At least 10,000+ killed; tsunamis feared as massive quake hits Japan

[MuffyBee]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/27/world/asia/report-condemns-japans-response-to-nuclear-accident.html
Report Condemns Japan’s Response to Nuclear Accident
By HIROKO TABUCHI
December 26, 2011

TOKYO — From inspectors who abandoned the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant as it succumbed to disaster to a delay in disclosing radiation leaks, Japan’s response to the nuclear accident caused by the March tsunami fell tragically short, a government-appointed investigative panel said on Monday.
The problems, which the panel said had exacerbated the extent of the disaster, were outlined in a 500-page interim report detailing an investigation into Japan’s response to the calamitous events that unfolded at the Fukushima plant after the March 11 quake and tsunami knocked out all of the site’s power.
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[MuffyBee]

http://news.businessweek.com/article.asp?documentKey=1377-aH0ue81ZRfNE-06CF5OPHF7J00OPV3KEKTD54N3
Fukushima Probe Puts Regulator, Cellphones on List of Failures
December 27, 2011

[MuffyBee]

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2012/01/high-radiation-found-in-new-condo-miles-from-fukushima-plant/1
High radiation found in condos miles from Fukushima plant
January 16, 2012

[MuffyBee]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/28/world/asia/japan-considered-tokyo-evacuation-during-the-nuclear-crisis-report-says.html
Japan Weighed Evacuating Tokyo in Nuclear Crisis
By MARTIN FACKLER
February 27, 2012

TOKYO — In the darkest moments of last year’s nuclear accident, Japanese leaders did not know the actual extent of damage at the plant and secretly considered the possibility of evacuating Tokyo, even as they tried to play down the risks in public, an independent investigation into the accident disclosed on Monday.
The investigation by the Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation, a new private policy organization, offers one of the most vivid accounts yet of how Japan teetered on the edge of an even larger nuclear crisis than the one that engulfed the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. A team of 30 university professors, lawyers and journalists spent more than six months on the inquiry into Japan’s response to the triple meltdown at the plant, which followed a powerful earthquake and tsunami on March 11 that shut down the plant’s cooling systems.
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[MuffyBee]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/story/2012-03-06/japan-radiation-tsunami/53403348/1
Japan tries to reassure people of nuclear decontamination
By Calum MacLeod, USA TODAY
March 7, 2012

[MuffyBee]

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57394660/parents-look-for-answers-year-after-japan-tsunami/
Parents look for answers year after Japan tsunami
By Bill Whitaker
March 9, 2012

Video and Photo Gallery at Link

[MuffyBee]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46691428/ns/world_news-asia_pacific/
One year after Japan earthquake and tsunami, search for bodies continues
Country marks anniversary of natural and nuclear disasters with bells, prayers
March 10, 2012

[MuffyBee]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2113095/Japanese-workers-remove-bus-rooftop-year-washed-Tsunami.html
Japanese workers remove bus from rooftop  a year after it washed up following Tsunami
March 10, 2012

Sunday marks a year from the earthquake that devastated Japan and triggered a series of tsunamis.

Thousands of people were killed, buildings collapsed and entire villages were washed away after the 9.0 magnitude earthquake hit the northeasten coast of Japan.

But despite the devastating effect, the clean-up has continued and a day before the anniversary - in the midst of a snowstorm - workers removed a sightseeing bus that has been sitting on a rooftop ever since.
 ::snipping2::
No-one was in the bus at the time of the disaster and there were plans to try and turn the unusual-looking site into a monument.

But local residents opposed the plans and the bus is now being removed.

Nearly 16,000 people were killed in the disaster and nearly 3,300 unaccounted for. Japan is still grappling with the human, economic and political costs.

Along the coast, police and coastguard officers, urged on by families of the missing, still search rivers and shores for remains even though the chances of finding any would appear remote. Without bodies, thousands of people are in a state of emotional and legal limbo.
 ::snipping2::

Photos at Link

[MuffyBee]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/11/world/asia/a-year-later-undertakers-story-offers-japan-hope.html
Japan Finds Story of Hope in Undertaker Who Offered Calm Amid Disaster
By HIROKO TABUCHI
March 10, 2012

[MuffyBee]

How frightening this must have been for the people of Japan!  It's only been a year since the terrible earthquake/tsunami and they're still suffering from the aftermath. 

http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/14/10683659-series-of-earthquakes-jolt-japans-tsunami-hit-region-tokyo
Series of earthquakes jolt Japan's tsunami-hit region, Tokyo
March 14, 2012

Updated at 9:41a.m. ET: TOKYO --  A series of earthquakes rattled Tokyo and northeast Japan late Wednesday evening but caused no apparent damage or injury in the same region hit by last year's devastating tsunami.

