Shocking News - Radiation falls at Japanese plant

the news that shock people all over the world especially those nearby to North japan..
may God's grace upon Japan and all back to normal soon..




15 March 2011 Last updated at 15:37 GMT

Radiation falls at Japanese plant

Watch: Residents are checked for radiation exposure in Koriyama

Radiation levels have fallen at Japan's earthquake-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, the government says.

The announcement was made after a fire was extinguished at the plant.

The government had earlier warned that radiation leaks from the plant had reached harmful levels.

Weather reports indicate winds are dispersing radiation from the plant to the east, over the Pacific Ocean, but the government has ordered people living within 20km (12 miles) to leave.

Officials have warned people within 20-30km of the plant to either leave the area or stay indoors.

Japan has also announced a 30-km no-fly zone around the plant to prevent planes spreading the radiation further afield.

Further strong aftershocks - one of 6.1-magnitude centred south-west of Tokyo - continue to rock the country.

Friday afternoon's 9.0-magnitude earthquake, the strongest in Japan since records began to be kept, hit the north-east of the main island of Honshu and triggered a powerful tsunami that devastated dozens of coastal communities.

The latest official death toll from the quake and tsunami stands at nearly 3,400 - but thousands of people are missing and it is feared at least 10,000 may have been killed.

More than 500,000 people have been made homeless.

The government has deployed 100,000 troops to lead the aid effort.

Explosions

The crisis at the Fukushima plant - which contains six nuclear reactors - has mounted since the earthquake knocked out the cooling systems.

Explosions rocked the buildings housing reactors one and three on Saturday and Monday.

On Tuesday morning a third blast hit reactor two's building. A fire also broke out at a spent fuel storage pond at the power plant's reactor four.

That reactor had been shut down before the quake for maintenance, but its spent nuclear fuel rods were still stored on the site.

Officials said the explosions were caused by a buildup of hydrogen.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said they were closely watching the remaining two reactors at the plant, five and six, as they had begun overheating slightly.

He said cooling seawater was being pumped into reactors one and three - which were returning to normal - and into reactor two, which remained unstable.

Japan's nuclear safety agency said earlier it suspected the blast may have damaged reactor two's suppression chamber, which would have allowed radioactive steam to escape.

The BBC's Chris Hogg in Tokyo says that would make it a more serious incident than the previous explosions, which were thought just to have damaged the buildings housing the reactors.

RADIATION AND CANCER

• Experts say even small radiation doses, as low as 100 millisieverts, can slightly raise cancer risk
• Exposure to 1,000 millisieverts is estimated to increase risk of fatal cancer by about 5%
• Leukaemia, a bone marrow cancer, is the most common radiation-induced cancer
• Others include cancer of lung, skin, thyroid, breast and stomach; can take years to develop
• Half of those exposed to between 4,000-5,000 millisieverts die in a month

Rolling blackouts

Radiation levels in the Japanese capital - 250km away - were reported to be higher than normal, but officials said there were no health dangers.

Tokyo residents have been stocking up on supplies, with some stores selling out of items such as food, water, face masks and candles.

Housewife Mariko Kawase, 34, told AFP news agency: "I am shopping now because we may not be able to go out due to the radiation."

Radiation levels in Chiba prefecture, next to Tokyo, were 10 times above normal levels, Kyodo News reports.

After Tuesday's blast, radiation dosages of up to 400 millisieverts per hour were recorded at the Fukushima Daiichi site, about 250km north-east of Tokyo.

A single dose of 1,000 millisieverts causes temporary radiation sickness such as nausea and vomiting.

Rolling blackouts would affect five million households on Tuesday, said Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco), which runs the 40-year-old Fukushima plant.

In other developments:

• An elderly man was pulled out from a collapsed building in Ishinomaki in Miyagi prefecture, 96 hours after the disaster
• A 70-year-old woman was rescued after 92 from rubble in the coastal town of Otsuchi
• Airlines from Asia and Europe - including Germany's Lufthansa, Air China and Taiwan's EVA Airways - halted flights to Tokyo
• The Nikkei share index tumbled again, ending 10.55% lower, as the central bank pumped almost $100bn (£62bn) more cash into the financial system, a day after its record $183bn intervention
• Ninety-one countries have offered aid to Japan, ranging from blankets to search dogs and military transport aircraft

The UK Foreign Office has updated its travel advice to warn against all non-essential travel to Tokyo and north-eastern Japan. British nationals and friends and relatives of those in Japan can contact the Foreign Office on +44(0) 20 7008 0000.

source : BBC News - Japan earthquake
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12749444


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