Radiation and Japanese earthquake/tsunami

japan disaster

japan quake

nuclear plant at fukushima

At 05.46 GMT  in Japan a huge earthquake, 8.9 on the Richter scale, released a huge tsunami which rips through Japan’s eastern coastline, sweeping buildings, boats, cars and citizens miles inland.In Tokyo – miles from the quake – huge buildings rock violently and workers scurry into the streets for safety.More than 50 aftershocks follow – seven at above 6.3 on the Richter scale, the size of the quake which hit New Zealand on February 22.Sendai airport, north of Tokyo, is rushed with cars, trucks and buses and thick, slimy mud cover its runways.A large fire breaks out at the Cosmo oil refinery in Ichihara city near Tokyo and blazes out of control, with 100ft flames roaring into the clouds.
Japan earthquake:A crisis centre has been set up to co-ordinate Britain’s aid to japan and offer advice to anyone worried about relations or mates in Japan.The Government’s Cobra emergency response committee meets to talk about Britain’s response. Britain is ready to give any necessary help required.The afternoon sees the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh send their messages of sympathy to the people of Japan, sending expressions of their sympathy at the “tragic loss  of life”.A “state of emergency” is announced at one of the country’s nuclear power plants after the Fukushima reactor, roughly 30 miles inland from the north east coast, suffers a cooling system failure. Around 3,000 people are ordered to evacuate from a 6.2-mile area.The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall send a message of sympathy.Throughout the day follows confirmation of hundreds of deceased.• Saturday Japan’s government begins a massive rescue mission bringing in thousands of soldiers, 300 planes and 40 ships with grave fears more than a thousand people have died.US military vessels and aircraft carriers are sent, along with relief teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Korea.Japan asks for help from the UK.There is an unexplained explosion at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant.Workers at the plant’s Unit 1 detect eight times the normal radiation levels outside and 1,000 times normal inside Unit 1′s control room.Teams of international search and rescue specialists and medics fly out.Japan’s government spokesman says the explosion that ripped through the nuclear plant did not seriously damage the reactor.The death toll rises to at least 1,300 dead but thousands more are unaccounted for – including 10,000 from the sea-side town of Minamisanriku.More than 215,000 people are living in 1,350 temporary shelters in five areas, or states, the national police agency says.More than one million householders have no running water. Four million buildings are without electric power.• Sunday Japan’s nuclear safety agency says the cooling system of a third nuclear reactor at Fukushima has failed – experts are constantly monitoring levels of radioactivity in the evacuated area.The British embassy in Tokyo has a “long list” of people who are missing.Around 170,000 people have been evacuated from a 12-mile radius around the Fukushima nuclear plant.A spokesman says the blast destroyed a building which held a nuclear reactor, but the reactor has reportedly remained unscathed.
The Japanese government increases the number of soldiers sent into rescue and recovery operations to about 100,000.Save The Children launches an appeal to raise £1 million for Japan’s youth.The Foreign Office receives more than 3,200 phone calls from worried friends and relatives.Prime minister Naoto Kan asks Japanese citizens to unite in overcoming what he says is the country’s worst disaster since the Second World War.Nuclear plant operators are still trying to keep temperatures down in a series of reactors.Chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano warns a hydrogen explosion could happen at Unit 3 of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear facories – the latest reactor to threaten a possible meltdown.Mr Edano says the radiation released into the environment so far is so small it should not be a health threat.Japan’s nuclear agency says up to 160 people were taken to hospital after possibly being exposed to radiation while waiting to be evacuated.
Seismologists say the quake – one of the largest in history – was really 9.0 rather 8.9 on the Richter scale.

Tags: earthquake, exposure, japan, nuclear, quake, radiation, radioactivity, tsunami