Workers used paper towels to wipe up radioactive water that spilled from a spent nuclear fuel storage pool at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant during the 6.8-magnitude earthquake that hit Niigata Prefecture.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) is saying that they have nothing to hide from International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors who are scheduled to arrive in Japan to inspect the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant, which was severely damaged by an earthquake recently.
Yesterday I posted a short piece about a radioactive water leak at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant, the world’s largest, in northeastern Japan following a major earthquake there on Monday.
Now we get word that in addition to the leaking water there were other problems caused by the quake, including nuclear waste drums that spilled, fires, and burst pipes.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said a total of 50 cases of malfunctioning and trouble had been found at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant since Monday’s magnitude 6.6 quake, which killed at least nine people and left 13,000 homeless.
The company said they were still inspecting the plant, which shut down automatically after the quake, and further problems could emerge.
TEPCO claims all of the problems are minor ones that are no threat to people or the environment.
“Personally I think a nuclear power plant is the safest place you could go in an earthquake,” said Hisashi Ninokata, a nuclear engineering professor at Tokyo Institute of Technology. “That’s how much care they take over construction.”
Japan’s 55 nuclear reactors (the U.S. has 104) produce about one third of its electrical power.
Tokyo Electric Power Company has announced that its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant, the largest in the world, leaked radioactive water following a strong earthquake in northeast Japan today.
SunShine Co. Ltd., a security firm in Tokyo, is planning to market a home earthquake warning device from this coming October.
The size of a paperback book, the EQGuard accesses data from the early warning system network maintained by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JAMA) via the Internet and sounds a loud countdown up to 20 seconds before an earthquake starts.
According to SunShine, the countdown should give people warning enough to allow them to duck under a table, turn off fires, etc.
The appliance sends alerts once it detects primary waves, or the first waves of an earthquake that do not cause major rattling but travel faster than the secondary waves that are responsible for the actual shaking.
The alerts could precede the shaking by 10 to 20 seconds, although the period would be much shorter — and in some cases absent — if the tremor’s center is near.
I don’t know. . . To me it sounds like that old George Carlin routine in which he imagines a two-minute warning before we die. Two minutes before you check out, a voice goes off in your head, “You’ve got two minutes. . . Get your sh*t together. . .”
Via The Raw Feed.
Japan’s vulnerability to natural disasters is increasing as skyscrapers mushroom in cities, shopping malls go underground and the population ages, a recent government report says.
“In addition to growing risk of natural hazards, our society has become more vulnerable to disasters,” the disaster prevention white paper said. According to an Associated Press report in China Post:
Densely populated cities are crowded with high-rise buildings and apartments that are at higher risk in earthquakes and storms. Proliferating underground shopping malls are also vulnerable to quakes and flooding. The growing percentage of elderly in the population also presents rescuers with more people likely to be hurt in a disaster, coupled with fewer able-bodied who can help them.
The report called for awareness-raising campaigns, more active participation in disaster prevention activities by companies, and research and development of earthquake and tsunami alert technologies.
While Japan’s vulnerability is growing, so is extreme weather. Over the past decade, the number of torrential rains have nearly doubled and major earthquakes occurred in areas not considered usual danger zones, such as Niigata and Noto in northern Japan.
The report said the number of skyscrapers exceeding the height of 100 meters (330 feet) has more than quadrupled over the last 15 years while the number of single elderly households nearly doubled in the last decade.
It seems as though quite a few people in Nagasaki are having deja vu in regards to the tragic shooting death of Mayor Ito.
The Yomiuri Shimbun has published this following article in regards to the incident. Here is a portion of the story:
After I passed the bus terminal [at the station], I heard a sound like an explosion. When I turned around, I saw a man lying there and a woman screaming,” said Koji Tanaka, a 25-year old who first made the call to the police.
“When I returned to the scene after making the call, I saw a cloth had been placed over the man who had collapsed, and another man, probably the shooter, had been subdued by policemen,” he said.
“I’m shocked to have found out that the man was the mayor,” Tanaka added.