The strongest tremor, off Hokkaido island, was 6.9 magnitude and caused tidal changes that prompted some communities to issue evacuation orders or tsunami advisories to residents nearest the coast.

A swelling of 8 inches was observed in the port of Hachinohe in Aomori, northern Japan, about one hour later. Smaller changes were reported in several locations on Hokkaido island and Aomori prefecture.

The Japan Meteorological Agency lifted all tsunami advisories about an hour and half later.

The earthquake felt in Tokyo was magnitude 6.1 and centered just off the coast of Chiba, east of Tokyo, at a rather shallow 6 miles below the sea surface.

The town of Otsuchi in Iwate prefecture, where more than 800 died in last year's tsunami, issued an evacuation order to coastal households as a precaution after the 6.8 quake, said prefectural disaster management official Shinichi Motoyama. No damage or injury was reported, he said.
More...
Video at Link

[MuffyBee]

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-57440261-10391704/united-nations-six-fukushima-reactor-workers-did-not-die-from-radiation/
United Nations: Six Fukushima reactor workers did not die from radiation
By George Jahn
May 23, 2012

(AP) A year after an earthquake and tsunami triggered the Fukushima disaster, a United Nations agency preparing a report on the health effects says none of the six former reactor workers who have died since the catastrophe perished due to the effects of radiation.
 ::snipping2::

   

[MuffyBee]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/27/world/asia/concerns-grow-about-spent-fuel-rods-at-damaged-nuclear-plant-in-japan.html?google_editors_picks=true
Spent Nuclear Fuel Drives Growing Fear Over Plant in Japan
By HIROKO TABUCHI and MATTHEW WALD
May 26, 2012

TOKYO — What passes for normal at the Fukushima Daiichi plant today would have caused shudders among even the most sanguine of experts before an earthquake and tsunami set off the world’s second most serious nuclear crisis after Chernobyl.
Fourteen months after the accident, a pool brimming with used fuel rods and filled with vast quantities of radioactive cesium still sits on the top floor of a heavily damaged reactor building, covered only with plastic.

The public’s fears about the pool have grown in recent months as some scientists have warned that it has the most potential for setting off a new catastrophe, now that the three nuclear reactors that suffered meltdowns are in a more stable state, and as frequent quakes continue to rattle the region.

The worries picked up new traction in recent days after the operator of the plant, Tokyo Electric Power Company, or Tepco, said it had found a slight bulge in one of the walls of the reactor building, stoking fears over the building’s safety.

To try to quell such worries, the government sent the environment and nuclear minister to the plant on Saturday, where he climbed a makeshift staircase in protective garb to look at the structure supporting the pool, which he said appeared sound. The minister, Goshi Hosono, added that although the government accepted Tepco’s assurances that reinforcement work had shored up the building, it had ordered the company to conduct further studies because of the bulge.

Some outside experts have also worked to allay fears, saying that the fuel in the pool is now so old that it cannot generate enough heat to start the kind of accident that would allow radioactive material to escape.

But many Japanese have scoffed at those assurances and point out that even if the building is able to withstand further quakes, which they question, the jury-rigged cooling system for the pool has already malfunctioned several times, including a 24-hour failure in April. Had the failures continued, they would have left the rods at risk of dangerous overheating. Government critics are especially concerned, since Tepco has said the soonest it could begin emptying the pool is late 2013, dashing hopes for earlier action.
 ::snipping2::

[MuffyBee]

http://www.wausaudailyherald.com/article/20120526/WDH0101/120526020/Harley-museum-display-Softail-swept-sea-by-tsunami
Harley museum to display Softail swept to sea by tsunami
May 26, 2012

[MuffyBee]

http://www.timesonline.com/news/world/oceanographer-expects-bones-in-tsunami-debris/article_eb36105e-9015-54e2-b6f7-6e7617665a81.html
Oceanographer expects bones in tsunami debris
May 23, 2012

PORT ANGELES, Wash. (AP) — An oceanographer who tracks flotsam says West Coast beachcombers may find floating athletic shoes with human remains as more debris from last year's Japanese tsunami finally washes ashore.

