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Fukushima 131

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Japan falls back into recession - Economy contracts sharply after devastating earthquake and tsunami !

Japan's economy has slipped into recession after a worse than expected performance for the first quarter of the year.

The economy contracted sharply in the first quarter as factory production and consumer spending declined in the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

Real gross domestic product - a measure of the value of all goods and services produced domestically - shrank at an annualised rate of 3.7 per cent in the January-March period, the country's cabinet office said on Thursday.

The result marks the second straight quarter that the world's third largest economy has lost steam and undershoots an annualised 2.3 per cent fall forecast in a Kyodo News agency survey.

While there is no universally accepted definition of a recession, many economists define it as two consecutive quarters of GDP contraction. Others consider the depth of economic decline as well as other measures like unemployment.

Japan's magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami left more than 24,000 people dead or missing, and wiped out entire towns in the hardest-hit areas.

Damage is estimated at $300bn, making it the most expensive natural disaster in history.

It damaged factories in the region, causing severe shortages of parts and components for manufacturers across Japan, especially automakers. A crippled nuclear power plant caused widespread power shortages that added to the headaches faced by businesses and households.

Seijiro Takeshita, director Mizuho International, told that recovery may take a long time because clean up efforts are taking so long.


Consumer spending falls

As a result, Japan's factory production and consumer spending both fell the most on record in March. Exports in March went south for the first time in 16 months.

Companies are reporting lower earnings and diminished outlooks for the rest of the fiscal year.

Al Jazeera's Laura Kyle, reporting from the Iwate Prefecture, said that the economic impact has also hit at a local level, with a large number of unemployed people living in the country's north.

Toyota, Japan's biggest automaker, said last week that its quarterly profit tumbled more than 75 per cent because of parts shortages after the tsunami. As of May, the crisis cost the company production of
550,000 vehicles in Japan and another 350,000 overseas.



Toyota is expected to lose its spot as the world's top-selling automaker to General Motors this year.
Even before the disaster, Japan's economy was shaky.

In a historic shift, China overtook the country as the world's second largest economy last year. Japan struggled to address a slew of problems including years of deflation, a rapidly ageing and shrinking population, and ballooning public debt.

'Instant evaporation'

Japanese companies increasingly relied on exports to drive growth and offset the persistently lackluster demand at home. After four solid quarters of growth, Japan's GDP turned negative in the last three months of 2010 due to weaker exports and consumer demand. The downturn was expected to be temporary.

Instead, Japan has now recorded consecutive quarters of contraction for the first time since the global financial crisis. GDP fell for four straight quarters starting April 2008.

The country's economy and fiscal policy minister Kaoru Yosano described the current slump as milder than the previous slide, when global demand "evaporated instantly".

"The Japanese economy's ability to rebound is sufficiently strong,'' Yosano said, according to the Kyodo News agency.

Workers trying to pump radioactive water from Japan reactors

Japanese engineers were frantically attempting on Saturday to pump out puddles of radioactive water at the earthquake-crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant after it injured three workers and delayed efforts to cool reactors to safe levels.


Underscoring growing international qualms about nuclear power raised by the killer earthquake and tsunami in northeast Japan two weeks ago, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said it was time to reassess the international atomic safety regime.



Radioactive water has been found in buildings of three of the six reactors at the power complex 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo. On Thursday, three workers sustained burns at reactor No. 3 after being exposed to radiation levels 10,000 times higher than usually found in a reactor.


"Bailing out accumulated water from the turbine housing units before radiation levels rise further is becoming very important," said Japan Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency senior official Hidehiko Nishiyama.


The 9.0 magnitude quake and giant waves on March 11 left more than 10,000 people dead and 17,000 missing.


Despite such a shocking toll, much attention since the disaster has been on the possibility of a catastrophic meltdown at Fukushima.


With elevated radiation levels around the plant triggering fears across the nation, storage of the contaminated water has to be handled carefully.


"We are working out ways of safely bailing out the water so that it does not get out into the environment, and we are making preparations," Nishiyama said.


He initially said the high radiation reading meant there could be damage to the reactor, but he later said it could be from venting operations to release pressure or water leakage from pipes or valves.


"There is no data suggesting a crack," he said.


Nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Friday there had not been much change in the crisis over the previous 24 hours.


