The best way to keep up do date on my posts about Fukushima is via this link.
The Fukushima 700, from Reuters, my new favorite news source.
All the natives we have talked to, from the begining to today, including friends who were there during the original earthquake, and Yukie's sister who was near there until today, and my students' in talking about their relatives and friends, all talk about the problems with food and water and the aftershocks as if these were relatively minor inconveniences. Meanwhile, Yukie's friend Rie says that, as part of her job at Softbank, she went to a meeting at a university, and she noticed there were few foreign students there and she was told they had all left, without even packing up their rooms. Early on a significant number of the foreigners, especially UK and French nationals, were "evacuated" or left Tokyo for home. Meanwhile we were touched by the anguish we could see in the story of a foreign mother with children who spends her day hunting for safe food, and is severely worried about the radiation levels and the constant aftershocks. Whether this is any different that what would happen in any other foreign country, I don't know, but i don't think it is so much about Japan, as the difficulty of being in a foreign country. Japan has ways in which that is more difficult, such as the language barrier, and a slight cliquishness, but I think it also has many advantages over some places in terms of other-friendliness.
The newspaper I read today said that one American English teacher was caught in the tsunami. So far, she is the only American casualty of this tsunami.
Interesting summary of events so far from the BBC.
The Fukushima 700, from Reuters, my new favorite news source.
"They're all the real Samurai," said one admirer on a Facebook page dedicated to the Fukushima workers and mainly containing messages from outside Japan.I seem to be to be observing a slight "disconnect" between the way this event is being experienced by gaijin (foreigners) and natives, especially in Tokyo.
All the natives we have talked to, from the begining to today, including friends who were there during the original earthquake, and Yukie's sister who was near there until today, and my students' in talking about their relatives and friends, all talk about the problems with food and water and the aftershocks as if these were relatively minor inconveniences. Meanwhile, Yukie's friend Rie says that, as part of her job at Softbank, she went to a meeting at a university, and she noticed there were few foreign students there and she was told they had all left, without even packing up their rooms. Early on a significant number of the foreigners, especially UK and French nationals, were "evacuated" or left Tokyo for home. Meanwhile we were touched by the anguish we could see in the story of a foreign mother with children who spends her day hunting for safe food, and is severely worried about the radiation levels and the constant aftershocks. Whether this is any different that what would happen in any other foreign country, I don't know, but i don't think it is so much about Japan, as the difficulty of being in a foreign country. Japan has ways in which that is more difficult, such as the language barrier, and a slight cliquishness, but I think it also has many advantages over some places in terms of other-friendliness.
The newspaper I read today said that one American English teacher was caught in the tsunami. So far, she is the only American casualty of this tsunami.
Interesting summary of events so far from the BBC.
In the broadest of senses, the situation at the power station itself appears slowly to be coming under control...despite the allegations of secrecy and poor flow of information levelled against Tepco in the early days of the crisis, those allegations do not currently stand up to scrutiny...The company is now publishing bulletins several times a day, sending them to reporters, responding to questions promptly and seriously, and posting mounds of data such as radiation levels on its website...this has to go down as a huge change from the situation seen at every other serious nuclear accident...monitoring by Japanese agencies appears to have been prompt, informed and proactive, with results quickly disseminated to the public.
"More than 240,000 people were still sheltering in some 2,000 evacuation centers as of Friday. <...> According to the National Police Agency, more than 27,500 people were either confirmed dead or remain unaccounted for as of 6 p.m. Friday -- 10,066 deaths and 17,452 missing."
Here is some alarming information about the kind of reactor that is at Fukushima, and that may explain some of the problems, especially at reactor 3.
HAZARDS OF BOILING WATER REACTORS IN THE UNITED STATES
BACKGROUND
Of the 104 operational nuclear power reactors in the United States, thirty-five are boiling water reactors (BWR). General Electric is the sole designer and manufacturer of BWRs in the United States. The BWR's distinguishing feature is that the reactor vessel serves as the boiler for the nuclear steam supply system. The steam is generated in the reactor vessel by the controlled fissioning of enriched uranium fuel which passes directly to the turbogenerator to generate electricity. But even basic questions about the the GE containment design remain unanswered and its integrity in serious doubt.
For example, 23 of these BWRs use a smaller GE Mark I pressure suppression containment conceived as a cost-saving alternative to the larger reinforced concrete containments marketed by competitors. ...
..As early as 1972, Dr. Stephen Hanauer, an Atomic Energy Commission safety official, recommended that [this kind of] system be discontinued and any further designs not be accepted for construction permits. Hanauer's boss, Joseph Hendrie (later an NRC Commissioner) essentially agreed with Hanauer, but denied the recommendation on the grounds that it could end the nuclear power industry in the U.S. [emphasis mine]
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