday, 11 April 2011, the IAEA provided the following information on the current status of nuclear safety in Japan:

1. Current Situation

Earthquake of 7 April

External power has been restored at all sites affected by the 7 April earthquake.

Earthquake of 11 April

The IAEA confirms that an earthquake occurred in Japan at 08:16 UTC, 11 April. The IAEA International Seismic Safety Centre (ISSC) has rated it as a 6.6 magnitude, revised from an initial 7.1 magnitude. The epicenter of the earthquake is 68 km from Daichi, 60 km from Daini, 61 km from Tokai, 173 km from Kashiwazaki-Kariwa and 179 km from Onagawa power plants. The epicenter was in land (37.01 N/ 140.48 E) at a depth of 13.1 km. The IAEA has been in contact with NISA and can confirm the following. Based on a report by TEPCO, NISA confirms at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. No changes have been observed on the readings at the on-site radiation monitoring posts. Workers have been evacuated to the seismic evacuation shelter. Off-site power was lost and water injection pumps for Units 1, 2 and 3 stopped. NISA confirmed later that off-site power was restored and water injection resumed 50 minutes after the earthquake.

Changes to Fukushima Daiichi Plant Status

Overall, the situation at the Fukushima Daiichi plant remains very serious but there are early signs of recovery in some functions such as electrical power and instrumentation.

In Units 1, 2 and 3, 60 000 T of contaminated water need to be removed from the turbine buildings and trenches. This water will be transferred to the condensers of each unit and the Radioactive Waste Treatment facility. In addition, temporary storage tanks have been ordered to provide additional capacity for the water and will be located adjacent to the Radioactive Waste Treatment facility. At Unit 1 and 2 water transfer from the condenser to the condensate storage tank was completed on 10 April.

In order to make room for higher contaminated water from the turbine buildings and trenches, 1 343 T of low level contaminated water from Units 5 and 6 sub-drain pit were released to the sea from 4 to 9 April. In addition, 9 070 T of low-level contaminated water was discharged from the Central Radioactive Waste Disposal Facility to the south discharge point.

Nitrogen gas is being injected into the Unit 1 containment vessel to reduce the possibility of hydrogen combustion within the containment vessel. The pressure in this containment vessel is increasing due to the addition of nitrogen.

Since 6 April, TEPCO has been moving debris from Units 1 to 4 to a common storage area on-site using remote controlled heavy equipment.

On 10 April additional anti-scattering agent was sprayed in an area of about 550 m2 on the mountain-side of the Common Spent Fuel Pool to prevent the radioactive materials on the ground from being scattered.

In Unit 1 fresh water is being continuously injected into the RPV through the feed-water line at an indicated flow rate of 6 m3/h using a temporary electric pump with off-site power. In Units 2 and 3 fresh water is being continuously injected through the fire extinguisher lines at an indicated rate of 7 m3/h using temporary electric pumps with off-site power.

In Unit 1 the pressure in the RPV is increasing, as indicated on both channels of instrumentation. In Units 2 and 3 Reactor Pressure Vessel and Drywell pressures remain at atmospheric pressure.

RPV temperatures remain above cold shutdown conditions in all Units, (typically less than 95 °C). In Unit 1 temperature at the feed water nozzle of the RPV is 228 °C and at the bottom of the RPV is 121 °C. In Unit 2 the temperature at the feed water nozzle of the RPV is 149 °C. The temperature at the bottom of the RPV was not reported. In Unit 3 the temperature at the feed water nozzle of the RPV is 92 °C and at the bottom of the RPV is 111 °C.

An additional 60 T of fresh water was injected via the Spent Fuel Cooling System line to the spent fuel pool in Unit 2 by a temporary pump on 10 April.

There has been no change in status in Units 4, 5 and 6.

2. Radiation Monitoring

On 10 April, deposition of both iodine-131 and cesium-137 was detected in 7 and 6 prefectures respectively. The values reported for iodine-131 ranged from 6.3 to 920 Bq/m2 and for cesium-137 from 7.9 to 800 Bq/m2. The highest deposition was reported for both, iodine-131 and cesium-137, in the prefecture of Ibaraki. /p>

Gamma dose rates are measured daily in all 47 prefectures, the values tend to decrease. For Fukushima, on 10 April a dose rate of 2.2 µSv/h, for the Ibaraki prefecture a gamma dose rate of 0.15 µSv/h was reported. The gamma dose rates in all other prefectures were below 0.1 µSv/h.