"Some positive trends are continuing but there remain areas of uncertainty that are of serious concern," agency official Graham Andrew said in Vienna, adding the high radiation could be coming from steam.


On Friday, Nishiyama chided plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) for not following safety procedures inside the turbine building. Local media also criticized TEPCO, which has a poor safety record.


"The people on the spot have a strong sense of mission and may be trying to rush," the Nikkei business paper said. "But if the work is done hastily, it puts lives at risk and in the end, will delay the repairs. This kind of accident ought to have been avoidable by proceeding with the work cautiously."


Source; Reuters

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Japan dumps water on stricken reactors

Military helicopters in Japan have dumped water on reactors at the quake-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station in an effort to cool down a spent fuel storage pool, local media said.


Two CH-47 helicopters scooped up seawater and released it over the reactors on Thursday while another helicopter checked radiation levels in the air.


The plant, 220km north of Tokyo, has been hit by several explosions after a devastating earthquake and tsunami last Friday.


Al Jazeera's Andrew Thomas, reporting from Osaka, said "four flights were made and of those water-drops by the helicopters, only one hit its target". The effort has since been abandoned, he said.


"Given that more than a hundred would be required to hit dead-on to fill the reactors with enough water to cool the rods, it is – forgive the phrase – a bit of drop in the ocean at the moment," our correspondent said.


The mission was part of efforts to cool the storage pools at the number 3 and number 4 reactors. The cooling systems at both reactors are not functioning, raising fears that spent fuel rods could melt and release radioactive material outside the building.


Police water cannons were also set to support the effort in addition to equipment already in use over recent days at the plant.


Toshimi Kitazawa, the defence minister, said an additional 11 military vehicles would be deployed for efforts to help cool the reactors, while pumps supplied by the US armed forces were also being transferred.


Nuclear safety


The government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said the top priority should be pouring water into the fuel-rod pools at reactors 3 and 4, which may be boiling and are not fully covered by roofs that would reduce radiation leaks.



An official at plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said the pool at the number-four reactor "seemed to have water" on Wednesday, based on aerial observation carried out by the military helicopters.


The nuclear agency said two radioactive substances, cesium and radioactive iodine, have been detected near the Fukushima number 1 reactor.


The agency said this indicates that some of the metal containers of uranium fuel may have started melting. The substances are produced by fuel fission, NHK, Japan's broadcaster said.


Naoto Sekimura, a University of Tokyo professor, told NHK that only a small part of the fuel may have melted and leaked outside.


He called on residents near the power station to stay calm, saying that most of the fuel remains inside the reactor, which has stopped operation and is being cooled.


Some 70 workers have been using pumps to pour seawater to cool reactors at the plant, according to media reports, using electricity from borrowed mobile generators.


Paul Carroll, a programme director at Ploughshares, an international nuclear security foundation, told Al Jazeera that the engineers at the plant are doing heroic work.


"In order to be adequately protected from the radiation they would need to have essentially leaded shielding. If that is what they are equipped with, it would make it extremely difficult for them to actually move around.


"I suspect that these are almost – I hate to say it – suicide missions. These workers have signed up for a mission that puts themselves behind their countrymen," Carroll said.


Imad Khadduri, a nuclear scientist based in Qatar, told Al Jazeera that Japanese authorities are "thinking of bringing in retired workers to the plant because they have a short lifetime left".


"People who are exposed to such high levels of radiation can only do that for a certain period before developing radiation sickness and will have to be replaced," Khadduri added.


Meanwhile, the official death toll from last Friday's twin disasters has risen to 5,198, Japanese police has confirmed, with relief efforts being hampered by adverse weather conditions in the north of Japan.


The 9.0-magnitude quake - the biggest in Japan's history - triggered a massive tsunami that decimated large tracts of the country's northeastern coastline.

Radiation leak fears at Japan plant - Third explosion hits Fukushima nuclear plant !

A radiation leak is feared after Japan's Nuclear Safety Agency reported a third explosion at Unit 2 of the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear-power plant in the country's northeast.



Watch Video of Nuclear plant explosion


Shinji Kinjo, an agency spokesman, said that "a leak of nuclear material is feared", after the explosion was heard at 6:10am local time (21:10 GMT) on Tuesday.


The troubles at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant began when a massive earthquake and tsunami in Japan's northeast on Friday knocked out power, crippling cooling systems needed to keep nuclear fuel from melting down.



