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Earthquake/tsunami in Tohoku, North East Japan (11th March 2011)


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Is that the sound of a stampede I hear?

 

.....

 

Overseas visitors heading to Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima prefectures in Japan's northeast will not have to pay visa fees from next week until November 2016 at the earliest.

The initiative, launched by the foreign ministry, aims to help attract visitors to the regions worst affected by the March 11 disaster and rebuild their tourism industries.

While 77,000 tourists visited the three regions during 2010, this year's figures are significantly lower: tourism dropped nearly 88 per cent in Fukushima and 90 per cent in Iwate prefecture during the second quarter of this year alone, according to recent figures released by the Japan Tourism Agency.

Tourism in Tokyo also plummeted 71 per cent in Tokyo and 91 per cent in Yamanashi prefecture – home to the iconic Mount Fuji and 186 miles from the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant – during the same period.

As part of the new visa fee waiver programme, visitors who present documents to verify their visit to the affected prefectures, including travel itineraries or transport tickets, will be exempt from paying fees, which cost around £24 (3,000 yen) for single use or £48 (6,000 yen) for multiple use.

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More please!   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HrO2H4Sraw   You'd think they might put in some of the overly loud throat noises and he would do a big "ahhhhhhhhhh" at the end. Come on, where's th

I think so.

 

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BBC has this

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15691571

 

New research has found that radioactive material in parts of north-eastern Japan exceeds levels considered safe for farming.

 

The findings provide the first comprehensive estimates of contamination across Japan following the nuclear accident in 2011.

 

Food production is likely to be affected, the researchers suggest.

 

The results are reported in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) journal.

 

In the wake of the accident at Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant, radioactive isotopes were blown over Japan and its coastal waters.

 

Fears that agricultural land would be contaminated spurred research into whether Japanese vegetables and meat were safe to eat.

 

An early study suggested that harvests contained levels of radiation well under the safety limit for human consumption.

 

Now, an international team of researchers suggests this result deserves a second look.

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I'm not on the coast, but yes, calmed down considerably where I am, especially in the past couple of months. Still the occasional wiggle, but nothing significant.

 

As for the BBC story, not sure the conclusions as they present them are really new. Looks mostly like researchers fine-tuning their dispersion models -- which is of course a good thing for them to be doing.

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Check this out. A golf course 45km away from Dai-Ichi and the court's thrown out their compensation claim against Tepco.

 

http://www.majiroxnews.com/2011/11/14/fukushima-golf-course-lawsuit-against-tepco-dismissed/

 

That's a very nasty precedent. If this isn't the authorities closing ranks, I don't know what is.

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Some study on 活断層 (active faults) since March 11th has come up with a list of places that has seen a big jump in probability of slipping.

 

Obviously, the one sitting close to Muikamachi was one of them with a "more than 10 times" likelihood of kicking off than before March 11th.

 

Typical.

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Damn was having a nice lie-in and got woken up by the windows rattling. Small, yes, but a definite earthquake and another 'oh no' feeling as time slows down!

Seems it was off Sado, just off the coast near Kashiwazaki.

 

And yes talking of Kashiwazaki it has been through a fair few big ones in the last 7 years.

 

:(

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Today...

 

Fuel rods inside one of the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant may have completely melted and bored most of the way through a concrete floor, the reactor's last line of defence before its steel outer casing, the plant's operator said.

 

Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) said in a report that fuel inside reactor No 1 appeared to have dropped through its inner pressure vessel and into the outer containment vessel, indicating that the accident was more severe than first thought.

 

The revelation that the plant may have narrowly averted a disastrous "China syndrome" scenario comes days after reports that the company had dismissed a 2008 warning that the plant was inadequately prepared to resist a tsunami.

 

Tepco revised its view of the damage inside the No 1 reactor – one of three that suffered meltdown soon after the 11 March disaster – after running a new simulation of the accident.

 

It would not comment on the exact position of the molten fuel, or on how much of it is exposed to water being pumped in to cool the reactor. More than nine months into the crisis, workers are still unable to gauge the damage directly because of dangerously high levels of radiation inside the reactor building.

 

"Uncertainty involved in the analysis is significant, due to the uncertain nature of the original conditions and data used," Tepco said in a report. It said the concrete "could have been penetrated", but added that the fuel remained inside the reactor's outer casing.

 

Previously, the firm had said that only some of the fuel had burned through its inner pressure vessel and dropped into the containment vessel.

 

"Almost no fuel remains at its original position," Tepco said. The simulation shows that the fuel may have penetrated the concrete floor by up to 65cm, just 37cm from the reactor's outer steel wall.

 

Tepco said that about 60% of the fuel in the two other reactors that experienced meltdown had dropped onto the concrete base, but had caused less damage.

 

After the tsunami, workers at the site stopped injecting reactor No 1 with water for about 14 hours, resulting in more serious damage than sustained by the two other reactors.

 

The company added, however, that fuel in all three reactors was being kept stable by cooling water, adding that the erosion had stopped.

 

It said the findings would not affect plans to bring the reactors to a safe state, known as cold shutdown, possibly by the middle of the month.

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It's on the telly now about that golf course in Fukushima trying to get compensation from the (ever so sorry) Tepco people in Fukushima.

Apparently they are saying that the green fluro globs of radioactive goo "do not belong to anyone" and so the golf course can go and stuff it up their bum.

 

You'd think Tepco would come and claim their things wouldn't you?

And another issue arises from this.... does this mean that any other fluro globs of radioactive goo are not Tepcos? So we can literally go in and grab them and keep them for ourselves?

Bet they hadn't thought of that!

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Today...

 

Fuel rods inside one of the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant may have completely melted and bored most of the way through a concrete floor, the reactor's last line of defence before its steel outer casing, the plant's operator said.

[...]

The revelation that the plant may have narrowly averted a disastrous "China syndrome" scenario comes days after reports that the company had dismissed a 2008 warning that the plant was inadequately prepared to resist a tsunami.

 

Though there are several meters of concrete below the steel casing, so more protection from "China Syndrome" than is suggested by the article.

 

It's on the telly now about that golf course in Fukushima trying to get compensation from the (ever so sorry) Tepco people in Fukushima.

Apparently they are saying that the green fluro globs of radioactive goo "do not belong to anyone" and so the golf course can go and stuff it up their bum.

 

You'd think Tepco would come and claim their things wouldn't you?

And another issue arises from this.... does this mean that any other fluro globs of radioactive goo are not Tepcos? So we can literally go in and grab them and keep them for ourselves?

Bet they hadn't thought of that!

 

Conversely, seems one should be able to dump any green globs of goo found on their doorstep, and if they complain that it is not theirs, reply that it's not anyone's, "but hey, it is on your property now! :wave: "

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You're right, Metabo.

 

I don't have any green globs of goo at hand, but if we have that Fukushima meet-up I'll scoop some up then and jolly well put it on their doorstep!

 

;)

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