Sorry guys, what is the current situation? Went to bed, woke up with no power in the house, so I had no TV or internet access..

Anyways, on NHK live, some people were saying that there are improvement, SDF is now spraying water at reactors to cool down the spent fuel cell. And if all goes well, high voltage line will be ran to attach a pump to circulate water to cool the core and the spent fuel cell

what is the radiation level like now? Is there still a risk?

Also, there are people saying something about a radioactive cloud reaching the west coast and causing a panic, what is that about?

Thanks

cooling down
 

They show nothing new on TV news. SDF (Japanese Army) still use helos to spray water down, trying to cool 3rd reactor and a pool with a spent nuclear fuel. Some sources gave an information that radiation at Fukushima Daiichi Plant is slightly decreased....

The cores are currently "stable" with seawater being circulated or in the process of filling. Two of them are sharing a pump that is keeping things stable.
The current issue is the spent fuel cell tank, which has been sort of a lower priority until the really scary danger of the cores was taken care of. If they can just get a good supply of water in there, it should settle down significantly.

The radiation levels are still high in the direct vicinity of the plant, and there is still a minor risk to those in the 20~30km area, so they are still advised to stay indoors. But it`s still low enough to not be of serious danger if you`re not close.

I don`t know about the west coast cloud, but it sounds more like fear mongering than an actual issue.

ETA;

A good video in English explaining the current situation without heaps of media-rating-grabbing fear mongering derp.
YouTube - Current status of the Fukushima nuclear power plant and the crisis in Japan. Mar 16

Thanks Nyorin and Termogard.. at least, the situation has some improvement... thanks!

cyber cleaners
 

Such relatively primitive robots were used by Soviets in 1986 for cleaning of radioactive debrises a rooftop of reactor block #4 of Chernobyl Nuclear Plant. Sure that Japan has far more advanced remote-controlled automated machines to work in highly-contaiminated areas......

water
 

Radiation level rises after water dropped at troubled reactor

TOKYO, March 17, Kyodo

The radiation level rose at the troubled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant Thursday after the Self-Defense Forces' helicopters dropped water at its crisis-hit No. 3 reactor, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said.

The level around the plant's administration building rose to 4,000 microsievert per hour at 1:30 p.m. from 3,700 in the morning.

It was unchanged shortly after the choppers dumped seawater onto the reactor shortly before 10 a.m., the utility said earlier in the day.

The level around the plant's quake-proof building at which workers are standing by had risen to about 3,000 microsievert per hour, it said in the morning. The level compares to 1,000 microsievert, or 1 millisievert, to which people can be safely exposed in one year.

Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa said he had given the go-ahead for the helicopters to drop water as the radiation level was 4.13 millisievert per hour at an altitude of 1,000 feet and 87.7 millisievert at 300 feet.

The choppers actually did so at a height of less than 300 feet, but their 10 crew members suffered no health problems with less than 60 millisievert of radiation measured from them after decontamination, against 100 millisievert to which they can be exposed in an emergency mission, SDF generals said.

==Kyodo

fire trucks and fire pumps
 

SDF trucks join choppers in dousing crisis-hit Fukushima reactor

TOKYO, March 17, Kyodo

Fire trucks of the Self-Defense Forces joined Thursday evening in an unprecedented mission of pouring water onto a crisis-hit nuclear reactor in an effort to cool down its apparently overheating spent fuel pool that could emit highly contaminated radioactive materials.

While authorities continued to grapple with the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant, efforts to bring electricity to the plant also accelerated in a bid to restore the lost cooling functions in many of its reactors following Friday's earthquake and tsunami that crippled the plant.

But Tokyo the same day had to try to allay growing concerns over the crisis as the United States advised their nationals living within an 80-kilometer radius to evacuate as a precaution while the official evacuation area is a 20-km radius, apparently with little effect as South Korea, Australia and New Zealand followed suit with the advisory.

''The highest priority now is to pour adequate water onto the No. 3 and No. 4 reactors, especially in their spent fuel pools,'' said Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman of the government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.

Two Ground Self-Defense Force choppers dropped seawater in a 7,500-liter bag four times each in the morning on the No. 3 reactor, an operation on which Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa said in Tokyo, ''We decided to do this because we thought that today is the time limit.''

The 12-minute operation was followed in the evening by the shooting of high-pressure streams of water by six SDF fire trucks. A water cannon truck dispatched by the Metropolitan Police Department also began spraying water, but suspended the work later, the National Police Agency said.

Rest of Kyodo article

significant increasing of energy supplies
 

Putin to talk with Sakhalin to raise natural gas supply to Japan

Vladivostok, Russia, March 17, Kyodo

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is expected to visit Sakhalin on Saturday for talks with local officials on increasing the supply of natural gas to Japan, an official at the Russian Far East state said Thursday.

After a disastrous earthquake and tsunami hit Japan last Friday, crippling some of its nuclear plants and leaving it short of electricity, the Russian premier has told Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin to boost the supply of liquefied natural gas from the Sakhalin-2 offshore oil and natural gas development project.

====Kyodo

Sorry an attempt at a little stress break had the opposite effect for you.

My guess is that you have never been in the midst of a serious disaster and experienced the incessant overload of depressing, but necessary, serious discussions, nor the desperate craving for even a momentary break.

What you perceived as insulting, my native Japanese friend in Sendai very much appreciated - "his first reason for a smile in days"; which is why I posted it for others. And the person who told me the joke is a native of Morioka, so stop the racist crap.

As for your threats, I will take them in the vein I usually regard comments from an "anime otaku" who hasn't the nerve to post any other info about themselves or maintain their supposed URL. Not worth the time wasted to read them.

France send a plane with boric acid to stop the radiations and protection equipments for people who work at Fukushima.

Some robots and robotic vehicles with technicians are ready to be sent too.