Earthquake: Anydex-The Index of Anything

Earthquake: Introduction

Notes on terrible earthquakes including China, Haiti and Japan

Here is a list of the deadliest earthquakes according to the USA:

@@Deadliest

USGS: Earthquakes with 50,000 or More Deaths Most Destructive Known Earthquakes on Record in the World Date Place Deaths Magnitude --------------------------------------------------------- 1556 01 23 Shaanxi (Shensi), China 830,000 ~8' 1976 07 27 Tangshan, China 255,000 (official) 7.5 Official casualty figure is 255,000 deaths. Estimated death toll as high as 655,000. 799,000 injured and extensive damage in the Tang-Shan area. Damage extended as far as Beijing. This is probably the greatest death toll from an earthquake in the last four centuries, and the second greatest in recorded history. 1138 08 09 Syria, Aleppo 230000 2004 12 26 Sumatra 227,898 9.1 This is the third largest earthquake in the world since 1900 and is the largest since the 1964 Prince William Sound, Alaska earthquake. In total, 227,898 people were killed or were missing and presumed dead and about 1.7 million people were displaced by the earthquake and subsequent tsunami in 14 countries in South Asia and East Africa. (In January 2005, the death toll was 286,000. In April 2005, Indonesia reduced its estimate for the number missing by over 50,000.) The earthquake was felt (IX) at Banda Aceh, (VIII) at Meulaboh and (IV) at Medan, Sumatra and (III-V) in parts of Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Thailand. The tsunami caused more casualties than any other in recorded history and was recorded nearly world-wide on tide gauges in the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Seiches were observed in India and the United States. Subsidence and landslides were observed in Sumatra. A mud volcano near Baratang, Andaman Islands became active on December 28 and gas emissions were reported in Arakan, Myanmar. 2010 01 12 Haiti region 222,570 7.0 According to official estimates, 222,570 people killed, 300,000 injured, 1.3 million displaced, 97,294 houses destroyed and 188,383 damaged in the Port-au-Prince area and in much of southern Haiti. This includes at least 4 people killed by a local tsunami in the Petit Paradis area near Leogane. Tsunami waves were also reported at Jacmel, Les Cayes, Petit Goave, Leogane, Luly and Anse a Galets. The tsunami had recorded wave heights (peak-to-trough) of 12 cm at Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and 2 cm at Christiansted, US Virgin Islands. Uplift was observed along the coast from Leogane to L'Acul and subsidence was observed along the coast from Grand Trou to Port Royal. Felt (VII) at Port-au-Prince and Petionville and (V) at Vieux Bourg d'Aquin and Port-de-Paix. Felt (V) at La Vega, Moca and San Cristobal; (IV) at Puerto Plata, Santiago, Santo Domingo and Sosua, Dominican Republic. Felt throughout Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Felt (III) at Oranjestad, Aruba; (IV) at Santiago de Cuba and (III) at Guantanamo, Cuba; (II) in the Kingston-Mona area, Jamaica; (III) at Cockburn Harbour and (II) at Cockburn Town, Turks and Caicos Islands; (II) at Caracas, Venezuela. Felt in parts of The Bahamas, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands and as far as southern Florida, northern Colombia and northwestern Venezuela. 856 12 22 Iran, Damghan 200,000 1920 12 16 Haiyuan, Ningxia (Ning-hsia), China 200,000 7.8 Total destruction (XII - the maximum intensity on the Mercalli scale) in the Lijunbu-Haiyuan-Ganyanchi area. Over 73,000 people were killed in Haiyuan County. A landslide buried the village of Sujiahe in Xiji County. More than 30,000 people were killed in Guyuan County. Nearly all the houses collapsed in the cities of Longde and Huining. Damage (VI-X) occurred in 7 provinces and regions, including the major cities of Lanzhou, Taiyuan, Xi'an, Xining and Yinchuan. It was felt from the Yellow Sea to Qinghai (Tsinghai) Province and from Nei Mongol (Inner Mongolia) south to central Sichuan (Szechwan) Province. About 200 km (125 mi) of surface faulting was seen from Lijunbu through Ganyanchi to Jingtai. There were large numbers of landslides and ground cracks throughout the epicentral area. Some rivers