March 17, 2011
By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON
NEW ORLEANS — Justice Department officials on Thursday released the findings of a 10-month investigation into this city’s Police Department, revealing a force that is profoundly and alarmingly troubled and setting in motion a process for its wholesale reform.
The report describes in chilling detail a department that is severely dysfunctional on every level: one that regularly uses excessive force on civilians, frequently fails to investigate serious crimes and has a deeply inadequate, in many cases nonexistent, system of accountability.
Using the report as a guideline, federal and local officials will now enter into negotiations leading to a consent decree, a blueprint for systemic reform that will be enforced by a federal judge.
“There is nobody in this room that is surprised by the general tenor and the tone of what this report has to say,” said Mitch Landrieu, the mayor of New Orleans, at a news conference attended by city and federal officials.
But, added Mr. Landrieu, who publicly invited federal intervention in the Police Department just days after his inauguration in May, “I look forward to a very spirited partnership and one that actually transforms this Police Department into one of the best in the country.”
The city’s police chief, Ronal Serpas, said he fully embraced the report and would be going over its findings with senior leadership later in the day.
While the report describes an appalling array of abuses and bad practices, it does not address in detail any of the nine or more federal criminal investigations into the department. These inquiries have already led to the convictions of three police officers, one for fatally shooting an unarmed civilian and another for burning the body.
Justice Department officials chose to exclude the information gleaned in the criminal inquiries to keep a wall between those investigations and the larger civil investigation into the practices of the department. But there were more than enough problems left to uncover.
While other departments generally have problems in specific areas, like the use of excessive force, “New Orleans has every issue that has existed in our practice to date, and a few that we hadn’t encountered,” said Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s civil rights division.
The report reveals that the department has not found a policy violation in any officer-involved shooting for the last six years, though federal officials who reviewed the records found that violations had clearly occurred. The department’s canine unit was so badly mismanaged — the dogs were so aggressive they frequently attacked their handlers — that federal officials encouraged the department to suspend it last year even though the investigation was still under way.
The report details a record of discriminatory policing, with a ratio of arrests of blacks to whites standing at nearly 16 to 1. Calls for police assistance by non-English speakers often went unanswered.
The report also found that the police “systemically misclassified possible sexual assaults, resulting in a sweeping failure to properly investigate many potential cases of rape, attempted rape and other sex crimes.”
The problems described in the report go beyond policy failings, depicting a culture of dysfunction that reaches all facets of the department. The recruitment program is described as anemic, training as “severely deficient in nearly every respect,” and supervision as poor or in some cases nonexistent.
The department has attracted this level of scrutiny before. As bad as it appears now, the police force was far more troubled in the mid-1990s. Two officers from that era are now on death row, and the number of murders in the city at the time soared above 400.
Federal agents conducted a similar investigation of the department, but there was less cooperation by local officials and, crucially, there was no consent decree.
While the department improved for a time, the structural problems remained and festered, as Thursday’s report makes clear.
This time, there will be federal court oversight, and there is already widespread consensus that systemic police reform is needed. Confidence in the department is so low that prosecutors have trouble finding juries, as so many prospective jurors declare that they would not put any trust in the testimony of a New Orleans police officer.
The robust citizen engagement that has been a significant factor in the city’s recovery from Hurricane Katrina has also changed the dynamic, officials said. While the New Orleans police force may be troubled to a rare degree, federal officials also described the city’s appetite for systemic reform as unprecedented.
Federal officials said the team of agents assigned to investigate the department worked with police leadership as well as rank-and-file officers. Investigators also reached out to community leaders to a degree that they had not previously done.
Still, officials acknowledge that changing the department’s entrenched culture will be hard and will take years. Though Mr. Serpas, who was an officer during the reform efforts in the 1990s, has already begun addressing many of the concerns, news reports of police abuses during the Mardi Gras season have come out in the past few weeks, and the number of homicides is still stubbornly high.
“I’m not naïve about the hard work that lies ahead,” Mr. Perez said, adding that he was still optimistic. “I’m certain that we’re in a qualitatively different position than we were 10 years ago.”
Community advocates viewed the day’s announcement with a mix of hope and skepticism. Some groups had been trying to draw attention to police abuse in the city for years before their complaints were noticed by law enforcement.
“Nobody believed anything we said,” said Norris Henderson, a founder of a group for former prisoners called Voice of the Ex-Offender. He said he was encouraged that community groups were so involved in the federal inquiry, but was concerned about the level of involvement going forward.
“Will we be a part of the conversation?” he asked. “Just going to the quote-unquote criminal justice folks, well, y’all the folks responsible for this damn problem.”
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Friday, March 18, 2011
17/03 Crisis Prompts Exodus of Executives From Tokyo
March 17, 2011
By DAVID JOLLY and KEN BELSON
TOKYO — The crisis at the nuclear power plant 140 miles north of here is leading to a steady but orderly departure of business executives from Tokyo. Foreigners in particular are among those leaving, as concerns grow about the possibility of a catastrophic release of radiation and governments urge their citizens to consider seeking safety elsewhere in Japan or overseas.
Much as in 2003, when the SARS virus slowed business around Asia, a peculiar psychology has taken hold in Tokyo, where businessmen with the wherewithal are weighing whether to decamp to cities south and west of Tokyo — or wait and see whether the nuclear emergency escalates further.
The confusion, in addition to the distraction of relocating employees, is preventing some companies from addressing urgent problems in shattered plants and facilities along the northeastern coast of the main island, Honshu, which was ravaged by the earthquake and tsunami last week.
And the oppressive atmosphere of fear has made concentrating on even routine tasks difficult. Meetings are being canceled, salesmen have given up visiting clients and stores are cutting back hours or closing entirely. Getting a table in even the most popular restaurants has suddenly become easier.
There are no open signs of panic on the streets of Tokyo. But executives from a growing number of banks, law firms, consultants and other businesses have started to rent space in Osaka or Fukuoka or other cities farther from the badly damaged nuclear reactors.
With thousands of Japanese also fleeing the quake-stricken areas in the north, travel on domestic airlines and bullet trains headed away from northern Japan has climbed, and rooms in hotels considered out of harm’s way are filling up.
In many cases, the Tokyo evacuees are expatriates, often prompted by their governments’ embassies, which have recommended that their citizens seek shelter elsewhere as a precaution. The German government, for instance, advised its citizens in Tokyo and areas north either to leave the country or head to the Osaka area. The United States Embassy said it would help fly American citizens in Japan to safer places. Britain, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Australia are among the other countries whose governments have told their nationals to consider leaving Tokyo and to refrain from traveling to Japan’s northeast. France has asked Air France to mobilize extra planes for evacuations.
Two Czech military planes landed in Prague on Thursday morning after evacuating 106 people from Japan, mostly Czechs but also several nationals of Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Korea, the Associated Press reported. Also onboard were 41 members of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra that had been touring Japan since March 6, as well as 11 children.
China has already evacuated more than 3,000 nationals from Japan’s north coast to Niigata in the west, Xinhua News agency reported.
Japanese authorities have responded to these various moves by urging governments not to sound alarmist. But Japanese companies, too, have started to move some of their employees — or give them the option of working from home. The reaction is partly in response to the reduction in train service in the Tokyo region caused by rolling blackouts that are meant to conserve energy.
The French nuclear power operator Areva is one of many companies moving workers and their families away from areas affected by the disaster or the possible path of radioactive fallout. Eighteen of the firm’s 100 employees, including Americans and Germans, left a mission they were on at the Fukishima nuclear plant when the earthquake hit, a spokeswoman said.
Since the weekend, Areva has been relocating the families of expatriate workers who want to leave Tokyo to the Kyushu region in the south, although employees considered most vital to operations have been asked to stay in the city.
Many other companies are responding in one of three ways: giving employees the option of leaving the area; moving some staff to Osaka while maintaining a skeleton staff in Tokyo, or shutting down operations in Tokyo and setting up elsewhere.
The law firm Jones Day, for instance, has shut its Tokyo office except to deal with urgent court filings. Chartis, the Japanese division of A.I.G., has moved some of its managers from Tokyo to its regional command center in Osaka. The bulk of companies, though, are letting workers decide for themselves whether to go or stay.
SAP, the German software giant, which has about 1,000 employees in Tokyo, has instructed all employees to work from home for now. The company has also given them the option of moving to hotel rooms in Kobe or Osaka, at company expense, if they choose, and to take their families with them.
An SAP spokeswoman, Angelika Pfahler, said the company took the measure shortly after the earthquake hit for safety reasons, although company headquarters here did not suffer any serious damage. Because it is a software company, it is possible for SAP to continue to operate almost normally even when workers are at remote locations, she said.
Martin Reilly, 43, an Irish software designer who works for the French insurance giant AXA, said his company had given employees the option to move, while keeping enough people in Tokyo to maintain operations. Though he said he was not fearful, Mr. Reilly was nevertheless taking the precaution of traveling to Osaka.
“I’m taking my work with me, and I can be back in three hours when this is cleared up,” Mr. Reilly said at Tokyo Station before boarding a train. “I think the chances of something happening are very small. But my parents are going ballistic. If I don’t go, my mother’s going to get on a plane and come take me away.”
The clothing retailer H&M has temporarily closed its nine stores in the Tokyo region because its employees had difficulty getting to work and were on edge while the nuclear crisis continued, said Mie Anton, a spokeswoman for the company. The planned opening of a store on Saturday has been postponed.
The disruption could provide an extra blow to Japan’s economy because so much of the nation’s business takes place in the capital, although it is too early to quantify the effect on consumer spending and business investment.
Hideo Kumano, chief economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute in Tokyo, said some companies were clearly taking the initiative in leaving the city, particularly in the foreign community. But short of an evacuation order, most people will remain in the city because so far, “it’s hard to judge just how dangerous it is,” he said.
Most Japanese residents, he said, “have nowhere to hide.”
The growing number of departures, sometimes with little warning, has in some cases worsened the tensions that often divide local and expatriate staff. The International Bankers Association, which represents foreign financial institutions in Tokyo, said in a statement that its 59 member institutions were operating “business as usual.” But privately, spokesmen for major Western banks said that many of their employees had chosen to take vacations now until there was more clarity on the situation.
While economic activity in Tokyo has slowed, business in cities like Osaka has picked up, a welcome development — despite the circumstances — given the sluggish economy.
Shuhei Otsuka, 24, an employee of the railroad operator JR-East at Tokyo Station, compared the number of Japanese riders in the last few days with the New Year’s holiday rush or the summer vacation travel peak.
Many of the Japanese travelers were families, or mothers with children, while the number of businessmen traveling was about normal, Mr. Otsuka said. Domestic travel agents said that reservations for flights to the islands of Kyushu and Okinawa surged starting Tuesday.
Bookings at hotels that cater to the well-heeled and to expatriates have picked up as well. Many customers who have arrived this week appeared to have left their homes in a rush, said Matsuko Akesaka, a spokeswoman for the Ritz-Carlton in Osaka. Many guests have booked rooms — which start at 58,000 yen, or $720 — for only a few nights until they decide whether it is safe to return.
“Business is nothing like during the bubble economy, but compared to the last few years, it’s picked up” in the last few days, she said, noting that her hotel had set up a playroom for children who had accompanied their parents.
Some companies are planning to stay in cities like Osaka and Kobe for far longer. Demand for office space at full-service backup operations providers like Regus and Servcorp has surged as companies set up or expand their remote operations outside the Tokyo area, said Brett Jensen, account manager for west Japan at the Osaka office of Colliers International, a real estate broker.
Other companies are expanding existing offices in Osaka and elsewhere, or signing new leases for office space.
“The nuclear issue is one of the main drivers, but there is also concern about the ability to have a stable supply of electricity even after the nuclear issue is resolved,” Mr. Jensen said. Thousands of workers could temporarily relocate to Osaka, he said, and many could remain long-term as companies decide to diversify their risks.
The influx of newcomers has been noticeable in central Osaka in recent days. Ken Shimabuku, who works for a large executive search firm in Osaka, said he had been surprised Tuesday by the number of people carrying suitcases through the streets. “It was so obvious that people were going away,” he said. “Not just foreigners, the ones coming to Osaka, but the Japanese.”
Liz Alderman contributed reporting from Paris and Jack Ewing from Frankfurt.
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By DAVID JOLLY and KEN BELSON
TOKYO — The crisis at the nuclear power plant 140 miles north of here is leading to a steady but orderly departure of business executives from Tokyo. Foreigners in particular are among those leaving, as concerns grow about the possibility of a catastrophic release of radiation and governments urge their citizens to consider seeking safety elsewhere in Japan or overseas.
Much as in 2003, when the SARS virus slowed business around Asia, a peculiar psychology has taken hold in Tokyo, where businessmen with the wherewithal are weighing whether to decamp to cities south and west of Tokyo — or wait and see whether the nuclear emergency escalates further.
The confusion, in addition to the distraction of relocating employees, is preventing some companies from addressing urgent problems in shattered plants and facilities along the northeastern coast of the main island, Honshu, which was ravaged by the earthquake and tsunami last week.
And the oppressive atmosphere of fear has made concentrating on even routine tasks difficult. Meetings are being canceled, salesmen have given up visiting clients and stores are cutting back hours or closing entirely. Getting a table in even the most popular restaurants has suddenly become easier.
There are no open signs of panic on the streets of Tokyo. But executives from a growing number of banks, law firms, consultants and other businesses have started to rent space in Osaka or Fukuoka or other cities farther from the badly damaged nuclear reactors.
With thousands of Japanese also fleeing the quake-stricken areas in the north, travel on domestic airlines and bullet trains headed away from northern Japan has climbed, and rooms in hotels considered out of harm’s way are filling up.
In many cases, the Tokyo evacuees are expatriates, often prompted by their governments’ embassies, which have recommended that their citizens seek shelter elsewhere as a precaution. The German government, for instance, advised its citizens in Tokyo and areas north either to leave the country or head to the Osaka area. The United States Embassy said it would help fly American citizens in Japan to safer places. Britain, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Australia are among the other countries whose governments have told their nationals to consider leaving Tokyo and to refrain from traveling to Japan’s northeast. France has asked Air France to mobilize extra planes for evacuations.
Two Czech military planes landed in Prague on Thursday morning after evacuating 106 people from Japan, mostly Czechs but also several nationals of Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Korea, the Associated Press reported. Also onboard were 41 members of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra that had been touring Japan since March 6, as well as 11 children.
China has already evacuated more than 3,000 nationals from Japan’s north coast to Niigata in the west, Xinhua News agency reported.
Japanese authorities have responded to these various moves by urging governments not to sound alarmist. But Japanese companies, too, have started to move some of their employees — or give them the option of working from home. The reaction is partly in response to the reduction in train service in the Tokyo region caused by rolling blackouts that are meant to conserve energy.
The French nuclear power operator Areva is one of many companies moving workers and their families away from areas affected by the disaster or the possible path of radioactive fallout. Eighteen of the firm’s 100 employees, including Americans and Germans, left a mission they were on at the Fukishima nuclear plant when the earthquake hit, a spokeswoman said.
Since the weekend, Areva has been relocating the families of expatriate workers who want to leave Tokyo to the Kyushu region in the south, although employees considered most vital to operations have been asked to stay in the city.
Many other companies are responding in one of three ways: giving employees the option of leaving the area; moving some staff to Osaka while maintaining a skeleton staff in Tokyo, or shutting down operations in Tokyo and setting up elsewhere.
The law firm Jones Day, for instance, has shut its Tokyo office except to deal with urgent court filings. Chartis, the Japanese division of A.I.G., has moved some of its managers from Tokyo to its regional command center in Osaka. The bulk of companies, though, are letting workers decide for themselves whether to go or stay.
SAP, the German software giant, which has about 1,000 employees in Tokyo, has instructed all employees to work from home for now. The company has also given them the option of moving to hotel rooms in Kobe or Osaka, at company expense, if they choose, and to take their families with them.
An SAP spokeswoman, Angelika Pfahler, said the company took the measure shortly after the earthquake hit for safety reasons, although company headquarters here did not suffer any serious damage. Because it is a software company, it is possible for SAP to continue to operate almost normally even when workers are at remote locations, she said.
Martin Reilly, 43, an Irish software designer who works for the French insurance giant AXA, said his company had given employees the option to move, while keeping enough people in Tokyo to maintain operations. Though he said he was not fearful, Mr. Reilly was nevertheless taking the precaution of traveling to Osaka.
“I’m taking my work with me, and I can be back in three hours when this is cleared up,” Mr. Reilly said at Tokyo Station before boarding a train. “I think the chances of something happening are very small. But my parents are going ballistic. If I don’t go, my mother’s going to get on a plane and come take me away.”
The clothing retailer H&M has temporarily closed its nine stores in the Tokyo region because its employees had difficulty getting to work and were on edge while the nuclear crisis continued, said Mie Anton, a spokeswoman for the company. The planned opening of a store on Saturday has been postponed.
The disruption could provide an extra blow to Japan’s economy because so much of the nation’s business takes place in the capital, although it is too early to quantify the effect on consumer spending and business investment.
Hideo Kumano, chief economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute in Tokyo, said some companies were clearly taking the initiative in leaving the city, particularly in the foreign community. But short of an evacuation order, most people will remain in the city because so far, “it’s hard to judge just how dangerous it is,” he said.
Most Japanese residents, he said, “have nowhere to hide.”
The growing number of departures, sometimes with little warning, has in some cases worsened the tensions that often divide local and expatriate staff. The International Bankers Association, which represents foreign financial institutions in Tokyo, said in a statement that its 59 member institutions were operating “business as usual.” But privately, spokesmen for major Western banks said that many of their employees had chosen to take vacations now until there was more clarity on the situation.
While economic activity in Tokyo has slowed, business in cities like Osaka has picked up, a welcome development — despite the circumstances — given the sluggish economy.
Shuhei Otsuka, 24, an employee of the railroad operator JR-East at Tokyo Station, compared the number of Japanese riders in the last few days with the New Year’s holiday rush or the summer vacation travel peak.
Many of the Japanese travelers were families, or mothers with children, while the number of businessmen traveling was about normal, Mr. Otsuka said. Domestic travel agents said that reservations for flights to the islands of Kyushu and Okinawa surged starting Tuesday.
Bookings at hotels that cater to the well-heeled and to expatriates have picked up as well. Many customers who have arrived this week appeared to have left their homes in a rush, said Matsuko Akesaka, a spokeswoman for the Ritz-Carlton in Osaka. Many guests have booked rooms — which start at 58,000 yen, or $720 — for only a few nights until they decide whether it is safe to return.
“Business is nothing like during the bubble economy, but compared to the last few years, it’s picked up” in the last few days, she said, noting that her hotel had set up a playroom for children who had accompanied their parents.
Some companies are planning to stay in cities like Osaka and Kobe for far longer. Demand for office space at full-service backup operations providers like Regus and Servcorp has surged as companies set up or expand their remote operations outside the Tokyo area, said Brett Jensen, account manager for west Japan at the Osaka office of Colliers International, a real estate broker.
Other companies are expanding existing offices in Osaka and elsewhere, or signing new leases for office space.
“The nuclear issue is one of the main drivers, but there is also concern about the ability to have a stable supply of electricity even after the nuclear issue is resolved,” Mr. Jensen said. Thousands of workers could temporarily relocate to Osaka, he said, and many could remain long-term as companies decide to diversify their risks.
The influx of newcomers has been noticeable in central Osaka in recent days. Ken Shimabuku, who works for a large executive search firm in Osaka, said he had been surprised Tuesday by the number of people carrying suitcases through the streets. “It was so obvious that people were going away,” he said. “Not just foreigners, the ones coming to Osaka, but the Japanese.”
Liz Alderman contributed reporting from Paris and Jack Ewing from Frankfurt.
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Indonesia to Continue Plans for Nuclear Power
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18/03 Nhật ký, ngày 18 tháng 3
Từ hôm qua, có tin là có thể bị cắt điện trên quy mô lớn nến các công ty Nhật bản tại Tokyo cho nhân viên về sớm. Hôm qua tôi rời công ty lúc 4:30 pm. Hôm qua không có xảy ra cúp điện quy mô lớn. Nhưng tối hôm qua lại có động đất lớn xảy ra, ở Tokyo bị chấn động 4 hay 3.
17/03 Japan Offers Little Response to U.S. Assessment
March
17, 2011
By NORIMITSU ONISHI
TOKYO — A day after the top American nuclear official portrayed the situation at the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in graver terms than the government in Japan, United States’ most important Asian ally, Japanese officials attributed the diverging accounts on Thursday to a “delay” in sharing information.
But, in public at least, they offered no sharp rebuttals of the comments made by Gregory Jaczko, the chairman of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, that there was little or no water left in a pool holding hundreds of spent fuel rods at Fukushima Daichi’s No. 4 reactor. He also said that resulting high radiations levels could “impact the ability to take corrective measures.”
Most Japanese citizens did not react to Mr. Jaczko’s comments, which presented a far bleaker assessment of the unfolding nuclear crisis, for the simple reason that they went nearly unreported in the Japanese news media.
“There was a slight delay conveying to the U.S. side the information about whether or not there is water,” the government spokesman, Yukio Edano, said about the No. 4 reactor. Mr. Edano was responding to a question asked by a Japanese journalist at a morning news conference — the single one that dealt with Mr. Jaczko’s comments.
But American officials in Japan appeared to continue to operate on the assumption that the danger level was higher than described by the Japanese. On Thursday evening, the United States Embassy in Tokyo offered space aboard chartered planes for dependents of embassy personnel to any American showing up at the two Tokyo area airports, Haneda and Narita. Perhaps because of what such a move implied about Japan’s own assessment of the potential for nuclear fallout, the embassy declined to provide basic details of the flights.
Karen Kelley, a spokeswoman for the embassy, said that embassy officials organizing the charter flights “prefer” not to say how many planes were leaving Japan, how many passengers were aboard or what their immediate destinations were.
American officials also continued to advise Americans to evacuate a radius of “50 miles” from the Fukushima plant, in contrast to Japanese directives that people within about 12 miles evacuate while those between 12 and 19 miles stay indoors. The difference could leave hundreds of thousands of Japanese exposed to potentially dangerous levels of radiation.
Japanese officials did not flatly deny Mr. Jaczko’s comments but hedged. Asked about the level of water in the No. 4 reactor, Yoshitaka Nagayama, a spokesman for Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, said: “Because we have been unable to go to the scene, we cannot confirm whether there is water left or not in the spent fuel pool at Reactor No. 4.”
The technical nature of the issue perhaps compounded the Japanese news media’s tendency to shield the government. Reporters who cover agencies and ministries are organized in press clubs that have cozy ties with officials and decide what to report — and what not to. The lack of attention received by Mr. Jaczko’s comments was consistent in the news media.
As a result, most residents here were far more concerned with the announcement that a major blackout was being planned to conserve electricity in the Tokyo area. Department stores in this city’s most famous shopping district, Ginza, remained dark as shoppers stayed home. Restaurants closed early as many companies continued to tell their employees to stay home or those working rushed into lightly crowded commuter trains to beat the blackout.
