Monique Ross, ABC
March 15, 2011, 1:35 pm
Following are main developments after a massive earthquake struck northeast Japan on Friday and set off a tsunami.
- Japan PM Kan says radioactive levels significantly higher around the quake-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, hit by new blasts on Tuesday. The risk of a nuclear leakage was rising at the power plant on the northeast coast, Kan says.
- People within a 30 km radius of the facility urged to stay indoors.
- Low-level radioactive wind from the nuclear reactor could reach Tokyo by evening, based on current winds, the French embassy says. Winds over the plant blowing slowly in southwesterly direction that includes Tokyo, but will shift westerly, a Japanese weather official says.
- Radiation levels rise in Tokyo but it was not a problem, the city government says. "Minute levels" of radiation detected in the capital. according to Kyodo. Radiation levels in Saitama near Tokyo were 40 times normal level - not enough to cause human damage, but enough to stoke panic in the capital.
- Some residents leave the capital while others stock up on food and supplies.
- Japan tells U.N. nuclear watchdog a spent fuel storage pond was on fire at the Fukushima power plant and radioactivity was being released "directly" into the atmosphere, the Vienna-based agency said.
Dose rates of up to 400 millisievert per hour have been reported. Exposure to Exposure to over 100 millisieverts a year is a level which can lead to cancer, according to the World Nuclear Association.
- Radiation levels in the city of Maebashi, 100 km (60 miles) north of the capital, Tokyo, were up to 10 times normal on Tuesday, Kyodo news agency said, quoting the city government.
- Japan's benchmark Nikkei average fell 14 percent, before ending down 9.5 percent. The decline over the last two days has wiped $720 billion off the market.
- Air China cancels flights to Tokyo scheduled for Tuesday while Taiwan's EVA Airways says it will not fly to Tokyo and Sapporo until the end of March as concerns over nuclear risk mount.
- China's nuclear safety agency strengthening radiation checks. Thailand says will randomly test food imports from Japan.
- Authorities have set up a 20-km (12-mile) exclusion zone around the Fukushima Daiichi plant and a 10-km (6 mile) zone around Fukushima Daini.
- Two explosions at Fukushima facility, at reactors No.2 and No.4 followed by fire at No.4. Japan's self defense force and the U.S. military called to put out the fire.
- Death toll expected to exceed 10,000 from the quake and tsunami, public broadcaster NHK says. About 2,000 bodies found on two shores of Miyagi prefecture, Kyodo news agency reports.
- USGS raises the magnitude of the earthquake to 9.0 from 8.9. Strong aftershocks persist in the stricken area.
- About 450,000 people evacuated nationwide in addition to 80,000 from the exclusion zone around the nuclear power plants. Almost 2 million households are without power in the freezing north and about 1.4 million households have no running water.
- Rolling blackout to affect 3 million customers, including large factories, buildings and households. Kan urges citizens to save power.
- The Bank of Japan (BoJ) offers to pump 8 trillion yen ($98 billion) into the banking system to calm the market, a day after a record $15 trillion it offered in same-day market operations on Monday.
- Credit Suisse estimates the loss at between 14 trillion yen ($171 billion) and 15 trillion yen just to the quake region.
Fears for the future in hard-hit Japan
A British expat living in a Japanese port city says calm has washed over the area as stunned locals, desperately in need of food and basic supplies, worry about what their future holds.
The Miyagi prefecture bore the brunt of Friday's devastating 9.0-magnitude quake and tsunami, with entire villages flattened and tens of thousands feared dead.
For the past 11 years university lecturer Dominic Jones, 41, has been living in the prefecture's capital Sendai, which he says escaped widespread damage from the disaster.
He says while there has been some looting in the city centre, on the whole locals are calm despite a desperate need for supplies.
"At the moment I'm looking out my window and seeing people lining up at a shop trying to get some food," he told ABC News Online.
"That's kind of the story of things - most of the shops are out of food completely. The convenience stores were bought out very quickly, so there's no food there and no real anything - other than lots of magazines.
"I have power but no water. Some of my friends have water but no power but most have no power or water.
"People are worried about the lack of water - [women in particular] are definitely worried about the day-to-day family thing - Where do we get our food from? Where do we get our water from? How do we flush? How do we wash?"
Mr Jones says like many in the city, he worries about what the future holds for his career.
