Japan's Earthquake Damage reaches 300 Billion dollars. The World Reaches out to Japan. Updated Daily News Hub

Being called the largest earthquake in the last thousand years, near the largest city of the world, Tokyo, what was only five minutes of sheer terror, the Japanese people are still suffering large loss from the dead and for the worst environmental disaster in history. The reactors of the nuclear power plants are still trying to be cooled by the dedicated workers and government. The earth quake was the fifth largest recorded in the world.

The owners of the Tepko nuclear plant is expected to pay out 6 million to the victims of the nuclear radiation that made nearby residents have to leave their homes and stay away except for a few minutes to get some of their belongings.  They are saying that the area around the nuke plant will be uninhabitable for perhaps a hundred years.  The owners of the plant were seen to be kneeling in a news story, kneeling and asking forgiveness from the people of Japan for the mishap caused from the earthquake.  It is really making people all over the world rethink the use of nuclear energy in areas where their are fault lines.

The earthquake moved the earth 11 inches on axis and slowed the rotation of the earth so shortening the day by a faction of a second.

What did most the damage however was the huge Tsunami that moved at five hundred miles per hour the same speed as an airplane. 250 miles of the ocean floor thrust up from two miles below the ocean floor. Squeezing water out of the earth and making a path of destruction over six miles inland.

This flood of biblical proportions killed tens of thousands of people (14,000 so far recorded) only now are the first hand videos people took as they literally ran for their lives. Trying to reach the high ground. Once safe the people took out their cell phones and the pictures and video they took are spectacular. They show floating cars, houses, warehouses. Making a thunderous noise, a sea of debris 6 miles inland.

The nuclear power plants diesel back up generators were damaged so the plant workers had to try to cool the reactors without electricity for days. The battery powered pumps to cool the reactors only had storage for eight hours. Radiation spewed out of the plant by smoke, steam and water that had to be dumped into the bay. Workers were rotated in and out of the plant exposing them to high levels of radiation of which the effects will only be found when time passes by. The workers said the dark plants looked like haunted houses, as they worked in total darkness in shifts of 300 men who are heroes in this whole story.

The level of danger was raised to level seven, level seven being the worst.

Fish and other sea mammals are drifting into the shoreline of Japan, with skin lesions and internal damage caused from the radioactive waters. This will effect any fish or shellfish businesses for as how long it has not been reported.

Nuclear plant owners vow to spend 600 million dollars on victims claims.  Now that's one of the first things coming from them that sounds like they are actually doing something. The level of danger has now been raised to level seven the highest level.  Tepko company stating that they have no idea when the reactors will be cooled and be out of danger.

People from the fifty miles around the plant are still unable to go home and it may be months, years before the area is safe for humans to live in that area.  The people are outraged and are asking for answers. 

Pets in the evacuation zone are being left to starve to death. Fish and other sea creatures are showing up dead on the shores off Japan, obvious damage to their skin from the toxic waters being dumped into the ocean from the nuclear power plants.

13,000 people passed ay ad 150,000 people still homeless. The clean up continues and life will not likely be back to normal in a very long time for the Japanese who have been crippled by this disaster.

On April 7th another 7.4 earthquake rattled the Japanese people who have lived throughhundreds of aftershocks. Japan,s Prime Minister said he would be wi the people until the end. Many of the people however have lost faith in their government especially in regards to the way the utility company Tepko has handled the damaged nuclear power plants.

Water coming out of the leaking plant is 4000 times the level that is safe. The plugged leak in number two still seems to be holding. Sunday over a thousand protesters; some wearing masks were protesting nuclear power in an attempt to save any future generations or other countries to suffer what they are suffering.

Massive pumps from outside Japan have arrived and because of their pumping abilities will allow the workers to be able to pump out water without having to be so close to the dangerous levels near the reactors themselves.

Japan reports that eleven types of vegetables grown in Japan, and milk have levels of radioactive iodine in exceeding national standards..

Fisherman off the coast of Japan are discovering huge loss of their oyster beds which were torn up by the Tsunami.. 97 percent of their fishing boats have been destroyed.

In the United States the low level radiation has gone as far east as the Carolina's which have had to trace of radiation such the Chernobyl accident 35 years ago. Japan's accident is now the worst in the worlds history. It is to be noted that even small levels of radiation can cause human health problems including cancer, heart disease, or immune disorders like Ms, and children are more susceptible than older people. Especially food borne exposure which makes food and water protection critical.

