Showing posts with label FUKUSHIMA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FUKUSHIMA. Show all posts

Apr 25, 2011


Chernobyl nuclear disaster: Ukraine marks anniversary

A girl visits at a memorial dedicated to firefighters and workers who died after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster during a night service near the Chernobyl plant in the city of Slavutych, Ukraine - 25 April 2011A number of workers died trying to contain the radiation leak after the explosion at Chernobyl

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Ukraine is marking the 25th anniversary of the world's worst nuclear accident - at the Chernobyl power plant.
An explosion at one of the plant's reactors sent a plume of radiation across Europe and killed at least 30 people in its immediate aftermath.
A disputed number of others died later from radiation-related illnesses.
The anniversary comes amid renewed global protest over nuclear power and as Japan struggles to contain radiation leaks at its crippled Fukushima plant.
It was on 26 April 1986 that Number Four reactor at Chernobyl, which was then in the Soviet Union, exploded.
The accident forced the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people from their homes in Ukraine, western Russia and Belarus.
There is still a 30km (19 miles) exclusion zone around the plant.
Soviet engineers encased the damaged reactor in a temporary concrete casing to limit the radiation but a new shield is needed.
A donors conference in Kiev, Ukraine, last week raised 550m euros (£486m; $798m) of the 740m euros needed to build a new shelter and a storage facility for spent fuel.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, file picRussian President Dmitry Medvedev is visiting Chernobyl on Tuesday
Soviet officials held off reporting the accident for several days.
The Chernobyl anniversary comes less than two months after the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan was badly damaged by an earthquake and tsunami, renewing concerns about the safety of nuclear power generation.
The operators of the Fukushima plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co, have also come under fire for not quickly disclosing information on radiation leaks from the plant.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said there must be greater transparency in nuclear emergencies.
"I think that our modern states must see the main lesson of what happened at Chernobyl and the most recent Japanese tragedy as the necessity to tell people the truth," he told survivors of the clean-up effort at a meeting in the Kremlin.
He is to visit Chernobyl on Tuesday, as is Ukraine's Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych.
Mr Yanukovich and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill were attending a candle-lighting ceremony in Kiev on Monday night before travelling to Chernobyl.
'Die-in'
On Monday, thousands of people in France and Germany staged protests calling for an end to nuclear power.
Marches were held on several river bridges between France and Germany over the Rhine while there were further protests at German nuclear plants.
Anti-nuclear protest on Pont de l'Europe over Rhine between France and Germany - 25 April 2011Protesters on Monday demanded France and Germany shut nuclear power stations
One of the main protests in Europe took place over the Pont de l'Europe, linking France and Germany over the Rhine between Strasbourg and Kehl.
People waved banners with anti-nuclear slogans and chanted: "Chernobyl, Fukushima, never again!"
As a siren wailed, the protesters threw flowers on to the Rhine and lay down on the pavement of the bridge in what they termed a symbolic "die-in".
Meanwhile in India, security has been tightened around Jaitapur, where protesters are planning to march on the site of a planned six-reactor nuclear power plant.
The campaign against the power station, on the west coast of India, has gained momentum since the disaster at Fukushima.
Are you in Ukraine? Are you taking part in events to mark the Chernobyl anniversary? Send us your comments and experiences
Send your pictures and videos to yourpics@bbc.co.uk or text them to61124 (UK) or +44 7725 100 100 (International). If you have a large file you can upload here.
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Apr 22, 2011

Japan earmarks first $50 billion for post-quake rebuild

Stocks

 
Tokyo Electric Power Co Inc
9501.T
¥404
-19.00-4.49%
04/22/2011
1 / 16
Main Image
By Tetsushi Kajimoto and Linda Sieg
TOKYO | Fri Apr 22, 2011 10:17pm EDT
(Reuters) - Japan's cabinet approved on Friday almost $50 billion of spending for post-earthquake rebuilding, a downpayment on the country's biggest public works effort in six decades.
The emergency budget of 4 trillion yen ($48.5 billion), which is likely be followed by more reconstruction spending packages, is still dwarfed by the overall cost of damages caused by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, estimated at $300 billion.
"With this budget, we are taking one step forward toward reconstruction ... and toward restarting the economy," Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda told reporters after a cabinet meeting.
Unpopular Prime Minister Naoto Kan, under fire for his handling of the crisis, said Japan would have to issue fresh government bonds to fund extra budgets to come, and suggested he would stay on to oversee the process.
"I feel it was my destiny to be prime minister when the disasters and nuclear accident took place," Kan told a news conference.
"I want to work for reconstruction and rebuilding, and present an outline to overcome these two crises. To have that vision in sight is my heartfelt desire as a politician."
Financing the next packages will be much tougher, as they are likely to involve a mix of taxes as well as borrowing in the bond market, which could strain Japan's debt-laden economy.
If Kan is unable to steer those laws through parliament, he may be forced to step down, analysts say.
The magnitude 9.0 earthquake and 15-meter (50-ft) tsunami that followed caused Japan's gravest crisis since World War Two, killing up to 28,000 people and destroying tens of thousands of homes.
It also smashed a nuclear power plant which began leaking radiation, a situation the plant's operator says could take all year to bring under control.
The budget will be submitted to parliament next week and is expected to be enacted in May.
"CAUSED GREAT TROUBLE"
Prime Minister Kan, who has been accused by opposition politicians, his own party and quake survivors of failing to take command of the response to the triple disaster, has said the need to rebuild is an opportunity for national "rebirth."
A Jiji news agency opinion poll showed Kan's support rate stood at 20.5 percent, up a scant 1.6 points from the previous month, with more than three out of four voters saying he had exercised little or no leadership over the nuclear crisis.
About 57 percent said they were supportive of a tax rise to finance reconstruction compared with 38.6 percent who were not.
In a Reuters poll of retail investors released on Friday, 83 percent of those surveyed said they disapproved or strongly disapproved of the administration's handling of the crisis.
As well as trying to rebuild the ruined northeast of the country, Japan also has to contend with the world's worst nuclear crisis since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, the wrecking of the Fukushima Daiichi plant, 240 km (150 miles) from Tokyo.
Radiation spilled out from the facility after a hydrogen explosion, and in their battle to cool melting fuel rods, engineers pumped radioactive water into the Pacific, a move that worried Japan's neighbors about the spread of contamination.
Masataka Shimizu, the much-criticised president of plant operator Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), visited an evacuation center for the first time since the disaster struck, kneeling and bowing deeply to the evacuees.
"I want to work hard so that you can go home," he said. Mostly subdued evacuees pleaded with him to bring the crisis to an end so they could go home. "I want you to act as if it had happened to your own family," said one man.
Earlier, dressed in blue work clothes, Shimizu apologized to Fukushima's regional governor, Yuhei Sato.
"I apologize from the bottom of my heart for the great trouble caused to many people in society," he said.
Shimizu's company has been accused of downplaying the dangers and ignoring warnings about the risk of a quake and tsunami striking the plant, as well as reacting poorly to the damage.
Japan said this week it would ban anyone entering a 20-km (12-mile) evacuation zone around the plant.
(Additional reporting by Chisa Fujioka and Kazunori Takada; Writing by Daniel Magnowski; Editing by Robert Birsel)
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Japan earmarks first $50 billion for post-quake rebuild

