Workers try to cool Japan's overheated reactors

 

 

YAMAGATA, Japan – Emergency workers seemed to try everything they could think of Thursday to douse Japan's most dangerously overheated nuclear reactors: helicopters, heavy-duty fire trucks, even water cannons normally used to quell rioters. But they couldn't be sure any of it was easing the peril at the tsunami-ravaged facility.

Three reactors have had at least partial meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, where wisps of white steam rose from the stricken units Friday morning. But Japanese and U.S. officials believe a greater danger exists in the pools used to store spent nuclear fuel: Fuel rods in one pool were believed to be at least partially exposed, if not dry, and others were in danger. Without water, the rods could heat up and spew radiation.

It could take days and "possibly weeks" to get the complex under control, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jazcko said. He defended the U.S. decision to recommend a 50-mile evacuation zone for its citizens, a much stronger measure than Japan has taken.

A senior official with the U.N.'s nuclear safety agency said there had been "no significant worsening" at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant but that the situation remained "very serious." Graham Andrew told reporters in Vienna that nuclear fuel rods in two reactors were only about half covered with water, and they were also not completely submerged in a third.

If the fuel is not fully covered, rising temperatures will increase the chances of complete meltdowns that would release much larger amounts of radioactive material than the failing plant has emitted so far.

Low levels of radiation have been detected well beyond Tokyo, which is 140 miles (220 kilometers) south of the plant, but hazardous levels have been limited to the plant itself. Still, the crisis triggered by last week's earthquake and tsunami has forced thousands to evacuate and drained Tokyo's normally vibrant streets of life, its residents either leaving town or holing up in their homes.

The official death toll from the disasters stood at 5,692 as of Friday morning, with 9,522 missing, the national police agency said.

President Barack Obama appeared on television to assure Americans that officials do not expect harmful amounts of radiation to reach the U.S. or its territories. He also said the U.S. was offering Japan any help it could provide. He reaffirmed America's commitment to nuclear power and said he was asking for a comprehensive safety review.

Japanese and American assessments of the crisis have differed, with the plant's owner denying Jazcko's report Wednesday that Unit 4's spent fuel pool was dry and that anyone who gets close to the plant could face potentially lethal doses of radiation. But a Tokyo Electric Power Co. executive moved closer to the U.S. position Thursday.

"Considering the amount of radiation released in the area, the fuel rods are more likely to be exposed than to be covered," Yuichi Sato said.

Click image to see photos of quake, tsunami damage

AP/Yomiuri Shimbun, Kenji Shimizu

Another utility official said Wednesday that the company has been unable to get information such as water levels and temperatures from any of the spent fuel pools in the four most troubled reactors.

Workers have been dumping seawater when possible to control temperatures at the plant since the quake and tsunami knocked out power to its cooling systems, but they tried even more desperate measures on Units 3 and 4.

Two Japanese military CH-47 Chinook helicopters began dumping seawater on Unit 3 on Thursday morning, defense ministry spokeswoman Kazumi Toyama said. The choppers doused the reactor with at least four loads of water in just the first 10 minutes, though television footage showed much of it appearing to disperse in the wind.

Chopper crews flew missions of about 40 minutes each to limit their radiation exposure, passing over the reactor with loads of about 2,000 gallons (7,500 liters) of water. Another 9,000 gallons (35,000 liters) of water were blasted from military trucks with high-pressure sprayers used to extinguish fires at plane crashes, though the vehicles had to stay safely back from areas deemed to have too much radiation.

Special police units with water cannons were also tried, but they could not reach the targets from safe distances and had to pull back, said Yasuhiro Hashimoto, a spokesman for Japan's nuclear safety agency.

Tokyo Electric Power said it believed workers were making headway in staving off a catastrophe both with the spraying and, especially, with efforts to complete an emergency power line to restart the plant's own electric cooling systems.

"This is a first step toward recovery," said Teruaki Kobayashi, a facilities management official at the power company. He said radiation levels "have somewhat stabilized at their lows" and that some of the spraying had reached its target, with one reactor emitting steam.

"We are doing all we can as we pray for the situation to improve," Kobayashi said. Authorities planned to spray again Friday, and Kobayashi said: "Choices are limited. We just have to stick to what we can do most quickly and efficiently."

Work on connecting the new power line to the plant was expected to begin Friday and take 10 to 15 hours, said nuclear safety agency spokesman Minoru Ohgoda. But the utility is not sure the cooling systems will still function. If they don't, electricity won't help.

Four of the plant's six reactors have seen fires, explosions, damage to the structures housing reactor cores, partial meltdowns or rising temperatures. Officials said temperatures Wednesday are rising even in the spent fuel pools of the other two reactors.

Unit 3's reactor uses a fuel that combines plutonium, better known as the fuel in nuclear weapons, and uranium. The other reactors do not use the same mixed oxide fuel, or MOX, but they also contain both uranium and plutonium because the latter is a byproduct of generating nuclear energy.

Plutonium is more toxic than uranium and is especially harmful to lungs and kidneys, so Unit 3 may be somewhat more dangerous than other plants to workers at the site. To people outside the plant, however, other radioactive byproducts present a bigger threat.

Uranium and plutonium are heavy elements that are not prone to reacting with elements in air and therefore are not easily spread. Byproducts such as radioactive forms of cesium and iodine, however, are easily spread and can cause widespread contamination.

The troubles at the nuclear complex were set in motion by last Friday's 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami, which knocked out power and destroyed backup generators needed for the reactors' cooling systems. That added a nuclear crisis on top of twin natural disasters that likely killed well more than 10,000 people.

Police said more than 452,000 people were staying in schools and other shelters, as supplies of fuel, medicine and other necessities ran short. Both victims and aid workers appealed for more help, as the chances of finding more survivors dwindled.

Noriko Sawaki lives in a battered neighborhood in Sendai that is still without running water and food or gasoline supplies and that, she said, makes life exhausting. "It's frustrating, because we don't have a goal, something to strive for. This just keeps on going," said the 48-year-old.

In the town of Kesennuma, people lined up to get into a supermarket after a delivery of key supplies, such as instant rice packets and diapers.

Each person was only allowed to buy 10 items, NHK television reported.

With diapers hard to find in many areas, an NHK program broadcast a how-to session on fashioning a diaper from a plastic shopping bag and a towel.

At the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, a core team of 180 emergency workers has been rotating out of the complex to minimize radiation exposure.

The storage pools need a constant source of cooling water. Even when removed from reactors, uranium rods are still extremely hot and must be cooled for months, possibly longer, to prevent them from heating up again and emitting radioactivity.

Experts said that anyone working close to the reactors was almost certainly being exposed to radiation levels that could, at least, give them much higher cancer risks. But radiation levels drop quickly with distance from the complex. While elevated radiation has been detected well outside the evacuation zone, experts say those levels are not dangerous.

U.S. officials were taking no chances. In Washington, the State Department warned U.S. citizens to consider leaving the country and offered voluntary evacuation to family members and dependents of U.S. personnel in the cities of Tokyo, Yokohama and Nagoya.

The first flight left Thursday, with fewer than 100 people onboard, Undersecretary of State Patrick Kennedy said. Plans also call for airlifting several thousand family members of U.S. armed forces personnel as well as nonessential staff stationed in Japan in the coming days.

The U.S. 50-mile evacuation zone is far bigger than that established by Japan, which has called for a 12-mile zone and has told those within 20 miles to stay indoors. Daniel B. Poneman, U.S. deputy secretary of energy, said at the briefing that his agency agreed with the 50-mile zone — but said Japan's measures were also prudent.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, meanwhile, said Customs and Border Protection agents have been told to pay particular attention to passengers and cargo entering the U.S. from Japan, being alert for "even a blip of radiation." Radiation has not been detected from passengers or luggage so far. CBP said there have been reports of radiation being detected in cargo arriving from Japan at several airports, but Napolitano said no harmful levels have reached the U.S. since the crisis began.

CBP routinely screens passengers and cargo for radiation, and says that travelers who show signs of radiation sickness are referred to health authorities and treated.