The bodies of two workers were found in the reactor 2 area after all this time goes by and the plant officials knew they were missing but did not tell the truth. Families of the workers are being told not to make any statements to the press. Why these two men were missing all this time and no one wanted to let the public know is another example of how the Japanese authorities are under reporting this crisis.

And this is outrageous and the world needs to act to start over seeing this clean up which is still leaking dangerous levels of radiation into the environment through steam and directly into the ocean. Some of the levels are 700 million times the safe level for humans. Nuclear plant officials should be held responsible for being evasive during this whole crisis and should be charged with criminal charges in the way they misled the general public.

After numerous attempts to plug the leak of one of the reactors first with concrete which failed and now using liquid nitrogen or liquid glass that sealed the leak. Everyone is breathing a sign of relief. There is still much work to be done, the surrounding ocean has dangerous levels of iodine radiation that is 700 million times the level that is safe for humans but we are being told that the ocean will dilute it. What about the wildlife and fish and other fishing industry products that will be uneatable and will need to be destroyed. Already the United States is banning any produce, milk or sea food from Japan.

The lack of transparency during this worst nuclear spill in the world's history makes one wonder what else they are under reporting. It is causing the Japanese people to doubt their government and they deserve better. There was a demonstration of over three hundred people which is many in a society where demonstrations are frowned upon by the government. They were demonstrating that they need to know the effects of such high levels or radiation in their food and air and ground water. The company that runs the nuclear plants Tepko is taking their names off of the facilities in an attempt to avoid taking responsibility. Just another attempt to hide the truth and avoid the responsibility.

Huge amounts of soil will need to be de-contaminated and where the remaining poison soil will be stored is not been discussed. Currently the water being put into the reactors to be cooled becomes so toxic that they are running out of where to put the waste. Another wake up call for other countries especially the United States who could have the same disaster after an earthquake and there are several existing plants that are on faults and near the ocean.

This is the problem of having an industry where no one wants to store the spent fuel rods which keep piling up as the states disagree as to where the toxic by products of Nuclear energy are to be stored. You are talking about toxins that take hundreds of years to become safe, if that is even true. Where are we going to put all these spent fuel rods? Does anyone care?

Trace levels of radiation has been measured in eastern Washington where the milk from cows that are eating grass that has had radioactive rain fall on it has been detected hundreds of miles from the coast. The famous Washington and Oregon Gorge which is a huge canyon that runs from the coast well into the eastern parts of both states is probably how the ocean air was able to get so quickly to the farest part of both states.

Read article about how hemp could be used in the clean up. http://www.opposingviews.com/i/could-hemp-be-used-in-japan-s-nuclear-clean-up

Radiation from Japan Has Been Detected in Our Food
Take Action to Make Sure the U.S. is Tracking Radiation Contamination
Dear Diane,
Take Action to Demand Testing for Radiation Contamination in Food and Water
This morning I heard the first report that low-level radiation from Japan has been detected in milk in Spokane, Washington. Reports from Japan bring almost daily evidence of continued radioactive releases, and the full impact of the Japanese nuclear accident remains to be seen, but the health risks posed by radioactive contamination are well documented. Can you take action to make sure that the U.S. has a plan for keeping radiation contamination out of our food supply?

In Japan, tests have already found eleven types of vegetables, as well as milk, to contain levels of radioactive iodine exceeding national standards. Radioactive emissions from Japan have been detected throughout the United States at low levels, from California to Colorado and as far east as Massachusetts. Monitors in the Carolinas have detected the presence of radioactive iodine, the first time this material had been detected there since the Chernobyl accident 35 years ago.

These are low levels of radiation right now, but even low levels of radiation can cause human health problems, including cancer, heart disease, or immune disorders, and children are especially susceptible to foodborne exposure to radioactive materials, making safeguards of food and water particularly critical.

Food & Water Watch sent a letter today to President Obama, and key members of the administration and Congress, calling for a comprehensive plan to test our food to make sure radiation-contaminated food doesn't end up on your plate. Can you send a letter to President Obama and your members of Congress asking for comprehensive testing to protect our health from radiation?

No amount of radiation exposure is safe, and it is imperative that the federal government conduct comprehensive, transparent monitoring of food and water, especially given the possibility that radioactive emissions from Japan may continue or worsen in the weeks and months ahead. Take action to make sure that the U.S. food supply is protected from radiation contamination:

http://action.foodandwaterwatch.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=6370
Thanks for taking action,
Wenonah Hauter
Executive Director
Food & Water Watch
goodfood(at)fwwatch(dot)org

Food & Water Watch is a nonprofit consumer organization that works to ensure clean water and safe food. We challenge the corporate control and abuse of our food and water resources by empowering people to take action and by transforming the public consciousness about what we eat and drink.

