March 18, 2011
Dear all:
This is my quick report from Japan as of 14:00 pm 18th March 2011.
Earthquake-Tsunami direct victims are reportedly at least 17,000 which includes those found dead and reported as missing. I am very concerned about those missing without reporting because many communities were completely washed away without any survivors.
There are 2300+ shelters for 280,000 people in the cold area without sufficient food, fuels and electricity. There are reports of those who are dying in the remote shelters. Many people are living their own home that were severely damaged, I expect about 500,000 are living in those homes again without sufficient food, fuels and electricity.
We are mobilizing all our resources and energy to save their lives. Reportedly more than 15,000 isolated people in Tsunami hit zone were rescued and transferred to those shelters. I sincerely thank many international rescue experts in full slot in the hit zone.
The railroad connection, electricity network, airport, main road and some ports have been reconstructed in these days for rescue work.
The aftershocks are still going on but the Magnitude of those are not exceeding 7 in the past few days.
Another serious challenge we are facing is the Fukushima nuclear reactors. There are 2 nuclear reactor sites, No1 and No2, there are 6 reactors and 2 reactors respectively.
The No. 2 seems like under control now. At No.1 Nuclear Power Plant, which has 6 reactors and a storage of used nuclear rods. At the quake, all reactors in operation were successfully shut down automatically. However, the nuclear rods need to be cooling down after the operation is stopped. Huge Tsunami attack completely damaged the electricity supply for all cooling system for 6 reactors. So far we are struggling against radiation heat generated by nuclear rods which has dried up water that controls the heat generated by the rods in the safe level.
So far, we tried to supply water to the reactors to prevent meltdown not sufficiently successfully. At the same time, we have been working to reconstruct electricity supply for cooling system to rebuild the major cooling function.
All those efforts on site have to be done in the deadly dangerous radiation area, that makes the work extremely difficult. Prevention of meltdown relies on the work of those heroes.
Reactor No.3 uses MOX rod which includes Plutonium, therefore the highest attention is paid to No.3. No.1 & No.2 reactors have also potential meltdown danger. All 6 reactor buildings have pools to store total 4000+ used nuclear rods.
In addition to those reactors, there is a pool for used rods which currently stores 6400 rods. All those core reactors and pools require cooling system in place to be safely controlled.
This is the challenge we are facing in Fukushima as a consequence of Tsunami.
The electricity line to the Fukushima No.1 Plant has been reconstructed today, immediately after the investigation of proper function of the cooling system, I hope, will be in place for all 6 reactors and pools.
All people within 20 km from Fukushima No.1 has evacuated. Many of them were hit by the earthquake, Tsunami and the potential radiation. So far we lost 21 people who require medical care due to evacuation to shelters which did not have sufficient medical system for their survival. People living in radius 30 km from Fukushima No.1. are requested to stay within a building or houses.
At the moment, the government of Japan declares that the areas outside of 30km radius from Fukushima No.1 has no immediate danger. Some of the foreign countries have announced to request not to be inside of 80km radius. We understand that it is a good idea for foreign people who are not familiar with the environment keep more margin than Japanese.
Due to damage of power plants by Tsunami and earthquake including both nuclear and traditional, the power supply in Metropolitan Tokyo caused insufficient supply of electricity which might cause a worst blackout. The government requested to reduce the electricity consumption and scheduled blackout. So far we have managed to prevent unplanned blackout. This causes problems of networking including server-client network through either the internet or 3G.
The blackout cuts electricity for traffic signals and trains; traffic in Tokyo Metropolitan Area sometime became very difficult. We need to think about establishing a backup system in other part of Japan due to shrunk electricity supply for some time.
It is crucial for everybody in Japan to have necessary knowledge for right decision in the right format and keep updated.
Persons with print disabilities and foreign travelers should be provided with most current information as well as basic knowledge for survival such as evacuation plan of the region where they are living and medical & health services in emergency situation. As I described the details, the nuclear threat we are facing might affect the global environment for long time but the first stage protection of individuals are crucial. Children and pregnant mothers must be protected in particular. Literally everybody need to know what is radiation, why it is dangerous, and how to reduce the risk. Resources on basic knowledge to protect ourselves from radiation in accessible DAISY multimedia format including text, voice, video and sign language need to be developed in each language and spread in Japan and around the world as soon as possible.
I wish you to consider global joint effort to disseminate accessible and easy to understand information sources on radiation safety.
Best
Hiroshi
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Hiroshi Kawamura
President, DAISY Consortium
http://www.daisy.org/