were dammed, others changed course. Seiches from this earthquake were observed in 2 lakes and 3 fjords in western Norway. Although usually called the Kansu (now Gansu) earthquake by Western sources, the epicenter and highest intensities are clearly within Ningxia Autonomous Region. [ 310,92,316 ] 893 03 23 Iran, Ardabil 150000 1923 09 01 Kanto (Kwanto), Japan 142,800 7.9 Extreme destruction in the Tokyo - Yokohama area from the earthquake and subsequent firestorms, which burned about 381,000 of the more than 694,000 houses that were partially or completely destroyed. Although often known as the Great Tokyo Earthquake (or the Great Tokyo Fire), the damage was apparently most severe at Yokohama. Damage also occurred on the Boso and Izu Peninsulas and on O-shima. Nearly 2 m (6 ft) of permanent uplift was observed on the north shore of Sagami Bay and horizontal displacements of as much as 4.5 m (15 ft) were measured on the Boso Peninsula. A tsunami was generated in Sagami Bay with wave heights as high as 12 m (39 ft) on O-shima and 6 m (20 ft) on the Izu and Boso Peninsulas. Sandblows were noted at Hojo which intermittently shot fountains of water to a height of 3 m (10 ft). [ 303,6,312,321 ] 1948 10 05 Ashgabat (Ashkhabad), Turkmenistan (Turkmeniya, USSR) 110,000 7.3 Extreme damage in Ashgabat (Ashkhabad) and nearby villages, where almost all brick buildings collapsed, concrete structures were heavily damaged and freight trains were derailed. Damage and casualties also occurred in the Darreh Gaz area, Iran. Surface rupture was observed both northwest and southeast of Ashgabat. Many sources list the casualty total at 10,000, but a news release on 9 Dec 1988 advised that the correct death toll was 110,000. [ 233,191 ] 1290 09 27 China, Chihli 100,000 2008 05 12 Eastern Sichuan, China 87,587 7.9 At least 69,195 people killed, 374,177 injured and 18,392 missing and presumed dead in the Chengdu-Lixian-Guangyuan area. More than 45.5 million people in 10 provinces and regions were affected. At least 15 million people were evacuated from their homes and more than 5 million were left homeless. An estimated 5.36 million buildings collapsed and more than 21 million buildings were damaged in Sichuan and in parts of Chongqing, Gansu, Hubei, Shaanxi and Yunnan. The total economic loss was estimated at 86 billion US dollars. Beichuan, Dujiangyan, Wuolong and Yingxiu were almost completely destroyed. 2005 10 08 Pakistan 86,000 7.6 At least 86,000 people killed, more than 69,000 injured and extensive damage in northern Pakistan. The heaviest damage occurred in the Muzaffarabad area, Kashmir where entire villages were destroyed and at Uri where 80 percent of the town was destroyed. At least 32,335 buildings collapsed in Anantnag, Baramula, Jammu and Srinagar, Kashmir. Buildings collapsed in Abbottabad, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Islamabad, Lahore and Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Maximum intensity VIII. Felt (VII) at Topi; (VI) at Islamabad, Peshawar and Rawalpindi; (V) at Faisalabad and Lahore. Felt at Chakwal, Jhang, Sargodha and as far as Quetta. At least 1,350 people killed and 6,266 injured in India. Felt (V) at Chandigarh and New Delhi; (IV) at Delhi and Gurgaon, India. Felt in Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttaranchal and Uttar Pradesh, India. At least one person killed and some buildings collapsed in Afghanistan. Felt (IV) at Kabul and (III) at Bagrami, Afghanistan. Felt (III) at Kashi, China and (II) at Dushanbe, Tajikistan. Also felt at Almaty, Kazakhstan. An estimated 4 million people in the area were left homeless. Landslides and rockfalls damaged or destroyed several mountain roads and highways cutting off access to the region for several days. Landslides also occurred farther north near the towns of Gilgit and Skardu, Kashmir. Liquefaction and sandblows occurred in the western part of the Vale of Kashmir and near Jammu. Landslides and rockfalls also occurred in parts of Himachal Pradesh, India. Seiches were observed in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, India and in many places in Bangladesh. 1667 11 Caucasia, Shemakha 80,000 1727 11 18 Iran, Tabriz 77,000 1908 12 28 Messina, Italy 72,000 7.2