The new death toll in Japan is now at 13,000 and missing at 17,000. 100,000 people are living without water. In areas where there is no fuel people are burning their wood from their own houses to keep warm.

On Sunday 3-27 there was another earthquake of 6.5 near the original site of the 9.0 and then there was another 6.3 quake on Tuesday March 29th. When will this all end for the shaken people of Japan? So far that makes 700 aftershocks in all.

As far as the nuclear reactors go there is still great concern over the reactors that are sending smoke with high levels of plutonium out into the environment. Three workers at the #2 reactor were exposed to 10,000 times the safe levels of radiation when the electric tunnel they were working in, had water that they stepped in. It appears as if there has been a breach or crack in the containment vessel. These poor workers at the plant are being exposed to dangerous levels of radiation and are living in the plant lying on mats to sleep at night and only getting two meals a day.

They are also finding contaminated water outside of the plants and are running out of where to put the tainted water that they used to cool the reactors and some is spilling directly into the ocean. They are addressing that problem by stacking sand bags. As we are finding out this utility company had no idea of how to handle a crisis at this level. And getting the truth out of plant officials is difficult to say the least. When they use words like "Don't worry we have everything under control" or "I will have to check on that " when asked questions about the levels outside and inside their plants. Are you kidding me?

Four types of plutonium are leaking out of the core and the officials said,"Don't worry it's only bad if you breathe it in or ingest it from food." Are they kidding? When asked why their workers weren't wearing protected clothing" they answered" We just didn't know."

I think an independent commission should be set up to run this clean up as their officials are not always telling the truth, saying the Japanese people are already suffering enough, like they can't be told the truth. Yes that is true but you are talking about a nuclear meltdown and the area around the plant for perhaps hundreds of miles will be uninhabitable. It is in the soil, the air and it is in the ocean. Just think of how it will affect the crops, fish, shellfish Japan sells to the rest of the world. We need to be protected from importing any of these products into America. This is serious people.

The United States has reported trace levels of radiation all along the West coast and even to Colorado, and the east coast has reported trace amounts as well. It is pouring down on right now in Oregon as I speak; where for the last two weeks our very rain has been tainted with this poison. Every time Japan has a Northeast wind, the stuff is heading right toward our West Coast.

The iodine pills which are being bought up by the thousand in America only protect you from thyroid cancer, it doesn't cover any other organs that may be affected by the exposure to radiation. People on the west coast of the US are being told not to take any potassium iodine pills as it is not needed and could actually be harmful to you. Only people in the evacuation zone in Japan should be take them.

President Obama called for the comprehensive safety checks for all US nuclear plants. Well many are so old that it would be better to tear them down. And where are we going to store all the waste? Do you want it stored in your backyard? I didn't think so.

The place to look for radiation is in the milk and crops like spinach and fruits. So is the our USDA going to sample our milk and crops after being doused with this poison all spring?

Pictures from inside the reactor 2 control room show most of the panel's are not being lit up, so how are they checking and reporting all this information to us if they have no way of measuring or gathering the information? The only time the head of the utility spoke to the press was way back on March 13th. Since then they say he has been in "virtual seclusion" in his office FOR WEEKS, WHAT AN OUTRAGE!! I say drag this guy out by his shirt tails and make him responsible for this mess. Getting answers from his staff like "Oh, we will have to check for that." is unreasonable and the way things are going it is also criminal for these utilities to not have back up systems. The head official will know what seclusion is all about when he ends up in jail.

And while we are at it, we should round up all the United States nuclear officials and kick some of their butts for having comparable back up systems here with many built on fault lines.

THIS IS AMERICA'S WAKE UP CALL!!!!!!!!! America needs to wake up and smell the poison.

The Japanese are still suffering the great loss of their people from the earthquake and the Tsunami. The death toll is now 11,000 with17,000 people feared to be dead or missing. In one town alone their are 9500 people are missing. It is estimated that the damages will be in the 300 Billion dollar range.

Progress has been made on cooling the cores and spent fuel tanks. Electricity has been connected but the pumps are not working in two of the reactors.