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17, 2011
By NORIMITSU ONISHI
TOKYO — A day after the top American nuclear official portrayed the situation at the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in graver terms than the government in Japan, United States’ most important Asian ally, Japanese officials attributed the diverging accounts on Thursday to a “delay” in sharing information.
But, in public at least, they offered no sharp rebuttals of the comments made by Gregory Jaczko, the chairman of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, that there was little or no water left in a pool holding hundreds of spent fuel rods at Fukushima Daichi’s No. 4 reactor. He also said that resulting high radiations levels could “impact the ability to take corrective measures.”
Most Japanese citizens did not react to Mr. Jaczko’s comments, which presented a far bleaker assessment of the unfolding nuclear crisis, for the simple reason that they went nearly unreported in the Japanese news media.
“There was a slight delay conveying to the U.S. side the information about whether or not there is water,” the government spokesman, Yukio Edano, said about the No. 4 reactor. Mr. Edano was responding to a question asked by a Japanese journalist at a morning news conference — the single one that dealt with Mr. Jaczko’s comments.
But American officials in Japan appeared to continue to operate on the assumption that the danger level was higher than described by the Japanese. On Thursday evening, the United States Embassy in Tokyo offered space aboard chartered planes for dependents of embassy personnel to any American showing up at the two Tokyo area airports, Haneda and Narita. Perhaps because of what such a move implied about Japan’s own assessment of the potential for nuclear fallout, the embassy declined to provide basic details of the flights.
Karen Kelley, a spokeswoman for the embassy, said that embassy officials organizing the charter flights “prefer” not to say how many planes were leaving Japan, how many passengers were aboard or what their immediate destinations were.
American officials also continued to advise Americans to evacuate a radius of “50 miles” from the Fukushima plant, in contrast to Japanese directives that people within about 12 miles evacuate while those between 12 and 19 miles stay indoors. The difference could leave hundreds of thousands of Japanese exposed to potentially dangerous levels of radiation.
Japanese officials did not flatly deny Mr. Jaczko’s comments but hedged. Asked about the level of water in the No. 4 reactor, Yoshitaka Nagayama, a spokesman for Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, said: “Because we have been unable to go to the scene, we cannot confirm whether there is water left or not in the spent fuel pool at Reactor No. 4.”
The technical nature of the issue perhaps compounded the Japanese news media’s tendency to shield the government. Reporters who cover agencies and ministries are organized in press clubs that have cozy ties with officials and decide what to report — and what not to. The lack of attention received by Mr. Jaczko’s comments was consistent in the news media.
As a result, most residents here were far more concerned with the announcement that a major blackout was being planned to conserve electricity in the Tokyo area. Department stores in this city’s most famous shopping district, Ginza, remained dark as shoppers stayed home. Restaurants closed early as many companies continued to tell their employees to stay home or those working rushed into lightly crowded commuter trains to beat the blackout.
More in Asia Pacific (4 of 53 articles)
Easy Fixes at Reactors in Long Run Are Elusive
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17/03 Radiation Spread Seen; Frantic Repairs Go On
March 17, 2011
Kyodo News, via Associated Press
Fire trucks converged in preparation for spraying water at the Fukushima nuclear plant, in Iwaki, on Friday.
By DAVID E. SANGER and WILLIAM J. BROAD
WASHINGTON — The first readings from American data-collection flights over the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in northeastern Japan show that the worst contamination has not spread beyond the 19-mile range of highest concern established by Japanese authorities.
But another day of frantic efforts to cool nuclear fuel in the troubled reactors and in the plant’s spent-fuel pools resulted in little or no progress, according to United States government officials.
Japanese officials said they would continue those efforts, but were also racing to restore electric power to the site to get equipment going again, leaving open the question of why that effort did not begin days ago, at the first signs that the critical backup cooling systems for the reactors had failed.
The data was collected by the Aerial Measuring System, among the most sophisticated devices rushed to Japan by the Obama administration in an effort to help contain a nuclear crisis that a top American nuclear official said Thursday could go on for weeks.
Strapped onto a plane and a helicopter that the United States flew over the site, with Japanese permission, the equipment took measurements that showed harmful radiation in the immediate vicinity of the plant — a much heavier dose than the trace levels of radioactive particles that make up the atmospheric plume covering a much wider area.
While the findings were reassuring in the short term, the United States declined to back away from its warning to Americans there to stay at least 50 miles from the plant, setting up a far larger perimeter than the Japanese government had established. American officials did not release specific radiation readings.
American officials said their biggest worry was that a frenetic series of efforts by the Japanese military to get water into four of the plant’s six reactors — including using water cannons and firefighting helicopters that dropped water but appeared to largely miss their targets — showed few signs of working.
“This is something that will likely take some time to work through, possibly weeks, as eventually you remove the majority of the heat from the reactors and then the spent fuel pool,” said Gregory Jaczko, the chairman of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, briefing reporters at the White House.
The effort by the Japanese to hook some electric power back up to the plant did not begin until Thursday and even if they succeed, it is unclear whether the cooling systems, in reactor buildings battered by a tsunami and then torn apart by hydrogen explosions, survived the crisis in good enough shape to be useful.
“What you are seeing are desperate efforts — just throwing everything at it in hopes something will work,” said one American official with long nuclear experience who would not speak for attribution. “Right now this is more prayer than plan.”
On Thursday, President Obama said that the crisis had convinced him to order the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to do a comprehensive review of the safety of nuclear plants in the United States.
After a day in which American and Japanese officials gave radically different assessments of the danger from the nuclear plant, the two governments tried on Thursday to join forces.
Experts met in Tokyo to compare notes. The United States, with Japanese permission, began to put the intelligence-collection aircraft over the site, in hopes of gaining a view for Washington as well as its allies in Tokyo that did not rely on the announcements of officials from the Tokyo Electric Power Company, which operates Fukushima Daiichi.
American officials say they suspect that the company has consistently underestimated the risk and moved too slowly to contain the damage.
Aircraft normally used to monitor North Korea’s nuclear weapons activities — a Global Hawk drone and U-2 spy planes — were flying missions over the reactor, trying to help the Japanese government map out its response to last week’s 9.0-magnitude earthquake, the tsunami that followed and now the nuclear disaster.
President Obama made an unscheduled stop at the Japanese Embassy to sign a condolence book, writing, “My heart goes out to the people of Japan during this enormous tragedy.” He added, “Because of the strength and wisdom of its people, we know that Japan will recover, and indeed will emerge stronger than ever.”
Later, he appeared in the Rose Garden at the White House to offer continued American support for the earthquake and tsunami victims, and technical help at the nuclear site.
But before the recovery can begin, the nuclear plant must be brought under control. On Friday, steam that was likely laced with radioactive particles was again rising over the plant, this time billowing from reactor No. 2, which suffered an explosion Tuesday. But Japanese authorities said they did not yet know the cause of the latest release.
American officials, meanwhile, remained fixated on the temperature readings inside that reactor and two others that had been operating until the earthquake shut them down, as well as at the plant’s spent fuel pools, looking for any signs that their high levels of heat were going down. If the fuel rods are uncovered and exposed to air, they heat up and can burst into flames, spewing radioactive elements.
So far the officials saw no signs of dropping temperatures. And the Web site of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations nuclear watchdog, made it clear that there were no readings at all from some critical areas. Part of the American effort, by satellites and aircraft, is to identify the hot spots, something the Japanese have not been able to do in some cases.
Critical to that effort are the “pods” flown into Japan by the Air Force over the past day. Made for quick assessments of radiation emergencies, the Aerial Measuring System is an instrument system that fits on a helicopter or fixed-wing aircraft to sample air and survey the land below.
Daniel B. Poneman, the deputy secretary of energy, said at a White House briefing on Thursday that preliminary results of the initial flights “are consistent with the recommendations that came down from the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission,” which led to the 50-mile evacuation guideline given to American expatriates. Although the worst contamination is closer to the plant, the recommendation takes into account the possibility of shifting winds or greater emissions.
The State Department has also said it would fly out of the country any dependents of American diplomats or military personnel within the region of the plant and as far south as Tokyo. Space will be made for other Americans who cannot get a flight, it said.
Getting the Japanese to accept the American detection equipment was a delicate diplomatic maneuver, which some Japanese officials originally resisted. But as it became clear that conditions at the plant were spinning out of control, and with Japanese officials admitting they had little hard evidence about whether there was water in the cooling pools or breaches in the reactor containment structures, they began to accept more help.
The sensors on the instrument pod are good at mapping radioactive isotopes, like cesium 137, which has been detected around the nuclear plant and has a half-life of 30 years. In high doses, it can cause acute radiation sickness. Lower doses can alter cellular function, leading to an increased risk of cancer.
Cesium 137 can enter the body through many foods, including milk.
On Wednesday, when the American Embassy in Tokyo, on advice from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, told Americans to evacuate a radius of “approximately 50 miles” around the Fukushima plant, the recommendation was based on a specific calculation of risk of radioactive fallout in the affected area.
In a statement, the commission said the advice grew out of its assessment that projected radiation doses within the evacuation zone might exceed one rem to the body or five rems to the thyroid gland. That organ is extremely sensitive to iodine 131 — another of the deadly byproducts of nuclear fuel, this one causing thyroid cancer.
The commission says that the average American is exposed to about 0.62 rem of radiation each year from natural and manmade sources.
The American-provided instruments in Japan measure real levels of radiation on the ground. In contrast, scientists around the world have also begun to draw up forecasts of how the prevailing winds pick up the Japanese radioactive material and carry it over the Pacific in invisible plumes.
Private analysts said the United States was also probably monitoring the reactor crisis with spy satellites that can spot the heat from fires — helping it independently assess the state of the reactor complex from a distance.
Jeffrey G. Lewis, an intelligence specialist at the Monterey Institute, a research center, noted that the Japanese assessment of Reactor No. 4 at the Daiichi complex seemed to depend in part on visual surveillance by helicopter pilots.
“I’ve got to think that, if we put our best assets into answering that question, we can do better,” he said in an interview.
One main concern at No. 4 has been a fire that was burning there earlier in the week; American officials are not convinced that the fire has gone out.
American officials have also worried that the spent-fuel pool at that reactor has run dry, exposing the rods. Japanese officials, however, have concentrated much of their recent efforts on Reactor No. 3, which has been intermittently releasing radiation from what the authorities believe may be a ruptured containment vessel around the reactor. Temperatures at that reactor’s spent fuel pool are also high.
Perhaps because of the difficulties experienced Thursday trying to accurately drop water from helicopters, the Japanese military announced Friday that it was halting those efforts for at least a day.
David E. Sanger reported from Washington, and William J. Broad from New York. Thom Shanker contributed reporting from Washington and Hiroko Tabuchi from Tokyo.
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Kyodo News, via Associated PressFire trucks converged in preparation for spraying water at the Fukushima nuclear plant, in Iwaki, on Friday.
By DAVID E. SANGER and WILLIAM J. BROAD
WASHINGTON — The first readings from American data-collection flights over the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in northeastern Japan show that the worst contamination has not spread beyond the 19-mile range of highest concern established by Japanese authorities.
But another day of frantic efforts to cool nuclear fuel in the troubled reactors and in the plant’s spent-fuel pools resulted in little or no progress, according to United States government officials.
Japanese officials said they would continue those efforts, but were also racing to restore electric power to the site to get equipment going again, leaving open the question of why that effort did not begin days ago, at the first signs that the critical backup cooling systems for the reactors had failed.
The data was collected by the Aerial Measuring System, among the most sophisticated devices rushed to Japan by the Obama administration in an effort to help contain a nuclear crisis that a top American nuclear official said Thursday could go on for weeks.
Strapped onto a plane and a helicopter that the United States flew over the site, with Japanese permission, the equipment took measurements that showed harmful radiation in the immediate vicinity of the plant — a much heavier dose than the trace levels of radioactive particles that make up the atmospheric plume covering a much wider area.
While the findings were reassuring in the short term, the United States declined to back away from its warning to Americans there to stay at least 50 miles from the plant, setting up a far larger perimeter than the Japanese government had established. American officials did not release specific radiation readings.
American officials said their biggest worry was that a frenetic series of efforts by the Japanese military to get water into four of the plant’s six reactors — including using water cannons and firefighting helicopters that dropped water but appeared to largely miss their targets — showed few signs of working.
“This is something that will likely take some time to work through, possibly weeks, as eventually you remove the majority of the heat from the reactors and then the spent fuel pool,” said Gregory Jaczko, the chairman of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, briefing reporters at the White House.
The effort by the Japanese to hook some electric power back up to the plant did not begin until Thursday and even if they succeed, it is unclear whether the cooling systems, in reactor buildings battered by a tsunami and then torn apart by hydrogen explosions, survived the crisis in good enough shape to be useful.
“What you are seeing are desperate efforts — just throwing everything at it in hopes something will work,” said one American official with long nuclear experience who would not speak for attribution. “Right now this is more prayer than plan.”
On Thursday, President Obama said that the crisis had convinced him to order the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to do a comprehensive review of the safety of nuclear plants in the United States.
After a day in which American and Japanese officials gave radically different assessments of the danger from the nuclear plant, the two governments tried on Thursday to join forces.
Experts met in Tokyo to compare notes. The United States, with Japanese permission, began to put the intelligence-collection aircraft over the site, in hopes of gaining a view for Washington as well as its allies in Tokyo that did not rely on the announcements of officials from the Tokyo Electric Power Company, which operates Fukushima Daiichi.
American officials say they suspect that the company has consistently underestimated the risk and moved too slowly to contain the damage.
Aircraft normally used to monitor North Korea’s nuclear weapons activities — a Global Hawk drone and U-2 spy planes — were flying missions over the reactor, trying to help the Japanese government map out its response to last week’s 9.0-magnitude earthquake, the tsunami that followed and now the nuclear disaster.
President Obama made an unscheduled stop at the Japanese Embassy to sign a condolence book, writing, “My heart goes out to the people of Japan during this enormous tragedy.” He added, “Because of the strength and wisdom of its people, we know that Japan will recover, and indeed will emerge stronger than ever.”
Later, he appeared in the Rose Garden at the White House to offer continued American support for the earthquake and tsunami victims, and technical help at the nuclear site.
But before the recovery can begin, the nuclear plant must be brought under control. On Friday, steam that was likely laced with radioactive particles was again rising over the plant, this time billowing from reactor No. 2, which suffered an explosion Tuesday. But Japanese authorities said they did not yet know the cause of the latest release.
American officials, meanwhile, remained fixated on the temperature readings inside that reactor and two others that had been operating until the earthquake shut them down, as well as at the plant’s spent fuel pools, looking for any signs that their high levels of heat were going down. If the fuel rods are uncovered and exposed to air, they heat up and can burst into flames, spewing radioactive elements.
So far the officials saw no signs of dropping temperatures. And the Web site of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations nuclear watchdog, made it clear that there were no readings at all from some critical areas. Part of the American effort, by satellites and aircraft, is to identify the hot spots, something the Japanese have not been able to do in some cases.
Critical to that effort are the “pods” flown into Japan by the Air Force over the past day. Made for quick assessments of radiation emergencies, the Aerial Measuring System is an instrument system that fits on a helicopter or fixed-wing aircraft to sample air and survey the land below.
Daniel B. Poneman, the deputy secretary of energy, said at a White House briefing on Thursday that preliminary results of the initial flights “are consistent with the recommendations that came down from the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission,” which led to the 50-mile evacuation guideline given to American expatriates. Although the worst contamination is closer to the plant, the recommendation takes into account the possibility of shifting winds or greater emissions.
The State Department has also said it would fly out of the country any dependents of American diplomats or military personnel within the region of the plant and as far south as Tokyo. Space will be made for other Americans who cannot get a flight, it said.
Getting the Japanese to accept the American detection equipment was a delicate diplomatic maneuver, which some Japanese officials originally resisted. But as it became clear that conditions at the plant were spinning out of control, and with Japanese officials admitting they had little hard evidence about whether there was water in the cooling pools or breaches in the reactor containment structures, they began to accept more help.
The sensors on the instrument pod are good at mapping radioactive isotopes, like cesium 137, which has been detected around the nuclear plant and has a half-life of 30 years. In high doses, it can cause acute radiation sickness. Lower doses can alter cellular function, leading to an increased risk of cancer.
Cesium 137 can enter the body through many foods, including milk.
On Wednesday, when the American Embassy in Tokyo, on advice from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, told Americans to evacuate a radius of “approximately 50 miles” around the Fukushima plant, the recommendation was based on a specific calculation of risk of radioactive fallout in the affected area.
In a statement, the commission said the advice grew out of its assessment that projected radiation doses within the evacuation zone might exceed one rem to the body or five rems to the thyroid gland. That organ is extremely sensitive to iodine 131 — another of the deadly byproducts of nuclear fuel, this one causing thyroid cancer.
The commission says that the average American is exposed to about 0.62 rem of radiation each year from natural and manmade sources.
The American-provided instruments in Japan measure real levels of radiation on the ground. In contrast, scientists around the world have also begun to draw up forecasts of how the prevailing winds pick up the Japanese radioactive material and carry it over the Pacific in invisible plumes.
Private analysts said the United States was also probably monitoring the reactor crisis with spy satellites that can spot the heat from fires — helping it independently assess the state of the reactor complex from a distance.
Jeffrey G. Lewis, an intelligence specialist at the Monterey Institute, a research center, noted that the Japanese assessment of Reactor No. 4 at the Daiichi complex seemed to depend in part on visual surveillance by helicopter pilots.
“I’ve got to think that, if we put our best assets into answering that question, we can do better,” he said in an interview.
One main concern at No. 4 has been a fire that was burning there earlier in the week; American officials are not convinced that the fire has gone out.
American officials have also worried that the spent-fuel pool at that reactor has run dry, exposing the rods. Japanese officials, however, have concentrated much of their recent efforts on Reactor No. 3, which has been intermittently releasing radiation from what the authorities believe may be a ruptured containment vessel around the reactor. Temperatures at that reactor’s spent fuel pool are also high.
Perhaps because of the difficulties experienced Thursday trying to accurately drop water from helicopters, the Japanese military announced Friday that it was halting those efforts for at least a day.
David E. Sanger reported from Washington, and William J. Broad from New York. Thom Shanker contributed reporting from Washington and Hiroko Tabuchi from Tokyo.
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Greater Danger Lies in Spent Fuel Than in Reactors
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17/03 Greater Danger Lies in Spent Fuel Than in Reactors
March 17, 2011
By KEITH BRADSHER and HIROKO TABUCHI
Years of procrastination in deciding on long-term disposal of highly radioactive fuel rods from nuclear reactors are now coming back to haunt Japanese authorities as they try to control fires and explosions at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.
Some countries have tried to limit the number of spent fuel rods that accumulate at nuclear power plants: Germany stores them in costly casks, for example, while China sends them to a desert storage compound in the western province of Gansu. But Japan, like the United States, has kept ever-larger numbers of spent fuel rods in temporary storage pools at the power plants, where they can be guarded with the same security provided for the plants.
Figures provided by Tokyo Electric Power on Thursday show that most of the dangerous uranium at the power plant is actually in the spent fuel rods, not the reactor cores themselves.
The electric utility said that a total of 11,125 spent fuel rod assemblies were stored at the site. That is about four times as much radioactive material as in the reactor cores combined.
Now those temporary pools are proving the power plant’s Achilles’ heel, with the water in the pools either boiling away or leaking out of their containments, and efforts to add more water having gone awry. While spent fuel rods generate significantly less heat than newer ones do, there are strong indications that some fuel rods have begun to melt and release extremely high levels of radiation. Japanese workers struggled on Thursday to add more water to the storage pool at Reactor No. 3.
Helicopters dropped water, only to have it scattered by strong breezes. Water cannons mounted on police trucks — equipment designed to disperse rioters — were then deployed to spray water on the pools. It is unclear if that effort worked.
Richard T. Lahey Jr., a retired nuclear engineer who oversaw General Electric’s safety research in the early 1970s for the kind of nuclear reactors used in Fukushima, said that the zirconium cladding on the fuel rods could burst into flames if exposed to air for hours when a storage pool lost its water.
Zirconium, once ignited, burns extremely hot and is difficult to extinguish, added Mr. Lahey, who helped write a classified report for the United States government several years ago on the vulnerabilities of storage pools at American nuclear reactors.
Very high levels of radiation above the storage pools suggest that the water has drained in the 39-foot-deep pools to the point that the 13-foot-high fuel rod assemblies have been exposed to air for hours and are starting to melt, said Robert Albrecht, a longtime nuclear engineer who worked as a consultant to the Japanese nuclear reactor manufacturing industry in the 1980s. Under normal conditions, the rods are kept covered with 26 feet of water that is circulated to prevent it from growing too warm.
Gregory Jaczko, the chairman of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, made the startling assertion on Wednesday that there was little or no water left in another storage pool, the one on top of Reactor No. 4, and expressed grave concern about the radiation that would be released as a result.
The 1,479 spent fuel rod assemblies there include 548 that were removed from the reactor only in November and December to prepare the reactor for maintenance, and these may be emitting more heat than the older assemblies in other storage pools.
Even without recirculating water, it should take many days for the water in a storage pool to evaporate, nuclear engineers said. So the rapid evaporation and even boiling of water in the storage pools now is a mystery, raising the question of whether the pools may also be leaking.
Michael Friedlander, a former senior nuclear power plant operator who worked 13 years at three American reactors, said that storage pools typically had a liner of stainless steel three-eighths of an inch thick, and that they rested on reinforced concrete bases. So even if the liner ruptured, “unless the concrete was torn apart, there’s no place for the water to go,” he said.
Mr. Lahey said that much of the water may have sloshed out during the earthquake. Much smaller earthquakes in California have produced heavy water losses from sloshing at storage pools there, partly because the pools are located high in reactor buildings.
“It’s like being at the top of a flagpole, and once you start ground motion, you can easily slosh it,” he said.
When the water in a storage pool disappears, the fuel rods’ uranium continues to heat the rods’ zirconium cladding. This causes the zirconium to oxidize, or rust, and even catch fire. The spent fuel rods have little radioactive iodine, which has a half-life of eight days and has mostly disappeared through radioactive decay once fission stopped when the rods left the reactor cores. But the spent fuel rods are still loaded with cesium and strontium that can start to escape if the fuel rods burn.
One factor that might determine how serious the situation becomes is whether the uranium oxide pellets in the rods stay vertical even if the cladding burns off. This is possible because pellets sometimes become fused together while in the reactor. If the pellets stay standing up, then even with the water and zirconium gone, nuclear fission will not take place, Mr. Albrecht said.
But Tokyo Electric said this week that there was a chance of “recriticality” in the storage pools — that is, the uranium in the fuel rods could resume the fission that previously took place inside the reactor, spewing out radioactive byproducts.
Mr. Albrecht said this was very unlikely, but could happen if the stacks of pellets slumped over and became jumbled together on the floor of the storage pool.
Plant workers would then need to add water with lots of boron because the boron absorbs neutrons and interrupts nuclear chain reactions.
If a lot of fission occurs, which may happen only in an extreme case, the uranium would melt through anything underneath it. If it encounters water as it descends, a steam explosion could then scatter the molten uranium.