Stocks

 
Tokyo Electric Power Co Inc
9501.T
¥404
-19.00-4.49%
04/22/2011
Japan keeps bond promise, for now (01:32) Report
By Tetsushi Kajimoto and Linda Sieg
TOKYO | Fri Apr 22, 2011 9:39am EDT
(Reuters) - Japan's cabinet approved on Friday almost $50 billion of spending for post-earthquake rebuilding, a downpayment on the country's biggest public works effort in six decades.
The emergency budget of 4 trillion yen ($48.5 billion), which is likely be followed by more reconstruction spending packages, is still dwarfed by the overall cost of damages caused by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, estimated at $300 billion.
"With this budget, we are taking one step forward toward reconstruction ... and toward restarting the economy," Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda told reporters after a cabinet meeting.
Unpopular Prime Minister Naoto Kan, under fire for his handling of the crisis, said Japan would have to issue fresh government bonds to fund extra budgets to come, and suggested he would stay on to oversee the process.
"I feel it was my destiny to be prime minister when the disasters and nuclear accident took place," Kan told a news conference.
"I want to work for reconstruction and rebuilding, and present an outline to overcome these two crises. To have that vision in sight is my heartfelt desire as a politician."
Financing the next packages will be much tougher, as they are likely to involve a mix of taxes as well as borrowing in the bond market, which could strain Japan's debt-laden economy.
If Kan is unable to steer those laws through parliament, he may be forced to step down, analysts say.
The magnitude 9.0 earthquake and 15-meter (50-ft) tsunami that followed caused Japan's gravest crisis since World War Two, killing up to 28,000 people and destroying tens of thousands of homes.
It also smashed a nuclear power plant which began leaking radiation, a situation the plant's operator says could take all year to bring under control.
The budget will be submitted to parliament next week and is expected to be enacted in May.
"CAUSED GREAT TROUBLE"
Prime Minister Kan, who has been accused by opposition politicians, his own party and quake survivors of failing to take command of the response to the triple disaster, has said the need to rebuild is an opportunity for national "rebirth."
A Jiji news agency opinion poll showed Kan's support rate stood at 20.5 percent, up a scant 1.6 points from the previous month, with more than three out of four voters saying he had exercised little or no leadership over the nuclear crisis.
About 57 percent said they were supportive of a tax rise to finance reconstruction compared with 38.6 percent who were not.
In a Reuters poll of retail investors released on Friday, 83 percent of those surveyed said they disapproved or strongly disapproved of the administration's handling of the crisis.
As well as trying to rebuild the ruined northeast of the country, Japan also has to contend with the world's worst nuclear crisis since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, the wrecking of the Fukushima Daiichi plant, 240 km (150 miles) from Tokyo.
Radiation spilled out from the facility after a hydrogen explosion, and in their battle to cool melting fuel rods, engineers pumped radioactive water into the Pacific, a move that worried Japan's neighbors about the spread of contamination.
Masataka Shimizu, the much-criticised president of plant operator Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), visited an evacuation center for the first time since the disaster struck, kneeling and bowing deeply to the evacuees.
"I want to work hard so that you can go home," he said. Mostly subdued evacuees pleaded with him to bring the crisis to an end so they could go home. "I want you to act as if it had happened to your own family," said one man.
Earlier, dressed in blue work clothes, Shimizu apologized to Fukushima's regional governor, Yuhei Sato.
"I apologize from the bottom of my heart for the great trouble caused to many people in society," he said.
Shimizu's company has been accused of downplaying the dangers and ignoring warnings about the risk of a quake and tsunami striking the plant, as well as reacting poorly to the damage.
Japan said this week it would ban anyone entering a 20-km (12-mile) evacuation zone around the plant.
(Additional reporting by Chisa Fujioka and Kazunori Takada; Writing by Daniel Magnowski; Editing by Robert Birsel)
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