By Aaron Sheldrick (Reuters) - At the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant north of Tokyo, workers in protective suits are still removing radioactive material from reactors that melted down after an earthquake and tsunami knocked out its power and cooling nearly nine years ago. On an exclusive tour of the plant, spread over 3.5 million square meters (865 acres), Reuters witnessed … [Read more...]
NYK Line’s New Tsunami Alert System Warns Vessels of Impending Danger
We have all heard that tsunamis pass harmlessly beneath ships at sea, and that their true force doesn’t present itself until the seafloor rises to force the wave up and onto land. That is, until we saw this video shot aboard a Japanese Coast Guard ship following the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake... Now, just over two years later, NYK Line says it is launching a … [Read more...]
Fukushima Plant Leaked 120 Tons of Radioactive Water Into Pacific Ocean
How much radioactive waste has leaked into the pacific ocean? Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501) said thousands of gallons of highly radioactive water has leaked from an underground pool at the crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant and may have seeped into the soil. Tepco estimates about 120 tons (32,280 gallons) of radioactive water has escaped, company spokesman … [Read more...]
Hawaiian Fishermen Discover Dangerous Piece of Tsunami Debris
The Hawaiian fishermen were lucky they discovered this massive piece of Japanese tsunami debris when they did, because had it been night, the results could have been disastrous. For the past year and a half, this dock has been circling around in the northern Pacific gyre like a bullet in a game of Russian roulette, and it had finally found itself near the Hawaiian island of … [Read more...]
Japanese Soccer Ball Floats Across North Pacific Following Tsunami, Owner Identified
By Doug Helton, NOAA More than a year and thousands of miles later, a soccer ball that had been washed away during the Japan tsunami, turned up on Middleton Island, in the Gulf of Alaska. Local beachcomber David Baxter found the soccer ball as well as a volleyball with Japanese writing on both of them. Remarkably, both owners been identified. The soccer ball's owner, 16 … [Read more...]