Radiation leaking in Japan
Posted Mar 15, 2011 03:53:51 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
High levels of radiation are leaking from a crippled nuclear plant in tsunami-ravaged northeastern Japan.
This, after a third reactor was rocked by an explosion today and a fourth caught fire in a dramatic escalation of the four-day-old catastrophe.
The Kyodo News agency says officials just south of Fukushima reported up to 100 times the normal levels of radiation this morning.
Government officials are warning there is danger of more leaks.
Here is an expert in the field explaining to CNN what is happening and what could happen.
They are telling people within 30 kilometres of the nuclear complex to stay indoors and close their windows to avoid the possibility of radiation sickness.
Weather forecasts for Fukushima were for snow and wind from the northeast this evening, blowing southwest toward Tokyo, then shifting and blowing west out to sea.
That’s important because it shows which direction a possible nuclear cloud might blow.
Japanese police say the official death toll from last week’s massive earthquake and tsunami has topped 24-hundred.
Police say a big share of the deaths were in Miyagi prefecture, where more than 12-hundred people are confirmed dead.
The number of people officially missing is at 3,118.
But regional officials say they believe tens of thousands may have been swept away by the tsunami that devastated a long stretch of Japan’s northeastern coast Friday.
The U-S Geological Survey has upgraded the magnitude of Friday’s deadly earthquake in Japan to 9.0 – a move that comes after Japan’s Meteorological Agency did the same.
It’s not unusual for scientists to tweak the magnitude of a giant quake after some number-crunching.
U-S government scientists originally put the Japan quake at 8.9. The change to 9.0 means that the quake was about 1.5 times stronger than initially thought.
The Japan quake is now the fourth largest in the world since 1900.
Canned goods, batteries, bread and bottled water have vanished from store shelves and long lines of cars circle gas stations.
This, as Japan grapples with a new risk set off by last week’s earthquake, tsunami and ensuing nuclear crisis — panic-buying.
Far outside the disaster zone, stores are running out of necessities, raising fears that hoarding may hurt the delivery of emergency food aid.
The frenzied buying is compounding supply problems from damaged and congested roads, stalled factories, reduced train service and other disruptions caused the earthquake and the major tsunami.
Japan’s minister in charge of consumer affairs is urging people to refrain from buying items they don’t really need.
Japan’s central bank pumped billions more into the financial system today to quell fears that the country’s banks could be overwhelmed.
Two cash injections totalling $98-billion dollars U-S came a day after the Bank of Japan fed a record $184-billion dollars into money markets and eased monetary policy to support the economy in the aftermath of Friday’s 9.0 magnitude quake.
The injections have helped stabilize currency markets.
But stock markets dived for a second day as investors unloaded assets amid escalating worries of a nuclear crisis.
Closer to home, British Columbians afraid of their proximity to the ongoing explosions at Japan’s quake-damaged nuclear plants are making a run on pharmacies.
They’re hoping to boost immunity to any potential radiation drift.
But the provincial government, health officials and pharmacists are encouraging people to stand down from stockpiling potassium iodide, saying no health risks exist.
West Vancouver pharmacist Cristina Alarcon says the public is definitely panicking, but she says it’s all a bit ridiculous.
B-C’s Health Officer Dr. Perry Kendall issued a notice yesterday saying it would take five to six days for winds to carry nuclear particles across the Pacific — and by that time any radiation will have dispersed into the atmosphere.
Experts say Canadian nuclear reactors are built to withstand earthquakes and have a good track record of the ones that have shaken the country.
Government data shows hundreds of small earthquakes have rattled Canada’s nuclear power plants over the years with no apparent harm.
And both the federal regulator and Atomic Energy of Canada insist the country’s reactors can hold up to quakes large and small.
Canada and Japan also use different kinds of reactors.
A-E-C-L has Candu reactors at five power plants in Ontario, New Brunswick, and Quebec.
Richard Holt, a nuclear engineer at Queen’s University, says reactors are built to take regular shaking.
And he points out that it was the tsunami and not the earthquake that crippled the Japanese nuclear plant.
Some economists predict that the disasters in Japan will only cause small ripples on the global and Canadian economies.
And some say it may eventually help boost the recovery from the worldwide economic troubles.
Craig Alexander, chief economist with the T-D Bank, says the stricken area is basically eight per cent of the Japanese economy and Japan is eight per cent of the world economy.
Japan’s economy does face an immediate disruption in production and investment that could slow G-D-P growth by half a per cent or more.
For Canada, the direct impact may be a short-term disruption in supply-chains to isolated firms, and minor reduction in exports short-term.
Longer term, Canadian exports in copper, lumber and other building materials may get a boost as the reconstruction phase begins.