 

Underground information on what's happening at Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan - a dirty bomb waiting to go off

 

NaturalNews has received information directly from an American who happened to be in Tokyo at the time of the nuclear incident and who also happens to have a background in atomic energy and nuclear reactors. He has sent us some extremely disturbing information that seems to indicate the situation with the reactors in Japan is far, far worse than what the conventional media is describing. We are not releasing this individual's name for obvious reasons (he's still in Tokyo and virtually unreachable), but he is an individual who is known to me personally and with whom I have spent a considerable number of hours over a period of two years. He is a very high-integrity individual and someone who is also extremely well connected in the world of advanced medicine.

In an email sent from Tokyo, this individual explains:

"...nuclear reactors use bundles of enriched uranium packed into stainless steel fuel rods in order to generate the heat that drives the turbines. You need to keep these bundles of pins cool otherwise they melt or burst.

Now, it seems the Fukushima power plant pulled spent fuel bundles (a collection of fuel rods) and stored them on site rather than shipping them to another location. Speculation is that in addition to the fires that are damaging the working reactor, these storage areas of their spent fuel bundles could [now] be on fire. This vastly compounds the problem of any meltdown, as this spent fuel will add to the contamination [because] it is extremely toxic.

In other words, as well as dealing with a potential meltdown, you also have the toxic products from the depleted fuel pins adding to the pollution. This is extraordinarily bad. The spent fuel bundles should have been relocated away from the reactor core a long, long time ago. Given the earthquake realities of Japan, these reactor building were basically dirty bombs waiting to be set off by a [natural] disaster."

I want to thank this individual for his continued reporting from Tokyo and assure him that if he chooses to send more information to NaturalNews, we will of course continue to protect his anonymity.

Nuclear plant becomes dirty bomb waiting to go off

The upshot of his assessment of the situation is that the Fukushima power plant is now a "dirty bomb" waiting to happen. And it's on fire right now. Radiation levels are rising so rapidly that it's not even safe to work near the plant. This is very rapidly headed into a situation where suicidal volunteers are going to have to "rush in" and do some work on the plant, spend only a few minutes there, then evacuate as quickly as possible. And they'll still get cancer.

This is exactly what happened in Chernobyl following the accident there in 1987. Hundreds of brave volunteers basically committed suicide in order to erect the containment vessel over the melted-down reactor and thereby prevent further radiation from escaping directly into the environment.

As Wikipedia explains (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherno...):

"The worst of the radioactive debris was collected inside what was left of the reactor, much of it shoveled in by liquidators wearing heavy protective gear (dubbed "bio-robots" by the military); these workers could only spend a maximum of 40 seconds at a time working on the rooftops of the surrounding buildings because of the extremely high doses of radiation given off by the blocks of graphite and other debris. The reactor itself was covered with bags containing sand, lead, and boric acid dropped from helicopters (some 5,000 metric tons during the week following the accident). By December 1986 a large concrete sarcophagus had been erected, to seal off the reactor and its contents. Many of the vehicles used by the "liquidators" remain parked in a field in the Chernobyl area to this day, most giving off doses of 10-30 R/h (0.7-2 uA/kg) over 25 years after the disaster."

Far worse than a terrorism attack

This could be very similar to what we're headed toward in Japan if the people there don't get this situation under control very quickly. Terrorists couldn't have carried out a more deadly disaster than what the "scientific" nuclear power industry has now delivered to the people of Japan.

In the name of scientific progress, the Japanese people are now threatened with the worst kind of death: Death by radiation poisoning -- a slow, suffering breakdown of cellular function at every level. And sadly, Japan has already suffered through a similar scenario near the end of World War II when the United States of America dropped atomic bombs on the civilian Japanese population... twice!

What frightens me in all this is the choice of words from our source who describes the Fukushima site as a "dirty bomb" just waiting to go off. There's a lesson in all this, of course: When you play God with the planet, it might be wise to follow the precautionary principle more closely. This nuclear catastrophe is a mirror image of what we're likely to see in the future of agriculture due to GMOs (genetically engineered seeds). GE seeds are the "genetic dirty bombs" of agriculture, and they too could devastate human civilization in much the same way that nuclear power now threatens the very survival of an entire nation.

But too many "scientists" are infinitely arrogant, it seems, and they rarely consider the consequences of their dangerous actions. On all the issues that matter -- GMOs and seeds, synthetic chemicals, cell phone radiation, nuclear power, fluoride in the water, mercury fillings and much more -- "science" has delivered suffering and death, not lasting progress. Thanks to these scientists who convince governments to take on nuclear power, GMOs, vaccines or pharmaceuticals, our world is now facing a multi-faceted life extinction crisis that threatens the very future of life on our planet. And Bill Gates thinks the answer is "more vaccines!" (Insane? You betcha...)

The lessons to be learned from Fukushima are the same lessons humanity needs to learn on many other fronts: Don't think you are so brilliant that you can outsmart Mother Nature and the laws of cause and effect. "Science" is no panacea. Science makes too many promises that it cannot keep (Improved crop yields! Clean energy! Amazing vaccines!), and when nations embrace these so-called "scientific" solutions, ultimately they only receive death, fear and financial destruction.

For instance, the pharmaceutical industry has done to the U.S. economy what the Fukushima power plant is about to do to Japan. The promises we were given in the name of science and medicine have all blown up in our faces, leaving only a desolate landscape of destruction and misery in their wake.

It is time we all began to seriously question our "faith" in the false promises of science and instead started to look at more holistic and humble solutions for sustainable life on our planet.

The Amish way of life, for example, may not look high-tech and cool, but it doesn't explode in your face and irradiate your whole country, either. And the Amish do just fine without vaccines, too (and they have near-zero rates of autism, by the way).

 

Winter Sports - Tokyo's World Figure Skating Championships postponed

Large areas of Japan have been devastated by Friday's earthquake

The World Figure Skating Championships in Tokyo have been postponed following the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

After large parts of the country were devastated on Friday, the International Skating Union said it "is not possible" to host the seven-day event.

Britain had been set to send an eight-strong team to Japan.

The championships were scheduled to take place between 21-27 March, while April's new international team event in Yokohama has also been called off.

Britain's team included ice dance pair John and Sinead Kerr, the current European Championships bronze medallists and a medal hope at the World Championships.

They would have been joined in ice dance by Penny Coomes and Nicholas Buckland, with Stacey Kemp and David King due to compete in the pairs and David Richardson and Jenna McCorkell in the individual competition.

The team were set to fly out to Japan on Friday but will remain at their training bases, which are in Nottingham, Belgium, Poland and the United States.

It has still to be decided whether the event should be cancelled, or just postponed.

An ISU spokesperson said: "Our first concern has to be the security of the athletes, the spectators and everyone else involved."

ISU president Ottavio Cinquanta said: "Faced with these developments and the gravity of the situation in Japan, the ISU, in consultation with the Japanese skating federation and on the advice of the Japanese authorities, has concluded that staging the world championships is not possible."

Moving the world championships to a new date would only be possible when Japanese authorities had given assurances that the situation had returned to normal, allowing the event to be staged in "complete security," Cinquanta added.

It is the first time in 50 years the World Figure Skating Championships have been called off.

The 1961 championships in Prague were called off after an American delegation was killed when their plane crashed on landing in Brussels.

 

Struggle to stabilise Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant

Two days after the alarm was first raised about safety at Fukushima Daiichi plant, uncertainty still surrounds the situation on the ground and the status of the three reactors that were functioning at the time of Friday's earthquake and tsunami.

It appears that a partial meltdown did occur in reactor 1.

On Sunday, officials said the same thing was suspected in reactor 3 - although later, they appeared to retract this statement.

What is certain is that engineers are still struggling to pump enough water past the reactors to keep the cores cool.

At noon local time (0400 GMT), Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), which operates the plant, gave this status report:

Reactor 1 - shut down, under inspection because of Saturday's explosion, sea water and boric acid being pumped in

Reactor 2 - water level "lower than normal", but stable

Reactor 3 - high pressure coolant injection was "interrupted"; but injection of sea water and boric acid were under way.

Later, officials said seawater and boric acid were also being pumped into reactor 2.

They were still encountering problems - among them, a stuck valve. Its exact purpose was not revealed.

Venting of mildly radioactive steam continued at reactors 2 and 3, and officials warned that an explosion was possible in reactor 3's building.