At Daiichi, each assembly has either 64 large fuel rods or 81 slightly smaller fuel rods. A typical fuel rod assembly has roughly 380 pounds of uranium.
One big worry for Japanese officials is that Reactor No. 3, the main target of the helicopters and water cannons on Thursday, uses a new and different fuel. It uses mixed oxides, or mox, which contains a mixture of uranium and plutonium, and can produce a more dangerous radioactive plume if scattered by fire or explosions. According to Tokyo Electric, 32 of the 514 fuel rod assemblies in the storage pond at Reactor No. 3 contain mox.
Japan had hoped to solve the spent fuel buildup with a large-scale plan to recycle the rods into fuel that would go back into its nuclear program. But even before Friday’s quake, that plan had hit setbacks.
Central to Japan’s plans is a $28 billion reprocessing facility in Rokkasho village, north of the quake zone, which would extract uranium and plutonium from the rods for use in making mox fuel. After countless construction delays, test runs began in 2006, and the plant’s operator, Japan Nuclear Fuel, said operations would begin in 2010. But in late 2010, its opening was delayed by two years.
To close the nuclear fuel recycling process, Japan also built the Monju, a fast breeder reactor, which started running in full in 1994. But a year later, a fire caused by a sodium leak shut down the plant.
Despite revelations that the operator, the quasi-governmental Japan Atomic Energy Agency, had covered up the seriousness of the accident, Monju again started operating at a reduced capacity.
Another nuclear reprocessing facility in Tokaimura has been shut down since 1999, when an accident at an experimental fast breeder showered hundreds in the vicinity with radiation, and two workers were killed.
Many of these facilities were hit by Friday’s earthquake. A spent fuel pool at Rokkasho spilled over, and power at the plant was lost, triggering backup generators, Japan Nuclear Fuel said.
According to the Citizens Nuclear Information Center, an anti-nuclear group, about 3,000 tons of fuel are stored at Rokkasho. But the plant, about 180 feet above sea level, escaped the tsunami. Grid power was restored on Monday, the company said.
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Japan Offers Little Response to U.S. Assessment
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By KEITH BRADSHER and HIROKO TABUCHI
Years of procrastination in deciding on long-term disposal of highly radioactive fuel rods from nuclear reactors are now coming back to haunt Japanese authorities as they try to control fires and explosions at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.
Some countries have tried to limit the number of spent fuel rods that accumulate at nuclear power plants: Germany stores them in costly casks, for example, while China sends them to a desert storage compound in the western province of Gansu. But Japan, like the United States, has kept ever-larger numbers of spent fuel rods in temporary storage pools at the power plants, where they can be guarded with the same security provided for the plants.
Figures provided by Tokyo Electric Power on Thursday show that most of the dangerous uranium at the power plant is actually in the spent fuel rods, not the reactor cores themselves.
The electric utility said that a total of 11,125 spent fuel rod assemblies were stored at the site. That is about four times as much radioactive material as in the reactor cores combined.
Now those temporary pools are proving the power plant’s Achilles’ heel, with the water in the pools either boiling away or leaking out of their containments, and efforts to add more water having gone awry. While spent fuel rods generate significantly less heat than newer ones do, there are strong indications that some fuel rods have begun to melt and release extremely high levels of radiation. Japanese workers struggled on Thursday to add more water to the storage pool at Reactor No. 3.
Helicopters dropped water, only to have it scattered by strong breezes. Water cannons mounted on police trucks — equipment designed to disperse rioters — were then deployed to spray water on the pools. It is unclear if that effort worked.
Richard T. Lahey Jr., a retired nuclear engineer who oversaw General Electric’s safety research in the early 1970s for the kind of nuclear reactors used in Fukushima, said that the zirconium cladding on the fuel rods could burst into flames if exposed to air for hours when a storage pool lost its water.
Zirconium, once ignited, burns extremely hot and is difficult to extinguish, added Mr. Lahey, who helped write a classified report for the United States government several years ago on the vulnerabilities of storage pools at American nuclear reactors.
Very high levels of radiation above the storage pools suggest that the water has drained in the 39-foot-deep pools to the point that the 13-foot-high fuel rod assemblies have been exposed to air for hours and are starting to melt, said Robert Albrecht, a longtime nuclear engineer who worked as a consultant to the Japanese nuclear reactor manufacturing industry in the 1980s. Under normal conditions, the rods are kept covered with 26 feet of water that is circulated to prevent it from growing too warm.
Gregory Jaczko, the chairman of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, made the startling assertion on Wednesday that there was little or no water left in another storage pool, the one on top of Reactor No. 4, and expressed grave concern about the radiation that would be released as a result.
The 1,479 spent fuel rod assemblies there include 548 that were removed from the reactor only in November and December to prepare the reactor for maintenance, and these may be emitting more heat than the older assemblies in other storage pools.
Even without recirculating water, it should take many days for the water in a storage pool to evaporate, nuclear engineers said. So the rapid evaporation and even boiling of water in the storage pools now is a mystery, raising the question of whether the pools may also be leaking.
Michael Friedlander, a former senior nuclear power plant operator who worked 13 years at three American reactors, said that storage pools typically had a liner of stainless steel three-eighths of an inch thick, and that they rested on reinforced concrete bases. So even if the liner ruptured, “unless the concrete was torn apart, there’s no place for the water to go,” he said.
Mr. Lahey said that much of the water may have sloshed out during the earthquake. Much smaller earthquakes in California have produced heavy water losses from sloshing at storage pools there, partly because the pools are located high in reactor buildings.
“It’s like being at the top of a flagpole, and once you start ground motion, you can easily slosh it,” he said.
When the water in a storage pool disappears, the fuel rods’ uranium continues to heat the rods’ zirconium cladding. This causes the zirconium to oxidize, or rust, and even catch fire. The spent fuel rods have little radioactive iodine, which has a half-life of eight days and has mostly disappeared through radioactive decay once fission stopped when the rods left the reactor cores. But the spent fuel rods are still loaded with cesium and strontium that can start to escape if the fuel rods burn.
One factor that might determine how serious the situation becomes is whether the uranium oxide pellets in the rods stay vertical even if the cladding burns off. This is possible because pellets sometimes become fused together while in the reactor. If the pellets stay standing up, then even with the water and zirconium gone, nuclear fission will not take place, Mr. Albrecht said.
But Tokyo Electric said this week that there was a chance of “recriticality” in the storage pools — that is, the uranium in the fuel rods could resume the fission that previously took place inside the reactor, spewing out radioactive byproducts.
Mr. Albrecht said this was very unlikely, but could happen if the stacks of pellets slumped over and became jumbled together on the floor of the storage pool.
Plant workers would then need to add water with lots of boron because the boron absorbs neutrons and interrupts nuclear chain reactions.
If a lot of fission occurs, which may happen only in an extreme case, the uranium would melt through anything underneath it. If it encounters water as it descends, a steam explosion could then scatter the molten uranium.
At Daiichi, each assembly has either 64 large fuel rods or 81 slightly smaller fuel rods. A typical fuel rod assembly has roughly 380 pounds of uranium.
One big worry for Japanese officials is that Reactor No. 3, the main target of the helicopters and water cannons on Thursday, uses a new and different fuel. It uses mixed oxides, or mox, which contains a mixture of uranium and plutonium, and can produce a more dangerous radioactive plume if scattered by fire or explosions. According to Tokyo Electric, 32 of the 514 fuel rod assemblies in the storage pond at Reactor No. 3 contain mox.
Japan had hoped to solve the spent fuel buildup with a large-scale plan to recycle the rods into fuel that would go back into its nuclear program. But even before Friday’s quake, that plan had hit setbacks.
Central to Japan’s plans is a $28 billion reprocessing facility in Rokkasho village, north of the quake zone, which would extract uranium and plutonium from the rods for use in making mox fuel. After countless construction delays, test runs began in 2006, and the plant’s operator, Japan Nuclear Fuel, said operations would begin in 2010. But in late 2010, its opening was delayed by two years.
To close the nuclear fuel recycling process, Japan also built the Monju, a fast breeder reactor, which started running in full in 1994. But a year later, a fire caused by a sodium leak shut down the plant.
Despite revelations that the operator, the quasi-governmental Japan Atomic Energy Agency, had covered up the seriousness of the accident, Monju again started operating at a reduced capacity.
Another nuclear reprocessing facility in Tokaimura has been shut down since 1999, when an accident at an experimental fast breeder showered hundreds in the vicinity with radiation, and two workers were killed.
Many of these facilities were hit by Friday’s earthquake. A spent fuel pool at Rokkasho spilled over, and power at the plant was lost, triggering backup generators, Japan Nuclear Fuel said.
According to the Citizens Nuclear Information Center, an anti-nuclear group, about 3,000 tons of fuel are stored at Rokkasho. But the plant, about 180 feet above sea level, escaped the tsunami. Grid power was restored on Monday, the company said.
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Japan Offers Little Response to U.S. Assessment
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17/03 Learning From the Crisis in Japan
March 17, 2011
To the Editor:
Re “U.S. Sees ‘Extremely High’ Radiation Level at Plant, Focusing on Spent Fuel’s Impact” (front page, March 17):
What and whom shall we believe?
Gregory Jaczko, the chairman of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, says the fallout threat is far greater than Japan is telling its citizens.
This is not an issue that should be politicized. People’s health and welfare, perhaps their lives, are on the line, and what we need is truth, not politics! We need to know what is really happening and how great the threat is, if there is one. Louise Sheehy
Fern Park, Fla., March 17, 2011
•
To the Editor:
Nuclear engineers will likely be blamed for the cascading problems at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, but the fatal flaws of nuclear power in both Japan and the United States are due to factors beyond the reach of engineers:
¶The undue influence the nuclear industry exerts on regulators and elected officials.
¶Looming challenges worse than whatever worst-case scenarios are used as design thresholds.
¶Multiple units at one nuclear power facility (common practice in the United States), creating the potential for mind-boggling negative synergies — a serious problem at one unit vastly complicates management, salvage or use of the others.
Better design, construction and management will not solve the problems with nuclear power because we cannot engineer away hubris, greed, unintended consequences, fraud, human error, disasters that exceed the design parameters and the long-term challenges of radioactive waste. Jono Miller
Sarasota, Fla., March 17, 2011
•
To the Editor:
Re “U.S Nuclear Push May Be in Peril” (front page, March 14):
In light of recent events in Japan, the United States needs to start taking precautions with nuclear energy. While some, like Senator Mitch McConnell, believe that “we ought not to make American and domestic policy based upon an event that happened in Japan,” what happened there could happen anywhere.
As a teenager, I would like to see the earth be here for future generations. I don’t dispute that we should be using nuclear energy as an alternative to fossil fuels, but we need to be stricter about safety regulations. A nuclear meltdown would set back the environmental progress that we have made by decades.
Senator Joseph I. Lieberman had the right idea when he suggested that we should “put the brakes on right now until we understand the ramifications of what’s happened in Japan.” Until the United States improves safety regulations for nuclear power plants, we should halt construction of new plants and relicensing of existing ones.
Sophie Apple
Brooklyn, March 17, 2011
•
To the Editor:
Re “Amid Shortages, a Surplus of Hope,” by Ryu Murakami (Op-Ed, March 17):
While I respect Mr. Murakami as a novelist of considerable talent, I was frankly disturbed by his essay. His attitude was nothing short of passivity and meek acceptance of the authorities in Japan.
The devastation there is incomprehensible, and I can well understand his and the Japanese people’s shock, despair and feelings of helplessness. My heart goes out to everyone there.
But the Japanese authorities so far have acted in an irresponsible, incompetent and destructive manner with regard to the nuclear crisis. Mr. Murakami’s resorting to hope as a way of dealing with the crisis shows an unwillingness to criticize the government or Tokyo Electric Power.
This is the typical Japanese way. Japanese culture encourages and produces followers, not leaders. More than ever before Japan needs strong leadership, and it seems there is a vacuum.
Shirley Kaneda
New York, March 17, 2011
More in Opinion (17 of 21 articles)
Letters: Praise and Criticism: Doling Them Out to a Child
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To the Editor:
Re “U.S. Sees ‘Extremely High’ Radiation Level at Plant, Focusing on Spent Fuel’s Impact” (front page, March 17):
What and whom shall we believe?
Gregory Jaczko, the chairman of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, says the fallout threat is far greater than Japan is telling its citizens.
This is not an issue that should be politicized. People’s health and welfare, perhaps their lives, are on the line, and what we need is truth, not politics! We need to know what is really happening and how great the threat is, if there is one. Louise Sheehy
Fern Park, Fla., March 17, 2011
•
To the Editor:
Nuclear engineers will likely be blamed for the cascading problems at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, but the fatal flaws of nuclear power in both Japan and the United States are due to factors beyond the reach of engineers:
¶The undue influence the nuclear industry exerts on regulators and elected officials.
¶Looming challenges worse than whatever worst-case scenarios are used as design thresholds.
¶Multiple units at one nuclear power facility (common practice in the United States), creating the potential for mind-boggling negative synergies — a serious problem at one unit vastly complicates management, salvage or use of the others.