Radiation levels measured at the front gate of the plant jumped following the explosion, Kinjo said.


Naoto Kan, the Japan prime minister, warned people within 30km of the Fukushima plant to stay indoors.


Low-level radioactive wind from the reactor could reach Tokyo, the Japanese capital, within 10 hours, based on current winds, the French embassy said in a statement on its Japanese-language website on Tuesday.


Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), the plant's operator, said the explosion occurred near the suppression pool in the reactor's containment vessel. The pool was later found to have a defect.


TEPCO said some employees of the power plant were temporarily evacuated following Tuesday's explosion.


An agency spokesman, Shigekazu Omukai, said the nuclear core of Unit 2 was not damaged in the explosion. But the agency said it suspects the bottom of the container that surrounds the generator's nuclear core might have been damaged.


Al Jazeera's Harry Fawcett, reporting from Ichinoseki, in northeast Japan, said: "People didn't know what was happening and they wonder what they can do. Some say that they can't get out due to lack of fuel.


"We know that there was a sound of explosion at Unit 2, where there are significant numbers of fuel rods submerged in water.


"The government is sticking to the line that radiation is within safety levels, but it is a fast-changing situation."

Second blast at Japan nuclear plant - 11 Workers Injured !

Watch Video of Explosion


A second explosion rocked Japan's stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power complex, sending a plume of smoke into the air and touching off fresh concerns of radioactive leak in the quake and tsunami-hit country.


The International Atomic Energy Agency said on Monday the reactor has not been damaged.


Tokyo Electric Power Co [TEPCO], the plant operator, in a press release said, it was believed to be a hydrogen explosion at the plant's No.3 reactor and that 11 workers were injured. The first explosion happened at the same plant on Saturday, at the reactor No. 1.


TEPCO said that the impact of radioactive materials to the outside environment are presently under investigation.


Yukio Edano, Japan's chief cabinet secretary said that a large-scale radiation leak was unlikely. Edano said the reactor's inner containment vessel holding the nuclear fuel rods was intact, allaying some fears of the risk to the environment.


Al Jazeera’s Florence Looi said the cooling system at reactor No. 2 has also failed, leading to a build-up of pressure in the containment vessel. That is the  same problem units one and three encountered before they exploded.


Meanwhile, at Fukushima plant, the work to cool the reactors with a mixture of seawater and boric acid continues – an untested method, underscoring the desperate nature of the situation.



'No possibility of a Chernobyl'


Japan's nuclear safety agency said there is "absolutely no possibility of a Chernobyl" style accident at the Fukushima No. 1 plant, Koichiro Genba, the national strategy minister said, as quoted by Jiji Press.



The minister made the comment citing the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency at a meeting of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan.


Meanwhile, a US aircraft carrier deployed for relief efforts has repositioned after detecting low-level radiation from a malfunctioning nuclear power plants, a US statement has said.


People around the area, already ravaged by earthquake and tsunami, are worried at the prospects of a nuclear radiation.


"I am due to give birth soon, I want to know exactly what is going on at the nuclear plant. I am scared," said a woman.


Twenty people have tested positive for radiation exposure and that number looks likely to rise.

Explosion at Japan nuclear plant reactor 3 in Fukushima !

A second explosion has hit the nuclear plant in Japan that was damaged in Friday's earthquake, but officials said it had resisted the blast.


TV footage showed smoke rising from Fukushima plant's reactor 3, a day after an explosion hit reactor 1. Japan's nuclear safety agency said the blast was believed to have been caused by the build-up of hydrogen.


Government officials said the reactor core was still intact as they tried allay fears of a radioactive leak. Technicians have been battling to cool three reactors at the Fukushima 1 plant since Friday, when the quake and tsunami combined to knock out the cooling system.


Currently over 2000 deaths confirmed and likely to rise to 10,000 according to the reports we are getting.

Drastic Drop in Japan's stock market

Capital injection pledged on first business day since quake and tsunami hit northeast and stoked nuclear disaster fears.



Three days after a devastating earthquake hit Japan, the stock market in Tokyo has reopened - and its performance shows just how big the damage to the country's economy could be.


Share prices dropped sharply by more than five per cent within the first hour of trading on Monday. Moving quickly to try to keep financial markets stable, the Bank of Japan said it will inject $85bn into the money market to try to bring some stability.


