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Earthquake in Japan

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Earthquake in Japan Empty Earthquake in Japan

Post by Christ is My Life! Thu Jul 19, 2007 1:04 am

Earthquake in Japan Reportedly Tipped Over Drums of Nuclear
Waste

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

July 17, 2007


KASHIWAZAKI, Japan (AP) -- A strong earthquake shook Japan's
northwest coast Monday, setting off a fire at the world's
most powerful nuclear power plant and causing a reactor to
spill radioactive water into the sea -- an accident not
reported to the public for hours.

On Tuesday, authorities were investigating a new possible
radioactive leak at the plant, Kyodo News agency reported. A
spokesman at the plant confirmed that barrels of low-level
nuclear waste had tipped over but he could not give further
details, such as whether there had been a leak.

The temblor killed at least nine people and injured more
than 1,000 as it toppled hundreds of wooden homes and tore
3-foot-wide fissures in the ground. Highways and bridges
buckled, leaving officials struggling to get emergency
supplies into the region.

The Japanese Meteorological Agency put the magnitude at 6.8,
while the U.S. Geological Survey said it was 6.6.

Nearly 13,000 people crowded evacuation centers Tuesday amid
fears of mudslides and aftershocks. Japan's weather agency
issued heavy rain, flooding and lightning warnings for the
area, officials said. Tens of thousands of homes lost water
and power.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki said Tuesday that
officials were still assessing the damage. ''The most
important thing is to take necessary measures quickly and
respond to the needs of the victims,'' he said.

Kyodo, citing officials in the city of Kashiwazaki, reported
that about 100 drums had fallen over at the Kashiwazaki
Kariwa nuclear power plant and that the accident was
discovered Tuesday, a day after the quake.

Officials said a series of stacked drums containing
low-level nuclear waste fell over during the quake and some
of the lids were found open, Kyodo said.

''We're currently investigating the situation and plan to
deal with it as smoothly as possible,'' said Kensuke
Takeuchi, a spokesman at the plant who refused to offer
further comment.

City officials were not immediately available for comment.

The quake had triggered a fire in an electrical transformer
and also caused a leak of radioactive water at the plant,
the world's largest in terms of electricity output.

The leak was not announced until late Monday, about 12 hours
after the quake. That fed fresh concerns about the safety of
Japan's 55 nuclear reactors, which supply 30 percent of the
quake-prone country's electricity and have suffered a long
string of accidents and cover-ups.

About 315 gallons of slightly radioactive water apparently
spilled from a tank at one of the sprawling power complex's
seven reactors and entered a pipe that flushed it into the
sea, said Jun Oshima, an executive at Tokyo Electric Power
Co. He said it was not clear whether the tank was damaged or
the water simply spilled out.

Officials said there was no ''significant change'' in the
seawater near the plant, which is about 160 miles northwest
of Tokyo. ''The radioactivity is one-billionth of the legal
limit,'' Oshima said of the leaked water.

Eliot Brenner, a spokesman for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission in Washington, said the agency told Japan's
government it was ready to provide assistance if needed but
had not received any request for help.

Brenner said he didn't have details about the incident. But
a U.S. nuclear industry official, who spoke on condition of
anonymity because the incident was a Japanese affair, said
the transformer fire and water leak occurred in systems
linked to different reactors.

Nine people in their 70s and 80s -- six women and three men
-- died, most of them crushed by collapsing buildings, the
Kyodo news agency said early Tuesday. One person was still
missing, officials said.

Kyodo reported more than 1,000 people were hurt, with
injuries including broken bones, cuts and bruises. ''I got
so dizzy that I could barely stand up,'' said Kazuaki
Kitagami, a worker at a 7-Eleven convenience store in
Kashiwazaki, the hardest-hit city. ''The jolt came violently
from just below the ground.''

In Kashiwazaki, the quake reduced many older buildings to
piles of lumber. Officials said Tuesday that a total of 342
houses were destroyed and another 469 damaged.

''The damage is more than we had imagined,'' said
Kashiwazaki Mayor Hiroshi Aida. ''We want to recover water
first as soon as possible so more people can return home.''

The area was plagued by aftershocks, but there were no
immediate reports of additional damage or casualties. Near
midnight, Japan's Meteorological Agency said a 6.6-magnitude
quake hit off the west coast, shaking wide areas of Japan,
but it was unrelated to the Niigata quake to the north and
there were no immediate reports of damage.

First word of trouble at the Kashiwazaki Kariwa power plant
was a fire that broke out at an electrical transformer. All
the reactors were either already shut down or automatically
switched off by the quake. The blaze was extinguished by
early afternoon, and the power company announced there was
no damage to the reactor and no release of radioactivity.

But in the evening, the company released a statement
revealing the leak of radioactive water, saying it had taken
all day to confirm details of the accident. The delay raised
suspicions among environmentalists, who oppose the
government's plan to build more reactors.

''The leak itself doesn't sound significant ... but the fact
that it went unreported is a concern,'' said Michael
Mariotte at the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, a
Maryland-based networking center for environmental
activists. ''When a company begins by denying a problem, it
makes you wonder if there's another shoe to drop.''

The accident comes as the government is discussing improving
the earthquake resistance of such plants, said Aileen Mioko
Smith of the Japan-based environmentalist group Green
Action.

The fire indicated that some facilities at nuclear power
plants, such as electrical transformers, were built to lower
quake-resistance levels than other equipment, like reactor
cores, she said.

''That's the Achilles' heel of nuclear power plants,'' said
Mioko Smith, who pointed out that it took plant workers two
hours to put out the transformer fire.

Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Akira Amari told the
power company early Tuesday not to resume plant operations
before making a thorough safety check, Kyodo reported.

The quake, which hit at 10:13 a.m., was centered off the
coast of Niigata. The tremor made buildings sway in the
capital 160 miles away and was also felt in northern and
central Japan. Tsunami warnings were issued, but the
resulting waves were too small to cause any damage.

As rescue crews dug through the rubble for survivors or more
dead, focus shifted to getting food and water to evacuation
centers. Many roads were impassable, though bullet train
service to nearby Niigata resumed late Monday.

About 50,000 homes in the quake zone were without water and
35,000 were without gas as of Tuesday morning, local
official Mitsugu Abe said. About 27,000 households were
without power.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, whose ruling party is trailing in
the polls heading into July 29 parliamentary elections,
interrupted a campaign stop in southern Japan to go to the
damaged area.

''Many people told me they want to return to their normal
lives as quickly as possible,'' the prime minister told
reporters in Kashiwazaki. ''The government will make every
effort to help with recovery.''

Japan sits atop four tectonic plates and is one of the
world's most earthquake-prone countries.

In October 2004, a magnitude-6.8 earthquake hit Niigata,
killing 40 people and damaging more than 6,000 homes. It was
the deadliest to hit Japan since 1995, when a magnitude-7.2
quake killed 6,433 people in the western city of Kobe.

The last major quake to hit Tokyo killed some 142,000 people
in 1923, and experts say the capital has a 90 percent chance
of suffering a major quake in the next 50 years.
Christ is My Life!
Christ is My Life!
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Earthquake in Japan Empty Re: Earthquake in Japan

Post by Christ is My Life! Sun Aug 19, 2007 9:10 pm

Upon thinking about how many earthquakes are happening recently, as we are forwarned in the bible.....I found this link. It is quite an interesting read.
Earthquakes and the Bible
Christ is My Life!
Christ is My Life!
Administrator
Administrator

Female Number of posts : 895
Age : 54
Location : Somewhere between here and there...and praying.
Humor : yup, I have some!
Registration date : 2007-05-18

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