Better design, construction and management will not solve the problems with nuclear power because we cannot engineer away hubris, greed, unintended consequences, fraud, human error, disasters that exceed the design parameters and the long-term challenges of radioactive waste. Jono Miller
Sarasota, Fla., March 17, 2011
•
To the Editor:
Re “U.S Nuclear Push May Be in Peril” (front page, March 14):
In light of recent events in Japan, the United States needs to start taking precautions with nuclear energy. While some, like Senator Mitch McConnell, believe that “we ought not to make American and domestic policy based upon an event that happened in Japan,” what happened there could happen anywhere.
As a teenager, I would like to see the earth be here for future generations. I don’t dispute that we should be using nuclear energy as an alternative to fossil fuels, but we need to be stricter about safety regulations. A nuclear meltdown would set back the environmental progress that we have made by decades.
Senator Joseph I. Lieberman had the right idea when he suggested that we should “put the brakes on right now until we understand the ramifications of what’s happened in Japan.” Until the United States improves safety regulations for nuclear power plants, we should halt construction of new plants and relicensing of existing ones.
Sophie Apple
Brooklyn, March 17, 2011
•
To the Editor:
Re “Amid Shortages, a Surplus of Hope,” by Ryu Murakami (Op-Ed, March 17):
While I respect Mr. Murakami as a novelist of considerable talent, I was frankly disturbed by his essay. His attitude was nothing short of passivity and meek acceptance of the authorities in Japan.
The devastation there is incomprehensible, and I can well understand his and the Japanese people’s shock, despair and feelings of helplessness. My heart goes out to everyone there.
But the Japanese authorities so far have acted in an irresponsible, incompetent and destructive manner with regard to the nuclear crisis. Mr. Murakami’s resorting to hope as a way of dealing with the crisis shows an unwillingness to criticize the government or Tokyo Electric Power.
This is the typical Japanese way. Japanese culture encourages and produces followers, not leaders. More than ever before Japan needs strong leadership, and it seems there is a vacuum.
Shirley Kaneda
New York, March 17, 2011
More in Opinion (17 of 21 articles)
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福島原発事故「解決に数週間」 米原子力規制委員長
【ワシントン＝大隅隆】米原子力規制委員会（ＮＲＣ）のヤツコ委員長は17日の記者会見で、福島第１原発事故の解決には数週間かかる可能性があるとの見方を示唆した。これに関連し、米科学国際安全保障研究所（ＩＳＩＳ）は同日、日本時間17日午前10時55分の同原発の写真を公開。４号機への上空からの放水が実施しやすくなっているとの見解を示した。
ＩＳＩＳが公開した写真は自衛隊ヘリコプターによる放水直後の画像。米衛星画像大手のデジタルグローブが撮影した。16日までの写真と比べると、４号機の屋根が骨組みだけに変化しており、空中からの放水で水が入りやすくなっているという。
一方、米環境保護局（ＥＰＡ）はハワイ、アラスカ、グアム、北マリアナ諸島に追加の放射線計測器を配備すると発表した。全米50州の計測体制は構築済みだが、拠点を増やして福島第１原発事故に伴う放射性物質の監視を強化する。
関連キーワード原発事故、米原子力規制委員会
sourc: Nikkei Shimbun
ＩＳＩＳが公開した写真は自衛隊ヘリコプターによる放水直後の画像。米衛星画像大手のデジタルグローブが撮影した。16日までの写真と比べると、４号機の屋根が骨組みだけに変化しており、空中からの放水で水が入りやすくなっているという。
一方、米環境保護局（ＥＰＡ）はハワイ、アラスカ、グアム、北マリアナ諸島に追加の放射線計測器を配備すると発表した。全米50州の計測体制は構築済みだが、拠点を増やして福島第１原発事故に伴う放射性物質の監視を強化する。
関連キーワード原発事故、米原子力規制委員会
sourc: Nikkei Shimbun
18/03 東日本大震災：ウェブアクセス集中を回避 マイクロソフトが支援
東日本大震災で、自治体などのウェブサイトにアクセスが集中し、閲覧できない状況が起きている。マイクロソフトは、同社のクラウドサービス（ネット上のスペースを貸し出すサービス）を９０日間無料で提供し、ミラーサイト（サイトの負荷を分散するための複製サイト）の開設を支援すると発表した。データの複製や運用について技術者が相談に応じるほか、簡単にミラーサイトをつくるツールも提供する。
岩手県の「いわて防災情報ポータル」が、マイクロソフトの支援を受け、ミラーサイトで震災の情報を発信している。ミラーサイトのサーバーは、マイクロソフトのデータセンター内に設置されるため、アクセス集中に耐えられるという。サーバーの開設にかかる時間は最短で３時間程度。
ミラーサイトは電子メール、電子掲示板、伝言板、文字、音声、映像によるチャット、データベース機能などが使える。開設支援の希望者は、事務局にメール（ info311a@microsoft.com ）で申し込む。
【関連リンク】
申し込みサイト
http://windowsazurepass.com/?Campid=F3313E69-464C-E011-98E3-001F29C8E9A8
【関連記事】
【衛星写真で見る】震災の前と後……変わり果てた沿岸
＜被災者サポート情報の一覧＞避難所、健康、交通手段……ほか
＜被災者サポート情報＞防寒 発泡スチロール、アルミシートも暖かい
＜安否確認・避難所・ライフライン情報のリンク集＞
【東電】グループごとの２１日までの停電予定時間グラフ
2011年3月18日
岩手県の「いわて防災情報ポータル」が、マイクロソフトの支援を受け、ミラーサイトで震災の情報を発信している。ミラーサイトのサーバーは、マイクロソフトのデータセンター内に設置されるため、アクセス集中に耐えられるという。サーバーの開設にかかる時間は最短で３時間程度。
ミラーサイトは電子メール、電子掲示板、伝言板、文字、音声、映像によるチャット、データベース機能などが使える。開設支援の希望者は、事務局にメール（ info311a@microsoft.com ）で申し込む。
【関連リンク】
申し込みサイト
http://windowsazurepass.com/?Campid=F3313E69-464C-E011-98E3-001F29C8E9A8
【関連記事】
【衛星写真で見る】震災の前と後……変わり果てた沿岸
＜被災者サポート情報の一覧＞避難所、健康、交通手段……ほか
＜被災者サポート情報＞防寒 発泡スチロール、アルミシートも暖かい
＜安否確認・避難所・ライフライン情報のリンク集＞
【東電】グループごとの２１日までの停電予定時間グラフ
2011年3月18日
18/03 東日本大震災：日本赤十字社かたるフィッシングサイト確認 寄付金募る詐欺に注意
フィッシング対策協議会（東京都千代田区）は１８日、日本赤十字社をかたるフィッシングサイト（英語）を確認したと発表した。同サイトを閉鎖させるため、コンピューターセキュリティー対策をするＪＰＣＥＲＴコーディネーションセンター（同区）を通じて開設者などの調査をしているが、１８日正午現在まだ稼動している状況だ。
協議会によると、日本赤十字社とは無関係のサイトで、ＵＲＬの末尾は「japan.jp/」だが、海外に開設されている。オンライン決済サービス「Ｐａｙｐａｌ」（ペイパル）のアカウントを持った外国人を対象にしているとみられ、同サイトから入金すると、赤十字社とは無関係の銀行口座に入金されるという。
協議会は１４日にも、日本への義援金を募っているようにみせかけたサイト（英語）を確認しており、「義援金、寄付金は信頼できる企業を選んでしてほしい」と注意を促している。
また、セキュリティー大手トレンドマイクロも、東日本大震災が発生した後の３月１２日から１３日にかけて、「earthquake」「japan」「tsunami」「relief」「disaster」「fund」「donation」などの言葉が含まれるドメイン（ネット上の住所を表す文字列）が１００件以上登録されたことを確認した。今後、寄付金を募るフィッシングサイトとして悪用される恐れがあるとして、監視を強化している。同社によると、０５年に米国で大きな被害をもたらしたハリケーン「カトリーナ」、０８年の中国・四川大地震、０９年のハイチ大地震の後にも、同じような動きがあったという。
【関連記事】
【衛星写真で見る】震災の前と後……変わり果てた沿岸
＜東日本大震災＞義援金狙う詐欺、全国に注意喚起－－警察庁
＜東日本大震災＞義援金詐欺に注意を！！ 自治体が呼び掛け－－点検商法なども ／東京
＜被災者サポート情報の一覧＞避難所、健康、交通手段……ほか
＜安否確認・避難所・ライフライン情報のリンク集＞
2011年3月18日
協議会によると、日本赤十字社とは無関係のサイトで、ＵＲＬの末尾は「japan.jp/」だが、海外に開設されている。オンライン決済サービス「Ｐａｙｐａｌ」（ペイパル）のアカウントを持った外国人を対象にしているとみられ、同サイトから入金すると、赤十字社とは無関係の銀行口座に入金されるという。
協議会は１４日にも、日本への義援金を募っているようにみせかけたサイト（英語）を確認しており、「義援金、寄付金は信頼できる企業を選んでしてほしい」と注意を促している。
また、セキュリティー大手トレンドマイクロも、東日本大震災が発生した後の３月１２日から１３日にかけて、「earthquake」「japan」「tsunami」「relief」「disaster」「fund」「donation」などの言葉が含まれるドメイン（ネット上の住所を表す文字列）が１００件以上登録されたことを確認した。今後、寄付金を募るフィッシングサイトとして悪用される恐れがあるとして、監視を強化している。同社によると、０５年に米国で大きな被害をもたらしたハリケーン「カトリーナ」、０８年の中国・四川大地震、０９年のハイチ大地震の後にも、同じような動きがあったという。
【関連記事】
【衛星写真で見る】震災の前と後……変わり果てた沿岸
＜東日本大震災＞義援金狙う詐欺、全国に注意喚起－－警察庁
＜東日本大震災＞義援金詐欺に注意を！！ 自治体が呼び掛け－－点検商法なども ／東京
＜被災者サポート情報の一覧＞避難所、健康、交通手段……ほか
＜安否確認・避難所・ライフライン情報のリンク集＞
2011年3月18日
18/03 ローリング・ストーンズ、「日本のことが心配でなりません」と日本語でメッセージ
シネマトゥデイ 3月18日(金)8時3分配信
ローリング・ストーンズ「われわれの思いと祈りは日本のみなさんと共にあります」 - Evan Agostini / Getty Images
ローリング・ストーンズが、東北地方太平洋沖地震で被災した日本に向けてオフィシャルサイトでメッセージを公開した。
ストーンズは地震が発生した翌日12日にはfacebookに英語で「Japan - our thoughts and prayers are with you」（われわれの思いと祈りは日本のみなさんと共にあります）とコメント。さらに14日には「日本の事が心配でなりません。」とメッセージが日本語に変化。そして17日にはfacebookとオフィシャルサイトの両方に下記のメッセージが日本語と英語で公開された。
公開されたメッセージは以下のとおり。（原文ママ：rollingstones.comより引用）
悲惨で大変な時、私達、ローリングストーンズは日本の沢山の友達、ファンに心から同情しています。命を落とす事や破壊されているとこを見るのは心が痛みます。しかし、日本人の強い意志と団結力がこの悲惨な状況に打ち勝つことになるようお祈りしています。
ローリング・ストーンズはいままでに5度来日公演を行っており、いずれも東京ドーム、福岡ドーム、横浜アリーナをはじめ収容人数が万単位の会場を満員大盛況にさせている。
【関連記事】
ローリング・ストーンズ オフィシャルサイト
磯山さやか、テレビで放映されない忘れられた被災地、茨城の惨状訴える
枝野官房長官は日本のジャック・バウアー!?英テレグラフ紙が報じる
サンドラ・ブロック、震災復興支援に約8,000万円を寄付 アメリカのセレブでは最高額
クリント・イーストウッド監督、上映中止になった『ヒア アフター』米DVD収益を震災支援へ寄付
ローリング・ストーンズ「われわれの思いと祈りは日本のみなさんと共にあります」 - Evan Agostini / Getty Images
ローリング・ストーンズが、東北地方太平洋沖地震で被災した日本に向けてオフィシャルサイトでメッセージを公開した。
ストーンズは地震が発生した翌日12日にはfacebookに英語で「Japan - our thoughts and prayers are with you」（われわれの思いと祈りは日本のみなさんと共にあります）とコメント。さらに14日には「日本の事が心配でなりません。」とメッセージが日本語に変化。そして17日にはfacebookとオフィシャルサイトの両方に下記のメッセージが日本語と英語で公開された。
公開されたメッセージは以下のとおり。（原文ママ：rollingstones.comより引用）
悲惨で大変な時、私達、ローリングストーンズは日本の沢山の友達、ファンに心から同情しています。命を落とす事や破壊されているとこを見るのは心が痛みます。しかし、日本人の強い意志と団結力がこの悲惨な状況に打ち勝つことになるようお祈りしています。
ローリング・ストーンズはいままでに5度来日公演を行っており、いずれも東京ドーム、福岡ドーム、横浜アリーナをはじめ収容人数が万単位の会場を満員大盛況にさせている。
【関連記事】
ローリング・ストーンズ オフィシャルサイト
磯山さやか、テレビで放映されない忘れられた被災地、茨城の惨状訴える
枝野官房長官は日本のジャック・バウアー!?英テレグラフ紙が報じる
サンドラ・ブロック、震災復興支援に約8,000万円を寄付 アメリカのセレブでは最高額
クリント・イーストウッド監督、上映中止になった『ヒア アフター』米DVD収益を震災支援へ寄付
18/03 福島原発：綱渡りの放水作戦 被ばく基準、急きょ変更
白煙を上げて崩れ落ちている福島第１原発３号機原子炉建屋＝２０１１年３月１６日、東京電力提供 東京電力福島第１原発の冷却機能回復を目指し、沸騰がやまない使用済み核燃料プールへの官民を挙げた注水作戦が１７日、展開された。周囲の放射線量が依然高い数値を示す中、午前には陸上自衛隊がヘリで上空から３号機に海水を投下し、夜は警視庁や自衛隊が地上から放水車で水を注いだ。しかし、警視庁の試みは奏功せず、放射線量の許容基準を緩めてまで実施した自衛隊のオペレーションも効果は限られる。東電による外部電源回復作業も本格化したが、未知の冷却作業はノウハウも乏しく、綱渡りの作戦が続く。【犬飼直幸、坂口裕彦、念佛明奈、八田浩輔】
◇首相「自衛隊が最後のとりで」
１７日夕。首相官邸であった緊急災害対策本部の席上、菅直人首相は午前に決行された自衛隊ヘリによる注水を踏まえ「危険な中での作戦遂行で、隊員はじめ自衛隊の皆さんには心から感謝申し上げます」と、自衛隊の最高指揮官らしからぬ低姿勢で謝辞を述べた。
一方、北沢俊美防衛相は同日午後の省内の災害対策本部で、午後は地上から放水する方針を示したうえで、「何とか危険な状態を緩和していきたい。昼に官邸に行き、首相との緊密な連携について話をした」と、被ばくの危険を伴う「命がけの放水作戦」は首相の指示を直接受けて進めていることを強調した。
東日本大震災の発生後、東電が同原発の情報を十分伝えてこないなかで、自衛隊内には危険な作業を強いられることへの不信感が募っていた。１４日に３号機で起きた爆発で給水作業中の隊員４人が負傷した後、いったんは同原発から退避した。
しかし、１５日未明、政府と東電の統合連絡本部が東電本店に設置され、政府主導の形に仕切り直されたことで、「有事」対応で自衛隊が前面に出るようになった。首相は北沢氏に「自衛隊が最後のとりでだ」と覚悟を迫り、北沢氏は１６日の記者会見で「最後に国民の命を守らなければならないのは自衛隊の任務。ぎりぎりのところで任務を遂行する決意は固めている」と応じてみせた。
上空からの海水投下は１６日、任務にあたる自衛隊員個人の累積被ばく総量限度（５０ミリシーベルト）を大幅に上回る放射線が観測されたため、ヘリを飛ばした後に見送られた。それが１７日は限度値を一気に１００ミリシーベルトまで緩め、投下に踏み切った。
防衛省は国家公務員を対象に１００ミリシーベルトと定めた人事院規則を準用したと説明した。その規則も１７日付で、同原発に原子力緊急事態宣言が発令されている期間に限り、２５０ミリシーベルトへと緩和された。
駆け込みで引き上げられた限度値に、自衛隊内からは「周知されたことがない数値だ」と戸惑う声も漏れ、陸上自衛隊の火箱芳文幕僚長は「明確に方針として示されたわけでもない」と語るなど、混乱ぶりも露呈した。北沢氏は会見で「（１７日も）状況が変わっていないのにどうして投下したかと言えば、首相と私の重い決断を統幕長が判断していただいた」と述べ、「作戦実施ありき」の政治決断だったことを認めた。
自衛隊は隊員の被ばくリスクを軽減するため、３号機に海水を投下する大型輸送ヘリＣＨ４７Ｊの床には放射線をさえぎるタングステンを敷き詰め、乗員は防護服とガスマスクに身を包んだ。１７日午前の３号機を狙った４回の海水投下では結果的に周辺にも水が散り、警視庁の放水車や自衛隊の高圧消防車が現場に近づくための「除染」の役割も果たした。
地上からの放水には、航空自衛隊百里基地（茨城県小美玉市）に配備され、航空機火災を泡で包み込んで消火する機能を持つＡ－ＭＢ－３などの高圧消防車５台を投入、隊員約３０人は防護服を着て車内で作業した。
これだけ危険を冒しても、冷却効果が見通せないことへのいら立ちも募る。自衛隊幹部は１７日夜、「きちんと任務を終えて無事に戻ってきて本当に良かった。効果のほどは分からないが……」とつぶやいた。東電への不信感もなお強く、１７日午後の省内の会議では「放射線の情報が東電から十分提供されていない」として、統合連絡本部に改善を求めることになった。
◇電源復旧へ 東電職員３０人作業
一方、２号機の電源復旧作業は１７日午前から、東電職員ら３０人の手で始まった。被ばく人数を抑えるため、平時より少ない態勢だ。
非常用電源が失われた１～４号機のうち、唯一配電盤が水没しなかった２号機の電気系統回復が頼みの綱。作業では放射線量の比較的低い海側に変電盤を仮設し、建屋の各機器などと接続していった。担当者は「少ない工事量で復帰するよう計画している。（電源復旧の）実現性はかなり高い」と強調する。
ただし、電源復旧は原子炉冷却のための入り口に過ぎない。まずは海水を送り込むポンプの作動試験をする必要があるが、１６日夕には東京・内幸町の本店との連絡回線を切断するミスも起きた。７時間後の復旧までの間、水位計などのデータのやり取りは衛星携帯での通話でしのいだ。
東電は２号機との間の回線が生きている１号機も、近く電源復旧が可能とみる。しかし、３、４号機は新たな外部電源をひく必要があり、復旧には時間がかかる見通し。また、使用済み核燃料プールの水温が上昇している５、６号機では、５号機の非常用電源が機能していない。６号機の電源を５号機につないでいるものの、東電は「この状態が長く続けば１～４号機のように温度が上昇する」と焦燥感を募らせる。
◇電源復旧までつなぎ
東京電力福島第１原発３号機への放水は、低下しているとみられる使用済み核燃料プールの水位の回復は期待できず、むしろ外部電源復旧後の本格的な注水をにらんだ「つなぎ」の要素が濃い。
この日、陸上自衛隊のヘリから投下された海水は最大で約３０トン。地上からは、警視庁の高圧放水車と陸海空自衛隊の高圧消防車から計７０トンが放水され、最大で約１００トンになる。どの程度がプールに入ったかは不明だが、仮に全部入れば、１２００立方メートル（１２００トン）のプールの水位が１メートル高くなる計算だ。
３号機では１６日以降、プールの水位が下がって燃料棒の一部が露出しているとみられる。この状態が続くと、燃料棒の被覆管が劣化し、放射性物質が出やすくなる。空と陸からの放水は、政府と東電のひねり出した「窮余の策」だ。
放水でプールの水位が回復できなくても、水滴が燃料棒にかかるだけで熱を奪って蒸発するため、燃料棒を冷やす効果が期待できる。この仕組みは、真夏に水をまいて涼を取る「打ち水」と基本的に同じだ。プールから立ち上った水蒸気に含まれた水滴も、同様に燃料棒を冷やしていく。
効果について、経済産業省原子力安全・保安院は「今後の結果を見て判断したい」とし、東電はヘリによる水の投下後、水蒸気が上がり「冷却効果があった」としている。奈良林直（ただし）・北海道大教授（原子炉工学）は「ヘリを使って消防車のホースの先端をプール内に落とすなど、より効率的な方法を検討してほしい」と話した。【須田桃子】
【関連記事】
【動画でみる】東京電力が撮影した福島第１原発
【被爆を最小限に抑えるには】
【被災地サポート情報一覧】
【最新の地震関連ニュース一覧】
東日本大震災:福島原発事故、各国警戒 退避勧告も続々
毎日新聞 2011年3月17日 20時55分（最終更新 3月18日 0時47分）
◇首相「自衛隊が最後のとりで」
１７日夕。首相官邸であった緊急災害対策本部の席上、菅直人首相は午前に決行された自衛隊ヘリによる注水を踏まえ「危険な中での作戦遂行で、隊員はじめ自衛隊の皆さんには心から感謝申し上げます」と、自衛隊の最高指揮官らしからぬ低姿勢で謝辞を述べた。
一方、北沢俊美防衛相は同日午後の省内の災害対策本部で、午後は地上から放水する方針を示したうえで、「何とか危険な状態を緩和していきたい。昼に官邸に行き、首相との緊密な連携について話をした」と、被ばくの危険を伴う「命がけの放水作戦」は首相の指示を直接受けて進めていることを強調した。
東日本大震災の発生後、東電が同原発の情報を十分伝えてこないなかで、自衛隊内には危険な作業を強いられることへの不信感が募っていた。１４日に３号機で起きた爆発で給水作業中の隊員４人が負傷した後、いったんは同原発から退避した。
しかし、１５日未明、政府と東電の統合連絡本部が東電本店に設置され、政府主導の形に仕切り直されたことで、「有事」対応で自衛隊が前面に出るようになった。首相は北沢氏に「自衛隊が最後のとりでだ」と覚悟を迫り、北沢氏は１６日の記者会見で「最後に国民の命を守らなければならないのは自衛隊の任務。ぎりぎりのところで任務を遂行する決意は固めている」と応じてみせた。
上空からの海水投下は１６日、任務にあたる自衛隊員個人の累積被ばく総量限度（５０ミリシーベルト）を大幅に上回る放射線が観測されたため、ヘリを飛ばした後に見送られた。それが１７日は限度値を一気に１００ミリシーベルトまで緩め、投下に踏み切った。
防衛省は国家公務員を対象に１００ミリシーベルトと定めた人事院規則を準用したと説明した。その規則も１７日付で、同原発に原子力緊急事態宣言が発令されている期間に限り、２５０ミリシーベルトへと緩和された。
駆け込みで引き上げられた限度値に、自衛隊内からは「周知されたことがない数値だ」と戸惑う声も漏れ、陸上自衛隊の火箱芳文幕僚長は「明確に方針として示されたわけでもない」と語るなど、混乱ぶりも露呈した。北沢氏は会見で「（１７日も）状況が変わっていないのにどうして投下したかと言えば、首相と私の重い決断を統幕長が判断していただいた」と述べ、「作戦実施ありき」の政治決断だったことを認めた。
自衛隊は隊員の被ばくリスクを軽減するため、３号機に海水を投下する大型輸送ヘリＣＨ４７Ｊの床には放射線をさえぎるタングステンを敷き詰め、乗員は防護服とガスマスクに身を包んだ。１７日午前の３号機を狙った４回の海水投下では結果的に周辺にも水が散り、警視庁の放水車や自衛隊の高圧消防車が現場に近づくための「除染」の役割も果たした。
地上からの放水には、航空自衛隊百里基地（茨城県小美玉市）に配備され、航空機火災を泡で包み込んで消火する機能を持つＡ－ＭＢ－３などの高圧消防車５台を投入、隊員約３０人は防護服を着て車内で作業した。
これだけ危険を冒しても、冷却効果が見通せないことへのいら立ちも募る。自衛隊幹部は１７日夜、「きちんと任務を終えて無事に戻ってきて本当に良かった。効果のほどは分からないが……」とつぶやいた。東電への不信感もなお強く、１７日午後の省内の会議では「放射線の情報が東電から十分提供されていない」として、統合連絡本部に改善を求めることになった。
◇電源復旧へ 東電職員３０人作業
一方、２号機の電源復旧作業は１７日午前から、東電職員ら３０人の手で始まった。被ばく人数を抑えるため、平時より少ない態勢だ。
非常用電源が失われた１～４号機のうち、唯一配電盤が水没しなかった２号機の電気系統回復が頼みの綱。作業では放射線量の比較的低い海側に変電盤を仮設し、建屋の各機器などと接続していった。担当者は「少ない工事量で復帰するよう計画している。（電源復旧の）実現性はかなり高い」と強調する。
ただし、電源復旧は原子炉冷却のための入り口に過ぎない。まずは海水を送り込むポンプの作動試験をする必要があるが、１６日夕には東京・内幸町の本店との連絡回線を切断するミスも起きた。７時間後の復旧までの間、水位計などのデータのやり取りは衛星携帯での通話でしのいだ。
東電は２号機との間の回線が生きている１号機も、近く電源復旧が可能とみる。しかし、３、４号機は新たな外部電源をひく必要があり、復旧には時間がかかる見通し。また、使用済み核燃料プールの水温が上昇している５、６号機では、５号機の非常用電源が機能していない。６号機の電源を５号機につないでいるものの、東電は「この状態が長く続けば１～４号機のように温度が上昇する」と焦燥感を募らせる。
◇電源復旧までつなぎ
東京電力福島第１原発３号機への放水は、低下しているとみられる使用済み核燃料プールの水位の回復は期待できず、むしろ外部電源復旧後の本格的な注水をにらんだ「つなぎ」の要素が濃い。
この日、陸上自衛隊のヘリから投下された海水は最大で約３０トン。地上からは、警視庁の高圧放水車と陸海空自衛隊の高圧消防車から計７０トンが放水され、最大で約１００トンになる。どの程度がプールに入ったかは不明だが、仮に全部入れば、１２００立方メートル（１２００トン）のプールの水位が１メートル高くなる計算だ。
３号機では１６日以降、プールの水位が下がって燃料棒の一部が露出しているとみられる。この状態が続くと、燃料棒の被覆管が劣化し、放射性物質が出やすくなる。空と陸からの放水は、政府と東電のひねり出した「窮余の策」だ。
放水でプールの水位が回復できなくても、水滴が燃料棒にかかるだけで熱を奪って蒸発するため、燃料棒を冷やす効果が期待できる。この仕組みは、真夏に水をまいて涼を取る「打ち水」と基本的に同じだ。プールから立ち上った水蒸気に含まれた水滴も、同様に燃料棒を冷やしていく。
効果について、経済産業省原子力安全・保安院は「今後の結果を見て判断したい」とし、東電はヘリによる水の投下後、水蒸気が上がり「冷却効果があった」としている。奈良林直（ただし）・北海道大教授（原子炉工学）は「ヘリを使って消防車のホースの先端をプール内に落とすなど、より効率的な方法を検討してほしい」と話した。【須田桃子】
【関連記事】
【動画でみる】東京電力が撮影した福島第１原発
【被爆を最小限に抑えるには】
【被災地サポート情報一覧】
【最新の地震関連ニュース一覧】
東日本大震災:福島原発事故、各国警戒 退避勧告も続々
毎日新聞 2011年3月17日 20時55分（最終更新 3月18日 0時47分）
18/03 東日本大震災：グーグルが避難所情報ページ公開
東日本大震災：グーグルが避難所情報ページ公開
グーグルは１８日から、現在避難所として被災者を受け入れている場所のリストを作成し、グーグルの避難所情報ページとして公開を始めた。避難所リストの更新作業には毎日新聞社が協力している。これまでは災害前の情報をベースにしていたが、災害後の情報を元に所在地や避難人数を一覧表にし、グーグルマップ上に表示している。グーグルでは情報を随時更新していくため、企業や自治体、社会福祉協議会等の団体に対し、避難所に関する情報の提供を求めている。
アドレスはこちら
グーグルは１８日から、現在避難所として被災者を受け入れている場所のリストを作成し、グーグルの避難所情報ページとして公開を始めた。避難所リストの更新作業には毎日新聞社が協力している。これまでは災害前の情報をベースにしていたが、災害後の情報を元に所在地や避難人数を一覧表にし、グーグルマップ上に表示している。グーグルでは情報を随時更新していくため、企業や自治体、社会福祉協議会等の団体に対し、避難所に関する情報の提供を求めている。
アドレスはこちら
東日本大震災：グーグルが地震後の画像公開
グーグルは１３日、東日本大震災の被災地の画像を公開した。グーグルが画像提供で提携しているＧｅｏＥｙｅ社の人工衛星「ＧｅｏＥｙｅ－１」が撮影した画像。大きな被害を受けた仙台市若林区や宮城県石巻市、福島県南相馬市などの震災前と後の画像があり、被害の大きさが分かる。グーグルは、家族などの安否を確認できるツール「Ｐｅｒｓｏｎ Ｆｉｎｄｅｒ」（http://goo.gl/sagas）を開設している。写真上段は宮城県名取市閖上。左は２００７年撮影、右は２０１１年３月１２日撮影。下段は宮城県石巻市谷川浜。左は２００７年撮影、右は２０１１年３月１２日撮影。
クリックすると次の写真が見られます↑
クリックすると次の写真が見られます↑
18/03 福島原発：電源ケーブル敷設に着手 復旧は１９日以降に
福島第１原発への外部電力供給ルート
原子炉建屋の構造
自衛隊ヘリによる放水後の１７日午前１０時５５分、衛星から撮影された福島第１原発の画像＝デジタルグローブ提供 政府と東京電力は１８日、東日本大震災で被災した東電福島第１原発の事故対応へ全力を挙げた。東電は地震と津波で失われた外部電源復旧に向けた電源ケーブルの敷設に着手。その後、陸海空３自衛隊に東京消防庁を加えた合同放水作業を実施し、総合的な対策を講じて冷却機能を回復させる方針だ。ただ、ポンプなどの冷却機器が復旧するのは１９日以降となり、放水作業も継続的な実施が必要とされ、完全な機能復旧は長期化しそうだ。【酒造唯、藤野基文、犬飼直幸、川崎桂吾、伊澤拓也】
東京電力は１８日、地震と津波で失われた福島第１原発の外部電源復旧に向けた電源ケーブルの敷設に着手した。しかし、高いレベルの放射線を防御しながらの困難な作業を強いられ、長時間かかる見込みだ。この作業を優先するため、陸上自衛隊は同日朝に予定していた３号機の使用済み核燃料プールへの放水作業を見送った。冷却機器が復旧するのは１９日以降になる。
東電は当初、１７日中に復旧作業を完了する予定だったが、「沸騰している３号機の燃料プール冷却を優先したい」と判断し、自衛隊に放水を要請した。漏電の危険があるため放水と電源復旧の作業は並行してできず、開始が１８日にずれ込んだ。
外部からの送電が回復すれば、原子炉内に一気に水を注水できる緊急炉心冷却装置（ＥＣＣＳ）や、燃料プールに水を送り込めるポンプなどが使えるようになる可能性がある。
しかし、これまでのトラブルで機器がダメージを受けている可能性も高い。「実際はやってみなければ分からない」（東電）のが現状だ。
東電によると、約２０人の作業員が従事し、福島第１原発の山側にある６９００ボルトの配電盤で途切れている外部電源を、１～４号機で唯一、津波で水没していない２号機のタービン建屋にある配電盤へ接続する。
東電は同日午前、１号機の原子炉建屋近くに仮設した配電盤と２号機の配電盤を、１号機のタービン建屋を通してつなぐ。午後は、外部電源と仮設配電盤を道沿いに大きく迂回（うかい）して長さ１・５キロの高圧線でつなぎ、作業が完了する。
ただ、現場の放射線量は、外部電源の配電盤付近で毎時３ミリシーベルト、最も高い仮設配電盤近くで毎時２０ミリシーベルトと高い。作業員の被ばく限度は例外で、年間２５０ミリシーベルトとされたが、高い場所では約１２時間作業すると、今後１年間は作業ができなくなる。このため、被ばく線量を確認し、作業員を交代させながら工事を進める。
東電は「線量測定に加え、重装備のため通常の３倍ほど時間がかかる」と説明。また、経済産業省原子力安全・保安院は１８日、１、２号機とは別の送電線を復旧し、３、４号機にも２０日めどで電源の回復を目指していることを明らかにした。復旧を目指す送電線は、一部の鉄塔や送電線が地震の影響で壊れたが、迂回路を設けるめどが立ったという。
【関連記事】
＜福島第１原発＞３号機への放水は１８日午後再開 消防も加わる
＜福島第１原発＞３号機に地上放水 自衛隊、冷却作業本格化
＜放水に放射線の壁＞命がけ、ヘリ投入
＜綱渡りの放水作戦＞被ばく基準、急きょ変更
＜東電全面退去打診＞首相が拒否…水素爆発２日後
毎日新聞 2011年3月18日 11時48分（最終更新 3月18日 13時38分）
13/03 Update on Japan's Nuclear Power Crisis
March 13, 2011
For latest analysis:
All Things Nuclear blog
UCS Daily Press Briefings
March 13, 2011, 3:30 p.m.—The nuclear crisis in Japan took a turn for the worse as serious problems developed at a second reactor at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear facility. Earlier concerns were focused on reactor Unit 1, but now the situation at Unit 3 is becoming serious.
