Japan earthquake

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Japan Evacuees: Clinics Deny Care Over Contagion Fears

Worries are groundless—but unsurprising, says expert

(Newser) - Fearing contagion from exposure to radioactivity, Japanese shelters and clinics are rejecting hundreds of evacuees from near the Fukushima nuclear plant, reports the Telegraph . The institutions are requiring certificates from evacuees that show they haven’t faced exposure. Such concerns, however, are “completely irrational,” says a British expert...

Tokyo Electric Will Scrap Fukushima Reactors

Tokyo Electric Power cannot recover reactors 1-4

(Newser) - After three weeks, Tokyo Electric Power still has not been able to bring the first four reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant under control, and the company now says that they will all be decommissioned. “We have no choice but to scrap” them, said the company’s chairman,...

US Sending Robots to Fukushima

Radiation-hardened robots to assist at stricken plant

(Newser) - The Energy Department is sending a squad of robots—and people—to help Japan in its battle to regain control of its Fukushima nuclear plant. A shipment of "radiation hardened robotics" is being sent to Japan along with 40 people and thousands of pounds of other equipment, a top...

Japanese PM: We're on 'Maximum Alert'

But experts say fear over plutonium in soil may be overblown

(Newser) - With fears escalating over the plutonium leaking into the soil around the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, Japanese officials sounded a cautious note today, with Prime Minister Naoto Kan telling lawmakers that the government would “tackle the problem while in a state of maximum alert,” according to the Economic Times...

Inside the Hell That Is Fukushima

Little sleep, food, water; plenty of stress, danger, misery

(Newser) - As if risking their lives to work feverishly to avoid nuclear meltdown wasn't grim enough, there's no respite for the weary workers at Japan's hobbled Fukushima Dai-ichi plant. A Japanese nuclear official who just returned from five days at Fukushima paints a picture of life on the inside, reports the...

Plutonium Seeping from Fukushima

Traces of highly toxic substance found outside plant

(Newser) - Highly toxic plutonium is seeping from the damaged nuclear power plant in Japan's tsunami disaster zone into the soil outside, officials said Tuesday, heightening concerns about the expanding spread of radiation. Plutonium was detected at several spots outside the Fukushima plant—the first confirmed presence of the dangerously radioactive substance,...

Latest Casualty of World's Upheaval: Media Budgets

From Libya to Japan, the money's running out

(Newser) - There’s been a lot of news around the world in 2011—too much, in fact, for some news organizations to handle. Japan, Libya, and Egypt have stretched already tight cable and broadcast news budgets to the breaking point, The Wrap reports. “We've already had a year's worth of...

Big Quakes Trigger Small Ones&mdash;Not Other Big Ones
Big Quakes Trigger Small Ones—Not Other Big Ones
study says
Mar 28, 2011 9:37 AM CDT

Big Quakes Trigger Small Ones—Not Other Big Ones

So rest easy, California, your risk is no higher than normal

(Newser) - Over the past 15 months, large earthquakes have struck China , Haiti , Chile , New Zealand , Japan , and Burma . But those quakes weren't connected, and they won't trigger any other big ones, seismologists say. A new study shows that, even when they seem linked, large and distant quakes likely aren't—and while...

Nuke Plant Radiation 100K Times Higher Than Normal

Not as high as previously estimated, but still at fearsome levels

(Newser) - The good news is that Japanese officials were wrong when they announced radiation in water leaking from the Fukushima nuclear plant was 10 million times higher than normal. The bad news is that radiation levels in fact spiked 100,000 times higher than average yesterday. In current conditions in the...

Fukushima: Big Radiation Spike Was Wrong

Worker fled before taking second reading

(Newser) - That big spike in radiation levels 10 million times normal that Fukushima Dai-ichi reported earlier? Inaccurate, red-faced officials at Tokyo Electric Power Co now say. "The number is not credible," says a spokesman. "We are very sorry." The apology came after employees fled the complex's Unit...