The official line is that the reactor 1 explosion was caused by a build-up of hydrogen originally produced in the reactor, though this remains to be confirmed.

Although visually spectacular, these explosions are not necessarily dangerous in terms of releasing radioactivity. The buildings are an external shell, with the task of sealing radioactive materials falling to a metal containment vessel constructed inside the concrete shell.

"The explosion... wasn't a terribly important event," according to Malcolm Grimston from the Energy Policy and Management Group at Imperial College, London.

"The building was designed to fall outwards" - preventing damage to the thick steel containment vessel inside.

 

Meanwhile, monitoring around the site was picking up higher levels of radioactivity than expected, above safety limits; hence the evacuation of an estimated 170,000 people.

What materials were involved in this is not yet entirely clear, although earlier reports referred to isotopes of caesium and iodine; and the company's bulletin also suggests the route out of the stricken reactors is not known.

"We will continue to monitor in detail the possibility of radioactive material being discharged from exhaust stack or discharge canal," it reads.

Speculation warning

In the middle of such a confused and changing picture, what can safely be said?

Firstly, the reactors involved will not operate again, even if there has not been a meltdown.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

Some of the speculation in which some commentators have indulged is just that - speculation”

End Quote
Prof Richard Wakeford
University of Manchester, UK

• Timeline: Japan power plant explosion

Seawater is corrosive. But it clearly appears to the operators that it is the only available medium for keeping the cores cool.

Boric acid, meanwhile, is used because it absorbs neutrons, slowing down the residual nuclear activity. The term "acid" is not really relevant - it is the atoms of boron in the acid that do the job.

Secondly, the release of radioactive materials, whatever the route, is so far of only local importance.

Russian authorities, with territory to the north and west within 1,000km of the plant, say they have detected nothing abnormal.

"If the explosion at the Fukushima nuclear power station has resulted in a significant release of radioactive material then this will soon be readily apparent from the radiation monitoring that is undoubtedly under way around the plant," noted Richard Wakeford, visiting professor in epidemiology at the UK's University of Manchester.

"Until we have reliable information on the results of such monitoring from Japan, some of the speculation in which some commentators have indulged is just that - speculation."

Thirdly, levels of radioactivity - although above safe limits - are far lower than were detected during the Chernobyl accident in Ukraine, for example.

So far, there is nothing to indicate that the 170,000 people displaced will not be able to return once the immediate danger has passed.

No fanning for flames

Although the term "meltdown" is hugely emotive, the main threat to the public from nuclear accidents has been through plumes of radioactive gas rising into the air.

In both the Chernobyl accident of 1986 and the UK's Windscale fire of 1957, reactor components smouldered for days - in the case of Chernobyl, preceded by an explosive release of gas.

This meant radioactive substances could be carried huge distances depending on the vagaries of the wind - in the case of Chernobyl, initial detection was in Sweden, more than 1,000km (620 miles) away.

Continue reading the main story

Scale of nuclear accidents

• Level 7 - Major release of radioactive material. Example: Chernobyl, Ukraine, 1986
• Level 6 - Significant release of radioactive material. Example: Kyshtym, Russia, 1957
• Level 5 - Limited release of radioactive material. Example: Three Mile Island, US, 1979, and Windscale, UK, 1957
• Level 4 - Minor release of radioactive material with at least one death from radiation. Example: Tokaimura, Japan, 1999
• Level 3 - Exposure in excess of 10 times the statutory annual limit for workers
• Level 2 - Exposure of a member of the public in excess of 10mSv (average annual dose is 1mSv)
• Level 1 - Exposure of a member of public above statutory annual limit. Minor safety problems

(Source: UN nuclear agency, IAEA)

• Japan fears second reactor blast

This type of explosive release has not happened at Fukushima, nor have there been reports of fires - meaning it is unlikely that contamination will go further than the immediate vicinity.

Instead, what does appear to have happened with the reactors is that portions of the core have been exposed for short periods to the air, as coolant levels fell too low.

If these periods are long enough, some melting will take place.

There is also potential for the cladding around the fuel rods to catch fire - a process that could have led to the hydrogen build-up - although the fires would be extinguished again once enough coolant arrived.

In the meantime, there have been suggestions that an incident at reactor 3 would inherently be more dangerous than at reactors 1 and 2 because it burns "mixed oxide fuel" (MOX) containing plutonium.

Plutonium is produced during nuclear fission, so is present in all reactor cores - the longer the fuel has been there, the more plutonium will be present, up to about 1%.

In some countries, spent fuel rods are re-processed and the plutonium set to one side.

However, Japan - in an attempt to be more frugal with a valuable resource - has a programme that mixes the plutonium coming out of the re-processing facility back into new fuel rods that also contain uranium. This is MOX fuel.

So, reactor 3 fuel rods will contain more plutonium than those in reactor 1.

But this would only become an issue if there were an explosion or a catastrophic meltdown. The radioactive release so far has been of much lighter fission products and of short-lived nuclei generated in cooling water, which are identical no matter which fuel is used.

Cool heads

The big challenge for the authorities, then, is to keep the reactors cool.

This will eliminate chances of a major meltdown, a fire and the need to vent radioactive steam.

 

In this context, warnings of electrical power shortages coming from the government and from Tepco itself are important because electrical power is needed to run the cooling pumps.

Whether local generators are up and running is unclear. If they are not, then everything depends on the grid connection.

Ironically, one of the reasons for the power shortage is the automatic shut-downs triggered in nuclear stations when an earthquake is detected.

However, possible implications outside Japan are already beginning to emerge.

In Germany, scene of a big anti-nuclear protest on Saturday, Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen suggested that safety systems at nuclear plants would be analysed anew in the light of the Fukushima incident.

"This happened in a country with very high safety standards... the fundamental question of whether we can guard against all dangers is now open again, and we will address that question," he said.

In the UK, the Stop Hinckley pressure group has called for a halt to a proposed new reactor at Hinckley Point in southwest England, on safety grounds.

Environment groups are beginning to feature Fukushima in their energy communications - and whatever actually happens at the site, it is likely to become a major card in campaigns to promote renewable energy above nuclear.

Two days after the alarm was first raised about safety at Fukushima Daiichi plant, uncertainty still surrounds the situation on the ground and the status of the three reactors that were functioning at the time of Friday's earthquake and tsunami.

 

Wisconsin passes anti-union law in labor rebuke

The Wisconsin state Assembly on Thursday approved sweeping restrictions on public sector unions in a stinging rebuke of the labor movement that critics fear will encourage other states to follow.

 

After a short debate, the Republican-dominated Assembly voted 53-42 to limit government union bargaining rights to wages only and impose a series of other restrictions. Four Republicans joined Democrats in voting against.

 

The proposed law sparked fierce opposition from Democrats and labor unions across the nation and drew the largest demonstrations in Wisconsin since the Vietnam War.

 

Several thousand demonstrators furious about the proposal were massed outside the Capitol building and police blocked off streets surrounding the building.

 

Wisconsin's newly elected Republican Governor Scott Walker hailed the vote that ended a three-week standoff.

 

"Their action will save jobs, protect taxpayers, reform government, and help balance the budget," Walker said in a statement after the vote.

 

What began a month ago as a Republican effort in one small U.S. state to balance the budget has now turned into a national confrontation with unions that could be the biggest since then President Ronald Reagan fired striking air traffic controllers nearly 30 years ago.

 

Walker insisted the limits are needed to help the state's cash-strapped municipalities deal with a projected $1.27 billion drop in aid over the next two years from the state, struggling to close its own $3.6 billion budget gap.

 

The stakes are high for labor because more than a third of U.S. public employees such as teachers, police and civil service workers belong to unions while only 6.9 percent of private sector workers are unionized. In Wisconsin, 46.6 percent of government workers are union members.

 

Unions also are the biggest single source of funding for the Democratic party.

 

Democratic Assembly member Tamara Grigsby said she sobbed on Thursday when she saw police dragging protesters away from the Capitol so the Assembly could convene.

 

"You're wrong today and you're on the wrong side of history and you're going to pay the price for it," she said of the Republicans who approved the proposal.

 

Police physically dragged some protesters out of the Capitol building on Thursday morning and cordoned off streets around the Capitol. The protests have been peaceful through three weeks of demonstrations and not a single arrest has so far been made, police said.