Officials from Tokyo Electric reported that after multiple cooling system failures, the water level in the Unit 3 reactor vessel dropped 3 meters (nearly 10 feet), uncovering approximately 90 percent of each of the fuel rods in the core.
Authorities were able to inject cooling water with a fire pump after reducing the containment pressure by a controlled venting of radioactive gas. As with Unit 1, they began pumping seawater into Unit 3. Seawater is highly corrosive and probably precludes any future use of the reactor, even if a crisis is averted.
However, Tokyo Electric recently reported that the water level in the Unit 3 reactor still remains more than 2 meters (6 feet) below the top of the fuel and company officials believe that water may be leaking from the reactor vessel. When the fuel is uncovered by water, it overheats and suffers damage. It is likely that the fuel has experienced significant damage at this point, and Japanese authorities have said they are proceeding on this assumption.
One particular concern with Unit 3 is the presence of mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel in the core. MOX is a mixture of plutonium and uranium oxides. In September 2010, plant operators loaded 32 fuel assemblies containing MOX fuel into this reactor.
That amounts to approximately 6 percent of the core. MOX fuel generally worsens the consequences of severe accidents in which a large amount of radioactive gas and aerosol is released compared with non-MOX uranium fuel because MOX fuel contains greater amounts of plutonium and other actinides, which are highly toxic.
Check here for additional updates on the situation in Japan.
UCS Senior Scientist Edwin Lyman and Nuclear Safety Program Director David Lochbaum are available for interviews. Please contact Elliott Negin at enegin@ucsusa.org.
The Union of Concerned Scientists is the leading U.S. science-based nonprofit organization working for a healthy environment and a safer world. Founded in 1969, UCS is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and also has offices in Berkeley, Chicago and Washington, D.C.
For latest analysis:
All Things Nuclear blog
UCS Daily Press Briefings
March 13, 2011, 3:30 p.m.—The nuclear crisis in Japan took a turn for the worse as serious problems developed at a second reactor at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear facility. Earlier concerns were focused on reactor Unit 1, but now the situation at Unit 3 is becoming serious.
Officials from Tokyo Electric reported that after multiple cooling system failures, the water level in the Unit 3 reactor vessel dropped 3 meters (nearly 10 feet), uncovering approximately 90 percent of each of the fuel rods in the core.
Authorities were able to inject cooling water with a fire pump after reducing the containment pressure by a controlled venting of radioactive gas. As with Unit 1, they began pumping seawater into Unit 3. Seawater is highly corrosive and probably precludes any future use of the reactor, even if a crisis is averted.
However, Tokyo Electric recently reported that the water level in the Unit 3 reactor still remains more than 2 meters (6 feet) below the top of the fuel and company officials believe that water may be leaking from the reactor vessel. When the fuel is uncovered by water, it overheats and suffers damage. It is likely that the fuel has experienced significant damage at this point, and Japanese authorities have said they are proceeding on this assumption.
One particular concern with Unit 3 is the presence of mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel in the core. MOX is a mixture of plutonium and uranium oxides. In September 2010, plant operators loaded 32 fuel assemblies containing MOX fuel into this reactor.
That amounts to approximately 6 percent of the core. MOX fuel generally worsens the consequences of severe accidents in which a large amount of radioactive gas and aerosol is released compared with non-MOX uranium fuel because MOX fuel contains greater amounts of plutonium and other actinides, which are highly toxic.
Check here for additional updates on the situation in Japan.
UCS Senior Scientist Edwin Lyman and Nuclear Safety Program Director David Lochbaum are available for interviews. Please contact Elliott Negin at enegin@ucsusa.org.
The Union of Concerned Scientists is the leading U.S. science-based nonprofit organization working for a healthy environment and a safer world. Founded in 1969, UCS is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and also has offices in Berkeley, Chicago and Washington, D.C.
17/03 Japan Should Be First In Line for Potassium Iodide Pills
March 17, 2011
WASHINGTON (March 17, 2011)--The people of Japan should be given priority access to potassium iodide (KI) pills used to protect against thyroid cancer following inhalation of radioactive iodine, according to a recommendation released today by the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Given the fact that Japan is thousands of miles from the United States, it is highly unlikely that Americans would be exposed to radioactive iodine from direct inhalation of a plume from the Fukushima nuclear complex. Direct inhalation is the kind of exposure that potassium iodide pills would be most effective against.
Regardless, there are reports that global supplies of potassium iodide pills are being depleted because Americans are buying them, prompting fears that there will not be adequate supplies in Japan in the event of a larger radiological release.
Besides inhalation, another way Americans could be exposed to radioactive iodine is if agricultural products were contaminated. Radioactive iodine could be ingested by dairy cows, for example, and then would be concentrated in milk. Potassium iodide, however, would not be an effective countermeasure in that situation. Moreover, federal and state health authorities would test for such contamination and could take products off the market if necessary.
The Union of Concerned Scientists is the leading U.S. science-based nonprofit organization working for a healthy environment and a safer world. Founded in 1969, UCS is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and also has offices in Berkeley, Chicago and Washington, D.C.
WASHINGTON (March 17, 2011)--The people of Japan should be given priority access to potassium iodide (KI) pills used to protect against thyroid cancer following inhalation of radioactive iodine, according to a recommendation released today by the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Given the fact that Japan is thousands of miles from the United States, it is highly unlikely that Americans would be exposed to radioactive iodine from direct inhalation of a plume from the Fukushima nuclear complex. Direct inhalation is the kind of exposure that potassium iodide pills would be most effective against.
Regardless, there are reports that global supplies of potassium iodide pills are being depleted because Americans are buying them, prompting fears that there will not be adequate supplies in Japan in the event of a larger radiological release.
Besides inhalation, another way Americans could be exposed to radioactive iodine is if agricultural products were contaminated. Radioactive iodine could be ingested by dairy cows, for example, and then would be concentrated in milk. Potassium iodide, however, would not be an effective countermeasure in that situation. Moreover, federal and state health authorities would test for such contamination and could take products off the market if necessary.
The Union of Concerned Scientists is the leading U.S. science-based nonprofit organization working for a healthy environment and a safer world. Founded in 1969, UCS is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and also has offices in Berkeley, Chicago and Washington, D.C.
18/03 民主・小沢氏「政府、東電は迅速な情報公開を」
2011/03/18 12:01更新
記事本文【東日本大震災】
民主党の小沢一郎元代表は１８日、東日本大震災について自身のホームページで「戦後の荒廃期に匹敵するほどの危機的状況だ」とのコメントを掲載した。東京電力福島第１原発の事故に関し「放射性物質拡散などの事態については政府、東京電力に対し正しい情報を迅速に公表することを強く求める」と指摘した。小沢氏は衆院岩手４区選出で、震災後、初めての談話となる。
関連記事
【東日本大震災】３号機も水素爆発、１…
首相、東電本社で檄「撤退などはあり得…
小沢氏のコメントの全文は次の通り。
１１日発生の東日本巨大地震と津波による大災害に際しまして、岩手県、宮城県、福島県の３県をはじめ、全国で被災された皆様に、心よりお見舞いを申し上げます。
また、被災で亡くなられたご遺族の皆様に、衷心よりお悔やみを申し上げます。
今日の地震と津波による、福島県の原子力発電所における火災や、爆発による放射性物質拡散などの事態につきましては、政府、東京電力に対し、正しい情報を迅速に公表することを、強く求めるものです。
この度の災害は、現在も被害の実態が把握できないほどであり、戦後の荒廃期に匹敵するほどの危機的状況ともいえます。
私たち日本国民は有史以来、幾多の国難を乗り越えてきました。この事態にあたり、今こそ私たちは、その勇気と英知を結集して、この危機を乗り切らなければなりません。
衆議院議員 小沢 一郎
記事本文【東日本大震災】
民主党の小沢一郎元代表は１８日、東日本大震災について自身のホームページで「戦後の荒廃期に匹敵するほどの危機的状況だ」とのコメントを掲載した。東京電力福島第１原発の事故に関し「放射性物質拡散などの事態については政府、東京電力に対し正しい情報を迅速に公表することを強く求める」と指摘した。小沢氏は衆院岩手４区選出で、震災後、初めての談話となる。
関連記事
【東日本大震災】３号機も水素爆発、１…
首相、東電本社で檄「撤退などはあり得…
小沢氏のコメントの全文は次の通り。
１１日発生の東日本巨大地震と津波による大災害に際しまして、岩手県、宮城県、福島県の３県をはじめ、全国で被災された皆様に、心よりお見舞いを申し上げます。
また、被災で亡くなられたご遺族の皆様に、衷心よりお悔やみを申し上げます。
今日の地震と津波による、福島県の原子力発電所における火災や、爆発による放射性物質拡散などの事態につきましては、政府、東京電力に対し、正しい情報を迅速に公表することを、強く求めるものです。
この度の災害は、現在も被害の実態が把握できないほどであり、戦後の荒廃期に匹敵するほどの危機的状況ともいえます。
私たち日本国民は有史以来、幾多の国難を乗り越えてきました。この事態にあたり、今こそ私たちは、その勇気と英知を結集して、この危機を乗り切らなければなりません。
衆議院議員 小沢 一郎
17/03 With U.S. Nuclear Plants Under Scrutiny, Too, a Report Raises Safety Concerns
March 17, 2011
By TOM ZELLER Jr.
With Japan’s nuclear industry facing intense scrutiny after the devastating earthquake and tsunami, critics of nuclear power in the United States are increasingly shining a spotlight on American regulators and power companies.
On Thursday, the Union of Concerned Scientists, an environmental and nuclear watchdog group based in Cambridge, Mass., accused the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission in a report of allowing companies that operate plants to ignore, or delay repairs to, leaky pipes, electrical malfunctions and other problems that could escalate into something more serious.
“It’s like the spinning wheels on a slot machine,” David Lochbaum, the author of the report and the director of the organization’s nuclear safety program, said in a prepared statement. “One ingredient showing up causes a puddle on the floor. Two ingredients yield a near miss. All three ingredients showing up can cause nuclear disaster.”
The report echoes more general concerns raised on Wednesday in Congressional hearings, when the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Gregory Jaczko, fielded questions from lawmakers about the age of the nation’s nuclear plants and whether safety and oversight procedures needed to be revisited.
David McIntyre, a spokesman for the commission, said the fact that the organization had reports of problems to scrutinize suggested that the regulatory system was working.
“We have resident inspectors stationed full time at each plant,” Mr. McIntyre said, “and if they say our inspectors are catching these things then that says they’re doing their job.”
The report by the Union of Concerned Scientists examined 14 instances in 2010 in which significant problems at nuclear power facilities set off special inspections by federal regulators — incidents characterized by the regulators as “near misses.” Reports on such incidents are made available publicly by the regulatory commission.
Twelve of the events involved lingering safety problems, among them leaky roofs and floods near safety equipment, faulty pumps, rusty pipes, fires and inadvertent shutdowns. Two others involved compromises in plant security, though details on those were not made public.
Special inspections are typically done when a problem increases the possibility of nuclear core damage by a factor of at least 10. But the report’s authors said operators should be catching and repairing those problems long before the commission orders a special inspection.
The 14 special inspections involved plants in 12 states and nine corporate owners, including large players like Exelon, Duke Energy, and Pacific Gas & Electric. Progress Energy, a utility operating five nuclear facilities in the Carolinas and Florida, was singled out as being particularly problematic, with four of its plants being among the 14 that required special inspections.
In one instance described in the report, a high-voltage power cable at Progress Energy’s Robinson Nuclear Power Plant, near Hartsville, S.C., failed, causing a fire. “Hours after the fire had been put out, workers re-energized the cable that had started it all,” Mr. Lochbaum said. “It was still failed, and ignited a second fire.”
Responding to the report, Mike Hughes, a spokesman for Progress Energy, said: “We have the highest safety standards for our nuclear plants and our employees, and we work continuously to improve safety. We remain focused on addressing each of the events last year that led to special inspections.
Questions of risk and emergency preparedness at nuclear power plants have gained new prominence globally as people watch the operators at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan fight to stave off a full-scale nuclear meltdown. Nuclear regulators and Obama administration officials have said that they are watching the situation in Japan closely and that they will harvest any lessons as they become clear.
But in a conference call in which he discussed Thursday’s report, Edwin Lyman, a senior scientist with the Union of Concerns Scientists, argued that one such lesson was already at hand: the need for a wider evacuation zone around American nuclear plants.
Mr. Lyman criticized a recommendation on Wednesday by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that Americans in Japan remain at least 50 miles away from the Fukushima Daiichi plant, which Mr. Jaczko, the commission chairman, said was leaking radiation at rates far higher than Japanese government officials had suggested.
Mr. Lyman suggested that the commission was being hypocritical: the official evacuation zone surrounding nuclear power plants in the United States is only 10 miles, although critics have long urged that it be increased.
The agency “should not be using different standards for Americans abroad than it does at home,” Mr. Lyman said.
Citing plants like the Indian Point nuclear plant, about 35 miles north of New York City, Mr. Lyman, a physicist and member of the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management, called it “utterly unrealistic” to expect that a parallel evacuation could be undertaken should a disaster like the earthquake or tsunami in Japan occur in the United States.
But Mr. McIntyre, the regulatory commission spokesman, said the agency continued to believe that a 10-mile evacuation zone — required as part of the emergency protection plant at every nuclear facility in the United States — was adequate for what would be an “anticipated event.” In Japan, he emphasized, “you have a multiple-worst-case scenario.”
Mr. McIntyre also noted that the standard evacuation zone for American nuclear plants was backed up by a “50-mile ingestion zone,” in which potential radiation contamination of food supplies is planned for. He said the 10-mile evacuation zone could be expanded as circumstances warranted.
“However, once this is over,” Mr. McIntyre said, “we’re going to evaluating everything for lessons that can be learned, and I would be very surprised if this wasn’t one of the things that we look at.”
More in Environment (6 of 59 articles)
U.S. Calls Radiation ‘Extremely High;’ Sees Japan Nuclear Crisis Worsening
Read More »
Close
By TOM ZELLER Jr.
With Japan’s nuclear industry facing intense scrutiny after the devastating earthquake and tsunami, critics of nuclear power in the United States are increasingly shining a spotlight on American regulators and power companies.
On Thursday, the Union of Concerned Scientists, an environmental and nuclear watchdog group based in Cambridge, Mass., accused the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission in a report of allowing companies that operate plants to ignore, or delay repairs to, leaky pipes, electrical malfunctions and other problems that could escalate into something more serious.
“It’s like the spinning wheels on a slot machine,” David Lochbaum, the author of the report and the director of the organization’s nuclear safety program, said in a prepared statement. “One ingredient showing up causes a puddle on the floor. Two ingredients yield a near miss. All three ingredients showing up can cause nuclear disaster.”
The report echoes more general concerns raised on Wednesday in Congressional hearings, when the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Gregory Jaczko, fielded questions from lawmakers about the age of the nation’s nuclear plants and whether safety and oversight procedures needed to be revisited.
David McIntyre, a spokesman for the commission, said the fact that the organization had reports of problems to scrutinize suggested that the regulatory system was working.
“We have resident inspectors stationed full time at each plant,” Mr. McIntyre said, “and if they say our inspectors are catching these things then that says they’re doing their job.”
The report by the Union of Concerned Scientists examined 14 instances in 2010 in which significant problems at nuclear power facilities set off special inspections by federal regulators — incidents characterized by the regulators as “near misses.” Reports on such incidents are made available publicly by the regulatory commission.
Twelve of the events involved lingering safety problems, among them leaky roofs and floods near safety equipment, faulty pumps, rusty pipes, fires and inadvertent shutdowns. Two others involved compromises in plant security, though details on those were not made public.
Special inspections are typically done when a problem increases the possibility of nuclear core damage by a factor of at least 10. But the report’s authors said operators should be catching and repairing those problems long before the commission orders a special inspection.
The 14 special inspections involved plants in 12 states and nine corporate owners, including large players like Exelon, Duke Energy, and Pacific Gas & Electric. Progress Energy, a utility operating five nuclear facilities in the Carolinas and Florida, was singled out as being particularly problematic, with four of its plants being among the 14 that required special inspections.
In one instance described in the report, a high-voltage power cable at Progress Energy’s Robinson Nuclear Power Plant, near Hartsville, S.C., failed, causing a fire. “Hours after the fire had been put out, workers re-energized the cable that had started it all,” Mr. Lochbaum said. “It was still failed, and ignited a second fire.”
Responding to the report, Mike Hughes, a spokesman for Progress Energy, said: “We have the highest safety standards for our nuclear plants and our employees, and we work continuously to improve safety. We remain focused on addressing each of the events last year that led to special inspections.
Questions of risk and emergency preparedness at nuclear power plants have gained new prominence globally as people watch the operators at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan fight to stave off a full-scale nuclear meltdown. Nuclear regulators and Obama administration officials have said that they are watching the situation in Japan closely and that they will harvest any lessons as they become clear.
But in a conference call in which he discussed Thursday’s report, Edwin Lyman, a senior scientist with the Union of Concerns Scientists, argued that one such lesson was already at hand: the need for a wider evacuation zone around American nuclear plants.
Mr. Lyman criticized a recommendation on Wednesday by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that Americans in Japan remain at least 50 miles away from the Fukushima Daiichi plant, which Mr. Jaczko, the commission chairman, said was leaking radiation at rates far higher than Japanese government officials had suggested.
Mr. Lyman suggested that the commission was being hypocritical: the official evacuation zone surrounding nuclear power plants in the United States is only 10 miles, although critics have long urged that it be increased.
The agency “should not be using different standards for Americans abroad than it does at home,” Mr. Lyman said.
Citing plants like the Indian Point nuclear plant, about 35 miles north of New York City, Mr. Lyman, a physicist and member of the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management, called it “utterly unrealistic” to expect that a parallel evacuation could be undertaken should a disaster like the earthquake or tsunami in Japan occur in the United States.
But Mr. McIntyre, the regulatory commission spokesman, said the agency continued to believe that a 10-mile evacuation zone — required as part of the emergency protection plant at every nuclear facility in the United States — was adequate for what would be an “anticipated event.” In Japan, he emphasized, “you have a multiple-worst-case scenario.”
Mr. McIntyre also noted that the standard evacuation zone for American nuclear plants was backed up by a “50-mile ingestion zone,” in which potential radiation contamination of food supplies is planned for. He said the 10-mile evacuation zone could be expanded as circumstances warranted.
“However, once this is over,” Mr. McIntyre said, “we’re going to evaluating everything for lessons that can be learned, and I would be very surprised if this wasn’t one of the things that we look at.”