The humanitarian crisis is deepening too, with thousands of people still missing as a result of Friday's 8.9 magnitude earthquake and resultant tsunami.


On the brighter side, foreign aid has begun arriving. A US naval ship is being used to help send out supplies and an aircraft carrier is also on its way to help.


But millions remain without electricity, and there are growing fears about the safety of the Fukushima nuclear plant where a state of emergency is in force.


All this leaves Japan facing its worst crisis since the second world war, according to the country's prime minister, Naoto Kan.





For their part, nuclear plant engineers were frantically working to keep temperatures down in a series of reactors, as the possibility of a nuclear disaster threatened to complicate matters.


Authorities declared a state of emergency at a nuclear facility in the town of Onagawa on Sunday after excessive radiation levels were recorded there, the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency said.


Engineers are facing fears of a partial meltdown in two reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in the wake of Friday's earthquake and tsunami that are believed to have killed thousands of people.


Yukio Edano, Japan's chief cabinet secretary, said on Sunday that a partial meltdown in Unit 3 at the Fukushima facility was "highly possible".


"At the risk of raising further public concern, we cannot rule out the possibility of an explosion," Edano said. "If there is an explosion, however, there would be no significant impact on human health.


"Because it's inside the reactor, we cannot directly check it but we are taking measures on the assumption of the possible partial meltdown."


About 170,000 people have been ordered to evacuate the area covering a radius of 20km around the Fukushima plant.


Thousands of people have been taken to emergency shelters along the northeastern coast as strong aftershocks continue to shake Japan's main island.


"As to Friday's earthquake and tsunami and the current situation of the power plants in Fukushima, in the 65 years after the end of World War II, this is the toughest and the most difficult crisis for Japan in that period," Kan said in a televised address to the nation," Kan, the prime minister, said in a televised address.


He also said Japan is at risk of large-scale power outages and must save energy after the earthquake shut down some atomic power plants.

The Riders at Tirreno stood a minute's silence today in memory of those perished at the Japan earthquake

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Tsunami-hit Japan - At least 427 are being killed - Confirmed but likely to rise over 1000 !

Twin disasters overwhelm Japan - Video - All Jazeera


At least 427 are confirmed to have been killed after one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded struck Japan, triggering a devastating 10-metre-high tsunami along parts of the country's northeastern coastline and triggered an emergency at two nuclear power plants as well.


Japanese media said on Saturday the death toll was expected to exceed 1000, most of whom appeared to have drowned by churning waters.


"The damage is so enormous that it will take us much time to gather data," a Japanese official at the national police agency said.


The towering wall of water, generated by the 8.9 magnitude earthquake, pulverised the northeastern city of Sendai, where police on Friday reportedly said that 200-300 bodies had been found on the coast. 


The wave of black water sent shipping containers, cars and debris crashing through the streets of Sendai and across open farmland, while a tidal wave of debris-littered mud destroyed everything in its path.


The northeastern Japanese city of Kesennuma, with a population of 74,000, was hit by widespread fires and one-third of the city was under water, according to Jiji news agency .


Radiation fears - Reactor cooling systems had failed !
- but no immediate health hazard -




Japanese authorities scrambled on Saturday to prevent nuclear accidents at two atomic plants where Japanese authorities scrambled on Saturday to prevent nuclear accidents at two atomic plants where reactor cooling systems failed, as it evacuated tens of thousands of residents.


Radiation 1,000 times above normal was detected in the control room of one plant, although authorities said levels outside the facility's gates were only eight times above normal, spelling "no immediate health hazard".


The two nuclear plants affected are the Fukushima No. 1 and No. 2 plants, both located about 250 kilometres  northeast of greater Tokyo.


A total of 45,000 people living within a 10-kilometre radius of the No. 1 plant were told to evacuate -- raising the number from the fewer than 6,000 people within three kilometres told to leave Friday.


Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan early on Saturday morning left on a helicopter ride to Fukushima to assess the situation at the plants operated by Tokyo Electric Power, and at other areas in the disaster zone.


When Friday's massive quake hit, the plants immediately shut down, along with others in quake-hit parts of Japan, as they are designed to do -- but the No. 1 plant's cooling system failed, the government said.