"We're expecting 100 sneakers with bones in them," Curt Ebbesmeyer told the audience Monday at a tsunami symposium.

Anyone who discovers such remains should call 911 and wait for police. DNA may identify people missing since the March 2011 tsunami hit Japan.

"That may be the only remains that a Japanese family is ever going to have of their people that were lost," Ebbesmeyer said. "We're dealing with things that are of extreme sensitivity. Emotional content is just enormous. So be respectful."

Ebbesmeyer expects the amount of tsunami debris to peak in October, and that could attract a number of Japanese visitors to the Olympic Peninsula, The Peninsula Daily News reported (http://is.gd/Jx96BT ) Wednesday.

The three-day symposium in Port Angeles and Sequim was hosted by the Clallam County Marine Resources Committee in partnership with the Surfrider Foundation and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Ebbesmeyer is the co-creator of the Ocean Surface Current Simulator computer model, which predicts the movement of ocean flotsam worldwide using known ocean current patterns along with wind speed and direction information provided by the U.S. Navy.
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[MuffyBee]

http://www.chron.com/news/article/Volunteers-scrape-creatures-from-tsunami-dock-3615539.php
Officials worry about creatures on tsunami dock
June 7, 2012

[MuffyBee]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47731051/ns/world_news-asia_pacific/
Former Tepco chief to be grilled over Fukushima disaster
Investigative panel seeks to uncover causes of worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl
June 7, 2012

TOKYO — The former president of Fukushima plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co will face questioning for the first time on Friday by a high profile investigative panel seeking to uncover the causes of the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

Members of the panel appointed by parliament will likely grill Masataka Shimizu over whether he planned to abandon the tsunami-devastated Fukushima plant at the height of the crisis in March 2011, as reactors melted down and the situation was in danger of spinning out of control, threatening Tokyo itself.
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[MuffyBee]

Very, very sad. 

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/06/20/world/asia/japan-fukushima-suicides/index.html?hpt=ias_t2
Husband of Fukushima suicide victim demands justice
June 21, 2012

Video at Link

[MuffyBee]

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-07-05/fukushima-nuclear-disaster-was-man-made-investigation-rules
Fukushima Disaster Was Man-Made, Investigation Finds
By Tsuyoshi Inajima, Jacob Adelman and Yuji Okada
July 5, 2012

The Fukushima nuclear disaster was the result of “man-made” failures before and after last year’s earthquake, according to a report from an independent parliamentary investigation.

The breakdowns involved regulators working with the plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. to avoid implementing safety measures as well as a government lacking commitment to protect the public, the Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission said in the report.

The March 11 accident, which set off a wave of reactor safety investigations around the world, “cannot be regarded as a natural disaster,” the commission’s chairman, Tokyo University professor emeritus Kiyoshi Kurokawa, wrote in the report released yesterday in Tokyo. It “could and should have been foreseen and prevented. And its effects could have been mitigated by a more effective human response.”
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[MuffyBee]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/story/2012/09/22/bin-in-hawaii-confirmed-to-be-japan-tsunami-debris/57822678/1?morestories=obinsite
Bin in Hawaii confirmed to be Japan tsunami debris
September 22, 2012


HONOLULU (AP) -- A large plastic bin is the first confirmed piece of marine debris from last year's Japan tsunamis to arrive in Hawaii, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Friday.

Japanese consular officials confirmed that the blue bin found earlier this week floating in the ocean is from Fukushima, said Ben Sherman, a NOAA spokesman in Washington, D.C.

It is the 12th confirmed piece to hit U.S. or Canada waters, he said.
 ::snipping2::

One million to 2 million tons of debris remain in the ocean, but only 1 to 5 percent of that could reach American and Canadian shorelines, Maximenko has said.
 ::snipping2::

[MuffyBee]

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/cancer-risk-fukushima-found-japanese-infants/story?id=18631231
Cancer Risk From Fukushima Found in Japanese Infants
March 1, 2013

Infants who were in the Japanese region most affected by radiation after the 2011 tsunami have a slightly elevated lifetime risk of some cancers, according to the World Health Organization.

Baby girls in the region have the greatest relative risk increase – 70 percent for thyroid cancer – the agency said in a 168-page health risk assessment.

But the agency cautioned that's on top a small baseline lifetime risk of 0.75 percent, so that the absolute increase in cases of thyroid cancer is expected to be small.
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