"Medium-term the worry is work. Will I still have a job and will we get money is the problem," he said.
"With the economy in Japan as it was before the earthquake... the margins were fine enough without anything else.
"My university, I don't know if it will reopen - all the students need the train line to get here and the train line may be down for many weeks.
"I speak to my friends who own businesses in Sendai. They live on a day-to-day or month-to-month basis anyway, and they're very worried. They've got no money and lots of debts."
In the neighbouring Fukushima prefecture, the quake and tsunami hit the ageing nuclear power plant, which lies about 105 kilometres south of Sendai.
Three explosions have rocked the complex and the Japanese government says part of the container of one of the reactors appears to be damaged, a situation that could lead to possible serious radiation leaks.
Mr Jones says the possible nuclear threat plays on his mind. He says while officials say acute radiation is unlikely to reach Sendai, he worries about wind carrying radioactive particles to his city.
"They keep on having explosions and fires - it is not good news coming out of there," he said.
"But there's nothing we can do about that other than stay indoors, or if you go outside wear a mask, use an umbrella, wear sunglasses."
'Freakish weather'
Friday's quake was the strongest recorded in Japan since modern readings began 130 years ago and the fourth largest in the world since 1900, according to the US Geological Survey.
Mr Jones says the weather that day was very strange.
"It was just a regular day and suddenly for about 20 minutes there was just a white-out blizzard, you just couldn't see anywhere," he said.
"And then 20 minutes later - sunshine again. The weather has been freakish .The last few days have been very hot. It was 17 degrees yesterday when it should only be six or eight degrees, but it's colder again now."
Mr Jones was at work at a Sendai university when the quake rocked Japan's north-east coast.
"My bookshelf behind me started rocking a little bit so I moved into the centre of the room. Then it just got really strong so I dived under the table... just hoping the ceiling didn't fall down on me," he said.
"The whole building was shaking - little things like my teapot fell off, books came down off the shelf, my computer monitor fell off - pretty much everything was bouncing around.
"My wife and daughter were at home. They were fine. But again it was pretty terrifying because all the plates were smashing and books coming off shelves and they didn't know what to do.
"But after that three minutes it was very calm. It was like, 'Well it's just an earthquake, so no problems'.
"But then when I was outside my university the word came in that there were seven-metre tsunami warnings.
"Sendai is very low-lying, so I immediately thought that's going to be a big problem."
Mr Jones says he returned home to find his power, water and gas switched off. He took his wife and two young children to a local emergency centre.
"But there was no power there and it was dark and there were thousands of people, so we came back to our apartment where there is a general-purpose room," he said.
"About four families slept there on the first night, the Friday night. Then on the Saturday I looked after around eight children while the other adults were trying to tidy up their houses, also trying to get hold of people."
Mr Jones says he counts himself as "very lucky" and has no fears for family or friends in Japan.
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Kinh nghiệm từ Nhật: thế giới xét lại mọi dự án về điện nguyên tử
RFA 15.03.2011
Các vụ nổ và cháy lò phản ứng đã buộc các nước phải xem xét lại những dự án về điện nguyên tử.
Một ngày sau cuộc họp của Liên Minh Châu Âu bàn thảo về các biện pháp an toàn cho những nhà máy điện nguyên tử trong vùng, sáng nay Thủ Tướng Đức Angela Merkel tuyên bố sẽ xem xét tổng thể việc sử dụng điện hạt nhân của quốc gia, và đình chỉ tức khắc quyết định kéo dài thời gian hoạt động của 17 nhà máy điện hạt nhân mà Quốc Hội mới thông qua hồi mùa Thu năm ngoái, bất chấp sự chống đối của dân chúng và những nhà bảo vệ môi trường.
Bà Merkel cũng triệu tập phiên họp khẩn với các vị thủ hiến những bang có nhà máy điện hạt nhân, để thảo luận về biện pháp bảo vệ an toàn và chính sách năng lượng quốc gia.
Quyết định tương tự cũng được Thủ Tướng Nga Vladimir Putin đưa ra. Các chính phủ Anh, Thụy Sĩ, Phần Lan và Pháp cũng đã loan báo kế hoạch hành động tương tự.
Các bản tin phổ biến trong ngày hôm nay cũng cho thấy nhiều quốc gia Châu Á đang đặt dấu hỏi có nên tiếp tục dự án điện hạt nhân hay không.
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