Snap shot: Developments after major Japan earthquake
TOKYO |
TOKYO (Reuters) - Following are main developments after an 8.9 magnitude earthquake that struck northeast Japan on Friday and set off a tsunami.
- More than 1,800 people likely dead or missing from the quake and tsunami, Kyodo news agency says.
- Kyodo reports 10,000 people in one town unreachable.
* Radiation leaks from a damaged nuclear plant and explosion blows off the roof, but authorities say radiation levels now lessening.
* Around 110,000 evacuated from 20 km (12 mile) radius around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, another 30,000 from 10 km (6 mile) radius around nearby Fukushima Daini plant.
* Up to 160 people may have been exposed to radiation, nuclear safety agency says.
- Nuclear safety agency rates the incident a 4 on the 1 to 7 International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale, less serious than Three Mile Island, which was a 5, and Chernobyl at 7.
- TEPCO plans to fill the leaking reactor with sea water to cool it down and reduce pressure in the unit, Edano says.
- Kyodo says 300,000 people evacuated, 5.5 million without power.
- Quake triggers tsunami up to 10 meters (30 feet), with waves sweeping away homes, crops, vehicles and submerging farmland.
- Bank of Japan will hold policy meeting on Monday and announce decision on same day. The central bank vows to do utmost to ensure financial market stability.
- Toyota Motor Co says it will suspend operations at all 12 factories on Monday.
- Total insured loss could be up to $15 billion, equity analysts covering the industry say.
- Disaster sends oil, metals, and grain prices sliding on fears over its impact on demand, deepening their biggest decline in months; yen rises broadly on risk aversion by Japanese investors and expectations of repatriations by Japan's insurance companies; oil prices slides more than $3 a barrel.
- Tokyo Stock Exchange plans to open for trading as normal on Monday.
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The military industrial syndrome and kinetic sacrifice of civilian lives is the rationalized throwaway acceptable expense in all nuclear plants.
Eventually we will have geothermal and solar power if we want to survive.
Eventually we will have to do away with military budgets in order to have peace, and we will have education and humanist projects replace them.
All energy on earth is solar, even oil and wind and water. There is no other form of energy in quantity on earth. Just solar.
bobby99
http://www.icjt.org/an/tech/jesvet/jesvet.htm
http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf01.html




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