Japan’s nuclear crisis continues – 31 Mar 2011

Japan’s nuclear crisis continues. The death toll continues to rise following the massive 9.0-magnitude quake and tsunami in northeastern Japan on March 11, and police had confirmed more than 28000 fatalities and missing as of Wednesday, March 30. Aftershocks continue, including a powerful 6.0 temblor that struck off the east coast of Honshu, 172 kilometers southeast of Iwaki, on Wednesday afternoon. Over the past weeks, as phone systems were quickly overloaded, people have been using social networks such as Twitter daily to find their relatives and friends, with an overwhelming 260000 tweets already on the first day of the disaster. Also, Patrick Meier, director of the free software Ushahidi’s crisis mapping service, is helping organize and connect relief workers and government personnel through the provision of a systematic map that displays information about victims’ needs and services. In a rare public appearance on Wednesday, Japan’s Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko visited a Tokyo area shelter to offer consolation to the victims there. Meanwhile, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) has thus far failed to gain control at the damaged coastal Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. As workers still struggle to drain radioactive water from the buildings of reactors No. 1, 2, and 3, major France-based nuclear energy firm AREVA is sending more nuclear experts to join the two already assisting in Japan. After extremely high concentrations of radiation were detected outside …