More in Environment (6 of 59 articles)
U.S. Calls Radiation ‘Extremely High;’ Sees Japan Nuclear Crisis Worsening
Read More »
Close
13/03 ３号機の冷却進む「排出放射性物質は微量」と枝野氏
2011/03/13 11:57更新
枝野幸男官房長官は１３日午前の記者会見で、原子炉の冷却機能に不具合が生じている東京電力福島第１原発の３号機について、真水の注入により冷却作業が順調に推移していると発表した。枝野氏は、作業の過程で「微量の放射性物質が空気中に排出されたが、人体に影響を与えるものではないと思われる」と述べた。
関連記事
枝野氏、福島原発に「管理された中での…
原発の炉の一つが冷却できない状態と枝…
また、福島第１原発周辺で被曝（ひばく）した可能性のある人が出たことで住民の不安が高まっていることを受け、避難所に専門家による救護所を設置することを明らかにした。国と福島県が連携し、被曝のモニタリングや医療対応にあたる。
枝野幸男官房長官は１３日午前の記者会見で、原子炉の冷却機能に不具合が生じている東京電力福島第１原発の３号機について、真水の注入により冷却作業が順調に推移していると発表した。枝野氏は、作業の過程で「微量の放射性物質が空気中に排出されたが、人体に影響を与えるものではないと思われる」と述べた。
関連記事
枝野氏、福島原発に「管理された中での…
原発の炉の一つが冷却できない状態と枝…
また、福島第１原発周辺で被曝（ひばく）した可能性のある人が出たことで住民の不安が高まっていることを受け、避難所に専門家による救護所を設置することを明らかにした。国と福島県が連携し、被曝のモニタリングや医療対応にあたる。
18/03 米軍４５０人放射線事故専門部隊、日本へ派遣へ
【ワシントン＝小川聡】米国防総省は１７日、東京電力福島第一原子力発電所の事故状況が悪化した場合に備え、放射線に汚染された地域での活動能力を持つ専門部隊を派遣する準備に着手した。
ウィラード太平洋軍司令官が記者会見で、「約４５０人の放射線被害管理の専門家の派遣を要請した。彼らは派遣命令に向けて準備中だ」と述べた。
同省は１７日、米本土での核テロなどに対処する北方司令部の専門部隊から９人の「被害管理評価チーム」を日本に派遣。ウィラード司令官は９人を「先遣隊」と位置づけた。
同省のウェブサイトによると、被害管理評価チームは化学・生物・放射線・核物質の関連事故が起きた際、最初に派遣される部隊だ。
司令官は「我々は放射線管理の能力を持っている。要請があれば、監視から除染まであらゆることで支援できる」と述べた。
このため同チームは、福島原発の状況が改善しないまま長期化したり、高濃度の放射能が拡散する大事故が発生したりする場合を想定し、どのような部隊が必要かを判断するとみられる。
同チームはこのほか、福島原発での自衛隊の活動に助言を行う予定だ。
（2011年3月18日10時40分 読売新聞）
ウィラード太平洋軍司令官が記者会見で、「約４５０人の放射線被害管理の専門家の派遣を要請した。彼らは派遣命令に向けて準備中だ」と述べた。
同省は１７日、米本土での核テロなどに対処する北方司令部の専門部隊から９人の「被害管理評価チーム」を日本に派遣。ウィラード司令官は９人を「先遣隊」と位置づけた。
同省のウェブサイトによると、被害管理評価チームは化学・生物・放射線・核物質の関連事故が起きた際、最初に派遣される部隊だ。
司令官は「我々は放射線管理の能力を持っている。要請があれば、監視から除染まであらゆることで支援できる」と述べた。
このため同チームは、福島原発の状況が改善しないまま長期化したり、高濃度の放射能が拡散する大事故が発生したりする場合を想定し、どのような部隊が必要かを判断するとみられる。
同チームはこのほか、福島原発での自衛隊の活動に助言を行う予定だ。
（2011年3月18日10時40分 読売新聞）
18/03 日本政府は危機感欠如、不信といら立ち募らす米
. 【ワシントン＝山田哲朗】放射能漏れを起こした福島第一原発で事態の悪化に歯止めがかからないことに対し、米国では日本政府の危機感が欠如しているとの焦りが募っている。
米原子力規制委員会（ＮＲＣ）のヤツコ委員長とエネルギー省のポネマン副長官らによる１７日の記者会見では、米記者団から「日本政府がこの危機に対処できると信頼しているか」「日本の情報開示に不満を感じていないか」など、日本の危機管理能力を問う質問が相次いだ。
カーニー大統領報道官は「オバマ大統領は、日本政府が十分に問題の深刻さを理解していると信頼している」と表向き答えたものの、内実は深刻に受け止めている。
１７日付の米紙ニューヨーク・タイムズによると、米国は原発の上空に放射能測定装置を積んだ無人機を飛ばして独自の情報収集に着手している。米政府からの測定装置の提供の申し出は地震直後に行われたが、日本政府は当初断り、事態が悪化し受け入れたという。
ヤツコ委員長が１６日、「４号機の水はすべて沸騰して干上がっている。放射線レベルは極めて高く、復旧作業に支障をきたす恐れがある」と証言したのは、無人機の情報を踏まえている可能性がある。
日本政府が委員長の見解に反し、自衛隊が４号機のプールの水を確認したと発表したことをめぐっても、米メディアには「日本政府が情報を隠しているのでは」との不信感が広がっている。
率直な議論を重視する米国では、事態の深刻さを直視する姿勢が強い。民間機関「憂慮する科学者同盟」は１７日、記者会見を開き、核専門家のエドウィン・ライマン博士が「日本は絶体絶命の試みを続けているが、もし失敗すれば、もう手だてはない」と指摘、放射性物質が大量に放出されて「１００年以上にわたって立ち入れなくなる地域が出るだろう」との悲観的な見方を示した。
米国社会は常にイラクやアフガニスタンの戦死者など冷徹な現実と向き合ってきただけに、日本政府の対応は手ぬるく映る。１７日付の米紙ニューヨーク・タイムズは、「日本の政治、官僚機構は、問題の広がりを明確に伝えず、外部からの助けを受け入れようとせず、動けなくなっている」「日本のシステムはすべてゆっくりと合意に達するようにできている」とする匿名の米政府関係者の分析を紹介し、国家的な危機に及んでも大胆な決断ができない日本政府へのいら立ちをあからさまにした。
（2011年3月18日12時40分 読売新聞）
米原子力規制委員会（ＮＲＣ）のヤツコ委員長とエネルギー省のポネマン副長官らによる１７日の記者会見では、米記者団から「日本政府がこの危機に対処できると信頼しているか」「日本の情報開示に不満を感じていないか」など、日本の危機管理能力を問う質問が相次いだ。
カーニー大統領報道官は「オバマ大統領は、日本政府が十分に問題の深刻さを理解していると信頼している」と表向き答えたものの、内実は深刻に受け止めている。
１７日付の米紙ニューヨーク・タイムズによると、米国は原発の上空に放射能測定装置を積んだ無人機を飛ばして独自の情報収集に着手している。米政府からの測定装置の提供の申し出は地震直後に行われたが、日本政府は当初断り、事態が悪化し受け入れたという。
ヤツコ委員長が１６日、「４号機の水はすべて沸騰して干上がっている。放射線レベルは極めて高く、復旧作業に支障をきたす恐れがある」と証言したのは、無人機の情報を踏まえている可能性がある。
日本政府が委員長の見解に反し、自衛隊が４号機のプールの水を確認したと発表したことをめぐっても、米メディアには「日本政府が情報を隠しているのでは」との不信感が広がっている。
率直な議論を重視する米国では、事態の深刻さを直視する姿勢が強い。民間機関「憂慮する科学者同盟」は１７日、記者会見を開き、核専門家のエドウィン・ライマン博士が「日本は絶体絶命の試みを続けているが、もし失敗すれば、もう手だてはない」と指摘、放射性物質が大量に放出されて「１００年以上にわたって立ち入れなくなる地域が出るだろう」との悲観的な見方を示した。
米国社会は常にイラクやアフガニスタンの戦死者など冷徹な現実と向き合ってきただけに、日本政府の対応は手ぬるく映る。１７日付の米紙ニューヨーク・タイムズは、「日本の政治、官僚機構は、問題の広がりを明確に伝えず、外部からの助けを受け入れようとせず、動けなくなっている」「日本のシステムはすべてゆっくりと合意に達するようにできている」とする匿名の米政府関係者の分析を紹介し、国家的な危機に及んでも大胆な決断ができない日本政府へのいら立ちをあからさまにした。
（2011年3月18日12時40分 読売新聞）
15/03 History Is on Japan's Side
March 15, 2011
By PETER FRETWELL and TAYLOR BALDWIN KILAND
Japan’s Prime Minister Naoto Kan came before a press conference over the weekend and made a simple declaration: “I think that the earthquake, tsunami and the situation at our nuclear reactors make up the worst crisis in the 65 years since the war. If the nation works together, we will overcome.”
History, and current research on human resiliency, suggest that he is right. In fact, history and research suggest that Japan will emerge stronger, not weaker, in the years to come.
In recent years, research into post-traumatic stress disorder (P.T.S.D.) has led to a new term and a new area of research: “posttraumatic growth” (P.T.G.). Coined by Dr. Richard Tedeschi, a psychology professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and coauthor of the “Handbook of Posttraumatic Growth,” P.T.G. research suggests that an encounter with severe trauma can actually lead to highly positive changes in individuals.
It can also increase their resiliency to subsequent adversity. Today, some researchers say that posttraumatic growth is far more common than long-term posttraumatic stress disorder. The norm is to adapt and grow following trauma. That phenomenon is, not coincidentally, Japan’s heritage and cultural norm.
Research with former prisoners of war who spent up to eight years in Vietnam’s infamous “Hanoi Hilton” prison confirms two things: Most of them experienced positive growth from the experience (and a P.T.S.D. rate of only 4 percent), and those who experienced the worst trauma — including repeated torture, starvation, solitary confinement and physical injury over many years — reported the most personal growth in the decades since their release. While none of them expressed a desire to go through the experience again, a number have said they are stronger and better men because of it.
In the months and years to come, the world’s third-largest economy, already troubled, will face even more challenges. But Japan’s remarkably well educated, highly productive and uniformly disciplined work force also will have reconstruction projects, recovery and clean-up to unite them. The economic and psychological drive provided by those tasks cannot be underestimated, even as we acknowledge the depth of the tragedy.
Not that long ago, as their cameras showed us the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, television reporters earnestly declared that New Orleans might never return to its previous glory as The Big Easy. A few even declared the city a lost cause.
Today, those predictions seem inane. New Orleans’s centuries of hard living was matched by its hard life — hurricanes, floods, disease and multiple wars, to name a few. Writing off a city with that life experience never seemed a good bet to those who study human resiliency.
After the staggering loss of life (by some estimates, three million deaths) and property in World War II, Japan rebuilt itself into one of the world’s great intellectual, economic and industrial powers.
Without diminishing for a moment the magnitude of the current crisis, or the human tragedies, Japan’s prime minister exhibited one of the hallmarks of leadership in crisis by reminding his countrymen of their heritage.
In invoking Japan’s history of resiliency and determination, Kan tapped into one of the most powerful factors in human resiliency: knowing you have the strength, knowledge and stamina it takes to make it through, because you have made it through other adversity in your life.
In these early stages, it appears that Japan’s cultural norms are providing some of the effective interventions needed following a disaster of this scale.
In 2007, an international panel of experts developed a list of five conditions that need to be created in the early stages of mass trauma: 1. a sense of safety; 2. calm, 3. a sense of self and community efficacy; 4. connectedness; and 5. hope. Watching the videos of Japanese citizens in the aftermath of their calamity, one can observe many of these interventions already at work.
The citizens of Japan have a benchmark for their conduct in the years to come. Ironically, the aging Japanese population may become a strength in the current crisis; the older citizens have the most experience in facing the challenges. Japan should emerge in a few years as a stronger and even more competitive world power.
Peter Fretwell andTaylor Baldwin Kiland are co-authors of a forthcoming book on the resiliency and success of Vietnam-era American prisoners of war.
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By PETER FRETWELL and TAYLOR BALDWIN KILAND
Japan’s Prime Minister Naoto Kan came before a press conference over the weekend and made a simple declaration: “I think that the earthquake, tsunami and the situation at our nuclear reactors make up the worst crisis in the 65 years since the war. If the nation works together, we will overcome.”
History, and current research on human resiliency, suggest that he is right. In fact, history and research suggest that Japan will emerge stronger, not weaker, in the years to come.
In recent years, research into post-traumatic stress disorder (P.T.S.D.) has led to a new term and a new area of research: “posttraumatic growth” (P.T.G.). Coined by Dr. Richard Tedeschi, a psychology professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and coauthor of the “Handbook of Posttraumatic Growth,” P.T.G. research suggests that an encounter with severe trauma can actually lead to highly positive changes in individuals.
It can also increase their resiliency to subsequent adversity. Today, some researchers say that posttraumatic growth is far more common than long-term posttraumatic stress disorder. The norm is to adapt and grow following trauma. That phenomenon is, not coincidentally, Japan’s heritage and cultural norm.
Research with former prisoners of war who spent up to eight years in Vietnam’s infamous “Hanoi Hilton” prison confirms two things: Most of them experienced positive growth from the experience (and a P.T.S.D. rate of only 4 percent), and those who experienced the worst trauma — including repeated torture, starvation, solitary confinement and physical injury over many years — reported the most personal growth in the decades since their release. While none of them expressed a desire to go through the experience again, a number have said they are stronger and better men because of it.
In the months and years to come, the world’s third-largest economy, already troubled, will face even more challenges. But Japan’s remarkably well educated, highly productive and uniformly disciplined work force also will have reconstruction projects, recovery and clean-up to unite them. The economic and psychological drive provided by those tasks cannot be underestimated, even as we acknowledge the depth of the tragedy.
Not that long ago, as their cameras showed us the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, television reporters earnestly declared that New Orleans might never return to its previous glory as The Big Easy. A few even declared the city a lost cause.
Today, those predictions seem inane. New Orleans’s centuries of hard living was matched by its hard life — hurricanes, floods, disease and multiple wars, to name a few. Writing off a city with that life experience never seemed a good bet to those who study human resiliency.
After the staggering loss of life (by some estimates, three million deaths) and property in World War II, Japan rebuilt itself into one of the world’s great intellectual, economic and industrial powers.
Without diminishing for a moment the magnitude of the current crisis, or the human tragedies, Japan’s prime minister exhibited one of the hallmarks of leadership in crisis by reminding his countrymen of their heritage.
In invoking Japan’s history of resiliency and determination, Kan tapped into one of the most powerful factors in human resiliency: knowing you have the strength, knowledge and stamina it takes to make it through, because you have made it through other adversity in your life.
In these early stages, it appears that Japan’s cultural norms are providing some of the effective interventions needed following a disaster of this scale.
In 2007, an international panel of experts developed a list of five conditions that need to be created in the early stages of mass trauma: 1. a sense of safety; 2. calm, 3. a sense of self and community efficacy; 4. connectedness; and 5. hope. Watching the videos of Japanese citizens in the aftermath of their calamity, one can observe many of these interventions already at work.
The citizens of Japan have a benchmark for their conduct in the years to come. Ironically, the aging Japanese population may become a strength in the current crisis; the older citizens have the most experience in facing the challenges. Japan should emerge in a few years as a stronger and even more competitive world power.
Peter Fretwell andTaylor Baldwin Kiland are co-authors of a forthcoming book on the resiliency and success of Vietnam-era American prisoners of war.
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16/03 A Republican Fund-Raiser Is Indicted in a Ponzi Scheme
March 16, 2011
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
LOS ANGELES — A prominent Republican fund-raiser was charged Wednesday in a federal grand jury indictment with orchestrating a Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors of hundreds of millions of dollars.
The fund-raiser, Timothy Durham, 48, was arrested early in the morning at his West Hollywood home and charged with 12 counts of securities and wire fraud in federal court here.
Prosecutors accuse Mr. Durham of taking money investors trusted to his business, the Fair Finance Company, and using it make loans to himself and his businesses; earlier investors were repaid with money from newer ones.
From 2002 to 2009, more than 5,000 investors were defrauded out of more than $200 million, the indictment said. The company later filed for bankruptcy.
The bankruptcy trustee for Fair Finance told creditors in August that much of the $54 million Mr. Durham had lent himself helped finance his lavish lifestyle — at his Indianapolis home, a 45-car garage housed an Aston Martin designed to look like the car James Bond drove in “Goldfinger,” while in Miami he kept a four-bedroom yacht.
Mr. Durham donated more than $800,000 to the Republican Party and candidates in Indiana, including almost $200,000 to Gov. Mitch Daniels. Neither Mr. Durham’s lawyer nor Mr. Daniels’s campaign responded to requests for comment.
Two of Mr. Durham’s business associates, James F. Cochran, 55, and Rick D. Snow, 47, were also charged with security and wire fraud on Wednesday.
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By THE NEW YORK TIMES
LOS ANGELES — A prominent Republican fund-raiser was charged Wednesday in a federal grand jury indictment with orchestrating a Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors of hundreds of millions of dollars.
The fund-raiser, Timothy Durham, 48, was arrested early in the morning at his West Hollywood home and charged with 12 counts of securities and wire fraud in federal court here.
Prosecutors accuse Mr. Durham of taking money investors trusted to his business, the Fair Finance Company, and using it make loans to himself and his businesses; earlier investors were repaid with money from newer ones.
From 2002 to 2009, more than 5,000 investors were defrauded out of more than $200 million, the indictment said. The company later filed for bankruptcy.
The bankruptcy trustee for Fair Finance told creditors in August that much of the $54 million Mr. Durham had lent himself helped finance his lavish lifestyle — at his Indianapolis home, a 45-car garage housed an Aston Martin designed to look like the car James Bond drove in “Goldfinger,” while in Miami he kept a four-bedroom yacht.
Mr. Durham donated more than $800,000 to the Republican Party and candidates in Indiana, including almost $200,000 to Gov. Mitch Daniels. Neither Mr. Durham’s lawyer nor Mr. Daniels’s campaign responded to requests for comment.
Two of Mr. Durham’s business associates, James F. Cochran, 55, and Rick D. Snow, 47, were also charged with security and wire fraud on Wednesday.
More in U.S. (1 of 32 articles)
Report Finds Wide Abuses By Police in New Orleans
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Close
図解・東日本大震災
朝日新聞紙面に掲載されたデザイン画像を集めました。紙面編集段階での情報を基に作成しているため、データなどが最新のものとは異なる場合があります。
写真をクリックすると、大きな画像が表示されます。次々とめくって見ることもできます。環境によっては表示に時間がかかる場合があります。
図表で見る地震の全貌原子力発電所の構造と被害状況生活情報・避難ノウハウ.
図表で見る地震の全貌
写真をクリックすると、大きな画像が表示されます。次々とめくって見ることもできます。環境によっては表示に時間がかかる場合があります。
図表で見る地震の全貌原子力発電所の構造と被害状況生活情報・避難ノウハウ.
図表で見る地震の全貌
17/03 Người Việt ở Tokyo vẫn bình an
Thứ năm, 17/3/2011, 11:54 GMT+7
Chưa có ngày nào phải nghỉ làm, nước và lương thực vẫn đầy đủ, chỉ có điện bị cắt luân phiên và giao thông có phần khó khăn... là những chia sẻ của lao động, tu nghiệp sinh, lưu học sinh ở Tokyo, Nhật Bản.
>Người Việt Nam di chuyển khỏi tâm chấn Sendai
Chị Vũ Minh Nga, cán bộ của Công ty Fsoft tại Tokyo cho biết, động đất, sóng thần chỉ ảnh hưởng đến những vùng gần tâm chấn, còn các khu vực khác trong đó có Tokyo chỉ bị dư chấn nhẹ. Cuộc sống của người dân không quá đảo lộn.
Từ hôm xảy ra động đất chị Nga vẫn đi làm đều đặn. Ở nơi chị sống điện nước vẫn được cung cấp đầy đủ. "Ngày 14/3 lương thực, thực phẩm ở siêu thị không có hàng để bán bởi người dân ồ ạt đi mua dự trữ. Nhưng hôm qua thì hàng hóa đã trở lại bình thường", chị Nga nói.
Cuộc sống ở Tokyo vẫn diễn ra bình thường, người Việt ở đây vẫn đi học, đi làm và mức độ phóng xạ chưa đến mức nguy hiểm. Ảnh: Việt Hùng.
Anh Việt Hùng (Hà Nội), tu nghiệp sinh ở Tokyo cho biết, nơi anh ở cách tâm chấn gần 400 km nên dù bị dư chấn nhưng không quá mạnh. Tối 15/3 ở đây cũng vừa có một trận động đất cấp 6. Trong suốt thời gian Nhật Bản xảy ra thảm họa, anh chưa phải nghỉ học ngày nào.
Do cắt điện luân phiên nên hoạt động của tàu điện ngầm không cố định, có thể phải đổi giờ hay cắt tàu khiến những người đi làm phải chờ rất lâu. Nhưng ngày 16/3 tình hình đã được cải thiện, người dân đi làm không còn khó khăn như hai hôm trước. Có một số người nhà xa không đến được công ty do giao thông khó khăn.
"Hiện tại tôi và các bạn chỉ lo lắng về tình trạng nhiễm phóng xạ. Tuy nhiên, chính quyền Nhật thông báo mức độ vẫn chưa nguy hiểm, nổ nhà máy chỉ là ở bên ngoài chứ không phải trong lò phản ứng nên chúng tôi vẫn học tập bình thường", anh Hùng nói.
Đang được nghỉ xuân nhưng Vũ Duy Lộc (Vĩnh Yên, Vĩnh Phúc), sinh viên Khoa điều khiển và hệ thống của Tokyo Institute of Technology vẫn ở lại trường. Cậu cho biết, diễn biến của vụ nổ nhà máy điện hạt nhân rất đáng lo ngại, tuy nhiên hiện tại Tokyo vẫn chưa đến mức nguy hiểm. Theo chính phủ Nhật lượng phóng xạ ở Tokyo rất thấp, không thể ảnh hưởng đến sức khỏe người dân.
Ở nơi Lộc sống, siêu thị vẫn mở, không có chuyện thiếu đồ ăn thức uống. Công ty điện Tokyo có kế hoạch cắt điện luân phiên nhưng chỗ Lộc vẫn chưa hề bị mất điện, gas vẫn có. Tàu điện ở Tokyo vẫn chạy nhưng số lượng ít hơn thường ngày. Vì vậy mọi người ít ra đường khiến đường phố vắng vẻ hơn.
Ở các siêu thị, chỉ các thực phẩm chế biến sẵn hơi khan hiếm, còn các loại khác vẫn dồi dào. Ảnh: Vũ Minh Nga.
"Hôm qua em nói chuyện với một người bạn ở Saitama, phía Tây Bắc Tokyo, nơi đo được lượng phóng xạ cao gấp 40 lần bình thường, được biết cuộc sống ở đó chưa bị xáo trộn. Không có chuyện thiếu đồ ăn ở siêu thị, mọi người vẫn chưa phải di tản. Bạn của em sáng nay vẫn đi học", Lộc nói.
Lộc kể, người bạn của cậu vừa thông báo thi đỗ vào một trường đại học ở Nhật. Tuy nhiên, trước thông tin về thảm họa ở Nhật, bố mẹ đã bắt bạn phải trở về nước khi ngày nhập học đang đến gần. "Tokyo vẫn an toàn, chưa đến mức nguy hiểm phải sơ tán. Nếu cô ấy về thì năm sau phải thi lại. Nếu đỗ còn đỡ, chứ trượt thì thật là thiệt thòi", Lộc chia sẻ.
Đang ở Nagoya, miền Trung nước Nhật, sinh viên Bùi Lê Quân cho biết, do khó khăn về giao thông và vận chuyển cung ứng cho vùng bị động đất nên một số mặt hàng trở nên khan hiếm. Gạo ít hơn, mỳ ăn liền gần như bị vét sạch, nhưng các mặt hàng phải qua chế biến như thịt tươi, rau xanh vẫn dồi dào.
"Chúng em cũng thường xuyên theo dõi tin tức trên tivi, đài, báo. Em nhận thấy những người biết tiếng Nhật bĩnh tĩnh hơn vì họ có thể cập nhật được các thông tin chính xác, nhanh nhất từ đài truyền hình Nhật. Nếu tình hình trở nên xấu hơn, có lẽ nhiều người Việt ở phía Bắc sẽ di tản về chỗ em hoặc xa hơn", Quân cho hay.
Cũng theo Quân, càng tiến về phía Nam Nhật Bản, nơi càng cách xa tâm chấn, những dư chấn cũng nhẹ và không ảnh hưởng nhiều đến cuộc sống người dân.
Tokyo cách tỉnh Fukushima, nơi có nhà máy điện hạt nhân gặp sự cố, khoảng 250 km. Ảnh: google.
Trao đổi với VnExpress, hầu hết người Việt Nam sống ở Tokyo, miền Trung và Nam Nhật Bản cho rằng báo chí dồn dập đưa tin về những điểm nóng của thảm họa khiến nhiều người trong nước lại cho rằng toàn bộ đất nước và người dân sinh sống ở Nhật Bản bị ảnh hưởng.
"Thực ra điều đó chỉ đúng ở vùng tâm chấn động đất và nơi xảy ra vụ nổ nhà máy điện hạt nhân, tức vùng đông bắc Nhật Bản", sinh viên Vũ Duy Lộc nói.
Việt Nam hiện có trên 30.000 người ở Nhật Bản. Chiều 16/3, sau khi nghe lãnh đạo Bộ Ngoại giao và Đại sứ Việt Nam tại Nhật Bản trực tiếp báo cáo tình hình sau thảm họa động đất, sóng thần ngày 11/3, Thủ tướng Nguyễn Tấn Dũng đánh giá tình hình tại Nhật Bản tiếp tục diễn biến phức tạp, nhưng vẫn trong tầm kiểm soát.
Để bảo vệ công dân Việt Nam, Thủ tướng yêu cầu trước mắt Đại sứ quán Việt Nam tại Nhật Bản phối hợp với các cơ quan hữu trách của Nhật khẩn trương tập trung sơ tán công dân Việt Nam ra khỏi vùng bị ảnh hưởng nặng nề của động đất, sóng thần và vùng có nhà máy điện hạt nhân gặp sự cố, tạo điều kiện cho công dân trở về nước nếu có yêu cầu.
Bộ Ngoại giao có trách nhiệm phối hợp chặt chẽ với các bộ ngành và cơ quan đại diện của Việt Nam tại Nhật Bản theo dõi chặt chẽ tình hình và quyết định áp dụng các biện pháp ứng phó khẩn thiết trong phạm vi thẩm quyền.