Dose rates are also reported specifically for the Eastern part of the Fukushima prefecture, for distances of more than 30 km to Fukushima-Daiichi. On 10 April, the values in this area ranged from 0.2 to 25 µSv/h.

MEXT has set up an additional monitoring programme, in cooperation with local universities, measurements are made in 26 cities in 13 prefectures. As of 10 April, in 19 cities, the gamma dose rates were below 0.1 µSv/h. In 6 cities, gamma dose rates ranged from 0.13 to 0.17 µSv/h. In Fukushima City, a value of 0.42 µSv/h was observed. Typical normal background levels are in the range of 0.05 to 0.10 µSv/h.

Only in a few prefectures, iodine-131 or cesium-137 is detectable in drinking water at very low levels. As of 10 April, a restriction for infants related to iodine-131 (100 Bq/l) is in place as a precautionary measure in only one village of the Fukushima prefecture.

On 10 April, the IAEA Team made measurements at 7 different locations in the Fukushima area at distances of 23 to 39 km, South and Southwest from the Fukushima nuclear power plant. At these locations, the dose rates ranged from 0.4 to 1.6 µSv/h. At the same locations, results of beta-gamma contamination measurements ranged from 0.01 to 0.18 Megabecquerel/m2. The highest beta-gamma contaminations have been determined at distances of less than 30 km from Fukushima-Daiichi.

Analytical results related to food contamination, reported by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare from 8 to 10 April covered a total of 157 samples taken from 6 to 10 April. Analytical results for 153 of the 157 samples for various vegetables, spinach and other leafy vegetables, shitake mushrooms, fruit (strawberries), pork, seafood and unprocessed raw milk in eight prefectures (Chiba, Fukushima, Gunma, Ibaraki, Kanagawa, Nagano, Niigata and Saitama), indicated that I-131, Cs-134 and/or Cs-137 were either not detected or were below the regulation values set by the Japanese authorities.

In Fukushima prefecture, one sample of seafood (sand lance) taken on 7 April was above the regulation values set by the Japanese authorities for I-131 and three samples of shiitake mushrooms taken on 8 April were above the regulation values set by the Japanese authorities for I-131 and/or Cs-134 and Cs-137
3. Marine Monitoring

TEPCO Monitoring Programme

As reported in the brief of 8 April TEPCO is conducting a programme for seawater (surface sampling) at a number of near-shore and off-shore monitoring locations as illustrated in Map 1.

Map 1: TEPCO Seawater Sampling Locations:


Until 3 April a general decreasing trend was observed at the sampling points TEPCO1 to TEPCO4. After the discharge of contaminated water on 4 April, a temporary increase has been reported.

On 11 April new data (8 April sampling day) for TEPCO 1 - 4 sampling points have been reported. At the near-shore sampling point TEPCO 1 an increase from 2,2 kBq/l (7 April) to 19 kBq/l for I-131 and from 1.7 kBq/l (7 April) to 12 kBq/l for Cs-137 has been reported. As for TEPCO 3 and TEPCO 4 a further decrease as respect to the results for the sampling day, 7 April, in the concentration of I-131 and Cs-137 has been reported. At the sampling point TEPCO 2 a decrease in the concentration of I-131 to about 50 kBq/l) and Cs-137 to about 34 kBq/l as respect to the results obtained on 7 April was observed.

For the six sampling points TEPCO 5 to TEPCO 10 since 7 April no new data have been reported. The data since 7 April have been summarized in the previous brief of 10 April.

MEXT Off-shore Monitoring Programme

As reported in the brief of 8 April MEXT initiated the off-shore monitoring program on 23 March and subsequently points 9 and 10 were added to the off-shore sampling scheme. On 4 April, MEXT added two sampling points to the north and west of sampling point 1. These are referred to as points A and B on the map below.

Map 2: MEXT Seawater Sampling Locations:


0n 11 April new data have been reported for MEXT 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 for 9 April sampling day.

