Japan TEPCO workers enter reactor building

Workers briefly entered a reactor building at Japan's stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant Wednesday to measure radiation levels and check for damage, the operator said. The investigation was part of work by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) to bring reactors at the complex to a stable cold shutdown by January at the latest. Four employees in protective suits and with oxygen tanks on their backs entered the building housing reactor two and left 14 minutes later, TEPCO said. It was the first time anyone had gone in the reactor two building since an explosion on March 15.

A pair of remote-controlled robots entered in April but high humidity clouded their lenses and prevented them from measuring radiation.

One Big Obstacle To Japan's Recovery? Trash

Last month's earthquake and tsunami have left Japan with a massive trash problem. In many parts of the country's affected coastline, there's literally nothing left but mud and debris.

On the outskirts of the seaside city of Kesennuma, what was once a baseball field and park has been turned into at least two football fields' worth of garbage, piled 15 feet high. Bulldozers are going through it all. There are aluminum siding, school desks, bits of carpet. The stench can be detected from blocks away — it smells a little bit like rotting fish.

This is but a tiny fraction of Japan's tsunami-related debris. The disasters made junkyards of entire cities and created the equivalent of 16 years' worth of waste.

There is, of course, a need to rebuild critical infrastructure in the nation. But Kazuyuki Akaishi — an expert at the Japan Research Institute consultancy — says trash is the next big obstacle to recovery.

It isn't just the volume, which he estimates will total 100 million tons. The debris is heavy with seawater. It also contains an unknown amount of asbestos and radioactive waste — materials that could be dangerous, complicated and, therefore, more costly to clean up.

Refusing a Russian Hospital Ship

Since March 24, I have organized a group of online friends to help facilitate the deployment of a Russian military hospital ship in port near my hometown of Vladivostok, Russia. In its initial response to our group, the Japanese Foreign Ministry cited concerns about visas, the need for translators and the damage to Sendai-area ports as a basis for rejecting the idea.

To a casual observer, these issues might not seem like potential spoilers. Surely, translators could, and still can, be found. As for the functionality of the ports, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines has announced that its ocean cruise ship, Fuji Maru, has started visiting the Tohoku region. If the ports are so dysfunctional, why does the Japanese government allow these trips?

IHT expresses regret over cartoon

(Japan Times, Apr 27)

The International Herald Tribune expressed its regret Monday over publishing a cartoon in which Snow White, carrying a newspaper with the headline "Japan nuclear radiation," asks an old woman offering an apple if she comes from Japan. In its Editors' Note section, the newspaper owned by New York Times Co. said the cartoon published Thursday "was offensive to the Japanese and others" and that "its selection was a lapse in judgment, which we regret." The Japanese Consulate General in New York lodged a protest Thursday with the New York Times for publishing the cartoon, saying it may stir up unfounded anxieties over the safety of food from Japan.

TEPCO says water 'may' be leaking from Fukushima spent fuel pool

The operator of the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says water may be leaking from the spent fuel pool of the No. 4 reactor. More than 1,500 spent fuel rods are stored in the pool, the largest number at the site.