Fukushima Daiichi

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Radioactive Water to Get Dumped Into Pacific

The 11.5K tons have only low-level radiation

(Newser) - In an effort to speed up the draining of its Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said today that it will release 11,500 tons of low-level radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean. Ten thousand tons of water flooded a radioactive waste processing facility after last month's earthquake...

To Plug Nuke Leak, Workers Try Newspaper, Sawdust

Workers still struggling to trace, plug leak

(Newser) - Desperate workers continued to stuff sawdust and newspapers mixed with resin and concrete into a major fissure at a Fukushima nuclear reactor as the breach threatened to continue pumping radioactive water into the ocean from months to come. Meanwhile, workers used powdered bath salts to turn the water a milky...

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...

Japan Plant Offers 'Jumpers' $5K a Day for Hazard Duty

Workers risk lives for high pay inside nuclear plant

(Newser) - How on earth do the operators of Japan's nuclear plant convince workers to risk their lives exposing themselves to huge doses of radiation? Money helps, apparently. TEPCO officials are advertising for so-called "jumpers" to carry out dangerous jobs for up to $5,000 a day, reports Reuters . They're called...

Concrete Pit Leaking Radioactive Water Into Ocean

Japan trying to plug newly found crack at Fukushima plant

(Newser) - Japan might have figured out why seawater near the Fukushima plant has been showing such high levels of radioactivity: a cracked concrete maintenance pit. The newly discovered crack may have been allowing radioactive water to leak directly into the ocean since the earthquake, and workers are trying to plug it...

US Sending World's Biggest Concrete Pump to Japan

Same pump manufacturer that worked on Chernobyl disaster

(Newser) - The world's largest concrete pump—a 190,000-pound machine with a 230-foot boom called the "Putzmeister 70Z"—is being sent to Japan to help the troubled Fukushima reactors, reports the Augusta Chronicle . "There are only three of these pumps in the world, of which two are suited...

Radiation Thwarts Search for Bodies in Japan

Many near Fukushima Dai-ichi reactor can't be recovered

(Newser) - Japanese authorities delivered some devastating news to the thousands waiting for word of their loved ones’ fates yesterday: Radiation may prevent many bodies near the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant from being recovered. Yesterday, for example, police told CNN that they found a body in the town of Okuma, but had to...

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 ...

Japan Radiation Found in US Milk

Very low contamination poses zero risk, FDA says

(Newser) - Traces of radiation from Japan have been found in a sample of milk from Washington state, but the EPA and FDA stress the level is far below that which would affect humans, and there is no need for consumers to worry. The March 25 milk samples showed levels of radioactive...

UN Calls for Wider Evacuation Zone at Fukushima

Radiation dangerously high in village 25 miles from plant

(Newser) - Japanese officials are seriously considering taking the United Nations' advice and expanding the mandatory evacuation zone around the crippled Fukushima nuclear complex as radiation continues to spew into the environment. People within 12 miles of the leaking plant have been ordered to leave, but the UN says radiation levels above...

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,...

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...

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