Welcome to Fukushima...
So Welcome to Fukushima...
(Photos by EEE Reporter)Friendship Fukushima
Trade surplus of Japan in March dropped to 20% of the amount of last year's March.
One million people in the affected area of three prefectures in northeast Honshu Island have lost jobs or been forced to suspend business.
The amount of loss from the 3/11 Disaster of Japan is expected to reach $300 billion to $400 billion.
South Korea and China are requesting almost every good imported from Japan, including industrial products, to be screened for radiation. Accordingly the Japanese Government has raised a protest against such behaviors based on harmful rumors of exaggerated radiation diffusion.
And, it is said that half a million foreigners left Japan within a month after the 3/11 Disaster, and foreign tourists coming to Japan have reduced by 70%.
Yet, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear problems are not yet fixed, 230 km northeast of Tokyo. Prime MInister Mr. Naoto Kan was criticized scathingly in an Upper-House session in the National Diet today.
Maybe some foreigners can be better friends to the Japanese than their prime minister is.
PART I: American Aid for Fukushima Daiichi (No.1) Plant
1) iRobot's PackBot
An iRobot PackBot crawls through the Unit 3 reactor building at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
(Credit: Tepco)
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20055952-1.html
2) iRobot's Talon
The Department of Energy has been working around the clock to provide whatever assistance we can to the Government of Japan as they work to bring the Fukushima nuclear reactors under control. One unique capability that the Department has recently mobilized to help in this situation is an expertise in robotics.
http://nuclearstreet.com/nuclear_power_industry_news/b/nuclear_power_news/archive/2011/04/15/inl-talon-robot-to-survey-fukushima-nuclear-power-station-for-radiation.aspx?sms_ss=facebook&at_xt=4da98ebc45ee001b,0
3) Barge Carrier of US Navy
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/junsky/e/277a42814dfa1b25511815842bcee72e
A barge carrying 1.04 million litres (275,000 gallons) of fresh water departs Commander, Fleet Activities Yokosuka (CFAY) to support the cooling efforts at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. CFAY port operations cleaned and filled two barges totaling 1.89 million liters (500,000 gallons) of fresh water.
http://www.casttv.com/video/ulcxs6p/us-navy-provides-water-barge-for-fukushima-daiichi-cooling-effort-video
4) Putzmeister's Concrete Pump Car
http://www.pickandbuzz.com/?p=5865
5) The Babcock & Wilcox Company
Wednesday, Mar 23, 2011
The Babcock & Wilcox Company (B&W) (NYSE:BWC) announced today that it is in discussions with Toshiba Group (Toshiba) to provide nuclear technical assistance and services to secure and maintain the safety of the nuclear power plants at Fukushima Daiichi in Japan. The scope of work has not yet been defined.
http://yournuclearnews.com/b%26w+discusses+technical+support+with+toshiba+for+fukushima+daiichi+nuclear+plants_60961.html
6) GE Steps Up Reactor Aid
Last weekend GE activated a command center in Wilmington, N.C., staffed with 70 engineers and technical experts working full time on the crisis. In addition, GE said it has tapped a network of more than 1,000 current and retired engineers. Retirees have been providing necessary historical information on the reactors, including walking through in detail the modifications made to the containment designs decades ago.
GE isn't in direct contact with Tepco. It is working instead through its venture with Hitachi. The venture's teams have been directly advising the Japanese and U.S. governments.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703818204576207012491767884.html
7) Ronald Reagan Aircraft Carrier, etc.
http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-ronald-reagan-relief-aid,0,1191539.story03-11-2011 05:49 PM
Japan Earthquake: US Military Movement
Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George Washington is currently at Yokosuka Naval Base docked and in maintenance.
San Diego-based 3rd Fleet USS Ronald Reagan is currently on route towards Japan. USS Mercy currently in San Diego Bay undergoing maintenance will be activated if necessary.
USS BLUE RIDGE (command and control ship -- complement: approximately 1,500 all Navy), which arrived in Singapore this morning, is loading a Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Relief kit and making preparations to depart Saturday morning.
The USS TORTUGA, (dock landing ship -- complement: approximately 410 Navy crew and 400 Marines) currently in Sasebo, Japan, is making preparations to get underway as early as Friday evening.
The landing ships USS HARPER'S FERRY and USS GERMANTOWN were in the Pacific and have been redirected to Japan.
USS ESSEX, (an amphibious assault vessel -- complement: 1,200 (Navy) 1,800 (Marines) with the embarked 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, arrived in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, this morning. The ship is making preparations to depart as early as Friday evening.
