Japan aftershock, more nuclear disaster evacuation

This video from Japan says about itself:

On March 20 2011, on the 8th Anniversary of outbreak of the Iraq War, a big rally and demonstration with 1550 participants was held in Shibuya, in the downtown of Tokyo. The rally emphasizes “No war, no nuke!” “Down with Kan-administration!” “Stop all nuke plants!” “Workers’ solidarity!” “Organize workers’ relief!” and “Definitely against bombardments on Libya by US-, British and French imperialists!”

From Associated Press:

Japan Rattled By Aftershock On Quake Anniversary

April 11, 2011

A magnitude-7.1 aftershock has rattled Japan on the one-month anniversary of a massive earthquake that spawned a deadly tsunami.

A warning has been issued for a 3-foot tsunami, the same as after another 7.1 aftershock that shook the northeast coast last week. There was no tsunami after that quake.

People at a large electronics store in central Sendai screamed and ran outside, though the shaking made it hard to move around. Mothers grabbed their children, and windows shook. After a minute or two, people returned to the store.

The tsunami-flooded Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant is still leaking radiation after its cooling systems were knocked out by the tsunami, and the government Monday urged even more people living around the complex to leave within a month, citing concerns about long-term health risks from radiation as the crisis wears on.

People living within 12 miles already have been ordered to leave because of concerns about radiation in the air. Other people farther out had been advised to stay indoors.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said Monday that residents of five more communities, some more than 20 miles from the plant, are being urged to leave because of high levels of radiation.

“This is not an emergency measure that people have to evacuate immediately,” Edano said. “We have decided this measure based on long-term health risks.”

It was one more reminder of how long it could take to resolve the nuclear crisis. With that still ongoing, thousands of bodies yet to be found and more than 150,000 people living in shelters, there was little time Monday for reflection on Japan’s worst disaster since World War II.

“My chest has been ripped open by the suffering and pain that this disaster has caused the people of our prefecture,” said Yuhei Sato, the governor of Fukushima, which saw its coastal areas devastated by the tsunami and contains the damaged plant at the center of the nuclear crisis. “I have no words to express my sorrow.”

People in hard-hit towns gathered for ceremonies at 2:46 p.m., the exact moment of the magnitude-9.0 quake that spawned the tsunami March 11.

In a devastated coastal neighborhood in the city of Natori, three dozen firemen and soldiers removed their hats and helmets and joined hands atop a small hill that has become a memorial for the dead. Earlier, four monks in pointed hats rang a prayer bell there as they chanted for those killed.

The noisy clatter of construction equipment ceased briefly as crane operators stood outside their vehicles and bowed their heads.

Greenpeace: Check out the latest updates from our monitoring team outside the Fukushima exclusion zone: here.

Japan’s Eerie Nuclear Wasteland: Photos From the Exclusion Zone: here.

From the outset, there has been a concerted effort to downplay the extent of the catastrophe at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant and its ongoing dangers: here.

Guardian: Fukushima evacuees demand compensation: here.

Angry residents forced from their homes near Japan’s tsunami-stricken nuclear power plant gathered in protest today at the Tokyo headquarters of the privateer that owns and runs it, demanding compensation: here.

Fukushima Nuclear Disaster at 1 Month: The Explosion of Nukespeak: here.

Japan’s nuclear disaster ‘made in USA’: here.

Guardian: Japan raises nuclear crisis to same level as Chernobyl: here.

New evacuations announced as earthquakes and protests rock Fukushima nuke plant: here.

Two more earthquakes hit Japan this morning, workers evacuated from nuclear plants. For updates, check here.

Anti-nuclear campaigners brought rush-hour traffic to a standstill in central London today in protest at French energy giant EDF’s plans to build a new generation of nuclear power stations in Britain: here.

New Doubts About Turning Plutonium Into a Fuel. Jo Becker and William J. Broad, The New York Times: “On a tract of government land along the Savannah River in South Carolina, an army of workers is building one of the nation’s most ambitious nuclear enterprises in decades: a plant that aims to safeguard at least 43 tons of weapons-grade plutonium by mixing it into fuel for commercial power reactors”: here.

Mike Ludwig, Truthout: “Radioactive material from the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan has fallen in rain on major cities across the United States, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The agency has also detected radioactive materials in milk, air and drinking water. The EPA and other government agencies continue to insist that they expected to see some level of radiation on US soil after the Daiichi disaster, and the current radiation levels are not a cause of public health concern. Truthout has identified gaps in the government’s data, however, and nuclear watchdogs are concerned that public officials are not telling Americans the whole story”: here.

USA: Simone Crowe, Truthout: “Over a thousand uranium mines have already contaminated water across the Southwest, poisoning communities with radiation that leads to cancer, harming the biodiversity of rivers and dissipating toxic ore dust into the air. Despite the immeasurable damage the mess of these abandoned mines has inflicted, including the official designation of the Four Corners as a ‘national sacrifice area,’ the federal government and foreign mining companies want to continue uranium mining in the Grand Canyon”: here.

Nuclear energy in Britain: here.

Atomic Deserts: A Survey of the World’s Radioactive No-Go Zones: here.