China 2008
Haiti 2010
Japan 2011

@@Alphabetical Topic

%%Subtopic

@@Asia Symphony

Ship stranded in kamaishi Japan after tsunami

The 175,000-tonne ship lifted up and dumped on the harbour-side like a bit of driftwood by Japanese tsunami By Daily Mail Reporter 19th March 2011

http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/shipdetails.aspx?MMSI=353794000

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_18/b4226058170424_page_3.htm
Business Week April 21, 2011
After the Tsunami: Nothing to Do but Start Again "a few dozen cars even stopped along the overpass to watch Kamaishi's fishing fleet spin like bathtub toys under a faucet below the distressed blue bulk of the Asia Symphony. The waves soon ripped the Symphony from her moorings, too, and left it at the mercy of the flood. Cargo ships like the Symphony are graceless, flat-bottomed steel brutes designed for abusive loads, heavily ballasted to keep them from turning turtle with the weight of cargo. Their design makes them remarkably stable in rough seas. The problem was, the water was being smashed against a mountain. The ship became a football-field-size, 7,000-ton torpedo hurtling through town. "

The ship's crew had perhaps the most surreal tsunami experience, surfing the massive ship through the flooded city. After it had settled in a crushed apartment complex, the Japanese Self-Defense Force had tried coaxing the sailors down with bullhorns, but even in Tagalog, its men could not be persuaded. The traumatized Filipinos wanted no part of Kamaishi, and wouldn't set foot on land that had been a sea only a few days before. They had been safe on the ship; it would be stupid to leave it now. It took a week of cold nights, and the promise of safety, repeated over bullhorns, to change their minds. Slowly, they crawled out of their ruined metal fortress 60 feet in the air and climbed down. It was safe, they were assured: Nothing like this had happened before, and it wouldn't again. Nobody had told them about the aftershocks. Sano heard that the terrified crew fled to the mountains. No one could say for sure what became of them


@@China 2008

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Sichuan_earthquake 1/25/10
68,712 dead
17,921 missing
374,643 injured
4.8-11 million homeless 
15 million living in affected area 



@@Haiti 2010

as of 1/25/2010
150,000 confirmed dead (more than 10% of city population assuming
  most lived in the city)
50 American citizens dead 
Population of Port au Prince 1,277,000
Population Hait 9.7 million worldbank

%%General

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703415804575023460787347050.html?mod=WSJ_World_MIDDLENews
JANUARY 25, 2010 In Port-au-Prince, a Mother Grieves group of 12
students and two professors from Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla.,
who were in Haiti for a week-long mission with aid group Food for the
Poor. Four of the students and both professors are missing(half).

As of Sunday, 50 American citizens have been confirmed dead, according
to the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince; another 20 have been reported
dead. The embassy has accounted for 15,581 American citizens, and says
that 10,208 citizens have been evacuated to the U.S. Overall, the
number of people confirmed dead in Haiti is more than 150,000,
according to the Haitian government.

