Workers trying to pump radioactive water from Japan reactors

Japanese engineers were frantically attempting on Saturday to pump out puddles of radioactive water at the earthquake-crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant after it injured three workers and delayed efforts to cool reactors to safe levels.


Underscoring growing international qualms about nuclear power raised by the killer earthquake and tsunami in northeast Japan two weeks ago, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said it was time to reassess the international atomic safety regime.



Radioactive water has been found in buildings of three of the six reactors at the power complex 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo. On Thursday, three workers sustained burns at reactor No. 3 after being exposed to radiation levels 10,000 times higher than usually found in a reactor.


"Bailing out accumulated water from the turbine housing units before radiation levels rise further is becoming very important," said Japan Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency senior official Hidehiko Nishiyama.


The 9.0 magnitude quake and giant waves on March 11 left more than 10,000 people dead and 17,000 missing.


Despite such a shocking toll, much attention since the disaster has been on the possibility of a catastrophic meltdown at Fukushima.


With elevated radiation levels around the plant triggering fears across the nation, storage of the contaminated water has to be handled carefully.


"We are working out ways of safely bailing out the water so that it does not get out into the environment, and we are making preparations," Nishiyama said.


He initially said the high radiation reading meant there could be damage to the reactor, but he later said it could be from venting operations to release pressure or water leakage from pipes or valves.


"There is no data suggesting a crack," he said.


Nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Friday there had not been much change in the crisis over the previous 24 hours.


"Some positive trends are continuing but there remain areas of uncertainty that are of serious concern," agency official Graham Andrew said in Vienna, adding the high radiation could be coming from steam.


On Friday, Nishiyama chided plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) for not following safety procedures inside the turbine building. Local media also criticized TEPCO, which has a poor safety record.


"The people on the spot have a strong sense of mission and may be trying to rush," the Nikkei business paper said. "But if the work is done hastily, it puts lives at risk and in the end, will delay the repairs. This kind of accident ought to have been avoidable by proceeding with the work cautiously."


Source; Reuters

Will earthquake triggered Japanese tsunami will affect Sri lanka

Will earthquake triggered Japanease tsunami will affect Sri lanka ?

Sri Lankan Meteorological Department stated that Sri Lanka is under no threat with regard to the tsunami warnings.

Massive 8.9 quake, tsunamis hits Coastal Region of Japan !

An 8.9-magnitude earthquake hit northern Japan on Friday, triggering tsunamis and sending a massive body of water filled with debris that included boats and houses inching toward highways.


The epicenter was 373 kilometers (231 miles) away from the capital, Tokyo, the United States Geological Survey said. But residents there felt the tremors.


The quake rattled buildings and toppled cars off bridges and into waters underneath. Waves of debris flowed like lava across farmland, pushing boats, houses and trailers toward highways.


Tsunami warnings issued for other countries


In Tokyo, crowds gathered in the streets and tried to reach relatives via cell phone.


Scenes inside office buildings showed papers strewn all over the floor and people clinging onto seats and desks.


Such a large earthquake at such a shallow depth creates a lot of energy, said Shenza Chen of the U.S. Geological Survey.


It caused a power outage in about 4 million homes in Tokyo and surrounding areas.
A tsunami in the Pacific was moving closer to other shorelines in other countries, said CNN meteorologist Ivan Cabrera.


It triggered tsunami warnings for various countries, including Japan and Russia, the National Weather Service said.


"Earthquakes of this size are known to generate tsunamis potentially dangerous to coasts outside the source region," it said.


"Based on all available data a tsunami may have been generated by this earthquake that could be destructive on coastal areas even far from the epicenter."


The quake was the latest in a series in the region this week.


Early Thursday, an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.3 struck off the coast of Honshu.


A day earlier, a 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck off of Honshu, the country's meteorological agency said.


The largest recorded quake took place in Chile on May 22, 1960, with a magnitude of 9.5, the USGS said.


- Japan Tsunami Earthquake Videos - 

Strong earthquake hits Japan ! - 7.2 magnitude and No casualties So far !

A major 7.2-magnitude quake has hit Japan, swaying buildings in Tokyo and triggering a tsunami warning, but causing no reported casualties or damage.


The quake struck late on Wednesday morning, about 10km below the Pacific seafloor. The epicentre was about 160km offshore and 430km northeast of Tokyo.


The Japan meteorological agency issued a tsunami warning for the east coast of the main Honshu island, where a 24-inch wave was first reported at Ofunato port half an hour after the quake.


Police said they had received no reports of casualties from the quake, or from a 5.6-magnitude aftershock that struck nearby about 12 minutes later.


Tokyo Electric and Tohoku Electric, nuclear power operators, confirmed that the quake did not damage their atomic plants and prefectures in Aomori, Miyagi and Fukushima."


"First I felt a jolt that pushed from underneath, then a big sideways tremor that lasted for about 20 seconds," Yoshiyuki Sato, an official at Kurihara City in Miyagi prefecture, about 300km northeast of Tokyo, told the Reuters news agency.


Some Shinkansen bullet trains in the region automatically stopped when the  quake hit but then resumed their services, railway operators said.


Local residents in the rural seaside areas where the quake was felt most strongly reported no immediate damage from the quake.


"It continued for about 30 seconds, but I don't see anything that looks different," Yoshio Hoshi, a retired fisherman in Miyagi prefecture, said.


Japan lies on the 'Ring of Fire'- an arc of earthquake and volcanic zones that stretches around the Pacific Rim and where about 90 per cent of theworld's quakes occur.


source ; aljazeera