 

Critics accused Walker and the Republicans of flouting the law by using a legislative maneuver to ram the draft bill through the state Senate on Wednesday evening on short notice and without debate.

 

Democratic state Rep. Mark Pocan called the Senate proceedings "a kangaroo Legislature."

 

Global supply chain rattled by Japan quake, tsunami

Global companies from semiconductor makers to shipbuilders faced disruptions to operations after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan destroyed vital infrastructure and knocked out factories producing everything from high-tech components to steel.

 

 

Thousands of people have been killed and millions have been left without water, electricity, homes or heat after Friday's 8.9 magnitude quake triggered a massive tsunami which tore across a wide swathe of coastline north of Tokyo.

 

The earthquake has forced many firms to suspend production and shares in some of Japan's biggest companies tumbled on Monday, with Toyota Corp (7203.T) and Sony Corp (6758.T) falling 8 percent and 9 percent, respectively.

 

With initial damage assessments still being made, companies and analysts said it was too early to accurately gauge how long disruptions might last.

 

"It will take quite some time until investors' confidence in Japanese manufacturers returns. When we look back at the Kobe earthquake, it took about a week to get an overall picture of the magnitude of the damage," said Toshihiko Matsuno, senior strategist at SMBC Friend Securities, referring to the 1995 earthquake that killed more than 6,400 people.

 

"At this point, it's absolutely unclear how the power cut will affect manufacturers' production and businesses. "

 

Rolling power blackouts are likely to affect Tokyo and surrounding areas over the next few weeks, adding to the existing challenge of inspecting and repairing north Japan plants amid continuing aftershocks and the threat of major radiation leaks from damaged nuclear power plants.

 

KOREAN COMPANIES HIT

 

Japan is a major electronics manufacturer, accounting for 14 percent of the global production of computers, consumer electronics and communications gear last year, according to research consultancy IHS iSuppli.

 

Companies in neighboring South Korea, which depend heavily on Japan supplies such as LCD glass, chip equipment, silicon wafers and other products to produce semiconductors, were some of the most affected.

 

Hynix Semiconductor (000660.KS), the world's No.2 memory chipmaker and a rival of Japan's quake-hit Toshiba Corp (6502.T) and Elpida Memory (6665.T), said it was concerned the quake may weaken consumer demand further and disrupt supplies of chip components.

 

"It could give a boost to battered chip prices but that's a short-term impact from disrupted supplies by Japanese companies," said Kim Min-chul, chief financial officer at Hynix. "Longer-term we are more concerned about the quake reducing overall consumer demand and disrupting supplies of chip components and equipment, which could interrupt our production as well."

 

Hynix shares surged almost 9 percent on expectations of a short-term boost to chip prices, while shares in Toshiba, a conglomerate whose products include semiconductors and nuclear reactors, dived 16 percent.

 

Toshiba, which supplies more than a third of the NAND memory chips used worldwide in devices such as Apple's (AAPL.O) hot-selling iPad, said it was starting the process of restarting a chip factory in Iwate, northern Japan.

 

Japan's Shin-Etsu (4063.T), the world's top producer of silicon wafers used to make semiconductors and the plastic PVC, suspended operations at its Shirakawa plant over the weekend.

 

Lost city of Atlantis, swamped by tsunami, may be found

A U.S.-led research team may have finally located the lost city of Atlantis, the legendary metropolis believed swamped by a tsunami thousands of years ago in mud flats in southern Spain.

 

 

"This is the power of tsunamis," head researcher Richard Freund told Reuters.

 

"It is just so hard to understand that it can wipe out 60 miles inland, and that's pretty much what we're talking about," said Freund, a University of Hartford, Connecticut, professor who lead an international team searching for the true site of Atlantis.

 

To solve the age-old mystery, the team used a satellite photo of a suspected submerged city to find the site just north of Cadiz, Spain. There, buried in the vast marshlands of the Dona Ana Park, they believe that they pinpointed the ancient, multi-ringed dominion known as Atlantis.

 

The team of archeologists and geologists in 2009 and 2010 used a combination of deep-ground radar, digital mapping, and underwater technology to survey the site.

 

Freund's discovery in central Spain of a strange series of "memorial cities," built in Atlantis' image by its refugees after the city's likely destruction by a tsunami, gave researchers added proof and confidence, he said.

 

Atlantis residents who did not perish in the tsunami fled inland and built new cities there, he added.

 

The team's findings will be unveiled on Sunday in "Finding Atlantis," a new National Geographic Channel special.

 

While it is hard to know with certainty that the site in Spain in Atlantis, Freund said the "twist" of finding the memorial cities makes him confident Atlantis was buried in the mud flats on Spain's southern coast.

 

"We found something that no one else has ever seen before, which gives it a layer of credibility, especially for archeology, that makes a lot more sense," Freund said.

 

Greek philosopher Plato wrote about Atlantis some 2,600 years ago, describing it as "an island situated in front of the straits which are by you called the Pillars of Hercules," as the Straits of Gibraltar were known in antiquity. Using Plato's detailed account of Atlantis as a map, searches have focused on the Mediterranean and Atlantic as the best possible sites for the city.

 

Tsunamis in the region have been documented for centuries, Freund says. One of the largest was a reported 10-story tidal wave that slammed Lisbon in November, 1755.

 

Debate about whether Atlantis truly existed has lasted for thousands of years. Plato's "dialogues" from around 360 B.C. are the only known historical sources of information about the iconic city. Plato said the island he called Atlantis "in a single day and night... disappeared into the depths of the sea."

 

Experts plan further excavations are planned at the site where they believe Atlantis is located and at the mysterious "cities" in central Spain 150 miles away to more closely study geological formations and to date artifacts.

 

Fear finally takes hold among Japan's nuclear faithful

 

Japan's nuclear power industry is accustomed to criticism but rarely from its loyal army of nuclear-power workers and their families -- until now.

 

 

"My distrust just increased," said Mikiko Amano, a 55-year-old woman who had been recently evacuated from her home close to the quake-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex.

 

She was talking to Reuters at a town outside the 20-km evacuation zone around the complex, owned by the Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), which continued to urge calm despite broadcasters showing a plume of smoke rising from the plant.

 

"I was at home at the time of the first explosion. It was a huge sound. After that, I evacuated. I went for a radiation check at the hospital today and breathed a sigh of relief that I was OK," Amano told Reuters.

 

"The company has been saying such a thing would not happen and the plant was fine even after 40 years in operation...It only raised my distrust of TEPCO."

 

Amano's family and tens of thousands of others evacuated from their homes around the complex depend on the company for their livelihoods, and many were remarkably stoic at first in the face of what appeared to the rest of the world as imminent nuclear catastrophe.

 

Even as authorities waived Geiger counters over evacuees clothes and gave them doses of iodine as a precaution against radiation poisoning, local communities at first spoke confidently about their employer's ability to avert a crisis.

 

Hideki Kato, a 41-year-old worker at the Fukushima Daiichi complex, just wanted to get back to work.

 

"I think nuclear power plants are necessary. I am worried about the job," Kato said at a school gym serving as an evacuation center in Kawamata town, outside the evacuation zone in Fukushima prefecture.

 

"Can we make a living?Can I ever go back to work at the plant?" he asked as his two children lay on the floor beside him, wrapped in blankets. His son played with a cell phone while Kato's parents looked on.

 

FEARS GRIP THE NUCLEAR FAITHFUL

 

Kato's question is one echoed around the world, with serious doubts emerging over public support for the global nuclear power industry if Japan fails to avert disaster.

 

With nuclear energy accounting for 26 percent of power consumption in Japan, and more than half in countries like France, public trust in the industry is vital in the face of constant criticism from a committed anti-nuclear lobby.

 

Fukushima prefecture is the land of the nuclear faithful: outside its nuclear power plants, the region north of Tokyo is mostly characterized by rural and fishing communities with some light industry. Here, nuclear power pays most of the bills.

 

Shinichi Watanabe, 63, from Futaba worked for two decades at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. On Sunday, before the second explosion at the plant, he was still keeping the faith.

 

Japan: new reactor blast unlikely to cause big leak

 

A fresh explosion at Japan's quake-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power complex on Monday is unlikely to have led to a large escape of radioactivity, the government said.