@@Japan 2011

Earthquake Links:

Nuclear Accident Links:

Fukushima I nuclear accidents

%%Air Photo Service

Hi res photos: Hi res photos

%%Kamaishi

Kamaishi

BBC film of Tsunami entering Kamaishi with green crane in background
After the Tsunami: Nothing to Do but Start Again On Mar. 11, the city of Kamaishi on Japan's northern coast, home of the world's biggest breakwater, had another brush with extinction

%%Timeline

11 March: 14:46 JST (05:46 UTC): T?hoku earthquake and tsunami. The Japanese government declared a nuclear power emergency due to the failure of the reactor cooling systems in reactors of Fukushima I and evacuated thousands of residents living within 2 km of the reactor.^[22]^[23] The tsunami kills two TEPCO workers in the basement of Reactor No. 4.^[24]
April 11, 2011, 6:52 PM JST.Mayor�s Aide Tells Story of Loss, and Choice
Nurse haunted by screams of patients she could not save as tsunami hit CNN March 28, 2011|By Kyung Lah Suzuki said a glance out of the window revealed a wave as high as the fourth floor.

"If I tried to save this person who was lying on the bed, I would have lost my life as well," she said. Suzuki pauses, grief etched "It is the biggest regret I have," she said of leaving patients behind. The tsunami following the 9. Of the 51 patients hospitalized, doctors and nurses could not move 12 and they drowned in their beds, said Mikihito Ishiki, a medical director at the hospital.

12 Ma
divvy (547 posts) Thu Mar-17-11 05:45 3-12-11 #1 It very well could be the worst nuclear disaster ever... it would be impossible to prevent the fuel failure of a plant after a design basis earthquake and a tsunami loss of all offside power and all of the emergency generators, if that is what has happened. There is not likely enough batteries to last more than 4-8 hours... and little pumping capacity even then. This would be the first time that multiple reactors (3) would be lost at one site. Both TMI and Chernobyl only involved the loss of 1 unit at a site. The big unknown in my mind is what is the status of the spent fuel pools. I haven't heard whether these are PWRs or BWRs... That would say a lot about he spent fuel pool configuration. If the spent fuel pools are not cooled and an adequate water coverage maintained, the danger is off the map
The hydrogen explosion that has destroyed one containment building could very well be from "melting" fuel cladding,.. offsite power... No emergency generators... No containment... Expanding evacuation zone... I'm worried! .. they lack the ability to take the reactor(s) to shutdown. Low pressure injection has probably been lost. .. report that they were injecting sea water into the containment means that normal emergency systems have failed and the situation is pretty desperate. The other 2 plants? Fuel pools? The fuel pools are probably OK, because they could keep them full with a fire truck tanker... As long as radiation levels onsite stay reasonably low. I don't think any plants, but the most recent designs, would do well after control rooms become uninhabitable. The collapsed reactor building probably eliminated most, if not all, remaining capabilities of that stricken reactor. If it was a sub, you would get out and sink it. Not good...
When I was a young, rookie engineer, a mentor told me about the hidden terror in the fuel pool. He said to me that if a crane operator latched onto a fuel bundle and hit the UP button (there are interlocks to prevent that), by the time the top of the bundle reached the surface, everyone on the refuel floor would be dead... nobody would make it off the floor. There are hundreds of bundles in the pool. I don't know if this story is true, but I never had any reason to doubt it. Hydrogen burning will accellerate the loss of water in the pool. The pool liner and structure can't handle fuel meltdowns. Once the 1/4" or so stainless steel liner is breached, the pool will never hold water again. Hydrogen explosions could be devastating in spreading radioactove material, a hazard worse than just radiation "shine." It may look a lot like explosions to the lay person. I would rather see a core meltdown than an empty fuel pool. I think we are looking at something similar to Chernobyl. Hopefully, less devastating in loss of life... but something that may be even harder to control. I am not sure how long we have to turn this around... maybe a couple days... maybe not. I'm not smart enough to caculate the answer, but there are people that are. Chang, the amount of radioactive materials in these pools is many multiples of what was in Chernobyl. As the water level lowers, you are going to have steam "explosions", hydrogen burning and explosions... there are calculations to calculate Keff for each bundle to insure that no bundle can go critical, even in localized areas... how good do you think those calculations are now, Chang. I don't know how bad it will be, but I am not so certain that it won't be aweful. Will the whole pool meltdown? No, but it doesn't have to to still be very bad. Once the pool is filled and cooled, the water needs to be cleaned up. It is probable very acidic right now... very corrosive.
The worst case I see is the fuel overheating and melting its way into the earth. It would contaminate groundwater and air. Once they decide this is inevitable, they should be using drilling equipment equipped with liquid nitrogen to freeze the ground around the meltdown sites (the way they do to construct tunnels in soft soil), combined with lots of concrete, to entomb the site as Chernobyl was. Atmospheric contamination is bad, but will disperse quickly.
What you don't have here is a nuclear explosion like Chernobyl, which spread fission products over thousands of square miles, contaminating crops and livestock. If the cores burn their way down to the center of the earth, so be it. I think our focus then is on ring fencing the underground contamination, using drilling and concrete.

