International recovery efforts continue in Japan - 06 May 2011
International recovery efforts continue in Japan. On Monday, May 2, Japan's Parliament passed an emergency US$49 billion relief budget for reconstruction in the northeastern region devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Japan's National Police Agency has confirmed over 14,700 fatalities, with more than 10,000 listed as missing and an unknown number of others still unaccounted for. Nearly two months after the twin disasters, about 126,000 survivors are still in temporary shelters across the country, with many elderly falling ill due to their prolonged stays. On Tuesday, Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency Director General Nobuaki Terasaka visited Fukushima Prefecture for the first time since March 11, where he apologized to prefectural Governor Yuhei Sato and the people of Fukushima for the ongoing nuclear crisis. On Wednesday, TEPCO's president Masataka Shimizu likewise apologized again to communities affected by nuclear emergency.
As workers at the Fukushima Daiichi complex continue their efforts to control radiation leakage and repair vital cooling systems, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) announced the construction of a tent that will provide a protective buffer zone to halt radioactive material from seeping into the environment as workers go in and out of the buildings to make critical cooling system repairs. Fans and filters have also been installed at reactor No. 1 to reduce interior radiation to one-twentieth of its current levels. A team entered the building for the first time since March 11 on Thursday.
In a study conducted in Tokyo and four other prefectures, including Fukushima and neighboring Ibaraki, seven of 23 women were found to have trace levels of radioactive substances in their breast milk. On Tuesday, TEPCO announced that radiation measurements from the Pacific seabed near the facility were 100 to 1,000 times the normal level. After conducting tests on a ship from South Korea that had been in the vicinity of the damaged plant, Chilean officials found traces of radioactivity in 20 used cars aboard. Higher-than-normal levels of radioactive cesium were also detected at a port in Belgium on a container that had arrived from Japan.
As the nuclear crisis continues, the government has increased the permissible annual radiation amount for schoolchildren in Fukushima from 1 to 20 millisieverts per year, in order to ensure the education of hundreds of thousands. However, the move caused protests from parents, with a senior adviser on the nuclear crisis also resigning, saying that the new limit is unacceptably high.
On Monday in central Japan, the Fukui prefectural government announced that a nuclear power plant in Tsuruga was believed to be leaking radioactive materials from fuel rods, as an increase in density of the toxic substances in coolant water had been observed. As safety concerns over nuclear plants continue to rise, NHK news agency reports that about 400 shareholders of TEPCO, Kansai Electric, Chugoku Electric, Kyushu Electric, and Tohoku Electric companies in the nation submitted a proposal for the utilities to decommission their nuclear power plants. In Formosa (Taiwan), over 13,000 people participated in demonstrations against the nuclear power industry on Saturday, urging their government to work on developing renewable energy sources.
Our thankfulness for the helpful initiatives of the Japanese and international governments, officials, and the continued brave efforts of the nuclear plant personnel. With the grace of the Divine, we pray for the protection of Japan and the world as humanity works to minimize such disasters by adopting more benevolent, uplifting lifestyles.