At MEXT 1 both I-131 and Cs-137 were no longer detectable. At MEXT 3 an increase of the level of both I-131 and Cs-137 was recorded. At MEXT 5 the level of I-131 decreased and Cs-137 was not detected. At MEXT 7 and MEXT 9 an increase for I-131 was recorded and Cs-137 was no longer detectable.

No new data for the other sampling points have been reported at the date of 11 April 2011.

4. IAEA Activities

The team of three Agency experts in BWR technology have concluded their mission with meetings with NISA, Ministry of Foreign Affaires (MOFA), MEXT, Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and Nuclear Safety Commission (NSC).

IAEA Update: New Earthquake in Japan (11 April 2011, 11:30 UTC)
The IAEA confirms that an earthquake occurred in Japan on 11 April at 08:16 UTC. The IAEA International Seismic Safety Centre has rated it as a 6.6 magnitude, revised from an initial 7.1 magnitude. The epicenter of the earthquake is 68 kilometres from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, 60 kilometres from the Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant, 61 kilometres from Tokai Daini nuclear power plant, 173 kilometres from Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant, and 179 kilometres from Onagawa nuclear power plant. The epicenter was in land (37.01 N/ 140.48 E) at a depth of 13.1 km.

The IAEA has been in contact with Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) and can confirm the status of the following nuclear facilities:

Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant

Based on a report by the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), NISA confirms that no changes have been observed on the readings at the on-site radiation monitoring posts. Workers have been evacuated to the seismic evacuation shelter. Off-site power was lost and water injection pumps for Units 1, 2 and 3 stopped.

NISA confirms later that off-site power was restored and water injection resumed 50 minutes after the earthquake.

Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power Plant

NISA confirms that no changes have been observed on the readings at the on-site radiation monitoring posts and that off-site power remained available.

Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant

The five off-site power lines remain available. No changes have been observed on the readings at the on-site radiation monitoring posts.

Tokai Daini Nuclear Power Plant

The Tokai Daini nuclear power plant remains in cold shutdown since the 11 March earthquake. No abnormality has been observed.

[dorispulaski]

NEI has its 11:30 update that comes up at 1:00 PM or so each day. In general, I love their succinctness.

UPDATE AS OF 11:30 A.M. EDT, MONDAY, APRIL 11:
No damage to Japan’s nuclear power plants was reported today after another strong aftershock hit the northeast coast. The temblor, measured at magnitude 6.6 by the U.S. Geological Survey, rocked the country one month after the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami struck March 11, damaging the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. A magnitude 7.1 aftershock rattled Japan April 7.

The Monday earthquake prompted the temporary evacuation of workers at the plant and interrupted the offsite electric power supply for less than an hour. Injection of cooling water to reactors 1, 2, and 3 resumed within an hour. Officials reported no new damage or increased radiation levels. Workers continued to spray water into the spent fuel pools of reactors 1-4 as needed.

As an additional safety measure, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) has brought additional diesel generators to the site as a backup in case offsite power is disabled.

Preparations are being made to transfer highly radioactive water from reactor 2 to a water storage tank. Workers are inspecting the tank to ensure there will be no leaks.

TEPCO is injecting nitrogen gas into the reactor 1 containment vessel to reduce the possibility of a hydrogen explosion. TEPCO plans to inject nitrogen into the containment vessels of reactors 2 and 3, the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum reported.

TEPCO used a drone helicopter to take aerial pictures of reactor buildings that are highly contaminated. TEPCO also is using remote-controlled heavy equipment to remove radioactive debris.

Japanese authorities announced that residents of some municipalities outside the 12.5-mile radius evacuation zone will be relocated to reduce long-term radiation exposure. Radiation can accumulate in some places based on weather and geographical factors. The relocation orders will apply to areas where there is a possibility of residents receiving a dose of 2,000 millirem over the course of a year.

Meanwhile I found a link to this; it seems fair for them to do this. In this world, there are both seller's remorse and buyer's remorse:

German energy giants ditch green fund over Berlin's nuclear U-turn

Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: German energy companies are stepping up pressure on Berlin

German nuclear companies have announced they will stop contributing to an environmental fund after Berlin issued a moratorium on extending the life of the country's nuclear reactors.

Four companies that run German nuclear power plants said they have stopped payments to an environment fund as a result of a government moratorium on nuclear power extension plans.

EON, RWE, Vattenfall and EnBW have all been contributing to a fund since January that was designed to support renewable energy. The payments were a condition of the plan to extend the life of Germany's nuclear power program.