Four of the Fukushima's nuclear power plant reactors have had fire and explosion damage and Number four reactor's spent fuel pools are feared to have been gone dry, All have damage to their cooling units. One plant had the roof blown off it from the blast. Damage to one of the four containment vessels is leaking high levels of radiation. At the stage of Worse than Chernobyl the Japanese reactors are leaking radioactive materials into the environment. To the level of ten times the normal safe radiation level. 200,000 people who live in the vicinity are being evacuated and they are clearing an area of now 50 square miles around each nuclear plants. Number three reactor is said to have a breach in its containment unit. The workers that were themselves evacuated now are reentering the work site from a pool of two hundred men. Those that have been over exposed to higher levels of radiation are expected to get severely ill and or die. What a nightmare.

It is a race against time in the cooling the spent fuel rods to avert the possible worse environmental disaster ever. The people in the affected area are being given iodine tablets to reduced the affects of radiation exposure which is to prevent thyroid cancer. Read the link below for up to date information about the pills.

http://health.yahoo.net/experts/dayinhealth/can-pill-save-you-radiation-poisoning

The Japan nuclear commission is calling for people within twenty miles of the plants to stay inside and try to isolate themselves from the outside air. The United States is telling Americans in the zone to evacuate if they are within fifty miles.

Some experts say that the plants did not have enough backup coolant and generators needed to handle such a catastrophe which was likely as the plant was built along a fault line.

The Japanese people are losing faith in their government at a time when they are experiencing the tragedy of their lifetime. There is widespread panic, fear and anxiety. The world sits by watching and thinking that their countries could be next if they have nuclear power plants on faults and near the ocean. The exposure near the plant is over 400 millisievers a second!!! compared to the normal exposure one gets in a year of natural radiation of 3.0 a year. It appears as if the workers in the plant were not trained or able to address if something like this would happened.

This could be the biggest man made catastrophe ever for exposing millions of people and affecting the ground, sea, fishing industry, and animals near the plant. In Cerenkov they had to take out the soil, plants grown for food, and animals raised for food, within a hundred miles of the plant.

The effects of radiation exposure is most damaging to the elderly and young children, some parents in Japan are removing their children to other countries. The increase risk of cancer rates can be up to 40 percent and it can also affect their reproductive organs. Leukemia rates go up as well as liver cancer risk. Inhaling the radioactive air is far worse than when it is on your clothing which can be washed off. Better to not drink any milk that is produced near where the radiation is being measured. Large scale removal of the radiation from the soil is also a concern. And where do we put that earth this is contaminated? This brings up the problem of storing any and all of the discarded radioactive materials from all of the world's nuclear plants. Would you want it stored in your state? Depending on the air flow the dust and fog from the leak could blow away from the island or with low winds could affect the whole island of Japan.

This is something that nuclear opponents talk about happening when mother nature has unexpected natural disasters. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has already sent cooling systems via our military to help Japan. What is now worse than the Chernobyl incident in Russia where the affects of radiation is still making miles of the area still uninhabitable. This disaster in Japan could make the contaminated areas toxic for people for decades even longer.

Many of the nuclear plants built all over the world are outdated and were not built to last over 40 ears. Radiation causes steal to get brittle. Many of which were built by GE from the Mark 1 plans.

.A major concern is that the atmosphere will carry the radioactive mist over to the west coast of the United States and beyond to other countries. After Japanese and American expets told us that there was no chance of the radiation reaching the West coast of the United states there has been a trace of radiation increase hitting the California coast.

This is a fear that many environmentalist and the general public people who are against nuclear power plants have talked about for years. The public has been told by the nuclear agencies that these plants have been built to prevent such a thing from which is happening. They were wrong.

In the United States they have not issued a new license for building any more new nuclear power plants in thirty years, but plans had been in the process to do so. Currently there are 104 nuclear power plants in the United States and none of them have earthquake warning systems. Very similar to Japan's Fukushima power plant is the Northern California "Cascadian" nuclear plant built far from the major populated cities of southern California but apparently with no regard for the bordering state of Oregon nearby. The Diablo plant in central California is the biggest risk as it is near major populated cities

The Cascadian nuclear plant is identical to the one in Japan by the fact that it is near the coast and it is close to a fault line. The subduction zone was deemed safe for up to a 7.0 sized earthquake. If the similar quake would occur in Northern California the effects would affect the coasts of Oregon, Washington and as far as British Columbia. The fact that these states hold some of the most pristine wildernesses and some of the most productive of fishing industries makes one give notice to what could happen here.

