Disaster in Japan: March 14

Disaster in Japan: March 14

Follow the latest events around the Pacific Rim after an 8.9-magnitude earthquake off Japan's coast triggered a devastating tsunami. Stay up to date with an all new liveblog for March 15. There, we'll keep you right up to date with the latest developments as they happen. Click here to read it.

Blog: Mar11-12 - Mar13

(All times are local in Japan GMT+9)

• Timestamp: 

  8:45am

  Japanese officials: about 50 staff are still at nuclear plants to monitor the situation.
  
  

• Timestamp: 

  8:21am

  Japanese nuclear safety agency reports a third explosion at Unit 2 of Fukushima Daiichi plant.

• Timestamp: 

  11:59pm

  That's it for today's Japan liveblog. But you can stay up to date with all the latest reports with our brand new live blog for March 15. Click here to read it - Japan in crisis: Live blog

• Timestamp: 

  11:47pm

  Not all markets fell on news of the Japan disaster. Some speculators believe profit lies in helping Japan rebuild its shattered infrastructure. And since the country's nuclear facilities were taken offline, the price of Liquefied Natural Gas has surged.

  Now Qatar's state controlled LNG giant, Qatargas, says it is ready to meet Japan's shortfall.

  Qatargas stands ready to provide all the support to its long-term partners and foundation customers in Japan to meet any increased requirements for LNG at this time ... Qatargas can also rely on our sister company RasGas to support Qatargas' efforts to meet our Japanese buyers' and partners' needs.

  The death toll from Japan's earthquake and tsunami is expected to reach into the tens of thousands.

• Timestamp: 

  11:26pm

  Professor Ilham Al-Qaradawi from Qatar University tells us of the effects of radiation poisoning:

  Radiation affects human cells. It either kills the cell - if the dose and energy are high, or it damages the cell, causing cancer and so on.

  When a person is exposed to radiation, the effect could range from redness in the skin to severe burning of the skin - but can also have more pronounced effects such as nausea.

  The long term effect of radiation is, of course, cancer.

  A large radiation dose or prolonged radiation exposure are the main reasons for radiation-induced cancer. The nost common type is thyroid cancer, which can be combated by taking potassium iodide tablets, thereby saturating the body with iodine so it does not absorb the radioactive iodine if inhaled or ingested.

  There are also genetic, hereditary, effects and effects on the fetus in cases of high dose exposure.

  The effects of very high doses are seen in a very short time - in the order of minutes or hours depending on dose. The lower doses can give rise to cancer, but this might take years.

  It is believed that very low doses are harmless, since we are exposed to those naturally.

  It must be emphasised that fear of radiation is often as dangerous as the radiation itself, as it leads to unnecessary action that can be just as harmful.

• Timestamp: 

  11:15pm

  Correction to predictions on the change in wind direction. It's forecasted to be blowing from the north at around 22kph for the next nine to twelve hours, when it is due to completely switch direction and blow from the south. Apologies for the confusion.

• Timestamp: 

  11:05pm

  Steff Gaulter, Al Jazeera's senior meteorologist, has been keeping us on the web desk up to date with the latest. She tells us:

  
  Aftershocks becoming less frequent in Japan. On Saturday between 00 & 12GMT, there were 49 aftershocks of magnitude 5.0 or higher. On Sunday there were 26. Today only 17.
  
  So, as far as seismology goes, things are improving. However, the weather is getting worse. Over the next few days it's going to get much colder. Temperatures on Tuesday will only struggle to 7C as a maximum and by Wednesday, only 3C.

  The temperatures at night will also drop, with temperatures getting below freezing by Wednesday night. As if that's not bad enough, Wednesday will also bring some snow.
  
  With much of the region without electricity, this is not good news.

• Timestamp: 

  10:52pm

  Staying with the International Atomic Energy Agency - they've launched their own Facebook page, where they've been updating information on all the nuclear plants in Japan... Click here to check it out.  And while you're on Facebook, did you know we have our very own profile page? Why don't you join the 447,360 well-informed people who follow Al Jazeera English?