13 March: A partial meltdown was reported to be possible at unit 3.^[33] As of 13:00 JST, both reactors 1 and 3 were being vented to release overpressure and re-filled with water and boric acid for cooling and inhibition of further nuclear reactions.^[34] Unit 2 was possibly suffering lower than normal water level but was thought to be stable, although pressure inside the containment vessel was high.^[34] The Japan Atomic Energy Agency announced that it was rating the situation at unit 1 as level 4 (accident with local consequences) on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale.^[2]^[35]

14 March: The reactor building for unit 3 exploded^[36] injuring eleven people. There was no release of radioactive material beyond that already being vented but blast damage affected water supply to unit 2.^[37] The president of the French nuclear safety authority, Autorit� de s�ret� nucl�aire (ASN), said that the accident should be rated as a 5 (accident with wider consequences) or even a 6 (serious accident) on INES.^[38]

##March 14 (Monday)

Reactor 3 blows up, destroying refueling level walls and roof, killing six
TEPCO plant status
At approximately 11:01am, Mar 14th, an explosion followed by white smoke occurred at the reactor building of Unit 3. It was believed to be a hydrogen explosion.
There was an increase of radiation dose at site boundary measured at the monitoring post of Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power Station. Accordingly, at 10:07pm Mar 14th and at 12:35am Mar 15th, it was determined that that a specific incident stipulated in article 10, clause 1 (Increase of radiation dose at site boundary) has occurred.

Japan tsunami: Fukushima Fifty, the first interview

Tide of 1,000 Bodies Overwhelms Japan By AP / JAY ALABASTER and TODD PITMAN Monday, Mar. 14, 2011 The discovery of 1,000 bodies washed ashore raised the official death toll to about 2,800 but the Miyagi police chief has said that more than 10,000 people are estimated to have died in his province alone, which has a population of 2.3 million.

authorities were receiving just 10 percent of the food and other supplies they need. Body bags and coffins were running so short that the government may turn to foreign funeral homes for help, he said.

15 March: Damage to temporary cooling systems on unit 2 by the explosion in unit 3 plus problems with its venting system meant that water could not be added, to the extent that unit 2 was in the most severe condition of the three reactors.^[39] An explosion in the "pressure suppression room" caused some damage to unit 2�s containment system.^[39]^[40] A fire broke out at unit 4 involving spent fuel rods from the reactor, which are normally kept in the water-filled spent fuel pool to prevent overheating. Radiation levels at the plant rose significantly but subsequently fell back.^[41] Radiation equivalent dose rates at one location in the vicinity of unit 3 recorded 400 millisieverts per hour (400 mSv/h).^[2]^[42]^[43]
Last Defense at Troubled Reactors: 50 Japanese Workers By KEITH BRADSHER and HIROKO TABUCHI Published: March 15, 2011
- five workers died since quake
- 22 workers injured
- two missing (later found killed by tsunami and quake)
- one hospitalized grasping chest unable to stand
- another treated after blast of radiation near reactor
- 11 injured in #3 hydrogen explosion (not counting 7 killed nearby)
- normal crew is 10-12 people per reactor
- only 50 left onsite, there were 750 emergency people on site.
- 28 died from radiation exposure at Chernobyl within 3 months, 19 by infections from radiation skin burns, 106 developed radiation sickness