Hoàng Thùy
Chưa có ngày nào phải nghỉ làm, nước và lương thực vẫn đầy đủ, chỉ có điện bị cắt luân phiên và giao thông có phần khó khăn... là những chia sẻ của lao động, tu nghiệp sinh, lưu học sinh ở Tokyo, Nhật Bản.
>Người Việt Nam di chuyển khỏi tâm chấn Sendai
Chị Vũ Minh Nga, cán bộ của Công ty Fsoft tại Tokyo cho biết, động đất, sóng thần chỉ ảnh hưởng đến những vùng gần tâm chấn, còn các khu vực khác trong đó có Tokyo chỉ bị dư chấn nhẹ. Cuộc sống của người dân không quá đảo lộn.
Từ hôm xảy ra động đất chị Nga vẫn đi làm đều đặn. Ở nơi chị sống điện nước vẫn được cung cấp đầy đủ. "Ngày 14/3 lương thực, thực phẩm ở siêu thị không có hàng để bán bởi người dân ồ ạt đi mua dự trữ. Nhưng hôm qua thì hàng hóa đã trở lại bình thường", chị Nga nói.
Cuộc sống ở Tokyo vẫn diễn ra bình thường, người Việt ở đây vẫn đi học, đi làm và mức độ phóng xạ chưa đến mức nguy hiểm. Ảnh: Việt Hùng.
Anh Việt Hùng (Hà Nội), tu nghiệp sinh ở Tokyo cho biết, nơi anh ở cách tâm chấn gần 400 km nên dù bị dư chấn nhưng không quá mạnh. Tối 15/3 ở đây cũng vừa có một trận động đất cấp 6. Trong suốt thời gian Nhật Bản xảy ra thảm họa, anh chưa phải nghỉ học ngày nào.
Do cắt điện luân phiên nên hoạt động của tàu điện ngầm không cố định, có thể phải đổi giờ hay cắt tàu khiến những người đi làm phải chờ rất lâu. Nhưng ngày 16/3 tình hình đã được cải thiện, người dân đi làm không còn khó khăn như hai hôm trước. Có một số người nhà xa không đến được công ty do giao thông khó khăn.
"Hiện tại tôi và các bạn chỉ lo lắng về tình trạng nhiễm phóng xạ. Tuy nhiên, chính quyền Nhật thông báo mức độ vẫn chưa nguy hiểm, nổ nhà máy chỉ là ở bên ngoài chứ không phải trong lò phản ứng nên chúng tôi vẫn học tập bình thường", anh Hùng nói.
Đang được nghỉ xuân nhưng Vũ Duy Lộc (Vĩnh Yên, Vĩnh Phúc), sinh viên Khoa điều khiển và hệ thống của Tokyo Institute of Technology vẫn ở lại trường. Cậu cho biết, diễn biến của vụ nổ nhà máy điện hạt nhân rất đáng lo ngại, tuy nhiên hiện tại Tokyo vẫn chưa đến mức nguy hiểm. Theo chính phủ Nhật lượng phóng xạ ở Tokyo rất thấp, không thể ảnh hưởng đến sức khỏe người dân.
Ở nơi Lộc sống, siêu thị vẫn mở, không có chuyện thiếu đồ ăn thức uống. Công ty điện Tokyo có kế hoạch cắt điện luân phiên nhưng chỗ Lộc vẫn chưa hề bị mất điện, gas vẫn có. Tàu điện ở Tokyo vẫn chạy nhưng số lượng ít hơn thường ngày. Vì vậy mọi người ít ra đường khiến đường phố vắng vẻ hơn.
Ở các siêu thị, chỉ các thực phẩm chế biến sẵn hơi khan hiếm, còn các loại khác vẫn dồi dào. Ảnh: Vũ Minh Nga.
"Hôm qua em nói chuyện với một người bạn ở Saitama, phía Tây Bắc Tokyo, nơi đo được lượng phóng xạ cao gấp 40 lần bình thường, được biết cuộc sống ở đó chưa bị xáo trộn. Không có chuyện thiếu đồ ăn ở siêu thị, mọi người vẫn chưa phải di tản. Bạn của em sáng nay vẫn đi học", Lộc nói.
Lộc kể, người bạn của cậu vừa thông báo thi đỗ vào một trường đại học ở Nhật. Tuy nhiên, trước thông tin về thảm họa ở Nhật, bố mẹ đã bắt bạn phải trở về nước khi ngày nhập học đang đến gần. "Tokyo vẫn an toàn, chưa đến mức nguy hiểm phải sơ tán. Nếu cô ấy về thì năm sau phải thi lại. Nếu đỗ còn đỡ, chứ trượt thì thật là thiệt thòi", Lộc chia sẻ.
Đang ở Nagoya, miền Trung nước Nhật, sinh viên Bùi Lê Quân cho biết, do khó khăn về giao thông và vận chuyển cung ứng cho vùng bị động đất nên một số mặt hàng trở nên khan hiếm. Gạo ít hơn, mỳ ăn liền gần như bị vét sạch, nhưng các mặt hàng phải qua chế biến như thịt tươi, rau xanh vẫn dồi dào.
"Chúng em cũng thường xuyên theo dõi tin tức trên tivi, đài, báo. Em nhận thấy những người biết tiếng Nhật bĩnh tĩnh hơn vì họ có thể cập nhật được các thông tin chính xác, nhanh nhất từ đài truyền hình Nhật. Nếu tình hình trở nên xấu hơn, có lẽ nhiều người Việt ở phía Bắc sẽ di tản về chỗ em hoặc xa hơn", Quân cho hay.
Cũng theo Quân, càng tiến về phía Nam Nhật Bản, nơi càng cách xa tâm chấn, những dư chấn cũng nhẹ và không ảnh hưởng nhiều đến cuộc sống người dân.
Tokyo cách tỉnh Fukushima, nơi có nhà máy điện hạt nhân gặp sự cố, khoảng 250 km. Ảnh: google.
Trao đổi với VnExpress, hầu hết người Việt Nam sống ở Tokyo, miền Trung và Nam Nhật Bản cho rằng báo chí dồn dập đưa tin về những điểm nóng của thảm họa khiến nhiều người trong nước lại cho rằng toàn bộ đất nước và người dân sinh sống ở Nhật Bản bị ảnh hưởng.
"Thực ra điều đó chỉ đúng ở vùng tâm chấn động đất và nơi xảy ra vụ nổ nhà máy điện hạt nhân, tức vùng đông bắc Nhật Bản", sinh viên Vũ Duy Lộc nói.
Việt Nam hiện có trên 30.000 người ở Nhật Bản. Chiều 16/3, sau khi nghe lãnh đạo Bộ Ngoại giao và Đại sứ Việt Nam tại Nhật Bản trực tiếp báo cáo tình hình sau thảm họa động đất, sóng thần ngày 11/3, Thủ tướng Nguyễn Tấn Dũng đánh giá tình hình tại Nhật Bản tiếp tục diễn biến phức tạp, nhưng vẫn trong tầm kiểm soát.
Để bảo vệ công dân Việt Nam, Thủ tướng yêu cầu trước mắt Đại sứ quán Việt Nam tại Nhật Bản phối hợp với các cơ quan hữu trách của Nhật khẩn trương tập trung sơ tán công dân Việt Nam ra khỏi vùng bị ảnh hưởng nặng nề của động đất, sóng thần và vùng có nhà máy điện hạt nhân gặp sự cố, tạo điều kiện cho công dân trở về nước nếu có yêu cầu.
Bộ Ngoại giao có trách nhiệm phối hợp chặt chẽ với các bộ ngành và cơ quan đại diện của Việt Nam tại Nhật Bản theo dõi chặt chẽ tình hình và quyết định áp dụng các biện pháp ứng phó khẩn thiết trong phạm vi thẩm quyền.
Hoàng Thùy
18/03 電力館（東京・渋谷）における空気中の放射線量の状況について
（３月18日 10時現在）
東京（渋谷）の電力館に設置しているモニタリングポストにおいて、空気中の放射線量を測定しております。下表にて、同モニタリングポストのデータを表示しています。引き続き、測定結果についてお知らせしてまいります。
○放射線の単位について
グレイ（Ｇｙ）は、放射線が物質に当たったとき、そのエネルギーが物質にどれだけ吸収されたかを表す単位で、シーベルト（Ｓｖ）は人体が放射線を受けたとき、その影響の度合いを表す単位です。人体への放射線の影響を評価する際はシーベルト（Ｓｖ）を用います。
※下記のとおり換算します。
１ｎＧｙ／ｈ（ナノグレイ／毎時）
≒１nＳｖ／ｈ（ナノシーベルト／毎時）
＝0.001μＳｖ／ｈ（マイクロシーベルト／毎時）
＝0.000001ｍＳｖ／ｈ（ミリシーベルト／毎時）
（PDF） 下表１ 「１時間毎の屋外線量率最大値(ｎＧｙ／ｈ)」
（PDF） 下表２ 「毎日の屋外線量率最大値および最小値(ｎＧｙ／ｈ)」
日常生活と放射線
東京（渋谷）の電力館に設置しているモニタリングポストにおいて、空気中の放射線量を測定しております。下表にて、同モニタリングポストのデータを表示しています。引き続き、測定結果についてお知らせしてまいります。
○放射線の単位について
グレイ（Ｇｙ）は、放射線が物質に当たったとき、そのエネルギーが物質にどれだけ吸収されたかを表す単位で、シーベルト（Ｓｖ）は人体が放射線を受けたとき、その影響の度合いを表す単位です。人体への放射線の影響を評価する際はシーベルト（Ｓｖ）を用います。
※下記のとおり換算します。
１ｎＧｙ／ｈ（ナノグレイ／毎時）
≒１nＳｖ／ｈ（ナノシーベルト／毎時）
＝0.001μＳｖ／ｈ（マイクロシーベルト／毎時）
＝0.000001ｍＳｖ／ｈ（ミリシーベルト／毎時）
（PDF） 下表１ 「１時間毎の屋外線量率最大値(ｎＧｙ／ｈ)」
（PDF） 下表２ 「毎日の屋外線量率最大値および最小値(ｎＧｙ／ｈ)」
日常生活と放射線
17/03 Obama’s Speech on Japan (Text)
March 17, 2011
Following is the transcript for President Obama’s speech on Japan's nuclear crisis and earthquake aftermath on Thursday, as released by the White House:
Good afternoon, everyone. Over the last several days, the American people have been both heartbroken and deeply concerned about the developments in Japan.
We’ve seen an earthquake and tsunami render unimaginable -- an unimaginable toll of death and destruction on one of our closest friends and allies in the world. And we’ve seen this powerful natural disaster cause even more catastrophe through its impact on nuclear reactors that bring peaceful energy to the people of Japan.
Today, I wanted to update the American people on what we know about the situation in Japan, what we’re doing to support American citizens and the safety of our own nuclear energy, and how we are helping the Japanese people contain the damage, recover and rebuild.
First, we are bringing all available resources to bear to closely monitor the situation, and to protect American citizens who may be in harm’s way. Even as Japanese responders continue to do heroic work, we know that the damage to the nuclear reactors in Fukushima Daiichi plant poses a substantial risk to people who are nearby. That is why yesterday, we called for an evacuation of American citizens who are within 50 miles of the plant. This decision was based upon a careful scientific evaluation and the guidelines that we would use to keep our citizens safe here in the United States, or anywhere in the world.
Beyond this 50-mile radius, the risks do not currently call for an evacuation. But we do have a responsibility to take prudent and precautionary measures to educate those Americans who may be endangered by exposure to radiation if the situation deteriorates. That’s why last night I authorized the voluntary departures of family members and dependents of U.S. officials working in northeastern Japan.
All U.S. citizens in Japan should continue to carefully monitor the situation and follow the guidance of the U.S. and Japanese governments. And those who are seeking assistance should contact our embassy and consulates, which continue to be open and operational.
Second, I know that many Americans are also worried about the potential risks to the United States. So I want to be very clear: We do not expect harmful levels of radiation to reach the United States, whether it’s the West Coast, Hawaii, Alaska, or U.S. territories in the Pacific. Let me repeat that: We do not expect harmful levels of radiation to reach the West Coast, Hawaii, Alaska, or U.S. territories in the Pacific. That is the judgment of our Nuclear Regulatory Commission and many other experts.
Furthermore, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and public health experts do not recommend that people in the United States take precautionary measures beyond staying informed. And going forward, we will continue to keep the American people fully updated -- because I believe that you must know what I know as President.
Here at home, nuclear power is also an important part of our own energy future, along with renewable sources like wind, solar, natural gas and clean coal. Our nuclear power plants have undergone exhaustive study, and have been declared safe for any number of extreme contingencies. But when we see a crisis like the one in Japan, we have a responsibility to learn from this event, and to draw from those lessons to ensure the safety and security of our people.
That’s why I’ve asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to do a comprehensive review of the safety of our domestic nuclear plants in light of the natural disaster that unfolded in Japan.
Finally, we are working aggressively to support our Japanese ally at this time of extraordinary challenge. Search and rescue teams are on the ground in Japan to help the recovery effort. A disaster assistance and response team is working to confront the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami. The U.S. military, which has helped to ensure the security of Japan for decades, is working around the clock.
To date, we’ve flown hundreds of missions to support the recovery efforts, and distributed thousands of pounds of food and water to the Japanese people. We’ve also deployed some of our leading experts to help contain the damage at Japan’s nuclear reactors. We’re sharing with them expertise, equipment, and technology so that the courageous responders on the scene have the benefit of American teamwork and support.
And the American people have also opened up their hearts. Many have given generously to support the ongoing relief efforts. The Red Cross is providing assistance to help meet the immediate needs of those who’ve been displaced. And I would encourage anybody who wants to lend a hand to go to usaid.gov to learn more -- that’s usaid.gov -- to find out how you can be helpful.
As I told Prime Minister Kan last night, and reaffirmed at the Japanese embassy here in Washington today, the Japanese people are not alone in this time of great trial and sorrow. Across the Pacific, they will find a hand of support extended from the United States as they get back on their feet. After all, we have an alliance that was forged more than a half century ago, and strengthened by shared interests and democratic values. Our people share ties of family, ties of culture, and ties of commerce. Our troops have served to protect Japan’s shores, and our citizens have found opportunity and friendship in Japan’s cities and towns.
Above all, I am confident that Japan will recover and rebuild because of the strength and spirit of the Japanese people. Over the last few days, they’ve opened up their homes to one another. They’ve shared scarce resources of food and water. They’ve organized shelters, provided free medical care, and looked out for their most vulnerable citizens. One man put it simply: “It’s a Japanese thing. When hard times hit, we have to help each other.”
In these hard times, there remains, nevertheless, hope for the future. In one small town that had been flattened by the tsunami, emergency workers rescued a four-month-old baby who had been swept out of her parents’ arms and stranded for days among the debris. No one can say for certain just how she survived the water and the wreckage around her. There is a mystery in the course of human events.
But in the midst of economic recovery and global upheaval, disasters like this remind us of the common humanity that we share. We see it in the responders who are risking their lives at Fukushima. We show it through the help that has poured into Japan from 70 countries. And we hear it in the cries of a child, miraculously pulled from the rubble. In the coming days, we will continue to do everything we can to ensure the safety of American citizens and the security of our sources of energy. And we will stand with the people of Japan as they contain this crisis, recover from this hardship, and rebuild their great nation.
Thanks very much.
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The Caucus: Senate Approves Stopgap Budget
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Following is the transcript for President Obama’s speech on Japan's nuclear crisis and earthquake aftermath on Thursday, as released by the White House:
Good afternoon, everyone. Over the last several days, the American people have been both heartbroken and deeply concerned about the developments in Japan.
We’ve seen an earthquake and tsunami render unimaginable -- an unimaginable toll of death and destruction on one of our closest friends and allies in the world. And we’ve seen this powerful natural disaster cause even more catastrophe through its impact on nuclear reactors that bring peaceful energy to the people of Japan.
Today, I wanted to update the American people on what we know about the situation in Japan, what we’re doing to support American citizens and the safety of our own nuclear energy, and how we are helping the Japanese people contain the damage, recover and rebuild.
First, we are bringing all available resources to bear to closely monitor the situation, and to protect American citizens who may be in harm’s way. Even as Japanese responders continue to do heroic work, we know that the damage to the nuclear reactors in Fukushima Daiichi plant poses a substantial risk to people who are nearby. That is why yesterday, we called for an evacuation of American citizens who are within 50 miles of the plant. This decision was based upon a careful scientific evaluation and the guidelines that we would use to keep our citizens safe here in the United States, or anywhere in the world.
Beyond this 50-mile radius, the risks do not currently call for an evacuation. But we do have a responsibility to take prudent and precautionary measures to educate those Americans who may be endangered by exposure to radiation if the situation deteriorates. That’s why last night I authorized the voluntary departures of family members and dependents of U.S. officials working in northeastern Japan.
All U.S. citizens in Japan should continue to carefully monitor the situation and follow the guidance of the U.S. and Japanese governments. And those who are seeking assistance should contact our embassy and consulates, which continue to be open and operational.
Second, I know that many Americans are also worried about the potential risks to the United States. So I want to be very clear: We do not expect harmful levels of radiation to reach the United States, whether it’s the West Coast, Hawaii, Alaska, or U.S. territories in the Pacific. Let me repeat that: We do not expect harmful levels of radiation to reach the West Coast, Hawaii, Alaska, or U.S. territories in the Pacific. That is the judgment of our Nuclear Regulatory Commission and many other experts.
Furthermore, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and public health experts do not recommend that people in the United States take precautionary measures beyond staying informed. And going forward, we will continue to keep the American people fully updated -- because I believe that you must know what I know as President.
Here at home, nuclear power is also an important part of our own energy future, along with renewable sources like wind, solar, natural gas and clean coal. Our nuclear power plants have undergone exhaustive study, and have been declared safe for any number of extreme contingencies. But when we see a crisis like the one in Japan, we have a responsibility to learn from this event, and to draw from those lessons to ensure the safety and security of our people.
That’s why I’ve asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to do a comprehensive review of the safety of our domestic nuclear plants in light of the natural disaster that unfolded in Japan.
Finally, we are working aggressively to support our Japanese ally at this time of extraordinary challenge. Search and rescue teams are on the ground in Japan to help the recovery effort. A disaster assistance and response team is working to confront the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami. The U.S. military, which has helped to ensure the security of Japan for decades, is working around the clock.
To date, we’ve flown hundreds of missions to support the recovery efforts, and distributed thousands of pounds of food and water to the Japanese people. We’ve also deployed some of our leading experts to help contain the damage at Japan’s nuclear reactors. We’re sharing with them expertise, equipment, and technology so that the courageous responders on the scene have the benefit of American teamwork and support.
And the American people have also opened up their hearts. Many have given generously to support the ongoing relief efforts. The Red Cross is providing assistance to help meet the immediate needs of those who’ve been displaced. And I would encourage anybody who wants to lend a hand to go to usaid.gov to learn more -- that’s usaid.gov -- to find out how you can be helpful.
As I told Prime Minister Kan last night, and reaffirmed at the Japanese embassy here in Washington today, the Japanese people are not alone in this time of great trial and sorrow. Across the Pacific, they will find a hand of support extended from the United States as they get back on their feet. After all, we have an alliance that was forged more than a half century ago, and strengthened by shared interests and democratic values. Our people share ties of family, ties of culture, and ties of commerce. Our troops have served to protect Japan’s shores, and our citizens have found opportunity and friendship in Japan’s cities and towns.
Above all, I am confident that Japan will recover and rebuild because of the strength and spirit of the Japanese people. Over the last few days, they’ve opened up their homes to one another. They’ve shared scarce resources of food and water. They’ve organized shelters, provided free medical care, and looked out for their most vulnerable citizens. One man put it simply: “It’s a Japanese thing. When hard times hit, we have to help each other.”
In these hard times, there remains, nevertheless, hope for the future. In one small town that had been flattened by the tsunami, emergency workers rescued a four-month-old baby who had been swept out of her parents’ arms and stranded for days among the debris. No one can say for certain just how she survived the water and the wreckage around her. There is a mystery in the course of human events.
But in the midst of economic recovery and global upheaval, disasters like this remind us of the common humanity that we share. We see it in the responders who are risking their lives at Fukushima. We show it through the help that has poured into Japan from 70 countries. And we hear it in the cries of a child, miraculously pulled from the rubble. In the coming days, we will continue to do everything we can to ensure the safety of American citizens and the security of our sources of energy. And we will stand with the people of Japan as they contain this crisis, recover from this hardship, and rebuild their great nation.
Thanks very much.
More in Politics (1 of 40 articles)
The Caucus: Senate Approves Stopgap Budget
Read More »
Close
17/03 With Quest to Cool Fuel Rods Stumbling, U.S. Sees ‘Weeks’ of Struggle
March 17, 2011
By NORIMITSU ONISHI, DAVID E. SANGER and MATTHEW L. WALD
TOKYO — Amid widening alarm in the United States and elsewhere about Japan’s nuclear crisis, military fire trucks began spraying cooling water on spent fuel rods at the country’s stricken nuclear power station late Thursday after earlier efforts to cool the rods failed, Japanese officials said.
The United States’ top nuclear official followed up his bleak appraisal of the grave situation at the plant the day before with a caution that it would “take some time, possibly weeks,” to resolve.
The developments came as the authorities reached for ever more desperate and unconventional methods to cool damaged reactors, deploying helicopters and water cannons in a race to prevent perilous overheating in the spent rods of the No. 3 reactor.
Moments before the military trucks began spraying, police officers in water cannon trucks were forced back by high levels of radiation in the same area. The police had been trying to get within 50 yards of the reactor, one of six at the plant.
The five specially fitted military trucks sprayed water for about an hour, but the full impact of the tactic was not immediately clear.
The Japanese efforts focused on a different part of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, 140 miles northeast of here, from the reactor — No. 4 — depicted in Washington on Wednesday as presenting a far bleaker threat than the Japanese government had offered.
The decision to focus on the No. 3 reactor appeared to suggest that Japanese officials believe it is a greater threat, since it is the only one at the site loaded with a mixed fuel known as mox, for mixed oxide, which includes reclaimed plutonium.
Western nuclear engineers have said that the release of mox into the atmosphere would produce a more dangerous radioactive plume than the dispersal of uranium fuel rods at the site. The Japanese authorities also expressed concern on Wednesday that the pressure in the No. 3 reactor had plunged and that either gauges were malfunctioning or a rupture had already occurred.
After the military’s effort to cool the spent fuel atop the reactor with fire trucks, Hidehiko Nishiyama, deputy director-general of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, said it was too early to assess the success of the attempt.
Mr. Nishiyama also said that radiation of about 250 millisievert an hour had been detected 100 feet above the plant. In the United States the limit for police officers, firefighters and other emergency workers engaged in life-saving activity as a once-in-a-lifetime exposure is equal to being exposed to 250 millisieverts for a full hour. The radiation figures provided by the Japanese Self-Defense Force may provide an indication of why a helicopter turned back on Wednesday from an attempt to dump cold water on a storage pool at the plant.