That energy plan was put on hold in the aftermath of the nuclear accident in Japan in March. The three-month moratorium on the prolongation plans was handed down instead, along with the closing of the seven oldest plants in Germany.

Quid pro quo

"We have decided to stop paying," at least for the duration of the government moratorium, EON spokesman Josef Nelles told AFP.

"We will stop paying; this will start with the April contribution," a spokeswoman for Vattenfall Europe, a subsidiary of the Swedish group, said.

"The very existence (of the fund) was conditioned on the prolongation of the life of the plants. As this prolongation was suspended, we are also suspending our payments. We will not pay until this issue has been clarified."

The fund for the promotion of renewable energies was set up in connection with the nuclear power plant life extension in 2010. Overall, the energy companies were expected to contribute revenue of 16.9 billion euros ($24 billion), most of which was expected to go to wind power.

The government communications service said it took note of the companies' decision and did not rule out a renegotiation of its agreement with them.

"The government is currently examining the financial consequences of the moratorium," a spokeswoman said, adding that once clarity has been obtained, it "may lead to a modification of the accord with the energy groups."

Author: Stuart Tiffen (AFP, dpa)
Editor: Toma Tasovac

[dorispulaski]

The NEI is an of course, pronuclear, organization of nuclear plant operators and engineers. They have a nuclear IQ test on line, testing what you know about nuclear power. Some of it is very interesting. Having followed this Japanese nuclear blog for some time, you might want to try it.

http://www.nei.org/iq/

For one thing, building a nuclear plant produces a lot of decent paying jobs. I was surprised at how many, although I suppose I shouldn't have been.

And there's one more news snippet out of TEPCO in the 4:00 PM all sites roll up status:

In order to prevent water containing radioactive materials from spilling from a plant's port to the sea, we installed 120 meter wide double silt fences around a breakwater on the south of the station at 10:45 am on April 11th

[dorispulaski]

If you're wondering how TEPCO is going to pay for all this, here's how, from NHK. Note all these banks are Japanese banks:

TEPCO receives total $24 bil. emergency loans

Tokyo Electric Power Company has received a combined 2 trillion yen, or nearly 24 billion dollars, in emergency loans from major banks.

The Development Bank of Japan on Monday offered the power company about 1.2 billion dollars in loans. The bank says it will consider further loans if the power company needs them.

At the end of last month, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Mizuho Corporate, Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking and other trust banks lent the utility firm a total of about 22.5 billion dollars.

Tokyo Electric sought the funds to cope with the crisis at the quake-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The loans will also be used to repair and boost the company's thermal power generation facilities to address expected power shortages.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011 01:26 +0900 (JST)

And for those interested in the robot trucks and containers that have been picking up debris:

PC World is entranced by the robot trucks being used by TEPCO. Heck, anyone who had a sand pile and a bunch of Tonka trucks as a kid has stars in their eyes when they see these things. There's a youtube of the operation, and you can see the container when it is being loaded in the video:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/22483..._in_japan.html

The machinery consisted of an excavator and transporter, each equipped with a remote control system. Cameras were mounted on each piece of equipment and TEPCO set an additional six cameras around areas where work would take place.

The entire operation was managed from a mobile control room where staff could watch video from the cameras and manipulate the machinery, said Hiro Hasegawa, a spokesman for the electric utility.Theclearance operation began when both units rolled into place near an debris-strewn area. The excavator, which had been fitted with a giant grabber hand, picked up debris and dropped it into a container on the back of the transporter. It took about two hours for this to be completed.Once full, the excavator knocked closed the lid of the container and the transporter trundled to a temporary dump site. The Fukushima Daiichi plant, like other nuclear power plants in Japan, was built with plenty of open space so the debris can be temporarily collected together on-site, said Hasegawa.

The unloading operation took about an hour to complete, and then the cycle began again. The remotely controlled machinery was originally developed for use in hazardous construction environments, such as those near volcanos or where landslides could occur, said a spokesman forYoshikawa Co., which worked on the system. Several U.S. companies earlier sent robots that could take radiation readings.

The radio control system typically has a range of about 300 meters, but this time a radio relay station was used to boost the signal and allow the controllers to be up to 2 kilometers away, the Yoshikawa spokesman said.

