Disaster in Japan Live Blog: March 19

Disaster in Japan Live Blog: March 19

Follow the latest events around the Pacific Rim after an 9.0-magnitude earthquake off Japan's coast triggered a devastating tsunami.

Blog: Mar11-12 - Mar13 - Mar14 - Mar15 - Mar16 - Mar17 - Mar18

(All times are local in Japan GMT+9)

• Timestamp: 

  11:50pm

  That's it for today's liveblog, but we'll keep you up to date with a new liveblog for March 20 - which you can read by clicking here.

• Timestamp: 

  11:38pm

  The empty shelves captured on video (below) in a store in downtown Morioka, well north of the disaster zone speak to the issue facing several areas in Japan. 
  
  The shortages of food and fuel are more pronounced in the north, where the streets - even the main areas surrounding the main train station - are almost empty, and some stores, normally open 24 hours, are closed.
  
  The clerks in the store told Al Jazeera's Dorothy Parvaz that their shelves have been in that state since yesterday, and they are not sure when they will be able to restock. 
  
  There are lots of soft drinks, tea and other drinks, but everything else is gone. Most restaurants are still operating, but many have run out of certain items.

• Timestamp: 

  11:05pm

  A sample of tap water from Tokyo shows a tiny level of radioactive iodine, the government says.

  The sample contained 1.5 becquerals per kg of iodine 131, well below the tolerable limit for food and drink of 300 becquerals per kg, the government added. 

  Jiji news agency says the presence of radioactive iodine in Tokyo tap water was rare.

• Timestamp: 

  9:48pm

  Japan confirms the presence of radioactive iodine contamination in food products from near the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant and ordered a halt to the sale of such products from the area, the UN nuclear body IAEA says in a statement: 

  Though radioactive iodine has a short half-life of about 8 days and decays naturally within a matter of weeks, there is a short-term risk to human health if radioactive iodine in food is absorbed into the human body.

• Timestamp: 

  7:05pm

  Japanese media reporting that an earthquake of magnitude 5 was recorded in the Irabaki prefecture.

• Timestamp: 

  4:29pm

  Associated Press - Japan's top government spokesman says radiation levels in spinach and milk exceed safety limits following nuclear accidents at a tsunami-stricken Fukushima nuclear plant.

  Chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano said checks of milk from Fukushima prefecture, where the plant is located, and of spinach grown in Ibaraki, a neighbouring prefecture, surpassed limits set by the government.

  It was the government's first report of food being contaminated by radiation since the March 11 quake and tsunami unleashed the nuclear crisis.

• Timestamp: 

  3:00pm

  For information about the incident at the Fukushima Nuclear Plants, visit this site that is maintained by the students of the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering at MIT: http://mitnse.com/

• Timestamp: 

  12:46pm

  Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) confirms that one more cooling pump in reactors 5 and 6 at the Fukushima plant are now working in addition to the emergency diesel cooling pump.

• Timestamp: 

  10:17am

  NHK citing the Japanese military says a survivor was pulled out from the rubble on Saturday, eight days after the disaster. The young man was found in Kesennuma city in Miyagi prefecture, which was one of the hardest-hit regions.

• Timestamp: 

  6:25am

  General Motors, the largest car maker in the US, will learn of the impact of the Japanese disaster on its own supply chain and stock levels of parts within two weeks, its boss has said.

• Timestamp: 

  6:16am

  More on those problems with the supply chain. With petrol running low, delivery trucks are struggling to get fuel, food and medicine to those hardest hit by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. And as provisions decline, tension rises.
  
  Al Jazeera's Steve Chao reports from Morioka.

• Timestamp: 

  6:03am

  Greece has urged Turkey to halt plans to build a nuclear plant near their border, says the Associated Press agency.

• Timestamp: 

  5:50am

  More on that power cable: Nearly 300 engineers are working to restore power at pumps in four of the reactors. at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant. Operator Tepco said:

  Tepco has connected the external transmission line with the receiving point of the plant and confirmed that electricity can be supplied.

  Another 1,480m (5,000 feet) of cable are being laid inside the complex before engineers try to crank up the
  coolers at reactor No. 2, followed by 1, 3 and 4 this weekend, company officials added. Laurence
  Williams, of Britain's University of Central Lancashire, said:

  If they can get those electric pumps on and they can start pushing that water successfully up the core, quite slowly so you don't cause any brittle failure, they should be able to get it under control in the next couple of days.

  If not, there is an option of last resort under consideration - to bury the sprawling 40-year-old plant in sand
  and concrete to prevent a catastrophic radiation release, the method used to seal huge leakages from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

• Timestamp: 

  4:44am

  Japan's public broadcaster, NHK, says that a cargo plane arriving in Dalien, China, from the Japanese town of Narita on March 16th was not allowed to unload its cargo of electrical components - after an inspection by Chinese customs officials found radiation levels in the hold to exceed standards.  The plane returned to Narita.

• Timestamp: 

  4:35am

  The tsunami raged through the town of Noda, destroying all that stood there. Entire houses were picked up and carried away, but fewer than fifty of the town's 5,000 residents were killed.
  
  Al Jazeera's Harry Fawcett reports from the town, where tsunami rehearsals are believed to have saved thousands of lives.

• Timestamp: 

  4:11am

  Power should be coming back online at Fukushima nuclear plant - as Tokyo Electric Power Co say they've managed to connect an external transmission line.

  Tepco - Asia's largest power utility company - confirmed that electricity can be turned on, saying it "planned to supply Unit 2 first, followed by Unit 1, Unit 3 and Unit 4 ... because Unit 2 is expected to be less damaged".

