UPDATE 3/23/2011
Toshiro sent an update as Japan continues to deal with the aftermath of tragedy:
“I’m very sorry to be late to send mail. I and my family are fine, but our head were full with the earthquake in the last week.
One week passes, and we also have understood the realities of miserable damage due to this large earthquake. The number of dead will exceed 20,000. Many people were killed by prodigious Tsunami that was special feature of the earthquake.
In Tokyo, the electric power fails by rotation according to the plan, because many power plants were stopped and demands of power may exceed supply capability.
The Fukushima nuclear plant are not recovered, and scatters the radioactive substances. While the observed radioactivity is a small
amount, person who feels insecurity has increased because the food such as the vegetables polluted by the radioactive.
Anyway, we live and work everyday. We hope many damaged people will make a recovery.
My best regard,
Sengaku
And this is from the Ft. Bragg campus of the college that I work at on the northern coast of California. — Ruby
As many of you are already aware, Fort Bragg’s Japanese Sister City has been decimated by the Japanese earthquake and the following tsunami and fires. Several thousand people did not survive or are still missing. Fort Bragg has had a very close relationship with Otsuchi and its people for over a decade. A number of CRMC students and faculty have, in fact, visited Otsuchi and been welcomed into the homes and lives of the people that live there.
A major fund-raising effort is being undertaken by folks along the Mendocino Coast to help the survivors in their recovery efforts. It is a volunteer-based effort and all funds will be sent directly to Otsuchi. I hope that some of you will be willing to contribute. Please take a few minutes to visit our web page at www.otsuchi.org.
Thanks.
Greg Grantham
Professor of Marine Science
College of the Redwoods
Mendocino Coast Campus
1211 Del Mar Drive
Fort Bragg, CA 95437
707-962-2687
greg-grantham@redwoods.edu
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Japanese blogger Toshiro Sengaku of amateur-lenr.blogspot.com checked in with a report from Tokyo and we were glad to hear from him.
Where were you when the earthquake hit? What did it feel like?
“I was in the office (10th floor) near TOKYO station when the
earthquake hit. Tokyo is in the distance of about 300km from the
epicenter, then the seismic intensity of Tokyo was from 4 to 5, that
is not too large. It was not scary though it had shaken widely because the office building was a quake absorbing structure.
However, the situation was very different and terrible for the person who lived in the Tohoku region.”
Pictures show many people in a state of shock. Are you and your family and friends OK? How are people coping? Is there enough food, water, and electricity? What is the state of the transportation system?
“In the Tohoku region, a lot of people lost the family and the house where they lived. And, they will be spending a cold, uneasy night in school or public hall etc. tonight.
On the other hand, there are little collapse of the house and little
injury in Tokyo area. I and my family lives almost usually.
The largest problem for people who live in the Tokyo area was “only” stops of transportation system. On the other hand, transport systems and life lines (electricity, gas, water) were destroyed in the Tohoku region.”
What is the situation with the nuclear reactors?
“The core container in the nuclear reactor was not broken, at present the situation is not so bad, I think. The explosion of Fukushima Nuclear Center No.1 was caused outside of the core container. At present, sea water is poured into the core container to cool the core. We must watch the situation carefully.
The area of evacuations are 20km to the nuclear reactors of Fukushima Nuclear Center No.1 and 10km to the Fukushima Nuclear Center No.2.”
Is there any word from your friends in the Japaneses cold fusion community? How are they doing?
“I and my friend can not gather information about cold fusion researchers who works in the Tohoku University and Iwate University. We have to wait.
And Jed san reported about Dr. Mizuno situation. I guess the situation of Hokkaido region where Dr. Mizuno live in is better than Tohoku region:
“Mizuno reports that the earthquake caused significant damage in his lab, “destroying” some of his experimental equipment. He paid for much of the equipment himself, such as the quadrupole mass spectrometer. I asked him to send details and perhaps a photo for the LENR-CANR news section. Perhaps he can set up a PayPal account to solicit donations to help rebuild.”
Toshiro says:
“I am tired but fine. It is very fortunately! In the north area of Honshuu of Japan, many people were killed by earthquake and huge tsunami.
I hope people will be rescued and their life will be recovered.”
We hope so too, Toshiro. Keep in touch, and let us know what we can do to help.
Peace.
Tokyo Time As the measured radiation level at the reactor temporarily shot up to the 8 217 micro sievert per hour level versus the 1 000 level of radiation most people are exposed to in one year the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency says the reactors pressure-suppression system may be damaged. press conference Prime Minister Naoto Kan says that substantial amounts of radiation are leaking in the area He asks people living between 20 and 30 kilometers from the plant to stay indoors.