A White House statement late Wednesday said that President Obama had “briefed Prime Minister Kan on the additional support being provided by the U.S., including specialized military assets with expertise in nuclear response and consequence management.”
On Thursday a Pentagon spokesman, Col. David Lapan, said the military expertise made available to the Japanese included a nine-person assessment team that has or will shortly arrive there to work with the Japanese military and government.
The team members, Colonel Lapan said, will then recommend whether additional American military forces are needed to assist in the effort.
The American military is also gathering information on the damaged nuclear power plant. Officials said that a Global Hawk drone was flying missions over the reactor. In addition, U-2 spy planes were providing images to help the Japanese government map out its response to the quake and tsunami.
Earlier Thursday Japanese military forces tried to dump seawater from a helicopter on Reactor No. 3, making four passes and dropping a total of about 8,000 gallons as a plume of white smoke billowed. The Japanese government said that the reactor typically needs 50 tons of water, or about 12,000 gallons, a day to keep from overheating.
Video of the effort appeared to show most of the water missing the reactor and the Japanese military later said the measure had little effect on reducing the temperature in the pool where the spent rods are stored. A photograph from the air showed a light that seemed to suggest the presence of water in the pool, according to Tokyo Electric, but analysts said it was unclear what the image meant.
The military also announced that it had postponed plans to drop water on Reactor No. 4, which Gregory Jaczko, the chairman of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, on Wednesday pinpointed as a cause for serious alarm. On Thursday, at a White House briefing, he issued the warning that resolving the situation could “take time, possibly weeks,” according to Bloomberg.
On Thursday afternoon, the Self-Defense Forces and the Tokyo Metropolitan Police had begun deploying eight water cannon trucks to Reactor No. 3. Before the radiation level drove them back, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police planned to use the trucks, which are usually used in riot control, to spray at least 12 tons of seawater into the reactor.
Tokyo Electric Power Company, which operates the reactors, was also working to restore the electricity needed to run the cooling systems. But the company said that the work was proceeding slowly and that it would be halted Friday morning to allow helicopters and trucks to resume pouring water on the reactor, Reuters reported.
Some of the maneuvers seemed at odds with the most startling assertion by Mr. Jaczko (pronounced YAZZ-koe) that there was little or no water in the pool storing spent nuclear fuel at the No. 4 reactor, leaving fuel rods stored there exposed and bleeding radiation into the atmosphere. His testimony before Congress was the first time the Obama administration had given its own assessment of the condition of the plant, apparently mixing information it had received from Japan with data it had collected independently. “We believe that radiation levels are extremely high, which could possibly impact the ability to take corrective measures,” Mr. Jaczko said.
His statement was quickly but not definitively rebutted by officials of Tokyo Electric, the plant’s operator.
“We can’t get inside to check, but we’ve been carefully watching the building’s environs, and there has not been any particular problem,” Hajime Motojuku, a spokesman for Tokyo Electric, said Thursday morning in Japan.
Later, a spokesman for Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, Yoshitaka Nagayama, was more equivocal, saying, “Because we have been unable to go to the scene, we cannot confirm whether there is water left or not in the spent fuel pool at Reactor No. 4.”
At the same time, officials raised concerns about two other reactors where spent fuel rods were stored, Nos. 5 and 6, saying they had experienced a slight rise in temperature.
On Wednesday night, Mr. Jaczko reiterated his earlier statement and added that commission representatives in Tokyo had confirmed that the pool at No. 4 was empty. He said Tokyo Electric and other officials in Japan had confirmed that, and also emphasized that high radiation fields were going to make it very difficult to continue having people work at the plant.
If the American analysis is accurate and emergency crews at the plant have been unable to keep the spent fuel at that inoperative reactor properly cooled — it needs to remain covered with water at all times — radiation levels could make it difficult not only to fix the problem at No. 4, but also to keep servicing any of the other problem reactors at the plant. In the worst case, experts say, workers could be forced to vacate the plant altogether, and the fuel rods in reactors and spent fuel pools would be left to melt down, leading to much larger releases of radioactive materials.
While radiation levels at the plant have varied tremendously, Mr. Jaczko said that the peak levels reported there “would be lethal within a fairly short period of time.” He added that another spent fuel pool, at Reactor No. 3, might also be losing water and could soon be in the same condition.
On Wednesday, the American Embassy in Tokyo, on advice from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, told Americans to evacuate a radius of “approximately 50 miles” from the Fukushima plant. South Korea, Australia and New Zealand followed suit in advice to their citizens, and Spanish authorities on Thursday recommended an either wider berth, about 75 miles, news agencies reported. The advice to Americans in Japan represents a graver assessment of the risk in the immediate vicinity of Daiichi than the warnings made by the Japanese themselves, who have told everyone within 20 kilometers, about 12 miles, to evacuate, and those within about 20 miles to take shelter.
While maps of the plume of radiation being given off by the plant show that an elongated cloud will stretch across the Pacific, American officials said it would be so dissipated by the time it reached the West Coast of the United States that it would not pose a health threat.
Close to the site, however, Mr. Jaczko said, “We would recommend an evacuation to a much larger radius than has currently been provided by Japan.” That assessment seems bound to embarrass, if not anger, Japanese officials, suggesting they have miscalculated the danger or deliberately played down the risks.
Late Wednesday night the State Department announced what it described as a “voluntary” evacuation of dependents of American government personnel in northeastern Japan, and down to Tokyo and Yokohama. The undersecretary of state for administration, Patrick Kennedy, said that no one would be ordered to leave, but that the government would provide charter flights for dependents who wanted to leave.
On Thursday evening the American Embassy in Tokyo began offering seats aboard chartered flights to Americans wishing to evacuate from Japan. Americans who show up at the two main airports serving Tokyo, Narita and Haneda, would be flown to still unspecified “safe haven locations” from where they would be expected to arrange onward travel on their own, said Karen Kelley, a spokeswoman for the embassy.
The American move followed advisory notices from several European countries urging their citizens to move away from Tokyo or leave Japan altogether. On Thursday, Germany said it was moving its embassy operations from Tokyo to the southern city of Osaka, farther from the stricken plant.
American officials who have been dealing with their Japanese counterparts report that the country’s political and bureaucratic leadership has appeared frozen in place, unwilling to communicate clearly about the problem’s scope and, in some cases, unwilling to accept outside assistance. Two American officials said they believed that the Japanese government itself was not getting a clear picture from Tokyo Electric.
General Electric said it would send about 10 gas turbine generators to Japan to help replace lost power generating capacity. Michael Tetuan, a spokesman for the company, said that the operators of the damaged plant had requested generators, but he did not know what they would be used for. The units can produce roughly the same amount of power as the diesel generators at nuclear plants.
Though the plant’s reactors shut down automatically when the quake struck on Friday, the subsequent tsunami wiped out the backup electronic pumping and cooling system necessary to keep the fuel rods in the reactors and the storage pools for spent nuclear fuel covered with cool water.
Norimitsu Onishi reported from Tokyo, and David E. Sanger and Matthew L. Wald from Washington. Keith Bradsher contributed reporting from Hong Kong, Hiroko Tabuchi from Tokyo, Alan Cowell from London, and Thom Shanker from Washington.
More in Asia Pacific (2 of 51 articles)
U.S. Flights Over Plant Gather Crucial Data
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By NORIMITSU ONISHI, DAVID E. SANGER and MATTHEW L. WALD
TOKYO — Amid widening alarm in the United States and elsewhere about Japan’s nuclear crisis, military fire trucks began spraying cooling water on spent fuel rods at the country’s stricken nuclear power station late Thursday after earlier efforts to cool the rods failed, Japanese officials said.
The United States’ top nuclear official followed up his bleak appraisal of the grave situation at the plant the day before with a caution that it would “take some time, possibly weeks,” to resolve.
The developments came as the authorities reached for ever more desperate and unconventional methods to cool damaged reactors, deploying helicopters and water cannons in a race to prevent perilous overheating in the spent rods of the No. 3 reactor.
Moments before the military trucks began spraying, police officers in water cannon trucks were forced back by high levels of radiation in the same area. The police had been trying to get within 50 yards of the reactor, one of six at the plant.
The five specially fitted military trucks sprayed water for about an hour, but the full impact of the tactic was not immediately clear.
The Japanese efforts focused on a different part of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, 140 miles northeast of here, from the reactor — No. 4 — depicted in Washington on Wednesday as presenting a far bleaker threat than the Japanese government had offered.
The decision to focus on the No. 3 reactor appeared to suggest that Japanese officials believe it is a greater threat, since it is the only one at the site loaded with a mixed fuel known as mox, for mixed oxide, which includes reclaimed plutonium.
Western nuclear engineers have said that the release of mox into the atmosphere would produce a more dangerous radioactive plume than the dispersal of uranium fuel rods at the site. The Japanese authorities also expressed concern on Wednesday that the pressure in the No. 3 reactor had plunged and that either gauges were malfunctioning or a rupture had already occurred.
After the military’s effort to cool the spent fuel atop the reactor with fire trucks, Hidehiko Nishiyama, deputy director-general of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, said it was too early to assess the success of the attempt.
Mr. Nishiyama also said that radiation of about 250 millisievert an hour had been detected 100 feet above the plant. In the United States the limit for police officers, firefighters and other emergency workers engaged in life-saving activity as a once-in-a-lifetime exposure is equal to being exposed to 250 millisieverts for a full hour. The radiation figures provided by the Japanese Self-Defense Force may provide an indication of why a helicopter turned back on Wednesday from an attempt to dump cold water on a storage pool at the plant.
A White House statement late Wednesday said that President Obama had “briefed Prime Minister Kan on the additional support being provided by the U.S., including specialized military assets with expertise in nuclear response and consequence management.”
On Thursday a Pentagon spokesman, Col. David Lapan, said the military expertise made available to the Japanese included a nine-person assessment team that has or will shortly arrive there to work with the Japanese military and government.
The team members, Colonel Lapan said, will then recommend whether additional American military forces are needed to assist in the effort.
The American military is also gathering information on the damaged nuclear power plant. Officials said that a Global Hawk drone was flying missions over the reactor. In addition, U-2 spy planes were providing images to help the Japanese government map out its response to the quake and tsunami.
Earlier Thursday Japanese military forces tried to dump seawater from a helicopter on Reactor No. 3, making four passes and dropping a total of about 8,000 gallons as a plume of white smoke billowed. The Japanese government said that the reactor typically needs 50 tons of water, or about 12,000 gallons, a day to keep from overheating.
Video of the effort appeared to show most of the water missing the reactor and the Japanese military later said the measure had little effect on reducing the temperature in the pool where the spent rods are stored. A photograph from the air showed a light that seemed to suggest the presence of water in the pool, according to Tokyo Electric, but analysts said it was unclear what the image meant.
The military also announced that it had postponed plans to drop water on Reactor No. 4, which Gregory Jaczko, the chairman of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, on Wednesday pinpointed as a cause for serious alarm. On Thursday, at a White House briefing, he issued the warning that resolving the situation could “take time, possibly weeks,” according to Bloomberg.
On Thursday afternoon, the Self-Defense Forces and the Tokyo Metropolitan Police had begun deploying eight water cannon trucks to Reactor No. 3. Before the radiation level drove them back, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police planned to use the trucks, which are usually used in riot control, to spray at least 12 tons of seawater into the reactor.
Tokyo Electric Power Company, which operates the reactors, was also working to restore the electricity needed to run the cooling systems. But the company said that the work was proceeding slowly and that it would be halted Friday morning to allow helicopters and trucks to resume pouring water on the reactor, Reuters reported.
Some of the maneuvers seemed at odds with the most startling assertion by Mr. Jaczko (pronounced YAZZ-koe) that there was little or no water in the pool storing spent nuclear fuel at the No. 4 reactor, leaving fuel rods stored there exposed and bleeding radiation into the atmosphere. His testimony before Congress was the first time the Obama administration had given its own assessment of the condition of the plant, apparently mixing information it had received from Japan with data it had collected independently. “We believe that radiation levels are extremely high, which could possibly impact the ability to take corrective measures,” Mr. Jaczko said.
His statement was quickly but not definitively rebutted by officials of Tokyo Electric, the plant’s operator.
“We can’t get inside to check, but we’ve been carefully watching the building’s environs, and there has not been any particular problem,” Hajime Motojuku, a spokesman for Tokyo Electric, said Thursday morning in Japan.
Later, a spokesman for Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, Yoshitaka Nagayama, was more equivocal, saying, “Because we have been unable to go to the scene, we cannot confirm whether there is water left or not in the spent fuel pool at Reactor No. 4.”
At the same time, officials raised concerns about two other reactors where spent fuel rods were stored, Nos. 5 and 6, saying they had experienced a slight rise in temperature.
On Wednesday night, Mr. Jaczko reiterated his earlier statement and added that commission representatives in Tokyo had confirmed that the pool at No. 4 was empty. He said Tokyo Electric and other officials in Japan had confirmed that, and also emphasized that high radiation fields were going to make it very difficult to continue having people work at the plant.
If the American analysis is accurate and emergency crews at the plant have been unable to keep the spent fuel at that inoperative reactor properly cooled — it needs to remain covered with water at all times — radiation levels could make it difficult not only to fix the problem at No. 4, but also to keep servicing any of the other problem reactors at the plant. In the worst case, experts say, workers could be forced to vacate the plant altogether, and the fuel rods in reactors and spent fuel pools would be left to melt down, leading to much larger releases of radioactive materials.
While radiation levels at the plant have varied tremendously, Mr. Jaczko said that the peak levels reported there “would be lethal within a fairly short period of time.” He added that another spent fuel pool, at Reactor No. 3, might also be losing water and could soon be in the same condition.
On Wednesday, the American Embassy in Tokyo, on advice from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, told Americans to evacuate a radius of “approximately 50 miles” from the Fukushima plant. South Korea, Australia and New Zealand followed suit in advice to their citizens, and Spanish authorities on Thursday recommended an either wider berth, about 75 miles, news agencies reported. The advice to Americans in Japan represents a graver assessment of the risk in the immediate vicinity of Daiichi than the warnings made by the Japanese themselves, who have told everyone within 20 kilometers, about 12 miles, to evacuate, and those within about 20 miles to take shelter.
While maps of the plume of radiation being given off by the plant show that an elongated cloud will stretch across the Pacific, American officials said it would be so dissipated by the time it reached the West Coast of the United States that it would not pose a health threat.
Close to the site, however, Mr. Jaczko said, “We would recommend an evacuation to a much larger radius than has currently been provided by Japan.” That assessment seems bound to embarrass, if not anger, Japanese officials, suggesting they have miscalculated the danger or deliberately played down the risks.
Late Wednesday night the State Department announced what it described as a “voluntary” evacuation of dependents of American government personnel in northeastern Japan, and down to Tokyo and Yokohama. The undersecretary of state for administration, Patrick Kennedy, said that no one would be ordered to leave, but that the government would provide charter flights for dependents who wanted to leave.
On Thursday evening the American Embassy in Tokyo began offering seats aboard chartered flights to Americans wishing to evacuate from Japan. Americans who show up at the two main airports serving Tokyo, Narita and Haneda, would be flown to still unspecified “safe haven locations” from where they would be expected to arrange onward travel on their own, said Karen Kelley, a spokeswoman for the embassy.
The American move followed advisory notices from several European countries urging their citizens to move away from Tokyo or leave Japan altogether. On Thursday, Germany said it was moving its embassy operations from Tokyo to the southern city of Osaka, farther from the stricken plant.
American officials who have been dealing with their Japanese counterparts report that the country’s political and bureaucratic leadership has appeared frozen in place, unwilling to communicate clearly about the problem’s scope and, in some cases, unwilling to accept outside assistance. Two American officials said they believed that the Japanese government itself was not getting a clear picture from Tokyo Electric.
General Electric said it would send about 10 gas turbine generators to Japan to help replace lost power generating capacity. Michael Tetuan, a spokesman for the company, said that the operators of the damaged plant had requested generators, but he did not know what they would be used for. The units can produce roughly the same amount of power as the diesel generators at nuclear plants.
Though the plant’s reactors shut down automatically when the quake struck on Friday, the subsequent tsunami wiped out the backup electronic pumping and cooling system necessary to keep the fuel rods in the reactors and the storage pools for spent nuclear fuel covered with cool water.
Norimitsu Onishi reported from Tokyo, and David E. Sanger and Matthew L. Wald from Washington. Keith Bradsher contributed reporting from Hong Kong, Hiroko Tabuchi from Tokyo, Alan Cowell from London, and Thom Shanker from Washington.
More in Asia Pacific (2 of 51 articles)
U.S. Flights Over Plant Gather Crucial Data
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17/03 「夕から夜、予測不能の大規模停電の恐れ」 経産相
2011年3月17日14時16分
海江田万里経済産業相は１７日午後、計画停電中の電力使用について「これまで以上の精いっぱいの節電にご協力をお願いします」と、産業界や国民に呼びかける大臣談話を発表した。
東京電力が電力を送る関東とその周辺地域では、３３５０万キロワットの電力供給力に対し、午前８～９時に最大３２９２万キロワットの需要が発生。海江田氏は「１日のピークを迎える夕方から夜にかけて需要量が供給量を上回り、予測不能な大規模の停電が発生する恐れがある」と警戒を発した。１７日は気温が低く、暖房の使用が増加しているとみられる。
.
海江田万里経済産業相は１７日午後、計画停電中の電力使用について「これまで以上の精いっぱいの節電にご協力をお願いします」と、産業界や国民に呼びかける大臣談話を発表した。
東京電力が電力を送る関東とその周辺地域では、３３５０万キロワットの電力供給力に対し、午前８～９時に最大３２９２万キロワットの需要が発生。海江田氏は「１日のピークを迎える夕方から夜にかけて需要量が供給量を上回り、予測不能な大規模の停電が発生する恐れがある」と警戒を発した。１７日は気温が低く、暖房の使用が増加しているとみられる。
.
18/03 大停電警戒、帰宅ラッシュ前倒し 夜の銀座ひっそり
2011年3月18日1時15分
停電に備えて百貨店などが早めに閉店した東京・銀座は、午後７時にもかかわらず真っ暗だった＝１７日、越田省吾撮影
停電に備えて百貨店などが早めに閉店した東京・銀座は、午後７時すぎにもかかわらず真っ暗だった＝１７日、越田省吾撮影
１７日夕から夜にかけて、首都圏で大規模な停電になる恐れがあるとして、国土交通省から節電の要請を受けた首都圏の鉄道各社は、急きょ本数を１～２割減らすダイヤに変更した。企業も社員に早めの帰宅を促したことから、一部の駅では乗客が殺到し混乱した。
同日午後５時過ぎごろから駅の混雑が始まり、ＪＲ新宿駅や東京駅、西武池袋線池袋駅では一時、ホームへ通じる階段や改札口でロープを張って入場を規制した。東京メトロの一部の駅ホームは乗客でごった返し、３０～６０分にわたり全線で運転を見合わせた。
東京駅ホームで電車を待っていた品川区職員の男性（５６）は「大規模停電に備えて早く帰るよう職場から指示があった」。
普段は夜も人でにぎわう東京・銀座は、節電に努めたり早く閉店したりする店もあり、午後７時ごろにはすでに明かりが少なく閑散とした。
停電に備えて百貨店などが早めに閉店した東京・銀座は、午後７時にもかかわらず真っ暗だった＝１７日、越田省吾撮影
停電に備えて百貨店などが早めに閉店した東京・銀座は、午後７時すぎにもかかわらず真っ暗だった＝１７日、越田省吾撮影
１７日夕から夜にかけて、首都圏で大規模な停電になる恐れがあるとして、国土交通省から節電の要請を受けた首都圏の鉄道各社は、急きょ本数を１～２割減らすダイヤに変更した。企業も社員に早めの帰宅を促したことから、一部の駅では乗客が殺到し混乱した。
同日午後５時過ぎごろから駅の混雑が始まり、ＪＲ新宿駅や東京駅、西武池袋線池袋駅では一時、ホームへ通じる階段や改札口でロープを張って入場を規制した。東京メトロの一部の駅ホームは乗客でごった返し、３０～６０分にわたり全線で運転を見合わせた。
東京駅ホームで電車を待っていた品川区職員の男性（５６）は「大規模停電に備えて早く帰るよう職場から指示があった」。
普段は夜も人でにぎわう東京・銀座は、節電に努めたり早く閉店したりする店もあり、午後７時ごろにはすでに明かりが少なく閑散とした。
18/03 地震でもないのに揺れてる…「地震酔い」 リラックスを
2011年3月18日6時23分
地震でもないのに揺れているようなめまいやふらつきなどを感じる「地震酔い」に悩む人が増えている。車酔いや船酔いと同じように、視覚情報と平衡感覚とのズレが原因だ。ストレスも一因といい、専門家は「不安を和らげることが大切」と呼びかける。
災害・紛争地域での医療支援が専門で、阪神大震災でも救護活動をした日本赤十字九州国際看護大学の学長、喜多悦子医師によると、地震酔いは周期が長い揺れが何度も続く場合に起きやすいという。今回は揺れた時間が長く、余震の回数も多かったため、症状を訴える人が多いとみる。
「余震がまた来るかも知れない」という不安感が、症状を強めている面もある。ゆっくりとした深い呼吸を何度か繰り返すと、気分が落ち着くという。避難所では周囲の人と手をさすりあう、手を握るなどの「手当て」も、効果的だという。「温かいお茶を少しずつ飲んだり、手足を伸ばしたりしてリラックスを心がけてみて」
朝日新聞東京社会グループが発信するツイッター（http://twitter.com/asahi_shakai）でこうした対処法を紹介したところ、「わかる！」「酔ってる人本当多い」などの反響が続々と寄せられた。なかには「地震後ずっと体が揺れてる気がする……」と書き込んだ人もいた。（岩波精）
地震でもないのに揺れているようなめまいやふらつきなどを感じる「地震酔い」に悩む人が増えている。車酔いや船酔いと同じように、視覚情報と平衡感覚とのズレが原因だ。ストレスも一因といい、専門家は「不安を和らげることが大切」と呼びかける。
災害・紛争地域での医療支援が専門で、阪神大震災でも救護活動をした日本赤十字九州国際看護大学の学長、喜多悦子医師によると、地震酔いは周期が長い揺れが何度も続く場合に起きやすいという。今回は揺れた時間が長く、余震の回数も多かったため、症状を訴える人が多いとみる。
「余震がまた来るかも知れない」という不安感が、症状を強めている面もある。ゆっくりとした深い呼吸を何度か繰り返すと、気分が落ち着くという。避難所では周囲の人と手をさすりあう、手を握るなどの「手当て」も、効果的だという。「温かいお茶を少しずつ飲んだり、手足を伸ばしたりしてリラックスを心がけてみて」
朝日新聞東京社会グループが発信するツイッター（http://twitter.com/asahi_shakai）でこうした対処法を紹介したところ、「わかる！」「酔ってる人本当多い」などの反響が続々と寄せられた。なかには「地震後ずっと体が揺れてる気がする……」と書き込んだ人もいた。（岩波精）
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