16 March: At approximately 14:30 on 16 March, TEPCO announced its belief that the fuel rod storage pool of unit 4�which is located outside the containment area^[44]�may have begun boiling, raising the possibility that exposed rods could reach criticality.^[45] By midday, NHK TV was reporting white smoke rising from the Fukushima I plant, which officials suggested was likely coming from reactor 3. Shortly afterward, all but a small group^[46] of remaining workers at the plant had been placed on standby because of the dangerously rising levels of radiation up to 1 Sv/h.^[47]^[48] TEPCO had temporarily suspended operations at the facility due to radiation spikes and had pulled all their employees out.^[49] A TEPCO press release stated that workers had been withdrawn at 06:00 JST because of abnormal noises coming from one of the reactor pressure suppression chambers.^[50] Late in the evening, Reuters reported that water was being poured into reactors 5 and 6.^[51]

Transport of high capacity pumps from US to Fukushima. 17 March 2011.

17 March: During the morning, Self-Defense Force helicopters dropped water four times on the spent fuel pools of units 3 and 4.^[52] In the afternoon it was reported that the unit 4 spent fuel pool was filled with water and none of the fuel rods were exposed.^[53] Construction work was started to supply a working external electrical power source to all six units of Fukushima I.^[54] Starting at 7 pm, police and fire water trucks with high pressure hoses attempted to spray water into the unit 3 reactor.^[55] Japanese authorities informed the IAEA that engineers were laying an external grid power line cable to unit 2.^[2]
divvy Thu Mar-17-11 05:28 AM 55. helicopter drops ineffective? from NHK news... Helicopter drops seem to be ineffective. They measured 3782 microseverts/hr of radiation before the water drops and 3752 microseverts/hr of radiation after the water drops. They are preparing to spray the sites with water from the ground. The third reactor's spent fuel pools are evaporating quickly and that is why they dumped so much water on it the first time. They said the pool has 2000(?!) tonnes of water in it and each drop was 7.5 tonnes. Reactor 4s spent fuel pool still has water in it which is why they focused their efforts on reactor 3's spent fuel pool.

[edit] Second week

18 March: Tokyo Fire Department dispatched thirty fire engines with 139 fire-fighters and a trained rescue team at approximately 03:00 JST. These included a fire truck with a 22 m water tower.^[56] For the second consecutive day, high radiation levels had been detected in an area 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) northwest of the damaged Fukushima I nuclear plant. The reading was 150 microsieverts per hour.^[57] Japanese authorities upgraded INES ratings for cooling loss and core damage at unit 1 to level 5 and issued the same rating for units 2 and 3.^[2] The loss of fuel pool cooling water at unit 4 was classified as level 3.^[2] In a 24-hour period ending at 11 am local time, radiation levels near the plant had declined from 351.4 to 265 ?Sv/h, but it was unclear if the water spraying efforts were the cause of the decrease.^[58]

19 March: A second group of 100 Tokyo and 53 Osaka firefighters replaced the previous team. They used a vehicle that projected water from a height of 22 meters for cooling spent nuclear fuel storage pool inside the reactor of unit 3.^[59]^[60] Water was sprayed into the reactor for a total of 7 hours during the day. TEPCO reported afterward that the water had been effective in lowering the temperature around the spent fuel rods to below 100�C.^[61]^{[verification needed]}

##March 27, 2011

Fukushima Tsunami Plan: Japan Nuclear Plant Downplayed Risk YURI KAGEYAMA and JUSTIN PRITCHARD 03/27/11 04:47 PM ET

...As early as 2001, a group of scientists published a paper documenting the Jogan tsunami. They estimated waves of nearly 26 feet (8 meters) at Soma, about 25 miles north of the plant. North of there, they concluded that a surge from the sea swept sand more than 2 1/2 miles (4 kilometers) inland across the Sendai plain. The latest tsunami pushed water at least about 1 1/2 miles (2 kilometers) inland. The scientists also found two additional layers of sand and concluded that two additional "gigantic tsunamis" had hit the region during the past 3,000 years, both presumably comparable to Jogan.