 

 

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano was speaking after a hydrogen explosion at the No.3 reactor in the plant, which sent a plume of smoke into the air.

 

Japan's nuclear safety agency later said, quoting a report from the facility's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co (9501.T), that radiation near the No.3 reactor about 40 minutes after the explosion was about one-50th of that considered critical to human health.

 

The data suggests the explosion would not have damaged the reactor's containment vessel, a spokesman at the agency said at a news conference.

 

There were casualties, but the number or other details were not available, the spokesman said.

 

There is no wind near the plant near the ground and wind above the plant is blowing from the west or from the southwest, the spokesman added, meaning the wind is blowing toward the sea.

 

The direction of the wind is a key factor in judging possible damage on the environment from the radiation leaking from the plant, which was hit by Japan's biggest earthquake on record and a tsunami.

 

(Reporting by Elaine Lies and Risa Maeda; Editing by Joseph Radford

 

Japan grapples with nuclear crisis | Reuters

Japan scrambled to avert a meltdown at a stricken nuclear reactor on Monday after a second hydrogen explosion rocked the facility, just days after a devastating earthquake and tsunami that killed at least 10,000 people

 

Roads and rail, power and ports have been crippled across much of Japan's northeast and estimates of the cost of the multiple disasters have leapt to as much as $170 billion. Analysts said the economy could even tip back into recession.

 

Japanese stocks closed down more than 6 percent, the biggest fall since the height of the global financial crisis in 2008.

 

Rescue workers combed the tsunami-battered region north of Tokyo for survivors and struggled to care for millions of people without power and water in what Prime Minister Naoto Kan has dubbed his country's worst crisis since World War Two.

 

Officials say at least 10,000 people were likely killed in the 8.9-magnitude earthquake and tsunami that followed it. Kyodo news agency reported that 2,000 bodies had been found on Monday in two coastal towns alone.

 

"It's a scene from hell, absolutely nightmarish," said Patrick Fuller of the International Red Cross Federation from the town of Otsuchi.

 

"The situation here is just beyond belief, almost everything has been flattened. The government is saying that 9,500 people, more than half of the population could have died and I do fear the worst."

 

Crucially, officials said the thick walls around the radioactive cores of the damaged reactors at the nuclear power plant appeared to be intact after the hydrogen blast, the second there since Saturday.

 

The big fear is of a major radiation leak from the complex in Fukushima, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, where engineers have been battling since the weekend to prevent a meltdown in three reactors.

 

The core container of the No. 3 reactor was intact after the explosion, the government said, but it warned those still in the 20-km (13-mile) evacuation zone to stay indoors. The plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), said 11 people had been injured in the blast.

 

Kyodo said 80,000 people had been evacuated from the zone, joining more than 450,000 other evacuees from quake and tsunami-hit areas in the northeast.

 

"Everything I've seen says that the containment structure is operating as it's designed to operate. It's keeping the radiation in and it's holding everything in, which is the good news," said Murray Jennex, of San Diego State University.

 

"This is nothing like a Chernobyl ... At Chernobyl (in Ukraine in 1986) you had no containment structure -- when it blew, it blew everything straight out into the atmosphere."

 

Officials said on Sunday that three nuclear reactors in Fukushima were at risk of overheating, raising fears of an uncontrolled radiation leak.

 

Engineers worked desperately to cool the fuel rods. If they fail, the containers that house the core could melt, or even explode, releasing radioactive material into the atmosphere.

 

Japan Earthquake & Tsunami: 7 Simple Ways to Help

While the devastating Japan earthquake and tsunami have passed, the recovery and mourning have just begun. The disaster could become the most expensive earthquake in history. The crisis could get even worse, depending on what happens next at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

Now, more than ever, the Japanese people need our help and support to get through this crisis.

You don’t need to pack your bags and fly out to Japan to help, though. There are plenty of ways you can help online, whether it’s with your wallet or simply with your Twitter account. New technologies make it possible to lend a helping hand with your texts or even with virtual crops.

Every little bit counts. Here are a few ways you can help the victims of the Japan earthquake and tsunami:

 

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1. Text to Donate

 

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The American Red Cross has once again launched a texting campaign to raise money for relief efforts in the Pacific region. Last year, the Red Cross was able to raise over $20 million for Haiti relief through simple text donations.

If you would like to donate to the American Red Cross for Japan Earthquake Relief, just text REDCROSS to 90999. Each text will provide $10 towards the Red Cross’s humanitarian efforts.

 

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2. Donate via Facebook

 

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The Red Cross has also launched a campaign on Causes to raise at least $25,000 for relief efforts. By logging in to Facebook, you can donate anywhere from $10 to $500 to help Tsunami victims and their families.

As of publishing time, the Causes campaign has raised over $40,000 from over 1,000 donors and 3,000 promoters.

 

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3. Buy Virtual Goods

 

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Virtual sweet potatoes and the Japanese Tsunami may not seem related, but buying digital crops could help children affected by the earthquake.

Zynga, known for its effective social good campaigns, has partnered with Save the Children’s Japan Earthquake Tsunami Emergency Fund to get its users to donate money through the purchase of virtual goods in CityVille, FrontierVille, FarmVille and its other games.

100% of the proceeds from the purchase of sweet potatoes in CityVille, radishes in FarmVille or kobe cows in FrontierVille will go towards Save the Children’s efforts to provide relief in the Pacific. The world’s largest social gaming company is shooting to raise $2 million for relief efforts.

Zynga has raised millions of dollars over the last few years with these types of social good campaigns, most notably for the relief efforts in Haiti.

 

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4. Embed Some Code

 

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If you run a website and want to get your customers or users involved in relief efforts, all you need to do is embed a simple snippet of code.

The Hello Bar places a simple message at the top of your website with just a few lines of code. The service, which is in private beta, has decided to open its doors to anybody willing to help the victims of the crisis in Japan.

Simply sign up with the invite code “helpjapan” and you can quickly get the code snippet you need to embed a customized Hello Bar that will drive donations. Check out our full article for more instructions on how to add the donation bar to the top of your website.

 

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5. “Like” a Facebook Page

 

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The people over at Explore.org are donating $1 for every “Like” of the “Dog Bless You” Facebook page, up to $100,000.

Explore.org founder Charlie Weingarten delivered the challenge at South by Southwest yesterday. “Search and rescue dogs are a critical resource for emergency situations,” he told the audience.

 

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6. Ways to Help on Twitter

 

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Harness the power of your Twitter account to do some good for the people of Japan.

Earlier this morning, Twitter published a blog post detailing ways you can help with the relief efforts. Not only have they updated Japan’s mobile website with the latest information on the disaster, but they have also published a list of hashtags to tweet and/or follow related to the crisis.

Here are some key hashtags to remember:

• #Jishin: focuses around general earthquake information
• #Anpi: a hashtag for the confirmation of the safety of individuals or places
• #Hinan: Evacuation information
• #311care: a hashtag regarding medical information for the victims
• #PrayforJapan: A general hashtag for support and best wishes for victims of the crisis

 

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7. Donate via iTunes

 

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Apple is also dedicating resources to the crisis in Japan. They have created a simple donation page in iTunes [iTunes link] that makes it simple to donate anywhere from $5 to $200 to the Red Cross with just a few clicks.

 

japan earthquake « Fire Earth

 

The Aftermath of Japan’s Megaquake and the Unfolding Nuclear Crisis is Japan’s Worst Calamity since World War II:  Prime Minister Naoto Kan

This Page would be updated throughout today, as new information becomes available.

Japan’s  Nuclear Crisis:

The cooling system has failed at a third nuclear facility in Japan, following the M9.0 Mega Quake near Sendai.

The Tokai Nuclear Plant in Ibaraki prefecture is causing great concern. Two of its three diesel generators used to operate the cooling system have failed. The plant is located about 120km north of Tokyo.

Tokai 1 and 2 Nuclear Power Plants. Click image to enlarge and view licensing details.

Built in 1962, 1 was Japan’s first nuclear power plant. Having generated electricity for about 32 years it was decommission in 1998.  Tokai 2 was built in 1973 and commissioned in 1978,  Japan’s largest at the time with a generating capacity of  1,060 MW.

