Anyone in Japan? Tsunami alert - any more news ? PLEASE

[RatherBeOnThePiste]

DH who gets these things has had a tsunami alert for Japan. Does anyone have any more info? Itsjust breaking news about the massive earthquake at the moment.

Thanks, TanteRose...

I've stopped telling people we're still planning on going: the looks on faces and the lengths to which I'm having to go to explain our reasons are just not worth it!

At this rate, I think we'll be taking a "last-minute break" somewhere next week!

Yes it'll be lovely up there. Are you going with Club Med??

V envious of trip to Hokkaido. Maybe you should print out the British Embassy briefing above, plus a map of Japan showing distance from Fukushima to Hokkaido (over 600km), to explain why there is no need for you to change your plans. But if some people are determined to panic, no amount of fact and reason will stop them...

I'm also still planning to go ahead with a trip to Japan next month, though we're going a couple of other places first so won't reach Tokyo until mid/late April, by which time I presume the panic will have died down a bit.

Sakura, you are right about no more nuclear power plants. I've been thinking I'd rather get about by horse than squander the earth's resources and have to worry about radioactive rain after a meltdown. (But then I am horse-mad...and a competent rider...)

The French seem to manage well with nuclear and quite a bit of our power now comes from their power stations. So we already use nuclear power. We aren't on a fault line and are unlikely to have large earthquakes and tsunamis.

Horses are still more fun than radioactive rain.

but there were an awful lot of traffic accidents when people were getting about primarily by horse - either riding accidents or overturned carriages etc!

but I do agree totally with Sakura, it annoys me when so much attention is given to how we can generate more energy and so little so how we can simply use less.

I was extremely pissed off when I discovered my new laptop would have worse battery life than the old one simply because computers are more power-hungry than they used to be.

BeanMachine - We were in Hokkaido on a ski trip when we lived in Japan a few years ago. SO lovely!

I've been following this thread as we have many friends in Japan.

What about the people whose job it is to fix the nuclear power plants? (maybe I missed it on this thread, if I did, sorry).

Thanks for comments about my trip :-)

I think we'll print out the Embassy briefing info above - my in-laws are going to take some convincing, I feel, that we're not gravely endangering their only grandchild's well-being.

This will be our 3rd trip to Hokkaido. Sounds like the ski companies there are struggling now, although at least the peak ski season is over.

Will be bringing a load of old winter clothes with us to donate (which we have scarcely touched since moving to Asia over 4 years ago!), as I have been told they have a collection locally for the badly-hit areas on Honshu. Hope we can do our little bit this way.

Hope you enjoy your trip too, exexpat; Japan is a wonderful place.

I know it's wonderful - I lived there for 11 years .

I go back every year to see friends, but unfortunately don't get the chance to travel much outside Tokyo because I'm too busy seeing people when I'm there. Would love to go skiing in Hokkaido one day - we used to ski a lot in Niigata and Gunma, which are easily weekendable from Tokyo.

Ah, I did wonder if I was preaching to the converted .

Link to full version of British embassy briefing TanteRose extracted from above: Situation at Fukushima nuclear plant

I don't think things are going at all well at the Fukushima plant.

There have been several fires today in two reactor buildings, the Japanese authorities just increased the maximum permissible radiation dose of nuclear workers by 150% close to Chernobyl levels.

An EU official has said the plant is now out of control and a catastrophic event is possible in the next few hours. A US Energy has said it is now worse than Three Mile Island.

These announcements caused the stock market to just drop sharply. Earlier today they were trying to put ater on top of one of the reactors with a police water cannon as the plan to helicopter plan to drop water had to be abandoned because of high radiation levels.

There are continuing concerns about the spent fuel rods sitting in ponds of water on top of the reactors. The water in some of the ponds is said to be boiling off and the rods are in danger of bursting into flames.

they've had to abandon the Fukushima plant entirely, haven't they? So they can't work on trying to keep it cool any longer because it's too dangerous; they've just organised a mass evacuation around it.
Or that's what was on the news here this evening, anyway.

Oh, feck.

They abandoned it for a time earlier on but some workers went back. One story I read was that there are 50 workers remaining in the plant who have lost their families in the tsunami and have been asked to 'give their all'. Whether true or not the workers will have received large doses of radiation by now - hence they are raising the safety limits.

It is the spent fuel rods that are sittting in the pools on top of the reactors that are now the major problem. If they do not get cooling water to the pools they are sitting in they will eventually burst into flames and the radiation in them will be released direct to the atmosphere. It is no longer just a question about a nuclear meltdown within the reactor cores. There is many times more nuclear material in the spent fuel rods in the pools than there is in the reactors themselves.

I also read on Reuters that Tokyo is effectively becoming a ghost town as more and more people leave. Shops are closed and those people that remain are often not going to work or going out at all.

Oh, how awful.

Strangely the news channels are very quiet about this. Hardly any tweets.

Those brave brave men. :(

The Emperor was on TV today saying the situation is dire. that's totally unprecedented and worrisome.

A watching local news in Sing & HK and they have commented on how all those old folks still have vivid memories of the aftermath of WW2 and how it is such a trauma. I can't even begin to comprehend how utterly devastated everyone is. The footage of all those very dignified people is just heart wrenching

and its snowing now around the worst hit areas

I bet there are loads of people in Tokyo who could equally well work from home - AFAIK Japan has an even more presenteeist work culture than the UK normally but this type of thing might well make you take stock and think 'do I really need to be in the office?'. I imagine quite a few (like db) are deciding they might as well work from home, not out of any fear that Tokyo is dangerous but just because they don't want to get stuck there overnight if another quake closes the trains down.

seth, a lot of people actually are at home. DH works for a japanese company (outside japan), some execs have been sent to other regional office as they are quite essential to the cativity and tokyo staff was told as early as monday to stay home and care for their families if their commute is just impossible.
It is practically a shutdown of vast sectors of the economy

Now I know why friend in Germany is so worried. Map of Chernobyl fallout

She lives in Bavaria, where the fall out was most severe in Germany.

From the Reuters blog

UK advising British nationals in Tokyo and to the north of Tokyo to consider leaving the area.

Somewhat concerning analysis by the bbc. I'm unsure as to how accurate it is, but on the face of it it does seem to be quite consistent with the evidence as presented by various news agencies.