9.0 earthquake

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Japan: Here, Eat Some Veggies
 Japan: Here, Eat Some Veggies 

Japan: Here, Eat Some Veggies

They're good for you, not oozing radiation

(Newser) - Japan has become the latest ardent convert of the locavore movement, reports the Washington Post, launching a public relations blitz intent on convincing its citizenry that produce fresh from the nuclear-contaminated Fukushima prefecture is safe, even yummy. The government even opened a restaurant yesterday, making a show of high-ranking politicians...

What Does Fukushima's Level 7 Mean?

It sounds really, really bad. Is it?

(Newser) - Japan has made the decision to raise the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear disaster severity level from 5 to 7. That obviously means "worse." But what else does it mean?
  • Japan finally has an estimate on how much radiation has been released: The level is an indication of the total
...

Japan Nuke Crisis Raised to Chernobyl Level

Fukushima Dai-ichi may have spilled more radiation than thought

(Newser) - Japan has decided to raise the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear disaster from 5 to 7, according to government sources, a severity level only previously seen in Chernobyl, reports Kyodo News. The country's Nuclear Safety Commission today found that at times after the breach, the plant was emitting some 10,000 terabecquerels...

Fukushima Endgame: Years, a Fortune Away

Will likely take decades to decommission nuke plant

(Newser) - The day when radiation stops spilling out of Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi is still unknown, but it'll be at least a decade and millions of dollars beyond that by the time the nuclear plant is decommissioned, reports the AP. That's the timeline from Toshiba, which built four of the six reactors,...

Japan Earthquake: 7.4-Magnitude Quake Hits Japan
 7.1 Earthquake Hits Japan 
UPDATED

7.1 Earthquake Hits Japan

Tsunami warning now lifted in ravaged northeast

(Newser) - Weary Japan has been struck by an earthquake once again: The USGS is reporting a 7.1-magnitude earthquake hit near the east coast of Honshu at 11:32pm local time—that's about 90 miles from Fukushima and about 200 miles from Tokyo, where buildings reportedly shook for a full minute....

Japan's Search for Bodies Enters Evacuation Zone

Officers race against time as bodies decompose

(Newser) - Clad in protective suits, some 340 police officers began the search for bodies within the 12-mile evacuation zone surrounding the Fukushima plant today. Nearly four weeks have passed since the earthquake, and some 4,200 who lived within the zone remain missing, reports the New York Times . Officials now say...

How Japan Quake Liquefied a Town 200 Miles Away

Urayasu dealing with warped streets, tilted buildings

(Newser) - Urayasu lies 200 miles south of the Japan earthquake epicenter, far from the danger zone—so why are residents relieving themselves in plastic bags while waiting for their sewage, water, and gas services to be restored? Though no buildings fell and no tsunami hit in this seaside town on March...

Japan Fallout: What That Radioactive Water Means

Effect should be limited experts say

(Newser) - Should the Japanese be worried about the tens of thousands of tons of radioactive water that Tokyo Electric started dumping into the Pacific yesterday? Yes and no. The water around the Fukushima plant is likely to be contaminated for years, experts tell the Wall Street Journal , but the danger elsewhere...

Tsunami Dog 'Ban' Back With Owner

Pooch was plucked from house wreckage after 3 weeks at sea

(Newser) - Ban, the Japanese wonder dog who survived the tsunami and three weeks adrift in the wreckage of his home, is back with his owner, reports Gawker. And yes, this pales in comparison to the ongoing humanitarian crisis over there, writes Maureen O'Connor, and we should "give a damn about...

Two Workers' Bodies Recovered at Fukushima

Plant continues to leak highly radioactive water into the sea

(Newser) - The bodies of two workers have been recovered at Fukushima Dai-ichi, the first confirmed fatalities at the foundering nuclear plant. The men had rushed to check equipment in the basement in the wake of the 9.0 earthquake, reports the LA Times —and autopsies confirmed they were killed in...

Fukushima's Disaster Plan: A Stretcher and a Fax

Plant was woefully unprepared for natural disaster

(Newser) - Tokyo Electric Power Co. had a disaster plan in place at its Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, but certainly not a very thorough one: It only involved one stretcher, and relied heavily on a satellite phone and fax machine for emergency communications. In a look at the plan, the Wall Street ...

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,...

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...

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...

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 

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...

Japan Resorts to Mass Graves
 Japan Resorts to Mass Graves 

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

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...

Radioactive Milk a Threat —if You Drink 58K Cups

Heath officials blowing things way out of proportion in Japan: researcher

(Newser) - Japan is finding elevated radiation levels in milk, spinach, and water —scary, right? Richard Knox at NPR sits down with RPI health physicist Peter Caracappa to crunch some numbers about what those levels mean. The gist:
  • The max radiation a US nuclear worker is allowed to be exposed to
...

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