Meanwhile, a state of emergency has been declared at the Onagawa plant, where radiation readings have exceeded allowed limits, said Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.

Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant is located in  Ishinomaki city, Miyagi Prefecture, and is operated by the Tohoku Electric Power Company.  Click image to enlarge and view licensing details.

The latest declaration is the third to be issued by the agency, with the first two still in force at Fukushima plant Nos 1 and 2.

• At Fukushima Plant No.1, at least two reactors may be experiencing partial meltdown.   As a last option, sea water is being pumped into reactors 1 and 3 to prevent them from total core meltdown.
• On May 12 an explosion said to have been caused by hydrogen buildup tore through the walls of containment building of reactor 1.
• Up to 4 other reactors face the threat of explosion, due to excessive pressure, and possibly meltdown.
• As of 10:00UTC Saturday  May 12,  up to 300 people had received varying degrees of radiation, including 60 students at high school in Fukushima located about 3.5km from Plant No. 1, who were waiting to be evacuated.
• UPDATE: Radiation at Onagawa plant has returned to operating background levels, Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency has announced.
• Up to 170,000 people have been evacuated from a 20-km radii of Fukushima Plants 1 and 2.
• Tens of thousands of people were due to be evacuated from a 20-km radius of  the Tokai plant.

People throughout Japan have been asked tio save electricity. About 1.8 million customers are currently without power.

In Tokyo area there’s a sever shortage of electricity, with only 75 percent of the demand currently being met. [Demand: 41 gigawatt;  supply: 31 gigawatt]

Second Round of Tsunami Warnings

Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA)  issued a new round of Tsunami Warnings for Japan Region at 03:20 JST, Saturday March 12. A Major Tsunami Warning covered the entire eastern seaboards of Honshu and Hokkaido islands.

See below for tsunami map and list of the prefectures under TSUNAMI WARNING.

Source: JMA. Click image to enlarge.

Maximum Tsunami Observation

The following Tsunami Observation Map (NUMBER 64) was issued at 18:05 JST 13 Mar 2011.

The Surviving Victims of the Mega Quake and Tsunami

The surviving victims are well and truly trapped. There are  severe shortages of water, food and fuel, as well as clothes, sanitation and other basic amenities. Large areas have had no electricity sine the Megaquake struck about 70 hours ago. Many people are attempting to leave the disaster zones; however, there are no plains, trains or any other form of transport.  Automobiles are not going anywhere, anytime soon.  There are long lines of vehicles outside gas stations waiting to be filled, some reportedly as long as 10-mile. Many people are sleeping in their car in order not to miss their turn.

Many roads have been destroyed or severely damaged in Miyagi prefecture, as far as in the Tokyo area, in northern Japan, and in the far-northern Iwate prefecture. The toll road highways are restricted to emergency vehicles only, according to reports.

The Aftershocks

As expected, the aftershock, some of them powerful quakes in their own right, continue to rattle the eastern seaboard of Japan’s main island of Honshu.

 

StaffsLive Massive earthquake hits Japan

StaffsLive Massive earthquake hits Japan

 

Satellite image of earthquake Photo: marcbel

By James Hood and Ashley Hodnett: Hundreds of bodies have been found by Japanese police in the north-east city of Sundai.

The earthquake in Japan triggered a 13ft high tsunami which swept boats, cars and buildings miles inland.

The epicentre was 250 miles north-east of Tokyo, in the Pacific ocean.

Most of the Pacific is now on tsunami alert, including Hawaii.

Experts say the 8.9 magnitude earthquake is the largest to hit Japan for decades.

Several large aftershocks measuring up to 6.9  have caused more destruction.

Seismologist Alice Walker, of the British Geological Survey, says more damage could have been done if the epicentre was on land.

She explained: “It’s not the size of the earthquake [that matters], it’s more where the earthquake occured.

“The only problem with this earthquake is; it occured offshore, it was shallow and it was large so it generated a tsunami.

“Many of the deaths that have been reported have been the result of the tsunami.

“The good thing about Japan is that they actually build buildings to withstand earthquakes and many of the buildings have faired very well from the shaking of this earthquake.”

Staffordshire University law student Naoko Adaxchi told StaffsLive her brother lives in Tokyo.

She said: “I spoke to my brother on MSN and he was really scared.

“It [the earthquake] was quite strong.

“He had to walk home but his appartment is fine.”

Have you got any family in Japan?

Have you experienced a tsunami?

 

Factories Close as Power Is Cut in Wake of Japan's Earthquake

Factories Close as Power Is Cut in Wake of Japan's Earthquake

 

By HIROYUKI KACHI And YOSHIO TAKAHASHI

Associated Press

Parents on Saturday view the body of their daughter, which they found in a driving school's courtesy vehicle that was smashed by the tsunami at Yamamoto, northeastern Japan.

Hobbled by Friday's earthquake, Japan's manufacturing sector faced a new challenge from power shortages, which forced closings even at plants that escaped damage last week.

Damage Report

  

As the country grapples with a second nuclear explosion in Fukushima, scheduled power outages are paralyzing operations at Japan's biggest exporters which could disrupt the global supply chain. WSJ's Mariko Sanchanta and Yumiko Ono discuss.

View Full Image

And as Japanese factories that make cars and chips halted operations, that threatened to interrupt some supplies across the globe, at least temporarily.

Japan's auto makers all but shut down production, closing plants that supply not only cars for domestic sale, but also engines and other parts needed by assembly plants around the world. For some models, such as Toyota Motor Corp.'s Prius hybrid, Japan is the only source.

Power Plant Under Pressure

 

View Interactive

See what went wrong at the nuclear plant.

Japan Quake's Effects

View Interactive

See a map of post-earthquake events in Japan, Hawaii and the U.S. West Coast.

Shaky Ground

View Interactive

Colliding plates under earth's surface make Asia Pacific one of the most tectonically active region on earth.

Disastrous Japan Earthquakes

View Slideshow

Associated Press

See a historical gallery of past earthquakes in Japan.

The World's Biggest Earthquakes

View Interactive

Associated Press

A photographer looked over wreckage as smoke rose in the background from burning oil storage tanks at Valdez, Alaska, March 29, 1964.

Japanese authorities said coordinated power outages would begin Monday and last at least several weeks to deal with supply shortages. Prime Minister Naoto Kan said there was a risk of large-scale electrical outages, in large part because the country's nuclear reactor fleet, which supplies 20% of the country's electricity, was crippled.

Plants producing steel, paper and consumer electronics also were closed. And companies coped with disruptions to communication and transportation networks, as well as the need for their employees to learn the fates of missing family members.

Suzuki Motor Corp., Mitsubishi Motors Corp. and Hino Motors Ltd. said Sunday they would halt production at their domestic plants the following day. Toyota, Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. announced similar plans Saturday. Dozens of auto-parts plants also were affected.

Toyota said it would suspend operation at all 12 of its Japanese plants Monday to give employees and parts suppliers time to check on the safety of their families. Toyota said it would determine Monday when to resume operations.

Mazda Motor Corp. suspended production at its four plants in western Japan Monday night and all day Tuesday because of parts shortages.

The interruption in parts production threatened to slow output at Japanese-owned auto factories in other parts of the world.

The quake could also tighten supply of the Toyota Prius hybrid, at least in the short term. A plant that makes parts for the Prius was damaged, dealers briefed by Toyota said. A plant that makes small cars that Toyota exports to the U.S. under the Scion name also was damaged, the dealers said.

Over time, however, many of the auto makers and their suppliers should be able to shift production to plants in the U.S., Europe and other regions. An industry analyst said the quake's impact would be "manageable."

Semiconductor foundries in northern Japan, which was most affected by the earthquake, appeared to suffer limited damage. But many remained closed because of power outages or other problems. Affected companies included Renesas Electronics Corp., Texas Instruments Inc., Freescale Semiconductor Inc. and ON Semiconductor Corp.

Analysts said the biggest impact could be on customers of Renesas. The Tokyo-based company is among the world's largest maker of microcontrollers, which manage operations in cars and many kinds of office and industrial equipment.

A Renesas spokeswoman said the company, which has facilities in northern Japan, was assessing damage but was focused on the safety of its employees. Texas Instruments said chip factories in Miho and Aizu were closed.