There has been a school shooting in the United States. This is off-topic for JAPUNDIT, but the world is too small a place for us who are not American to not be affected by this horrible disaster. Japan is just an ocean away and I’d simply like to brief you on the news that is being broadcasted on NHK and I assume now around the world:
At least 30 people are killed and 20 more and injured, in two incidents when a lone gunman opened fire on the Virginia Tech campus. Police said they believed the shooter also was dead. Tech President Charles Steger called the shootings “a tragedy of monumental proportions.”
Again, even though Japan is an ocean away, I want to say how sad I am and I am sure others here at JAPUNDIT are for this terrible tragedy.
Update:
The identity of the gunman has been released
His name is Cho Seung-Hui. He is a South Korean male enrolled at the school. He was a 23-year-old in the U.S. as a resident alien. Cho was enrolled as an undergraduate student in his senior year as an English major at Virginia Tech.
I don’t want to seem callous, but I literally had to look at the byline of this story to see if I hadn’t stumbled across something from last year. . . Or the year before that. . . Or the year before that. . .
The Yomiuri Shimbun has published an excellent editorial piece concerning the recent earthquake in Ishikawa Prefecture. Here is a piece of the article:
Protecting against quakes
In the Niigata Prefecture Chuetsu Earthquake in 2004, more than 60 communities were cut off and supplies of water and food did not reach them for some time. A government study carried out in the wake of this earthquake found that about 17,000 communities likely could be isolated in the event of a natural disaster such as an earthquake.
In the Noto earthquake, most of the houses that were destroyed were old wooden ones. It is said that 25 percent of the nation’s houses and apartment buildings do not have sufficient earthquake resistance.
The government has been promoting the strengthening of houses and buildings to ensure they can survive a quake, but renovations and reinforcement work are proceeding slowly. In this regard, the government must urgently introduce new measures.
Japanese fishermen are thrown from a small boat as they attempted to rescue a sperm whale in Uwajima Bay. That’s about about 800 km (500 miles) southwest of Tokyo.
One fisherman drowned in the incident.
The FIFA Club World Cup has gone to South America again, as Brazilian champions Internacional shaded Spanish champs Barcelona 1-0 to win before 67,000 at the International Stadium in Yokohama last week.
The coming together of the champions from all of the world’s football (or soccer, whichever you prefer) federations is held every year in Japan.
European teams seem to see it as a great opportunity to broaden their fan base in Asia, so not lifting the trophy is quite a blow after making the journey.
But the Spanish newspapers were plastered the following day not with photos of a weeping Ronaldinho, but of a weeping little Japanese boy, an ardent Barcelona fan.
The photograph, popular with the Spanish sporting papers as it symbolised the disappointment of losing, seems to have struck a cord in the Barca boardroom too. Barcelona’s chairman Joan Laporta had the boy traced. It turned out that the boy was also meant to be a match mascot at one of the CWC games, but instead of lining up with his Barca heroes, was instead assigned to their opponents
To make up for the double disappointment, Laporta has extended a personal invitation to the boy to Barcelona’s Camp Neu for one of Barca’s home games later this season. Which I dare say will dry those eyes.
[With thanks to Remora. And apologies for inaccuracies - the original Spanish story was translated into Japanese before coming to me in English...]
For the past couple of weeks the rainy season has wreaked havoc in southwestern Japan, provoking floods, mudslides, mercilessly killing dozens of people and forcing thousands of others to evacuate. As if all this wasn’t enough, it appears the seasonal front responsible for that, which usually sweeps Japan from south to north, has come to a full stop somewhere over the northern part of Kyushu. There’s no telling how many more victims there will be…
Japanese police raided offices connected with Schindler Elevator K.K. as well as a housing corporation in an effort to determine the cause of an elevator accident that killed a teenage boy last weekend.
The accident in which high school student Hirosuke Ichikawa, 16, died Saturday happened when an elevator in a Minato Ward condominium building went up with its doors open. Ichikawa was caught between the elevator and the frame, police said.
He suffered a fractured skull and died soon after being taken to a hospital.
Ever since the accident, Japanese TV and print news sources have been filled with reports about problems with Schindler elevators.
Kyodo News reports that there were 265 accidents involving Schindler elevators in Japan since 1999, 136 of which occurred in Tokyo. Because of this, the Japanese government has ordered inspections of more than 7,000 of the company’s elevators throughout the nation.
