This is another clearinghouse diary for discussion and commentary about the ongoing nuclear disaster(s) in Japan. For updated information on news and a timeline of the events following the March 11 Japanese Earthquake, visit the Mothership. The Mothership is updated regularly and also provides a more extensive list of news and data sources, social media, crisis mapping and other relevant information.
If you would like to recommend this diary feel free to do so. All previous liveblogs published to the Japan Nuclear Incident group can be found here. The group also serves as an archive for Coverage@Kos.
The"ROV" (a Remote Operating Vehicle) is a 'child diary' for liveblog coverage of major breaking news stories. (The term was borrowed from the Gulf Watchers coverage of the Deep Water Horizon crisis.)
Given the seriousness of this situation, please use this diary for posting information DIRECTLY Related to coverage of the developing news!
To continue following and participating in the breaking coverage in Japan Nuclear Incidents series, click here and then click the heart icon underneath the profile picture to the Right. This will bring these diaries directly into your personal "stream."
News from Japan April 5 AM JST
As temps continue to rise in reactor #1, Tepco plans to inject nitrogen into drywell to mitigate chances of hydrogen explosion. The nitrogen injected into the drywell should mitigate the chances for a hydrogen explosion. This is a situation to watch I think as this reactor has been over design specs in it's pressure readings for several days now. See FukushimaDataPage
Japanese authorities are proposing harvesting blood stem cells from the workers should they fall ill and require stem cell transplants later. BioNews
Fukushima impact on Climate Negotiations
At today’s opening meeting of UN climate change conference in Bangkok, chief of the UN's climate change agency Christian Figueres discusses the possibility of the Fukushima crisisis impacting international efforts to curb global warming as nation’s reevaluate plans to convert to atomic energy to cut back of GHG emissions NHK World
In other breaking news, the IAEA Convention on Nuclear Safety talks began today in Sweden,with IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano announcing the serious impact of the Fukushima on international plans for atomic energy and vowing to restore public trust in safety of nuclear energy. NHK Live
The NHK newsfeed at 11:30 PM JST reports....
• Japanese prime minister Naoto Kan and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso have agreed to cooperate to strengthen nuclear safety.
• European Union says it will donate an additional 10 million euros, or 14 million dollars, to support those affected by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
• President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the country's first nuclear power plant will soon be operational as scheduled.
News announcements from Japan between 2pm April 4 – 11:30 PM JST (gleaned from comments below, multiple sources linked below)
As Greenpeace continued monitoring radiation Monday, the government announced plans to lift restrictions on food if radioactivity data stay below the safety limits for a third straight week. Plans are also being considered to break Tepco down into smaller companies and to unify the country’s two different frequencies used in the country (50 Hz in the north and 60 Hz in the west).
Evacuees from a 30-kilometer range around the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant are not eligible for housing at a Tokyo hotel because they would need shelter for more than three months
4,080 bequerels of radioactive iodine-131 was detected in 1 kilogram of sand lances, a kind Teof fish, in the sea south of the troubled plant.
News headlines Japan, Monday, April 4. Noon. (combined sources from Kyodo, NHK, Asahi, and IAEA: all links below)
TEPCO will discharge 1,500 ton of low level contaminated water in the sub-drain pit for Units 5 & 6 to prevent the water in the pit from leaking into the reactor buildings and potentially damaging safety-related equipment.
Atomic energy experts skeptical about proposal to drape containment buildings in sheeting to block further release of radioactivity
TEPCO to install silt-barrier fences to prevent further spread of nuclear contaminants in seawater (see photo h/t peraspera)
- 4/3 @ 11:17 PST update on Japan's work on afternoon 4/4 JST peraspera: On Monday workers poured a white liquid into a tunnel leading to the pit. The operation was undertaken to determine the exact route the water is taking from the pit near the plant's Number 2 reactor to the ocean. But the utility firm says the white liquid did not flow into the pit and that the contaminated water must be following other routes.
- An alternative plan to stop the leak scheduled for later today. If unsuccessful, chemicals may be used to “harden the area.’
External power supply is now being used to power the pumps injecting fresh water into Units 1, 2 and 3 reactors.
Radiation levels gradually decreasing in many areas around the nuclear plant.
Govt did not reveal high level radiation estimate
Overview of top news
- 4/3 @11:37 PST peraspera: Authorities know the water in the cracked concrete shaft, then, is emitting at least that much radiation -- which equates, at a minimum, to more than 330 times the dose an average resident of an industrialized country naturally receives in a year
- 4/3 @ 9:38 PST. HKHeadhunter: Japan's target of slashing greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels could be reviewed in the wake of the ongoing nuclear crisis, top government spokesman Yukio Edano hinted Monday. h/t (kyodo)
- 4/3 @ 9?36 PST procrastinator john" Oil-fired power plants coming back on line
An article in the Nikkei Shinbun reports that rolling blackouts were avoided again today, in part because consumers have cut back on electricity use but also because some of the generating units at oil fired plants in Yokohama link
- peraspera Sunday April, 3 18:47 JST Kyodo, Nikkei, Mainichi The Japanese government indicated that it will be months before the Fukushima plant is no longer releasing radiation.
- h/t ricklewsive Sunday, April 3, 2011 The Japan Times Very good schematic of the leaky pit
Coverage@Kos: 4/01 - 4/03
HEARTBREAKING Video SOS from Japanese mayor near Fukushima: Near starvation by HamdenRice on 4/4
Fukushima Status Update 4/4 by Kbman on 4/4
Fukushima: Prayers & Petitions by gmoke on 4/3
Japanese authorities express ‘deepest respect’ for ShelterBox’s work by texmex on 4/3
Fukushima: the sense that profit for a few is taking precedence over the safety of many by nathguy on 4/3
Please visit ROV #39 for coverage from 4/1 through 4/2 and the archives in Japan Nuclear Incident group for all previous ROVs and Coverage@Kos.
More Below the Fold...
Read More