In many cases, microcontrollers from one company can be substituted for another, said Len Jelinek, an analyst with IHS iSuppli. But he said auto makers tend to have one or two suppliers for key chips, which aren't readily replaced, and stock little inventory of those components. The closure of some Japanese auto factories could mitigate any shortages of microcontrollers, however, Mr. Jelinek said.

There seemed little likelihood of disruption in supplies of data-storage components known as flash memory—chips that are needed for such products as Apple Inc.'s iPads and iPhones. Toshiba Corp.'s and SanDisk Corp.'s Japanese factories for those components—which account for about a third of global production—are hundreds of miles from where the earthquake struck.

Questions remained about production of displays and their components, however. Factories in Japan primarily make large LCD displays used in television sets, said Sweta Dash, of IHS iSuppli, though she said inventories appear to be sufficient to absorb short interruptions.

Banks and insurers, meanwhile, said they planned to open for business Monday, indicating that the country's financial system is functioning, though J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. was letting employees work from home.

Some transportation disruptions eased. Major airlines resumed flights. So, too, did cargo carriers United Parcel Service Inc. and FedEx Corp., though service to parts of eastern Japan remained spotty. "We will have ground service delays in eastern Japan because of road conditions," said Chris Stanley, a FedEx spokesman.

Companies including auto-parts supplier Robert Bosch GmbH and Volkswagen AG said they were organizing flights for foreign employees who wanted to leave.

The situation at a Radisson hotel near Narita airport illustrated how disruptions in Japan moved to a new phase. The building is structurally sound and full of guests, many of whom were stuck in the country due to flight delays, but was having trouble keeping enough food in stock because of road closures and the diversion of goods to hard-hit areas like Sendai, spokeswoman Molly Biwer said. She predicted supply challenges would mount. The hotel's backup generators would ease the effects of power cuts, but fuel for shuttle buses was running short.

 

Quake Sparks Tech Supply Shortage Concerns

 

HONG KONG—Global technology companies will likely face higher component costs and possible product shortages in the weeks ahead, after disasters in Japan over the past few days have disrupted power, production lines and supply networks.

Components such as memory chips and liquid crystal displays are used in consumer electronics ranging from smartphones to televisions, and a shortage from Japan—which was struck by a massive earthquake and tsunami on Friday followed by troubles at some nuclear power plants—may leave consumer electronics companies scrambling.

A number of Japanese technology manufacturers, including Sony Corp., Panasonic Corp. and Fujitsu Ltd., in recent days announced closures of multiple plants as they assess damages and ahead of major power outages throughout Japan that are expected to last for several weeks.

Japan is home to several memory chip makers, including Elpida Memory Inc. and Toshiba Corp., the world's second-largest NAND flash memory chip producer by revenue after Samsung Electronics Co. of South Korea. The country also accounts for a significant share of components used in liquid-crystal-display panels and related products, including glass and light-emitting diodes.

Toshiba is a key supplier of NAND flash memory to Apple Inc. for use in iPhones and iPad tablets. The market for NAND flash chips has seen strong momentum this year as many global technology firms launch tablets to compete with Apple's popular iPad.

Prices of the widely used 32-gigabit NAND flash chip, typically used in smartphones and tablets to store data, jumped as much as 17.7% in late Asia trade Monday, according to DRAMeXchange, Asia's biggest spot market for chips, reflecting concerns that a global supply shortage could be looming.

"Suppliers are likely to encounter difficulties in getting raw materials supplied and distributed and shipping products out. This is likely to cause some disruption in semiconductor supplies from Japan during the next two weeks," research firm IHS iSuppli said in a note.

Analysts said they expect memory chip and other component prices could rise further in the near term as uncertainties linger about supply, which could push costs higher for global consumer electronics makers.

"We expect phenomenal price swings and large near-term shortages as a result of this earthquake," said Jim Handy, an analyst at Objective Analysis. "Over 40% of the world's NAND flash … are manufactured in Japan. It doesn't take a large production decrease to cause prices to increase dramatically."

IHS iSuppli said companies headquartered in Japan generated $63.3 billion in microchip revenue in 2010, representing 21% of the world-wide market.

Over the weekend Toshiba said a chip plant in the quake-struck Iwate Prefecture had suspended operations while the company was assessing the situation. The company said Monday there appears to be no significant damage to the factory building of the plant, but added that it isn't certain when the factory can resume production.

"We are still carefully examining any possible impact on the production equipment caused by the earthquake. While the effect so far [on the NAND flash memory facilities] is minimal, we will continuously monitor the earthquake impact including the broader supply chain," said spokesman Keisuke Ohmori.

Elpida said in a statement Monday that operations at its Hiroshima plant remain "normal" and no silicon wafers—the material used to produce semiconductors—were scrapped from the earthquake.

Samsung said it doesn't have any manufacturing facilities for key components in Japan, and added that it is monitoring the situation. The company said Friday that the quake in northern Japan affected its semiconductor and liquid crystal display manufacturing sites in South Korea, freezing some production lines for about two hours that day. Samsung said the quake would have little or no further impact on the plant.

Taiwanese contract chip makers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and United Microelectronics Corp. said Monday the earthquake in Japan won't impact their raw wafer supplies in the near term as they have adequate inventories and multiple suppliers.

AU Optronics Corp., Taiwan's biggest LCD supplier, said Saturday it shut its solar-wafer production plant in Sendai, an area hardest hit by Friday's earthquake. A company official said Monday it had no immediate update on the situation.

 

Rush to Fix Quake-Damaged Undersea Cables

 

BEIJING—Asia's major telecom operators scrambled on Monday to eliminate the impact on their operations from damage to several submarine cables following the massive earthquake and resulting tsunami in Japan last Friday.

Many telecom operators were reporting some disruptions in Internet access on Monday, though the partial restoration of service was accomplished by rerouting traffic over undamaged cables and via satellites.

Most international Internet data and voice phone calls are transmitted as pulses of light via the hundreds of undersea fiber optic cables that crisscross the globe. The cables, which can cost hundreds of millions of dollars, are typically owned by

 

In One Hard-Hit Japanese Town, Recovery Begins

SENDAI, Miyagi Prefecture—As the tsunami warnings subsided around Sendai, one of the locations decimated by the giant tidal waves that followed Japan's earthquake, local residents entered recovery mode.

Japan Quake's Effects

View Interactive

See a map of post-earthquake events in Japan, Hawaii and the U.S. West Coast.

Shaky Ground

View Interactive

Colliding plates under earth's surface make Asia Pacific one of the most tectonically active region on earth.

Disastrous Japan Earthquakes

View Slideshow

Associated Press

See a historical gallery of past earthquakes in Japan.

The World's Biggest Earthquakes

View Interactive

Associated Press

A photographer looked over wreckage as smoke rose in the background from burning oil storage tanks at Valdez, Alaska, March 29, 1964.

View Slideshow

Reuters

Some people returned to what was left of their homes on Monday.

Outside Sendai on Monday, Hiromi Fudo waited for hours with his wife and hundreds of others at the Maruhon Cowboy supermarket, hoping to get food because their supply of potable water and non-perishable food for six people was running perilously low. Mr. Fudo's wife was killed by the tsunami.

"My cousin and her child were ok because they were upstairs," he said on Monday, emotionless. "But my aunt got washed away."

Hundreds of cars and large parts of the area surrounding Sendai Airport were submerged under water as the tsunami flooded nearby waterways. Stunned locals stared wide-eyed at the damage and consoled one another in the debris-covered streets.

The rushing water swept up small planes. Sheds had floated away into the streets, inhibiting access to roads. A 16-foot-high tunnel running underneath the airport's runways for about 500 yards was entirely flooded.

Prefectural employees drained the tunnel, and braced for the possibility of finding bodies in the water once they send in divers.

Along the four-lane road leading to the eastern Pacific Ocean coast, which is more than a mile from the airport, there were happy reunions.

"You're alive. I was so worried," said one man, hugging another elderly man, before breaking down in tears. Slightly bemused, the older man who was riding a bicycle and still wearing a one-piece mechanic's jacket from a nearby aviation company said, "An old bastard like me doesn't die so easily."

Shinichi Hayasaka, a 34-year-old mechanic at an aviation maintenance company JAMCO Corp., searched franticly for his station wagon that had been washed away from his office parking lot when the tsunami stuck on Friday afternoon.