Schindler Elevator K.K. is part of the Switzerland-based Schindler Holding AG group.
A report in The Asahi Shimbun reveals that Japan has an AIDS problem that is not getting the attention it deserves.
The number of persons affected by AIDS is on the rise in Tokyo, with an average of 1.14 people being confirmed as either HIV positive or having developed AIDS each day.
Last year saw record numbers of people affected by the disease.
During 2005, 417 people within the Tokyo area were diagnosed as having being HIV positive, compared to only 51 people in 1990.
Not only are numbers up, but the social dynamic of those affected has shifted: Last year, 90 percent of the 417 people diagnosed were Japanese men, a major change from 1992, when 60 percent were confirmed to be non-Japanese.
People in their 20s and 30s account for 72 percent of people with AIDS in the city, and there has been an increase in the number affected through homosexual activity.
One expert says that the number of people who actually have AIDS is four to five times the level being officially reported.
Check out this website of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, which provides information to gaijin (foreigners) about what they need to in case of an earthquake.
Stay close to black men in areas where walls might fall. They will hold up the wall and allow you escape.
Stay away from black men on the train. They tend to fall over easily.
Black men tend to spread rumours but become quite contrite when yelled at.
P.S. There are no black women or children in Japan.
Many thanks to Alex Kane.
We reported on the Aneha building design scandal right when it broke. Since then it has taken so many twists and turns that you could probably devote a full-time blog to it.
Now we get word that the number of condominiums that were built using Aneha designs that are not up to required earthquake resistance specs has reached 98. These buildings are in danger of being seriously damaged in the event of a strong earthquake.
Many of the defective buildings are known to have been built by the bankrupt Kimura Construction Co. and designed by its subsidiary Heisei Sekkei design office. The bankrupt Huser Ltd. of Tokyo developed and sold many defective condos while a Tokyo-based consulting firm for hotel construction and operations, General Consultant Management, has been involved in building and managing those budget hotels.
That’s 98 buildings by a single architect. You’ve got to wonder show many other buildings there are out there that they don’t know about.
I read in the Yomiuri this morning that Monday (March 20) marked the 11th anniversary of the sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system by the Aum Shirikyo cult that killed 12 and injured 5,500.
Around the same time Aum also released sarin in Matsumoto, killing seven and injuring 200. They also kidnapped and murdered a lawyer representing the family of a cult member, along with his wife and infant son.
11 years. . . Yet Aum cult guru Shoko Asahara continues to enjoy life, wanking away to his heart’s content, with the taxpayers of Japan picking up the tab.
Why is this guy still alive?
Why has his head not yet been passed through the business end of the hangman’s rope? I’d be happy to pull the lever on this guy.
As if the Chinese weren’t giving us enough to worry about, here’s another problem that has the potential to cause difficulty down the road—the technology of the ultrasound machine has caused families in China, as well as South Korea, Bangladesh, Taiwan, and India, to abort female fetuses and give priority to males.
As a result, the natural 105-to-100 male-to-female ratio is now 120-100 in China. This could result in a potentially explosive 40 million surplus young men on the loose by 2020.
Martin Walker suggests what could happen in an article in Foreign Policy called The Geopolitics of Sexual Frustration:
It is possible to dream up all kinds of scenarios: Mumbai and Shanghai may soon rival San Francisco as gay capitals. A Beijing power struggle between cautious old technocrats and aggressive young nationalists may be decided by mobs of rootless young men, demanding uniforms, rifles, and a chance to liberate Taiwan. More likely, the organized crime networks that traffic in women will shift their deliveries toward Asia and build a brothel culture large enough to satisfy millions of sexually frustrated young men.
The entire piece can be found here.
Reuters announced yesterday that a major earthquake hitting North-Eastern Japan could potentially trigger a 22-meter tsunami, killing approximately 3000 people and causing more than a trillion yen (8.6 billion USD) in damage. Considering how the 2004 tsunami wreaked havoc with a height of 10 meters, I would say this is a VERY conservative estimate.
To give you an idea, I made this very simple sketch keeping proportions accurate.
The man in the sketch would be about 170 cm tall (about 5′6”), next to a 7 story building.
Man, I live in Sendai, the capital of North-Eastern Japan, AND a harbor city. Should I consider moving?
