8/21/2011 (Video) Nuclear Family

Source: Dateline SBS
Date: 8/21/2011
by: Toshi Maeda


While much of the media’s attention has turned away from events in Japan, millions of people are still feeling the after-effects of March’s devastating earthquake and tsunami.
Japanese video journalist Toshi Maeda gives Dateline an insider’s view of the daily challenges still facing residents, including his own wife and young daughter.

Near the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant, he finds ghost towns, where those remaining struggle with little work, money or food. Close-knit families have been left divided by the disaster as members move elsewhere to try and make a living.

One family that Toshi meets, the Sakuuchis, also don't know how the radiation, at 14 times the normal level, will ultimately affect them and the youngest member of their family, four-year-old Honoka.

Contamination concerns too are affecting agricultural businesses hundreds of kilometres away, and even daily food shopping in Tokyo has become an ordeal… all with a backdrop of discontent over a lack of government transparency and action.
...
For full article and other extras visit the Dateline SBS website here

Editor's Note: Below is a map of the Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant sited in the video as having been shut down and the target of nuclear protesters.
View Live Ustream Radiation Detectors in a larger map

8/1/2011 Strong quake jolts central Japan, no tsunami alert

Source: Reuters
Date: Mon Aug 1, 2011 11:42am EDT
by: Yoko Kubota 
Editing by: Mark Heinrich


(Reuters) - A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.1 jolted central and eastern Japan on Monday, the Japan Meteorological Agency said, but it did not issue a tsunami alert.

The quake, which occurred at 11:58 p.m. (10:58 a.m. EDT), was also felt in Tokyo. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

The focus of the tremor was 20 km (12 miles) below the surface of the earth, off the coast of Shizuoka prefecture, about 200 km west of Tokyo, the Meteorological Agency said.

All reactors at Chubu Electric Power's Hamaoka nuclear power plant in Shizuoka are shut after Prime Minister Naoto Kan called for its closure, citing research showing that the area is at particularly high risk for a major earthquake within the next few decades.

No abnormalities have been reported from the Hamaoka plant, public broadcaster NHK reported, citing the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.

Editor's Note: USGS Report


View Live Ustream Radiation Detectors in a larger map