"I saw another person's car from JAMCO around here, so I thought it may have carried all the way here," he said. "At the very least, I wanted to get my valuables out of the car."

He said once the earthquake struck about 170 people at the company ran to the roof of the office building. There, they watched the waves of water rush toward them. Mr. Hayasaka and his co-workers spent Friday night sleeping on the third and top floor of the building. Women used the available blankets while the men wrapped themselves in cardboard boxes to stay warm.

After the water subsided a bit on Saturday afternoon, about 24 hours after the earthquake hit, Mr. Hayasaka and his co-workers took the inflatable emergency boats from airplanes and paddled to safety.

Outside the door of on one of the buildings at the Aviation Safety College's Iwanuma Research center, there was a row of tables in the middle of the water from where people had escaped the flooding.

Next to the school, a Japanese Coast Guard helicopter descended onto the roof of its offices near the airport, although it wasn't clear whether they were rescuing stranded staff or brining additional supplies.

One elderly woman, who asked not to be identified, was on a bicycle looking for her daughter who lives in the area near the airport. Looking around the parking lot of convenience store parking lot covered in logs and metal siding from nearby buildings. She said her daughter had not been reachable since the earthquake hit on Friday afternoon.

Resources in Sendai were quickly running out on Sunday. Lines for gasoline were half a mile long. One reporter waited in line for eight hours to buy gasoline, only to be told by attendants that they had run out by the end of the night with hundreds of cars still waiting. Area residents can only purchase a limited amount of gasoline.

"Today it is only 10 liters per car, tomorrow it will be five, after that, we will just have to say we are sorry," said gasoline stand attendant Yutaka Naganuma.

View Full Image

Tempers ran short and there were some raised voices, but no violence and for the most part, people have remained calm and orderly.

Traffic lights are not working in the Sendai area. One middle school-aged boy on a bicycle was hit hard by a car. People on the street covered him in blankets and an ambulance arrived within five minutes.

Tadashi Sato, a 39-year-old employee at a construction materials company, was out surveying the damage at his office. He was at home a few minutes away when the quake struck. About an hour after the quake, Mr. Sato said he went to see how the office had weathered the tsunami and the water level was already chest-high. Riding bicycles, Mr. Sato brought his 6-year-old son Haruto to see the devastation.

"It may sound strange, but I wanted him to see this. I want him to remember what happened to his country," said Mr. Sato. "He doesn't show that he was scared, but he's having nightmares when he is asleep."

 

Japan Nuclear Plant's Troubles Deepen -

 

The explosion took place Monday morning at the No. 3 reactor of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex, the same place where a failure to cool overheated fuel rods at the No. 1 reactor resulted in a similar blast on Saturday. That explosion also damaged a pump used to bring in sea water for added cooling, the government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said at a briefing Monday evening. The agency said the fuel rods at the No. 3 reactor are now fused together.

Monday afternoon, a third reactor at the complex began experiencing similar cooling problems, said chief government spokesman Yukio Edano. Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. is preparing to flood that reactor, known as the No. 2 reactor, with seawater in an attempt to bring the temperature down, he said.

In all three cases, the problems have arisen after levels of water needed to cool reactor fuel rods fell. That exposed the rods and released highly combustible hydrogen gas, which eventually built up in the concrete buildings surrounding each reactor.

So far, the explosions have destroyed those buildings but left the steel containers around each reactor intact, Mr. Edano said. Six people were injured, one seriously, after Monday's explosion, Mr. Edano said. The government said there hasn't been a large increase in radiation following the explosion.

Televisions showed smoke billowing out of the No. 3 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi plant shortly after 11 a.m. local time.

Officials are continuing to struggle to prevent meltdowns at both the No. 1 and No. 3 damaged reactors, saying their fuel rods may have been critically damaged by overheating.

 

Tokyo Faces Energy Cuts, Train Suspensions After the Tsunami, Quake Disaster - Japan Real Time

 

Tokyoites head back to work on Monday as the city tried to edge back to a semblance of normalcy while the northern part of Japan continues to reel from ongoing repercussions from the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear emergency.  As or least, some did: with energy saving a major concern, some firms remained closed and told workers to stay at home.

Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

A policeman speaks to a commuters as others queue waiting for train services to resume at Tokyo’s Chofu station on March 14 as rail services around the capital were disrupted due to energy blackouts.

As Tokyo started its rolling blackouts in a move to save on power, trains service was cut down, upsetting commuters’ hopes to get to work on time. East Japan Railways said that it was cancelling numerous rush-hour trains. A JR spokesman said that the majority of lines were shut and that on average only 20% were running as of early Monday. Tokyo Metro, one of two subway line operators, was running trains with longer gaps than usual.

Morning commutes became a triathlon of sorts for those who ventured a turn on the rail system.

Standing on the side of the Shinagawa station in the central southern part of the city, Tsutomo Takahashi, 49, was resigned. The 49-year-old manager at Misawa Homes, was halfway through his morning commute from port city Yokohama to Shinjuku. The journey had already stretched to an hour, on trains that took the overflow from other cancelled lines. Mr. Takahashi was resting before plunging into the fray again. “As you can see, the number of people is amazing,” he said, pointing to a river of dark-coated commuters, six lanes wide, being herded out of the station behind black and yellow rope. Police in blue yelled out directions to open gates as the station master read out a list of cancelled and delayed trains. “I’m going to wait a bit yet and see,” said Mr. Takahashi.

Associated Press

A station staff seals an electric sign after decision of suspension of train services at a line due to planned blackouts, at JR Shinjuku station in Tokyo March 14.

Those at Sangenjaya station, west of Shibuya, were also stopped in their tracks. They were told at 9:30 am that the wait for a train into central Tokyo would be three hours.

Daiki Yamashita was biding his time in line for a taxi after the trains proved to be too troublesome. The 21-year-old Mr. Yamashita said it took him an hour and a half to get to Shinagawa by train — normally a 40-minute trip – only to become stuck because the train he had to transfer to wasn’t running. “I’m going for a job interview, so I really wanted to get there on time,” Mr. Yamashita said, staring at the ten or so people that still stood in front of him in line. “But I only have five minutes left.”

Some attempted to circumvent the rail chaos, but back-up plans were often foiled as well.

More bicycles, mopeds and walkers than usual were seen on Route 246 stretching between Yokohama and central Tokyo. Buses were overflowing, likely due to one of the major lines into the Western Tokyo rail hub of Shibuya running at much lower capacity than usual. That line, the Denentoshi line, like others, was running at 50% to 70% of normal capacity, according to Tokyu Corporation. Commuters were hoping to make it as far as Shibuya, where subways were running at more normal capacity.

Associated Press

Passengers line up to catch a train during suspension of train services at Yokohama station in Yokohama, near Tokyo March 14.

One male suburban commuter living 30 miles north of central Tokyo said he tried to drive to his office in Tokyo to avoid the train disruptions, but faced problems on the road as well. He decided to head back home after driving half way to the office. ”There is no way. The traffic isn’t moving at all.”

Meantime, gas stations rationing their supply have extended to Tokyo. One Mobil station in the mainly residential Setagaya Ward in western Tokyo began limiting drivers to 20 liters of gas, roughly 5.3 gallons, on Saturday. There were about a half dozen cars lined up Monday morning, and one station further down the street had a sign up saying it had run out of high-octane gas.

A 32-year old male, who commutes by car to work in the northern outskirts of Tokyo in Saitama, spent three hours in line Sunday to fill his Nissan minivan at a neighboring gas station to ensure he had enough juice to get to work Monday morning. Customers here were also limited to pump only 20 liters, said the driver. He noted the gas price remained at normal price points — 141 yen per liter of regular gasoline. As it turned out, his efforts were not immediately necessary: he was told by his delivery company to stay at home today.

Several businesses also attempted to do their part. A booming sound truck woke up the residents and businesses in the hilly Akasaka neighborhood, asking for people’s cooperation in energy conservation. A pharmacy was dimly lit and the spotlights that usually bring out the sparkle in the rows of shimmering cosmetics were turned off. The hum of the heater system was also mum. The store clerk said it was to help save energy, and that conditions are set to remain the same until at least early April.