TEPCO has also used remotely controlled drones and helicopters to get a close-up view of the reactor buildings.

On Monday, the company released a series of images and video shot a day earlier by an RQ-16 T-Hawk unmanned air vehicle. A helicopter-like remote-controlled craft that has been employed by the U.S. military in hot spots such as Afghanistan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW_Ca...layer_embedded

[dorispulaski]

This doesn't make a lot of sense to me; I'm sure either money or politics is involved, but I have no clue how. It's a logarithmic scale. I could see Level 6, since Fukushima is worse than TMI, which was basically nothing but 1979's version of an Orson Wells "War of the Worlds" radio scare. However, Fukushima is still at least 10x less than Chernobyl. Since level 7 is Chernobyl, according to the scale, this makes no sense at all, especially since NISA admits that Fukushima is significantly less than Chernobyl.

The scale needs new levels and a lot of work.

For one thing, at Chernobyl, a significant number of people died due to exposure to radiation in the first month. We've had no one die in the first month.

Japan to raise Fukushima crisis level to worst

The Japanese government's nuclear safety agency has decided to raise the crisis level of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant accident from 5 to 7, the worst on the international scale.

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency made the decision on Monday. It says the damaged facilities have been releasing a massive amount of radioactive substances, which are posing a threat to human health and the environment over a wide area.

The agency used the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale, or INES, to gauge the level. The scale was designed by an international group of experts to indicate the significance of nuclear events with ratings of 0 to 7.

On March 18th, one week after the massive quake, the agency declared the Fukushima trouble a level 5 incident, the same as the accident at Three Mile Island in the United States in 1979.

Level 7 has formerly only been applied to the Chernobyl accident in the former Soviet Union in 1986 when hundreds of thousands of terabecquerels of radioactive iodine-131 were released into the air. One terabecquerel is one trillion becquerels.

The agency believes the cumulative amount from the Fukushima plant is less than that from Chernobyl.

Officials from the agency and the Nuclear Safety Commission will hold a news conference on Tuesday morning to explain the change of evaluation.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011 05:47 +0900 (JST)

[mot]

This doesn't make a lot of sense to me; I'm sure either money or politics is involved, but I have no clue how. It's a logarithmic scale. I could see Level 6, since Fukushima is worse than TMI, which was basically nothing but 1979's version of an Orson Wells "War of the Worlds" radio scare. However, Fukushima is still at least 10x less than Chernobyl. Since level 7 is Chernobyl, according to the scale, this makes no sense at all, especially since NISA admits that Fukushima is significantly less than Chernobyl.

The scale needs new levels and a lot of work.

For one thing, at Chernobyl, a significant number of people died due to exposure to radiation in the first month. We've had no one die in the first month.

Yeah, wonder what happened to level 6?
As long as levels are set as comparison to the past incidents, they are to me nothing but rhetorical. They might as well say 'it's worse than the Three Miles, but not as but as Chernobyl yet' instead? They need their own version of COP.

[dorispulaski]

Yes, I think they do. That's one thing that needs to be addressed in upcoming conferences. Another thing that needs to be addressed is to get a real consensus on modelling health effects of radiation and radioactive materials, so we don't have the UN saying 1000 Becquerels per kg is OK in food and some country saying only 300 becquerels per kg is OK. This stuff should not be a matter of opinion, but a matter of math and science.

What? They don't have it right yet? Well, not in my opinion.

There are two competing main models, and in my opinion, mathematically, both are on their face bull.

One of them says that health risk is a linear function of exposure with no threshold. However, there are areas on earth that are naturally hundreds of times higher in background radiation than others, and no one has ever been able to prove that people that live in more radioactive places, like Finland, or Denver, Colorado, or the western part of Washington State, have more cancers or other radiation related health problems than people who live at sea level in a place where there is no granite bedrock (which outgases radon). Worse, conceptually, this is like saying, if we know that people who stick their hands in boiling water will burn their hands, therefore if a million people stick their hands in room temperature water, there is some chance that some of them will burn their hands. It leads to requirements in the US that sites with nuclear waste of some sort (say Hanford) must be cleaned up to have a lower level of radiation than the background radiation.