California had already set up radiation monitoring systems to measure the levels of any radiation coming from the atmosphere. Japan officials are saying the leak is 100 times less radiation than you would get from getting an MRI. Others say its like getting a years worth of natural radiation at once. Reports are so varied that outsiders think the Japan nuclear representatives are not wanting to cause widespread panic. Reports of falsified safety records in Japan and other crimes such as not reporting a previous near meltdown and under reporting of any such incidents. The people of Japan should be outraged.

Concerns about a nuclear plant near Lake Eri in the United States because it provides millions of people with their water supply. Our President has called for a a review of all nuclear power plants to be checked for safety and age related defects in older plants.

In Oregon one of most progressive environmentally concerned state's Governor Kitshauber issued a executive order of disaster in Curry County where the town of Brookings oyster beds and docks were affected from the Tsunami.

The fuel rods that only last 6 years before needing to be replaced are are then taken nearby the reactor and put to rest in big steal and concrete pools of water. If the water pumps fail which they have they get so hot that they explode. These spent rods are actually more dangerous than the few they use in the active reactor since the spent rods are more numerous.

Text the red cross and enter 909999 to donate ten dollars.

The 9.0 earthquake that hit Tokyo Japan at 2:22 pm on March 11th and the resulting Tsunami wrecked havoc in Japan and the Tsunami did damage far across the Pacific Ocean as the West Coast of the United States, Indonesia, Philippines, Guam and Hawaii. Japan hasn't seen a earthquake even close to this proportion since 1923. So far there have been over 170 aftershocks some of which were over 7 points and more recently near 4.0 earthquakes.Two and a half million people are without electricity and water. Currently it is estimated that damages will be over 300 billion dollars. Some say the death toll could be as high as 10,000 people. 

The explosions and release of radiation from four of the nuclear reactors is of grave concern and 270,000 people havevacuated in a fifty mile radius around the reactor. People near that area are being told to stay inside and try to seal themselves in.

Being called the worst disaster since World War II the ongoing stories coming out of Japan from the multitude of Internet and YouTube videos still being released are making their way to international news coverage. The destruction is unbelievable and heart wrenching. The world reaches out in support by sending disaster relief for the shortages of food, water, batteries and the other things a national will need now that the reconstruction of their east coast continues.

To check on friends and relatives in Japan you can go to google people finder and other sites you can get at cnn.com. Scenes reminiscent of Katrina showed Japanese people standing on roofs waiting for aid after the aftershocks and Tsunami flooded coastal parts of the Eest coast of Japan. 450,000 people are living in shelters with widespread shortages of water, electricity and food.

Tweets in Japan are 1200 per second and other social networking sites are keeping people updated to the minute. And people with I phones and other video devices stream live coverage of this monumental disaster.

Japan's 5.5 Trillion dollar economy is showing record lows at their stock market Nikki. Japan imports half of the world oil for their consumption is now going to affect the world oil prices as well as affects of the plunge of their stock market. So far the stock market in Japan has gone down ten points.

It is reported that that the land beneath Japan moved eight feet further to the east and that the earth was moved on its access by 4 inches. And it shortened the days by a millionth of a second. Sunday a volcano started spouting lava in the southern tip of Japan which may or may not have been from the earthquake but one would think it is related.

Santa Rosa and Ventura CA are had 7 foot high tides of up to seven feet which has done damage to coastal harbors and inlets where the water surge was intensified. The Tsunami traveled at the rate of 450 miles per hour...One person in Northern California was swept out to sea evidently trying to take a picture of the Tsunami.

The Governor of California has issued states of emergencies in four counties. Santa Rosa having 100 boats damaged and 30 sunk. They will receive state assistance for their losses which range up to 2 million dollars.

Crescent City, CA is near the Oregon border, reported having 8 foot surge waves which damaged 35 boats. There was also minor flooding in Hawaii where the coastal areas had to be evacuated

Nagana Japan had a 6.6 earthquake, not just a aftershock. The first two nights eople were sleeping in lobby's of buildings and even outside afraid to go back into their homes in fear of after shock damage that would flatten their still standing homes.

United States and seventy other countries are sending disaster relief. The USA is using their military and naval fleet that were already near to the area. The USS Ronald Reagan air craft carrier is bringing in relief and putting their hospital on board at the service of the Japanese people.

At one pm west coast time, 14 hrs after the quake people were being told to use their cell phones only for emergencies due to cell towers experiencing heavy calling which is jamming the cell phone servers. Even the Internet and twitter sites are slow to get onto here in Oregon due to the massive overuse during this disaster in Japan and people worldwide who are trying to find out about loved ones living in Japan.