Japan Increase Danger of Leaking Nuclear Power Plant

UK, France, Germany nationals to leave Japan

Foreign embassies are asking their nationals to evacuate Japan temporarily to avoid problems caused by the leaking nuclear power plant.
On Wednesday, the British government asked Britons staying in Tokyo and the city's northern areas to consider leaving.
The Russian Foreign Ministry also announced on Wednesday that family members of its officials will leave Japan this week. The officials are working at the embassy, the trade representation in Tokyo and 3 consulates in Niigata, Sapporo and Osaka. The ministry has no plan to allow the officials to leave Japan. The ministry calls on Russian nationals staying in Japan to act calmly and not depend on unreliable information. On the same day, the German foreign ministry advised its nationals, who live in northern Japan and Tokyo metropolitan areas, to move toward Osaka or return home via Osaka. The ministry said the embassy will send its officials to its consulate general in Osaka to help Germans who want to evacuate Japan. The French government has urged its citizens in Tokyo to move to western Japan or leave for their country. The Croatian foreign ministry said it will temporarily move its embassy function from Tokyo to Osaka on Thursday.

US military restricts activity within 90km from the Power Plant

The US Defense Department says it has provisionally suspended activities of US forces engaging in rescue operations in northeast Japan within 90-kilometers of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Pentagon spokesman David Lapan announced the decision on Wednesday. The US military has dispatched 15 ships including the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan to aid Japan's disaster response efforts. The spokesman says the measures are meant to prevent troops from being exposed to nuclear radiation.
Lapan also says in an exceptional case if troops were to operate within 90 kilometers of the stricken power plant, they would be given potassium iodine tablets to guard against possible acute radiation symptoms. US military has so far dispatched 2 fire engines to help Japan cope with a series of troubles at the plant, and it also says preparations are under way to send other equipment such as hoses and pumps to the plant.

30,000 people to be moved out of Fukushima Pref.

A city near Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is preparing to move about 30,000 people out of the prefecture. A part of Minami Soma falls within the plant's 20-kilometer zone, where residents have been told to evacuate. Another part of the city is in the 20 to 30 kilometer zone, where people are being urged to stay indoors. The city says many of the estimated 50,000 people in the zone have moved out, but about 30,000 remain. The city is preparing to shift those people out of Fukushima Prefecture, as shelters within the prefecture are already full.

SDF gives up on dousing No.3 reactor

Japan's Self-Defense Forces have postponed a mission to dump water by helicopter on the No.3 reactor at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, because radiation above the facility has climbed too high for such work. White plumes started rising from the reactor on Wednesday morning. Tokyo Electric Power Company says the vapor was steam caused by water evaporating from the reactor's storage pool for spent fuel rods, which is heating up. In an effort to avert the fuel rods' exposure, a Self Defense Force CH47 helicopter took off from the Sendai base hauling a large container of water on Wednesday afternoon. But the plan was aborted after radiation levels above the plant were found to have largely exceeded 50 millisieverts -- the maximum permissible for SDF personnel on a mission.
The Self-Defense Forces say it is ready to recommence work when radiation levels and other conditions allow.

14 hospital patients die at emergency shelter

Fukushima Prefecture is looking into the deaths of 14 hospital patients at an emergency shelter where they had evacuated. Prefectural officials say 128 hospital patients evacuated on Monday to a high school in Iwaki city. Two of them reportedly died en route on a bus, and 12 others died shortly after arriving at the shelter. Most of the patients were elderly, and some bedridden. They were asked to stay at the shelter before being moved to another hospital. The high school principal says there were 4 medical staffers at the shelter, but medical equipment has been in short supply. The patients were laid on a blanket on a tatami mat, with heaters placed nearby.

High radiation levels detected 20 km. from plant  

 Japan's science ministry has observed radiation levels of up to 0.33 millisieverts per hour in areas about 20 kilometers northwest of the quake-damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Experts say exposure to such radiation for 3 hours would result in absorption of 1 millisievert, or the maximum considered safe for 1 year. The ministry gauged radiation levels for 10 minutes from 8:40 PM local time on Tuesday at 3 places in Fukushima Prefecture, whose residents are being instructed to stay indoors. The measurements produced readings as low as 0.22 millisieverts per hour. It is not known whether these levels have changed since the measurements. A former chief of the Radiation Effects Research Foundation, Shigenobu Nagataki, said radiation at such levels does not immediately affect human health. But he said that if such levels continue to be observed, authorities must review ways to evacuate people. The ministry said it also observed maximum radiation levels of 0.0253 millisieverts in areas 30 to 60 kilometers from the plant on Wednesday morning. The levels are slightly higher than normal.

More people evacuating to avoid radiation

An additional 28,000 people have been forced to evacuate from their homes to other areas to avoid possible radiation from a nuclear power in Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan.  At a shelter about 100 kilometers from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, 295 evacuees joined the 38 people who had already been staying there since the earthquake. Some of them say they were forced to move there because the first shelter they went to was overcrowded. They also say some of them have not yet received any radioactive screening tests. The number of Fukushima people trying to evacuate to other prefectures is increasing.
Neighboring Niigata Prefecture says it has booked another 17 hotels in Niigata City and elsewhere for evacuees from Fukushima to stay since it expects the number to rise. About 2,700 people from Fukushima have already taken shelter in Niigata. Yamagata Prefecture has started providing screening tests and health counseling services at 4 health centers for the Fukushima evacuees. At least 1,600 Fukushima residents have already moved to that prefecture. By Wednesday evening, Tochigi Prefecture had also received 320 people. They were divided among 3 shelters after getting a health check and radioactive screening test. White plumes are seen rising from the steel frames of the adjacent building housing the No.3 reactor. The vapor is believed to have been generated from evaporating water from the spent fuel rod storage pool, where the cooling system is not working. Similar plumes are also seen rising from a hole in the outer wall of the No.2 reactor building.

Yen surges to record 76-yen range against dollar

The yen skyrocketed to an all-time high against the dollar overnight in New York, briefly hitting the lower-76-yen level. The yen's rapid surge renewed the previous record reached nearly 16 yeas ago. Investors took their cue from a sell-off on US stocks on Wall Street, and mounting concerns over accidents at a nuclear power station in quake-hit northeastern Japan.
They also anticipated accelerated yen-buying from Japanese firms in a bid to repatriate their overseas assets to boost reconstruction efforts back home. On the New York Foreign Exchange, the yen reached 76.25 yen per dollar at one point, exceeding the previous high of 79.75 yen reached in April 1995. Market players say US and European investors are becoming increasingly risk averse, as Friday's massive disaster in Japan has cast a shadow over the global economic outlook. They say the yen will remain under intense selling pressure for some time.

Japan to share information with world

UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has informed Prime Minister Naoto Kan of the international organization's full support for the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Ban talked with Kan by phone Wednesday evening and expressed his heartfelt sympathy to the country for last Friday's disaster. He said he was very impressed to see, under Kan's leadership, the Japanese people's efforts to overcome their difficulties.
The Secretary General then said the United Nations is deeply concerned about the critical conditions at the nuclear plant. At the same time, he said, the United Nations is ready to offer any assistance to Japan to help settle the nuclear plant problems. He said the United Nations is always ready to support the Japanese people. Prime Minister Kan thanked the United Nations for sending its disaster specialists to Japan and for offering assistance to his country. He emphasized the importance of sharing disaster information with other countries, saying his government will provide necessary information to the international community.
No food to buy at Super Market in Tokyo

People stocking food for the crisis in advance. Many super markets were emptied and there are no food to buy. The worry increase and people collecting food, water, gas across the country.

Source: NHK World