Earthquake update #2

I just want to clear a few things up:

1.  There has been no ordered evacuation of any non-Japanese from Japan. I am not disobeying any Executive Orders by staying put and going to work every day.

2.  There is currently a "voluntary" evacuation happening for anyone who does want to leave.  The State Department will cover the cost of a flight to Seoul or Taipei and from there, Americans are on their own to get back to America or hang out for a few weeks.  This is mostly aimed at family members of military personnel and diplomats.  Specifically those in tsunami affected areas, Tokyo, Yokohama, and Nagoya.

3.  I am not planning on leaving anytime soon.  I am safe.  I am not going to become radioactive (and if I somehow do end up radioactive, then I will be radioactive with everyone else and that is fine.  The other Iiyama JETs and I have discussed it and we feel that we are all here and all together and we are not going to panic without a really good reason.) 

4.  My evacuation bags are still packed, just in case.  I am not stupid.  They now have canned tuna and peanut butter in them.  Gizmo is still there, too.

5.  In this process, I have learned a lot of interesting Japanese:  earthquake, aftershock, shaking, radiation, emergency shelter, the end of the world, tsunami (oh, wait...)

6.  People in America... please stop believing everything you hear.  And also, please stop hearing things, making them more dramatic and passing them on to someone else.  It is not helping the situation in any way.  Though I will admit I have heard some really funny things the last few days either from facebook or from my mom. 

7.  Chiba Radiation meter  This is a link to a live feed of a radiation meter in Chiba Prefecture, near Tokyo.  (Narita Airport is in Chiba).  Around .16 is normal.

8.  To take a leaf out of Sarah's blog:  I do appreciate hearing from everyone to make sure I am safe and well.  It is nice to know that there are so many people who care, especially the people that maybe I have not talked to in a while.  I mean, even my dentist called my house to ask my mom what she had heard and if I was ok.  wow.  Thanks, everyone.

9.  If you find yourself wishing you could do something to help, how about donating money to the Japanese Red Cross Society?   Many people are under the impression that Japan, being a developed country, does not need nearly the aid that other developing countries would need in a similar situation.  This is not true.

10.  One last thing to share.  This was sent out yesterday, but the conference call took place March 15.  It is from a Prefectural Adviser in Miyagi Prefecture.  (Sendai city is in Miyagi)  The main thing to take from this is that there are very qualified people keeping an eye on the situation.  Also, at the end I linked to a transcript of the call.  At the end of the transcript, John Beddington says that he would "characterise the nuclear issue as a sideshow" considering all the wreckage from the earthquakes and tsunami.

From the Miyagi-ken PA:
"I have just returned from a conference call held at the British Embassy in Tokyo. The call was concerning the nuclear issue in Japan. The chief spokesman was Sir. John Beddington, Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government, and he was joined by a number of qualified nuclear experts based in the UK. Their assessment of the current situation in Japan is as follows:

* In case of a 'reasonable worst case scenario' (defined as total meltdown of one reactor with subsequent radioactive explosion) an exclusion zone of 30 miles (50km) would be the maximum required to avoid affecting peoples' health. Even in a worse situation (loss of two or more reactors) it is unlikely that the damage would be significantly more than that caused by the loss of a single reactor.

* The current 20km exclusion zone is appropriate for the levels of radiation/risk currently experienced, and if the pouring of sea water can be maintained to cool the reactors, the likelihood of a major incident should be avoided. A further large quake with tsunami could lead to the suspension of the current cooling operations, leading to the above scenario.

* The bottom line is that these experts do not see there being a possibility of a health problem for residents in Tokyo. The radiation levels would need to be hundreds of times higher than current to cause the possibility for health issues, and that, in their opinion, is not going to happen (they were talking minimum levels affecting pregnant women and children - for normal adults the levels would need to be much higher still).

* The experts do not consider the wind direction to be material. They say Tokyo is too far away to be materially affected.

* If the pouring of water can be maintained the situation should be much improved after ten days, as the reactors' cores cool down.

* Information being provided by Japanese authorities is being independently monitored by a number of organizations and is deemed to be accurate, as far as measures of radioactivity levels are concerned.

* This is a very different situation from Chernobyl, where the reactor went into meltdown and the encasement, which exploded, was left to burn for weeks without any control. Even with Chernobyl, an exclusion zone of 30 miles would have been adequate to protect human health. The problem was that most people became sick from eating contaminated food, crops, milk and water in the region for years afterward, as no attempt was made to measure radioactivity levels in the food supply at that time or warn people of the dangers. The secrecy over the Chernobyl explosion is in contrast to the very public coverage of the Fukushima crisis.

* The Head of the British School asked if the school should remain closed. The answer was there is no need to close the school due to fears of radiation. There may well be other reasons - structural damage or possible new quakes - but the radiation fear is not supported by scientific measures, even for children.

* Regarding Iodine supplementation, the experts said this was only necessary for those who had inhaled quantities of radiation (those in the exclusion zone or workers on the site) or through consumption of contaminated food/water supplies. Long term consumption of iodine is, in any case, not healthy.

The discussion was surprisingly frank and to the point. The conclusion of the experts is that the damage caused by the earthquake and tsunami, as well as the subsequent aftershocks, was much more of an issue than the fear of radiation sickness from the nuclear plants.

Further, at a meeting today, the NZ, Australian US, and Canadian embassies backed this information."
full transcript of the conference
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