TEPCO's latest calculations were started after a magnitude-8.8 subduction zone earthquake off the coast of Chile in February 2010. ...TEPCO's tsunami modelers did not judge that, in a worst-case scenario, the strong subduction and coupling conditions present off the coast of Fukushima Dai-ichi could produce the 9.0-magnitude earthquake that occurred. Instead, it figured the maximum at 8.6 magnitude, meaning the March 11 quake was four times as powerful as the presumed maximum.

##April 1, 2011

Misplaced trust: 30-foot tsunami wall didn't save Japanese village By Paula Hancocks, CNN April 1, 2011 2:37 a.m. EDT

##April 3, 2011

Defiant Japanese boat captain rode out tsunami By Paula Hancocks, CNN April 3, 2011 3:19 a.m. EDT

##April 5, 2011 Universities come through in monitoring for radiation. The amount of radioactive material reaching Washington and the rest of the West Coast from Japan's crippled nuclear reactors is dropping off sharply � but you'd be hard-pressed to know the details if you relied on government agencies for your information. By Sandi Doughton Seattle Times science reporter "A team at the University of Washington rigged up a detection system as soon as it became clear the Japanese reactors were damaged. Unlike some agencies, they have shared their full results with the public � including the newest measurements that show levels are now a tenth of what they were on March 20, when concentrations of radioactive material peaked in Seattle. "It's starting to drop below our threshold for detection," said Michael Miller, UW research associate professor of physics. " chart shows amounts peaked 9 days after earthquake, now barely detectable from University of Washington, and much smaller than Chernobyl effects as measured in Seattle.

##April 6, 2011 Japanese City�s Cry Resonates Around the World By MARTIN FACKLER Published: April 6, 2011 MINAMISOMA, Japan � It was a desperate plea for help, spoken into a small digital camcorder by the mayor of this seemingly forsaken city, and posted on the Internet like a bottle tossed into a digital sea. In the 11-minute recording, the mayor, Katsunobu Sakurai, described the dire situation facing Minamisoma, whose residents were still reeling from a devastating earthquake and 60-foot tsunami when they were ordered to stay indoors because of radiation leaks from Japan�s crippled nuclear plant, 15 miles away. Those who had not fled now faced starvation, he said, as they were trapped in their homes or refugee shelters by the nuclear alert, which also prevented shipments of food from arriving.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/07/world/asia/07japan.html?ref=asia
Core of Stricken Reactor Probably Leaked, U.S. Says By MATTHEW L. WALD and ANDREW POLLACK New York Times April 6, 2011 If molten fuel has left the reactor�s pressure vessel and reached the drywell in substantial quantities, it raises the possibility that the fuel could escape the larger containment structure, leading to a large-scale radioactive release. In an e-mail to Mr. Markey on Tuesday, the agency gave a figure for radiation levels in the drywell high enough to cause death within minutes. The commission�s statement said that since it believed the reactor vessel had not given way, �Every available method should be used to add fresh water to the Unit 2 reactor vessel and to continue cooling the core.� Linda L. Gunter, a spokeswoman for Tokyo Electric, dismissed the N.R.C. analysis, saying Thursday morning, �We believe the containment for the reactor is still functioning at Unit 2; however, the damage to the suppression pool may be the source of the radiation.�

##April 7, 2011

Powerful Aftershock Complicates Japan�s Nuclear Efforts By HIROKO TABUCHI and ANDREW POLLACK (NYT) News