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Russia’s N-facilities under lens A radiation dosimeter indicates 0.6 microsieverts in Shibuya, Tokyo, on Tuesday. — Reuters
Trauma, rebuilding issues haunt Japan
Choppers may pour water on crippled No. 4 reactor
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Strong quake shakes Tokyo region again
Gaddafi forces pound rebels
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Russia’s N-facilities under lens
Novo-Ogaryovo, March 15 Russian officials tried to reassure the population that the threat of contamination from Japan’s nuclear crisis was minimal. Radiation levels rose briefly in Russia’s Far East on Tuesday but stayed well within norms and later fell back, though panicked residents snatched up iodine tablets and the Russian military was put on alert to evacuate people if necessary. “We must be ready for action no matter what happens,” Putin told a meeting of senior officials including Sergei Kiriyenko, the head of Russia’s state nuclear corporation, Rosatom, at his Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow. “I ask the Energy Ministry, the Natural Resources Ministry and Rosatom to analyse the state of the atomic sector and the perspectives for its development within a month and to present the findings to the government,” Putin said. Russian officials have tried to calm fears that Japan is facing a repeat of 1986 Chernobyl disaster in Soviet Ukraine which soured appetite for nuclear power for more than a decade and haunted a generation of Soviet citizens. Almost all of Russia’s 32 working nuclear power reactors are Soviet made though Russia plans to spend billions of dollars over the next decade on building new reactors to reduce reliance on the oil and gas which fuel Russia’s $1.5 trillion economy. Radiation levels in Vladivostok, a city of 600,000 people some 800 km northwest of Japan’s stricken Fukushima nuclear plant, rose to 13 microroentgens an hour at 0400 GMT before falling back to 12 later in the day. Up to 30 microroentgens an hour is considered safe, according to a spokeswoman for the regional emergencies ministry, though pharmacies in Vladivostok said they had run out of iodine, which can protect the thyroid gland from radiation. “It is obvious that they are buying anti-radiation equipment because of the events with Japan’s nuclear station,” a pharmacy salesperson told Reuters. Kiriyenko, who holds sway over most of the former Soviet Union’s vast civilian and military nuclear facilities, said Japan’s nuclear crisis posed little threat to Russia even in the worst case scenario. — Reuters Germany to shut down pre-1980
nuclear plants
Berlin: Germany will shut down all seven of its nuclear power plants that began operating before 1980 at least till June, the government said on Tuesday, leaving open whether they will ever start up again after Japan’s crisis. Chancellor Angela Merkel announced the closures, which will leave only 10 nuclear stations still generating, under a nuclear policy moratorium imposed as Japan faced a potential catastrophe at its Fukushima complex. “Power plants that went into operation before the end of 1980 will ... be shut down for the period of the moratorium,” Merkel told a news conference, adding that the decision would be carried out by government decree as no agreement with the plants’ operators had been reached. The Environment Minister said it was not clear if the reactors to be shut down in the three-month moratorium would remain closed or be reconnected to the grid afterwards.
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Trauma, rebuilding issues haunt Japan
London, March 15 One of the world's richest nations and used to dealing with earthquakes, Japan was as well prepared as any nation could be to respond to such a crisis and has used the huge amount of help offered to bring in overseas experts. So far search and rescue teams and medical units have been spearheading international aid efforts for Japan but hopes of finding more survivors are dwindling. Patrick Fuller, of the Red Cross international humanitarian group, said overseas aid should now look to provide lasting benefits. "People have lost so much, they have lost their homes, they have lost their relatives, so one of the focuses for us is going to be being able to give trauma counselling," he said. — Reuters
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Choppers may pour water on crippled No. 4 reactor
Tokyo: The operator of Japan's earthquake-stricken nuclear power plant may pour water by helicopter to cool a spent-fuel pool in a reactor within two or three days, the plant operator said. Tokyo Electric Power Co may pour the water in the building housing the No.4 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, a company official told a news conference. A blast earlier punctured two holes in the wall of the outer building of the reactor, exposing the nuclear spent fuel pool to the outside air.
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Strong quake shakes Tokyo region again
Tokyo: A strong quake was felt late today in Tokyo, shaking buildings in Japan's capital four days after a massive tremor sparked a devastating tsunami that ravaged the country's northeast coast. The Japan Meteorological Agency put the magnitude of the quake at 6.0.The epicentre was located in Shizuoka prefecture, about 120 kilometres southwest of the capital, and near Mount Fuji, which is prone to earthquakes The quake occured at a relatively shallow depth of 10 km.
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Gaddafi forces pound rebels
Cairo/Paris, March 15 Following a pattern, Gaddafi’s forces targeted Ajdabiyah, the last town before the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, with air strikes, artillery attacks and quick ground assaults. “Surrender or flee” was the tough message to the rebels by the 68-year-old Libyan leader as his forces began the final push to wrest back Benghazi and Tobruk. But the outgunned rebels have marshalled all their forces numbering up to 10,000 for the defence of the twin major ports of Benghazi and Tobruk, which provide Libya with crucial road links to Egypt, Al-Jazeera reported. In Paris, Foreign Ministers of G-8 nations failed to arrive at a consensus on clamping a ‘no fly zone over Libya which would enable US and NATO war planes to ground Gaddafi’s air power, and the decision on this was left to the UN Security Council. A closing statement read out by French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe made no mention of French and British proposal for a ‘no-fly’ zone, an issue dealt with caution by the US, Russia and the European Union. Gaddafi, in an interview to an Italian daily, described the rebellion against his 41-year rule as a “lost cause” and also said he felt betrayed by his friends in Europe. — PTI Bahrain under emergency rule
Manama: Bahrain’s king declared a three-month state of emergency on Tuesday as Iran condemned a military intervention by Gulf troops to help put down Shiite-led unrest in the Sunni-ruled kingdom. The financial district of Manama was deserted, shops and malls were shuttered and Sunni and Shiite vigilantes armed with metal pipes and clubs were in the streets after hundreds of troops rolled into Bahrain from Saudi Arabia. Armoured troops from Saudi Arabia and the UAE had earlier rolled across the causeway from Saudi’s Eastern Province to help Manama deal with protests which have shaken the kingdom for the past month. Saudi Arabia’s staunchl Sunni government said it had responded to a call for help from its neighbour under a mutual defence pact of the six-country Gulf Cooperation Council. But Iran’s foreign ministry described the intervention as unacceptable and said it would complicate the already volatile situation.
— AFP
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facilities and a review of plans to develop atomic power on Tuesday as Japan grappled with the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.