• Timestamp: 

  10:47pm

  US officials say there are 1,300 US citizens living in the worst-hit areas of Japan, but they have not received any reports of fatalities or serious injuries. All of the 50,000 US troops stationed in Japan are helping in the relief effort, says General Field.

• Timestamp: 

  10:35pm

  More on that report of US warships moving away from the coast after detecting rising radiation levels.

  In a press conference, General Burton Field - US forces Japan commander - was asked if it was correct that crewmembers of the aircraft carrier USS Reagan had been conatminated with radiation, and if the ship had been moved away. he answered:

  After that incident, what they did is they analyzed where they were, what their mission was to be, and they moved their ships into an area where they thought that there would not be any chance of any further contamination, and in a way that they could continue to do the missions that they are assigned to do:  again, working on that sea survey because there is a tremendous amount of debris that is pulled off into the ocean after the tsunami receded; relief efforts on the land; and search-and-rescue on both the land and the water areas.

  QUESTION:  Are there actual crewmembers contaminated?

  We found contamination on the clothes of several crewmembers, and one crewmember had some on his skin.  And the exposure rate was about the same as you would get over a month-long period outside in the sun.  We assess that as very, very low.  And the way we treat that is we scrub the areas with soap and water, and then we test them, and there was apparently no harm come to any crewmembers.  And they are all back performing their missions today.
  
  

• Timestamp: 

  10:20pm

  Yukiya Amano, the IAEA director general, has released the following statement. We're expecting him to give a press conference in the next few hours. We'll bring you it as it happens.

• Timestamp: 

  10:08pm

  Latest weather forecast from Fukushima, where the wind was blowing from the north a few hours ago, says the wind direction was due to change - about now - to blow from the south. 

  When we have confirmation this is what's happened - and what exactly it means for the spread of radiation or other nuclear pollution, we'll let you know...

• Timestamp: 

  10:00pm

  A quick roundup of what's been going on in the past few hours.

  - Fukushima has been hit by another explosion. Saturday's blast was at No.1 reactor - this morning's was at No.3 reactor. It injured 11 people.

  - Coolant at Fukushima's No.2 reactor has run out, meaning its fuel rods have become fully exposed, causing temperatures to rise swiftly, and pressure inside the reactor core to mount rapidly.

  - US warships brought in to aid the relief effort have reportedly been moved away from the coast after detecting elevated radiation levels.

  - France has reportedly asked its citizens to leave the Tokyo area and "strongly advised" French nationals against travel ro Japan.

  - Japanese officials appeal for calm, say any other explosions or meltdowns are unlikely. "The figures do not indicate a high level of radiation," says Japan's cabinet secretary.

• Timestamp: 

  8:31pm

  Al Jazeera's Gerald Tan reports on the emergency confronting Japan after a tsnumai devastates its Pacific coast.

  
  

   

• Timestamp: 

  8:14pm

  Reuters - Nuclear fuel rods now fully exposed at Reactor No.2 at the Fukushima nuclear plant.

• Timestamp: 

  6:07pm

  Al Jazeera's Harry Fawcett, reporting from the town of Rikuzentakata, says that at least 18,000 people are currently unaccounted for in the area.

• Timestamp: 

  5:37pm

  Nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has set up a Facebook page, and is updating information on all nuclear plants and reactors in Japan.
  
   

• Timestamp: 

  5:29pm

  Al Jazeera's graphics team highlights the reactors of concern at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
  
  

• Timestamp: 

  4:11pm

  Al Jazeera's Florence Looi reports on the heightened fears of a nuclear disaster after the devastation caused by the tsunami.
  
  

• Timestamp: 

  2:38pm

  The Tokyo Eelctric company announces it expects to be short of one million kilowatts of power on Monday.

• Timestamp: 

  2:08pm

  Al Jazeera's Teymoor Nabili, reporting from the town of Shobutahama, said that local residents are most concerned about getting back to a sense of normality.
  
  "Everything is destroyed, and one man said he is atill looking for his car, which was washed up," he said.
  