Japan Radiation Hits Las Vegas
 Japan Radiation Hits Las Vegas 
Mar 27, 2011 5:59 AM CDT

Japan Radiation Hits Las Vegas

What happens in Fukushima does not stay in Fukushima at all

(Newser) - The amounts are tiny, but radiation from Japan's crippled nuclear plant has reached all the way to Las Vegas, reports the AP. Minuscule amounts of iodine-131 and xenon-133 reached a monitoring station in Sin City, though scientists emphasized it posed no health risks. "Unless you have an accident like...

Radiation in Fukushima, Nearby Waters Spikes

Radioactive iodine hits 10 million times normal level, forcing evacuation

(Newser) - Radiation is spiking both in and around the stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, forcing workers to evacuate the plant. Radioactive iodine in water leaking from the No. 2 reactor's turbine housing unit soared to 10 million times the usual limit, said Tokyo Electric Power Co., where workers had been struggling...

US Rushes Fresh Water to Fukushima

Worry spikes about corrosion from seawater

(Newser) - With the crisis in Fukushima Dai-ichi deteriorating, US naval barges are speeding toward the foundering plant with loads of fresh water to cool the reactors. The move comes amid rising concern about the corrosive nature of the saltwater the Japanese have been using; the fresh water should prevent pipes from...

Japan Earthquake, Tsunami Death Toll Passes 10K
 Japan Death Toll 
 Passes 10K 
Mar 25, 2011 6:00 AM CDT

Japan Death Toll Passes 10K

17K still missing as concern grows over food, water

(Newser) - A sad milestone out of Japan: Two weeks after the quake struck, its official death toll has broken the 10,000 mark—and that number is still on the rise, with more than 17,400 missing. Police estimate the toll will surpass 15,000 in the hardest-hit prefecture alone. Among...

First Photos From Inside Fukushima Released

Images reveal tough conditions for 'Fukushima 50'

(Newser) - Japanese authorities have released the first photos from inside the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant since disaster struck. Workers in bulky radiation suits can be seen toiling in cramped conditions, trying to contain the release of radiation, Gawker reports. The workers inside the complex—known as the Fukushima 50—are being...

2 Japan Nuke Plant Workers Hospitalized

Tainted water 'seeped' through protective clothes

(Newser) - A pair of nuclear workers in Japan have been hospitalized amid concerns of exposure to radiation, the BBC reports. They had been laying cable at Fukushima Dai-ichi’s No. 3 reactor in an effort to fix its cooling system. “Although they wore protective clothing," said a spokesman, "...

Japan Resorts to Mass Graves
 Japan Resorts to Mass Graves 
Mar 23, 2011 2:16 PM CDT

Japan Resorts to Mass Graves

Quake left too many dead to cremate

(Newser) - Thanks to the earthquake, the Japanese have been forced to do a lot of something they usually avoid at all costs: burying their dead. Japan’s Buddhist traditions dictate that bodies should be cremated, and the ashes stored in family tombs; burial is outright illegal in many places. But with...

Baby Dolphin Rescued From Japan Tsunami Trap
 Baby Dolphin 
 Rescued From 
 Rice Paddy 
TSUNAMI AFTERMATH
Mar 23, 2011 1:37 PM CDT

Baby Dolphin Rescued From Rice Paddy

Man pulls animal out, drives it to sea

(Newser) - A baby dolphin trapped in a flooded rice paddy after Japan’s tsunami has been returned to the sea, Reuters reports. "A man passing by said he had found the dolphin in the rice paddy and that we had to do something to save it," says a pet...

Radiation Spikes in Tokyo Tap Water

Don't use water for infant formula, officials advise

(Newser) - Radiation in Tokyo tap water has spiked to twice the level considered safe for infants, sparking a new round of fears in Japan over the nation's crippled nuclear reactors. Rising smoke, meanwhile, prompted a new evacuation of workers trying to plug leaks in the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex, reports AP . Infants...

Don't Fire Up Nuclear Plants Without Robots

William Saletan: They must be resistant to radiation and ready to go

(Newser) - An easy first lesson is emerging from Japan's nuclear mess: No nuclear reactors should be in operation anywhere unless they have robots ready to fend off disaster, writes William Saletan in Slate . He's not talking about run-of-the-mill robots that replace humans at menial tasks. He means expensive, radiation-resistant robots that...

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