patrick.net

The rain has stopped. As bad as is might be, Fukushima has it much worse. I've estimated he wind only has blown (from Fukushima) toward Tokyo /Kanagawa only 15% of the time. It has blown toward the Pacific Ocean 2/3 of the time and the rest toward Miyagi/Iwate/Akita/Yamagata, etc.

Good story about the difference in media coverage on the earthquake/tsunami/nuclear plant:

http://www.japantoday.com/category/have-your-say/view/what-would-you-say-are-the-same-of-the-main-differences-in-the-way-the-japanese-and-foreign-media-are-covering-the-aftermath-of-the-march-11-earthquake-and-tsunami-and-the-ongoing-nuclear-crisis#show_all_comments

Thanks for the update AiJ. Most of the major western news sources have moved on to covering the Libyan invasion. Please be selective in what you eat:

From bloomberg:

Five kinds of radioactive materials released by damaged fuel rods were detected in the sea, including iodine-131, cesium-134 and cobalt, according to Tepco. Radiation in food is measured in Becquerel, a gauge of the strength of radioactivity in those materials. The prescribed safe limit for I-131 in vegetables is set at 2,000 Becquerel (Bq) per kilogram and 500 Bq/kg for radioactive cesium.

“A person would really have to continue to eat that food grown locally that’s contaminated,” he said.

Do you have a substantial choice in what foods are available to you?

American in Japan says

Good story about the difference in media coverage on the earthquake/tsunami/nuclear plant:

Thanks for the link. Quite a range of opinions there.

Ironically food from China may be healthier than from here for the time being!

And this info I found out about various elements:

in the reactor, the zirconium alloy fuel cladding starts to fail at 1200 C (cesium-137 and iodine-131 are in the fuel cladding-gap region of the fuel rods, so when the cladding fails these are also released, and hydrogen builds up when the cladding reacts with hot steam)
the uranium fuel itself starts to melt at 3204 C.