Elsewhere, China although dealing with it's own disaster is also standing by it's rescue team in aid of Japan. Japan has accepted UN aid; 4 teams of special rescue teams are on route to Japan; 17 men each strong.
http://forum.playdom.com/showthread.php?42173-Japan-Earthquake-US-Military-Movement
Some 17 members of the team of Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier helicopter owned by the United States, exposed to radiation from substances radioaktiv the boro of the installation caused by the tsunami in Japan.
However, said the U.S. Defense Department spokesman, Colonel David Lapan, “those people have all been released from radioactive substances with soap and water.”
The 17 marines in a helicopter team was part of a crew of eight U.S. Navy ships, including the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan who was in Japan on Monday (3/14/2011).
http://theworldwide.info/17-u-s-marines-exposed-to-radiation-in-japan/2016
8) DOE, NRC, and HHS
Immediately after the March 11 earthquake, a team of experts from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the Departments of Energy (DOE) and of Health and Human Services came to Japan to help the Government of Japan assess and address the damage at Fukushima Daiichi. The NRC, which has maintained a long working relationship with its regulatory counterpart, the Japanese Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) over many years, established a daily dialogue with NISA about the status of the Fukushima Daiichi plant’s reactors, and related concerns.
http://japan.usembassy.gov/e/p/tp-20110414-01.html
9) US Specialists
The US military and radiological and disaster specialists will follow a nine-person US bio-hazard assessment team already in Japan determining the condition of the stricken reactors.
About 17,000 US military personnel were helping the Japanese with the relief effort, but they have been ordered to stay outside an 80km radius of the crippled plant. The Japanese continued to operate a 20km exclusion zone.
In the US, President Barack Obama has directed the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to review the safety of the 104 nuclear power plants in the country. He sought to allay public anxiety, assuring Americans that harmful radiation from the Japanese nuclear disaster was not expected to reach the US, despite radioactive steam potentially blowing across the Pacific.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/us-joins-race-to-save-reactors/story-fn84naht-1226024346333
PART II: French Aid for Fukushima Daiichi (No.1) Plant
1) ERELT
2) VERI-IIB
3) Protective Clothing
http://matome.naver.jp/odai/2130153694964275001
4) Areva SA
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
French Nuke Fuel Firm Head, 5 Experts To Visit Japan To Offer Aid
PARIS (Kyodo)--A French nuclear fuel company said Tuesday its president is about to visit Japan with five of the country's nuclear experts to tackle the crisis at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, according to Radio France.
Anne Lauvergeon, president of Areva SA, and the experts are expected to offer assistance in removing contaminated water accumulating inside nuclear reactors at the plant in northeastern Japan, a task currently considered to be of the highest importance as the water has been hindering restoration work.
http://e.nikkei.com/e/fr/tnks/Nni20110330D30JF376.htm
PART III: Thailand
Thailand to send power facility to Japan
updated at 11:19 UTC, Apr. 25
The Thai government is to send a complete power-generation facility with two gas-turbine generators to Japan to help restore electricity supplies affected by the March 11th disaster and damage to the Fukushima nuclear power complex.
Once operational, the facility is capable of producing 240,000 kilowatts of electricity, enough for between 80,000 and 240,000 households, depending on demand.
The equipment was built in 1995 by a Japanese firm near the Thai capital, Bangkok, and has been used there in times of emergency, such as power outages.
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/01_37.html
*** *** *** ***
If you go and observe a devastated area of any natural disaster, you might learn something.
If you go and observe a devastated area of any man-made disaster, you might learn something.
But, the remnant of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp has not changed human minds and improved people enough.
You may go to the Sumatra Island, Haiti, and the Sanriku Region of northeast Honsyu Island of Japan to learn something. But, it will not change your mind and improve you enough.
The more horrible potential is always in the society, among people, and in market.
Money is more potentially dangerous than continental plates and faults.
Yet, if you are struck with enough awe on site of any large-scale disaster, you are not unusual or singular. A real mad man is not even frightened by power of a great disaster. So, it can serve as a test of checking sanity of a man. Indeed, a man has to stand in fear of what should be feared.
And, fools in Japan do not fear the Fukushima problems nowadays, though other fools in some countries simply believe harmful rumors about the Fukushima radiation.
Truly, what is needed in time of a great disaster is honest reporters.
Luk 4:24 And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.
Luk 4:25 But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land;
Luk 4:26 But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.