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International recovery efforts continue in Japan. A month after the massive earthquake
and tsunami disasters on March 11, the confirmed fatalities had increased to over 12,700, with
more than 14,000 reported unaccounted for. The toll is still expected to rise sharply
as officials begin to determine exactly how many people remain missing in the tsunami-hit
coastal areas. On Thursday, April 7, for the first time since the disaster, nearly 300
police wearing protective clothing began a search for missing persons within the 20-kilometer
evacuation zone around the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Also that day,
Their Imperial Highnesses, Prince and Princess Akishino visited survivors and people displaced
by the nuclear plant accident taking shelter at a facility in Tokyo to offer solidarity
and encouragement.
As a further disruption to survivors' efforts to stabilize and rebuild, a major 7.1-magnitude
aftershock rattled the region on Thursday, claiming at least 4 more lives and injuring
over 140. At least seven homes were destroyed in Miyagi and Iwate prefectures, with fires
and gas leaks reported in Miyagi’s prefectural capital, Sendai City. Some 8,300 households
lost water supplies, while over 3 million were without power in the northeast, halting
several production plants and hindering the recovery efforts of businesses.
The temblor also caused damages to Tohoku Electric Power Company’s Onagawa nuclear
power plant in Miyagi. Water leaks were found at four locations in the plant, with water
having overflowed from spent fuel storage pools at all three of the facility’s reactors.
Moreover, the blowout panels that control pressure inside the buildings were damaged
at the turbine building of reactor No. 3. With three external lines downed, the cooling
operations are now relying on the one remaining power source, although there has been no rise
in radioactivity detected.
According to Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the aftershock did not cause any
further damages to the Fukushima Daiichi plant, where cooling efforts at reactors 1, 2, and
3 continued, with the US also sending two of the world’s largest concrete pumps to
assist. Although the Japanese government has rated the nuclear crisis at the facility at
level 5 on an international scale of 7, the same as the rank given for the 1979 Three
Mile Island incident in the US, the UN Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation
chairman, Wolfgang Weiss, said on Wednesday that the situation at the Fukushima Daiichi
nuclear power plant was much more serious than that of Three Mile Island. He further
stated that radioactive iodine traces had been detected in the air around the globe,
although at concentrations less than those from the 1986 Chernobyl accident. According
to the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, radioactive
materials from the Fukushima plant had already spread across the northern hemisphere within
two weeks of the March 11 disasters. TEPCO has meanwhile announced completion of the
radioactive water being released into the Pacific Ocean, a desperate measure that began
earlier in the week to free up critical storage capacity in the facility. The governments
of South Korea, China, and Russia have expressed concern over the effect of the radioactivity
that was dumped into the sea. Saying that they had not been informed beforehand, officials
from the three nations urged the Japanese government to implement all necessary measures
to protect the marine environment and to provide international neighbors with timely, accurate
information on the nuclear situation. On Friday, South Korean environmentalists protested in
front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul over the dumping of the contaminated water, calling
for Japan to work with South Korea to prevent such events in the future.
Also on Friday, the government announced plans to ease restrictions on produce harvested
from certain areas around the Fukushima plant where weekly tests showed radiation levels
had been consistently low. These include a lifting of bans on spinach and kakina vegetables
from Gunma Prefecture as well as from seven Fukushima Prefecture municipalities. Restrictions
will still be imposed on rice planting in areas where contamination exceeds legal limits.
As the first nation to ban all Japanese food imports after the disaster, India has also
lifted its restrictions but will require certificates proving that Japanese imports are not contaminated.
With power supplies still significantly reduced, plans were announced Friday to establish reduced
power limits for companies and households by up to 25% in an effort to prevent blackouts
in the summer.
Our appreciation, Japanese and worldwide governments, relief workers, and nuclear experts and personnel,
for your efforts to inform and assist the affected. We pray for Heaven to watch over
the Japanese people as humankind acts quickly to prevent further disasters through our gentler,
more benevolent stewardship of the ecosphere