• Timestamp: 

  4:09am

  One week on from the tsunami and the humanitarian crisis continues to deepen in Japan.  As it stands, half a million people are now living in shelters, 2million people remain without electricity, and 1.4million do not have clean drinking water, Al Jazeera's Steve Chao tells us. 

• Timestamp: 

  4:00am

  A man named Chojiro rests at an evacuation centre in Kesennuma, one of half a million people displaced by the earthquake and tsunami. The humanitarian crisis continues to develop, as temperatures plunge.

  

• Timestamp: 

  3:58am

  Kenji Sasaki, the Iwate distribution centre supervisor, tells Al Jazeera:

  The national government is not doing anything to get us fuel. There's lots water and food... but we need fuel.

• Timestamp: 

  3:53am

  Al Jazeera's Steve Chao, reporting from northern Japan, tells us public anger is starting to rise, with reports of fights at petrol pumps over government-ordered rationing - "unheard of in a nation where politeness is an institution,' he tells us.

• Timestamp: 

  3:47am

  Plans have been unveiled for 200 "temporary dwellings" in the grounds of a junior high school in the badly hit town of Rikuzentakata, with the construction industry planning to provide 30,000 such homes during the next two months, says Japanese public broadcaster NHK.

• Timestamp: 

  3:43am

  Doctors in the disaster area are reporting cases of influenza. Other risks to those living in evacuation shelters include hypothermia and DVT.  Evacuees are encouraged to keep warm, drink water, and take regular exercise.

• Timestamp: 

  3:39am

  Japanese electronic companies including Sharp, Panasonic and Shin Kobe Electric Machinery have said they plan to deliver solar panels and lanterns to the disaster area next week.

• Timestamp: 

  3:09am

  Al Jazeera's D.Parvaz is in Kobe, where she's met survivors of the deadly earthquake in 1995. They've told her that "the Japanese spirit" will help the nation rebuild again. You can read her latest blog by clicking here: Sendai quake brings back Kobe memories.

  

• Timestamp: 

  2:59am

  Britain's Queen Elizabeth II has joined hundreds of thousands around the world putting thir hands in their pockets and sending money to help support those affected by recent natural disasters. A spokesperson said:

  The queen will be making a personal donation to both the Christchurch earthquake appeal in New Zealand and the Japanese disaster fund.

  To join the queen, you can make a donation by clicking here.

   

• Timestamp: 

  1:15am

  The official death toll has been updated. The latest figures are 6,911 confirmed dead, and 10,754 reported missing.

• Timestamp: 

  1:13am

  The Tokyo Fire Department say they finished spraying water on the overheating reactors 20 minutes ago...

• Timestamp: 

  1:05am

  The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency has released radiation levels for yesterday in the region of Tokyo Electric Power Corp's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
   
  Half a kilometre northwest of the No 3 reactor: 

  1.50pm - 3.484 millisieverts per hour
  5:00pm - 5.055 millisieverts per hour
  8:00pm - 3.611 millisieverts per hour
   
  And 1.1km west of the No.3 reactor (west gate area):

  8.10pm - 0.4476 millisieverts per hour
  9pm - 0.4191 millisieverts per hour
   
  The rise in radiation levels could be due to radioactive substances becoming mixed into the water that the Self Defence Forces etc have been spraying on No.3 reactor and escaping as the water is pumped out again, said Japan's public broadcaster NHK.

  To put this into perspective, 100 millisieverts received over the course of a year is the lowest level at which any increased cancer risk is evident. A fatal dose is considered to be 5,000 millisieverts - in one hit, says the Financial Times.

• Timestamp: 

  12:29am

  Some good news, of sorts. The International Atomic Energy Agency says the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant isn't getting any worse. A senior official told reporters:

  The situation at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants remains very serious but there has been no significant worsening since our last briefing. The situation at the reactors at units 1, 2 and 3 appears to  remain fairly stable.
  
  

• Timestamp: 

  12:25am

  As Japan's nuclear safety commission upgrades the situation at the earthquake-damaged Fukushima plant to a level five on the seven-level International Nuclear Events Scale, the country's prime minister says circumstances remain grave.
  
  Justin Dargin, nuclear analyst and research fellow at the Dubai initiative, tells Al Jazeera of the wider implications of Japan's ongoing emergency.

• Timestamp: 

  12:09am

  More on that detection of radioactive particles on the US west coast.

  Reuters say two "diplomatic sources" tell them "miniscule amounts" have been detected - at a level far too low to cause any harm to humans.

  
  One diplomat, citing information from a network of international monitoring stations, described the
  material as "ever so slight", consisting of only a few particles. "They are irrelevant," the diplomat added.
  Another diplomatic source also said the level was "very low".

  The Vienna-based Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organisation, an independent body for monitoring possible breaches of the test ban, has more than 60 stations around the world, including one in Sacramento in California.

  They can pick up very small amounts of radioactive particles such as iodine isotopes.

  "Even a single radioactive atom can cause them to measure something and this is more or less what we have seen in the Sacramento station," said the first diplomat, who declined to be named.

  Asked if they were believed to originate from the Fukushima nuclear plant, he said: "That is the obvious assumption."

• Timestamp: 

  12:05am

  A week after a 9.0 magnitude earthquake triggered a 10m tsunami which devastated much of north east Japan, the threat of radiation continues to hang over hundreds of thousands of citizens, after the Fukushima nuclear plant was damaged.
  
  Kenjiro Monji, Japan's ambassador to Qatar, tells Al Jazeera what progress the country has been made in the huge recovery operation now underway.

• Timestamp: 

  12:02am

  Welcome to our new liveblog, we'll continue to keep you updated right here...