When reactors shut down, cooling systems must kick in to bring down the very high temperatures. These systems are powered by either the external electricity grid, backup generators or batteries.


This is key to prevent a "nuclear meltdown" and radioactive release.Japan's network of advanced nuclear power plants are designed to shut down as soon as the earth shakes in one of the world's most quake-prone countries, though a fire broke out in the turbine building of another nuclear plant in Onagawa., as it evacuated tens of thousands of residents.


Radiation 1,000 times above normal was detected in the control room of one plant, although authorities said levels outside the facility's gates were only eight times above normal, spelling "no immediate health hazard".


The two nuclear plants affected are the Fukushima No. 1 and No. 2 plants, both located about 250 kilometres  northeast of greater Tokyo.


A total of 45,000 people living within a 10-kilometre radius of the No. 1 plant were told to evacuate -- raising the number from the fewer than 6,000 people within three kilometres told to leave Friday.


Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan early on Saturday morning left on a helicopter ride to Fukushima to assess the situation at the plants operated by Tokyo Electric Power, and at other areas in the disaster zone.


When Friday's massive quake hit, the plants immediately shut down, along with others in quake-hit parts of Japan, as they are designed to do -- but the No. 1 plant's cooling system failed, the government said.


When reactors shut down, cooling systems must kick in to bring down the very high temperatures. These systems are powered by either the external electricity grid, backup generators or batteries.


This is key to prevent a "nuclear meltdown" and radioactive release.Japan's network of advanced nuclear power plants are designed to shut down as soon as the earth shakes in one of the world's most quake-prone countries, though a fire broke out in the turbine building of another nuclear plant in Onagawa.

26 people have died UP TO NOW from the MASSIVE tsunami in Japan !

Up to 26 people are reported to have been killed after one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded struck Japan, triggering a 10-metre-high tsunami along parts of the country's northeastern coastline.


The massive 8.9-magnitude earthquake struck Japan on Friday, sweeping away cars, boats, homes and people as widespread fires burned out of control.Japan's NHK television reported many injuries and showed pictures of major tsunami damage in the north, with buildings being inundated by waves of water in Onahama city in Fukushima prefecture.



Japan's meteorological agency said 26 people have been confirmed dead in the aftermath of the quake and tsunami, and 44 fires have broken out across the country.


The death toll included three people who were reportedly crushed to death when their houses collapsed in Ibaraki prefecture, northeast of the capital, Tokyo.News of the death toll came amid a warning that another strong quake could be imminent on the northeast Honshu island, Japan's main island.


Japan's prime minister addressed the nation after the quake, saying major damage had been done but that help is on the way.

Massive 8.9 quake, tsunamis hits Coastal Region of Japan !

An 8.9-magnitude earthquake hit northern Japan on Friday, triggering tsunamis and sending a massive body of water filled with debris that included boats and houses inching toward highways.


The epicenter was 373 kilometers (231 miles) away from the capital, Tokyo, the United States Geological Survey said. But residents there felt the tremors.


The quake rattled buildings and toppled cars off bridges and into waters underneath. Waves of debris flowed like lava across farmland, pushing boats, houses and trailers toward highways.


Tsunami warnings issued for other countries


In Tokyo, crowds gathered in the streets and tried to reach relatives via cell phone.


Scenes inside office buildings showed papers strewn all over the floor and people clinging onto seats and desks.


Such a large earthquake at such a shallow depth creates a lot of energy, said Shenza Chen of the U.S. Geological Survey.


It caused a power outage in about 4 million homes in Tokyo and surrounding areas.
A tsunami in the Pacific was moving closer to other shorelines in other countries, said CNN meteorologist Ivan Cabrera.


It triggered tsunami warnings for various countries, including Japan and Russia, the National Weather Service said.


"Earthquakes of this size are known to generate tsunamis potentially dangerous to coasts outside the source region," it said.


"Based on all available data a tsunami may have been generated by this earthquake that could be destructive on coastal areas even far from the epicenter."


The quake was the latest in a series in the region this week.


Early Thursday, an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.3 struck off the coast of Honshu.


A day earlier, a 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck off of Honshu, the country's meteorological agency said.


The largest recorded quake took place in Chile on May 22, 1960, with a magnitude of 9.5, the USGS said.


- Japan Tsunami Earthquake Videos - 

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