The competing hyposthesis is no better. They say that there is a threshold for damage, otherwise it's linear. Which is like saying if people are exposed to 500 units of radiation, all is good, but at 500.001 some percentage of people will start having effects. They get around the absurdity by saying no one knows just what the threshold is, but it's still a bad model on the face of it.

However, because these are public health issues, the models were created in the 50's and 60's and embedded in law, and the bugger factors in the calculation are the places where the battlegrounds are fought. No one has the real will or juice to change these things.

Meanwhile, animal studies show that low dose radiation may in some cases at least, be good for you, which doesn't fit in either model. Exposed animals got fewer cancers than unexposed animals.

I wish I were better at math. I hope somebody who is will do a decent model of the situation.

I think that how this should go is that the probability of getting cancer is a function of the likelihood of a DNA strands being broken (which goes up with radiation), and not either being healed (which is better at low dose, but overwhelmed at high dose) or a cell dying (which is another natural protective mechanism you have, that also gets overwhelmed), and then bugger factors for what exactly you are exposed to (there are a wide variety of things).

With computers, all these models can be calculated, but that stuff wasn't done that way back in the day.

[dorispulaski]

More problems with electrical panels, this time with water monitoring equipment. Fortunately, this is not inside any of the reactors or turbine buildings. There is something to be said for having 12 to 13 fire trucks on site at all times. It would be a good idea in any nuclear disaster, I think, even if you are not pumping water on spent fuel pools.

Press Release (Apr 12,2011)
Fire at the sampling equipment at the water discharge channel, Unit 1-4, Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station


At approximately 6:38 AM, April 12th, fire has been found at the distribution switchboard containing batteries located in the sampling equipment switchbox situated close to the south water discharge channel for Unit 1-4. The self defense fire fighting team conducted the fire fighting at an early stage. At the same time, at approximately 6:45 AM, we reported to the Futaba fire authorities. As a result of the fire fighting, it is confirmed that the fire has been under control without fire or smoke.

There is no impact on the external release of radioactive substances or on the cooling capability of the reactor from this incident. There has been no change on the monitoring figures of the surrounding environment. We will continue monitoring the status of the plant and the surrounding environment around the Power Station. We will investigate the cause in detail.

[dorispulaski]

And Secretary Clinton is going to Japan. This from NHK:

It will be an odd meeting: Clinton is a lawyer by trade, not an engineer. It is interesting to speculate what presidential level conversations she will be having about the US helping with Daiichi. Of course, she could be offering to store some of the radioactive junk at WIPP or Idaho National Lab. If she's looking for a laundary list to take back, some TEPCO folk should be there to ask for what they might want. Of if she's offering a laundary list, there should be some NRC, US Navy, or NEI people there to say what we could offer.

Very odd indeed.

It should be remembered that Obama is fairly committed to nuclear energy and reaffirmed that support early into this disaster. He mentioned it in his State of the Union, too. And in fact, his largest ticket early financial supporters in the Democratic primary were people that work at Exelon. Exelon is centered in Illinois, and has the US's largest fleet of reactors.

I'm sure Obama wants this to turn out fairly well.

Perhaps the US military has expertise in cleaning up nuclear waste on battlefields, at least theoretically? It's the sort of thing we thought about during the Cold War. Perhaps there will be sekret stuff changing hands.

Perhaps the US will join with Japan to work on the seabed initiative for storing nuclear waste, using the Daiichi trash as test cases. (The seabed initiative has located a section of the seabed a long way off Hawaii that is 4 miles deep and has pretty much no life, and deep, deep layers of soft sediment. Stuff dropped into it disappears, so you use pointy ended capsules.

Clinton to visit Japan on Sunday

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will visit Japan on Sunday to underline US support for the country as it struggles to recover from last month's devastating quake and tsunami.

The US State Department says Clinton will travel to Tokyo after attending a NATO foreign ministers conference in Germany from Wednesday through Friday, and holding talks in South Korea with President Lee Myung Bak on Saturday.

While in Japan, she will meet with Prime Minister Naoto Kan and Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto.

They are expected to discuss how the United States can help Japan rebuild and deal with the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Clinton also plans to meet survivors of the disaster and to visit the Imperial Palace to extend her sympathy to the Emperor and Empress.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011 09:49 +0900 (JST)

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When I saw the headline, I thought Bill & his Clinton Global Initiative were involved.