  You can follow Teymoor on the micro-blogging site Twitter - @teymoornabili

• Timestamp: 

  1:58pm

  For further information on Japan's twin disasters, and the subsequent fallout, read the latest news update.

• Timestamp: 

  1:38pm

  Rescue workers from more than a dozen countries search ravaged northeastern coastal cities for survivors. as an international effort to help Japan cope with its multiple disasters gathered pace.
  
  Some 70 countries have offered assistance, with help coming not only from allies like the United States but also countries with more strained relations like China, and even from the Afghan city of Kandahar.

• Timestamp: 

  1:25pm

  AFP - A tsunami alert has been lifted, according to an official in the Fukushima prefecture, after reports of an approaching large wave and retreating seawater - a phenomenon that occurs before tsunamis - had
  sparked alarm and local evacuation orders.
  
  "There is no more fear of a tsunami at this moment, but we will continue to ask our residents to remain vigilant to future advisories," the official said.

• Timestamp: 

  1:08pm

  Japanese media reporting that at least 2,000 bodies have been found in the Miyagi prefecture.
  
  About 1,000 bodies were found coming ashore on hardest-hit Miyagi's Ojika Peninsula and another 1,000 were spotted in the town of Minamisanriku where the prefectural government has been unable to contact about 10,000 people, or over half the local population.

• Timestamp: 

  1:05pm

  The second hydrogen explosion in three days rocks a nuclear plant in Fukushima on Monday, sending a massive column of smoke into the air and wounding 11 people.
  
  It isnot immediately clear how much - if any - radiation had been released.

  The explosion at the plant's Unit 3, which authorities have been frantically trying to cool following a system failure in the wake of a massive earthquake and tsunami, triggered an order for hundreds of people to stay indoors, said Yukio Edano, the chief cabinet secretary.

• Timestamp: 

  11:40am

  The New York Times has reported that experts say radioactive releases could last months.

  As the scale of Japan’s nuclear crisis begins to come to light, experts in Japan and the United States say the country is now facing a cascade of accumulating problems that suggest that radioactive releases of steam from the crippled plants could go on for weeks or even months.

• Timestamp: 

  11:38am

  Japan has issued a fresh tsunami warning for stricken coast.

• Timestamp: 

  11:30am

  
  An explosion has taken place in one of Japan nuclear power plant
  
  
  

  
  
• Timestamp: 

  6:37am

  Radioactive levels at the Onagawa nuclear facility - at least "at the site boundary" - are now back to normal levels, Japanese authorities have told the International Atomic Energy Agency.

• Timestamp: 

  6:03am

  Al Jazeera's Steve Chao, reporting from Natori - a once scenic coastal community - tells us hundreds of members of search and rescue teams have arrived at the city, two days after it was devastated by the tsunami. One woman tells him:

  All I've got left is myself.

• Timestamp: 

  4:53am

  As officials and technicians in Japan battle to prevent reactor meltdowns, the debate over nuclear power has been reopened. Jan Beranek of Greenpeace tells Al Jazeera those who depend on nuclear power "are sitting on a ticking time bomb".
• Timestamp: 

  4:44am

  Good evening, British people! We're now live on UK Freeview TV, so make sure you check us out. Right now, Riz Khan is chatting to the excellent Maysoon Zayid - who describes herself as "a Palestinian Muslim virgin with cerebral palsy, from New Jersey, who is an actress, comedian and activist".

  If you're not lucky enough to get us on your TV, don't forget you can tune in online by clicking here. And if you're in the US, why not take a moment to Demand Al Jazeera?

• Timestamp: 

  4:33am

  It was reported earlier that "favourable winds" would blow any nuclear pollution westwards, over the Pacific Ocean.

  Now US officials have said citizens of the country will not experience "any harmful levels" of radiation from
  Japan's earthquake-hit nuclear power reactors. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission says:

  All the available information indicates weather conditions have taken the small releases from the Fukushima reactors out to sea away from the population.

  Given the thousands of miles between the two countries, Hawaii, Alaska, the US Territories and the US West Coast are not expected to experience any harmful levels of radioactivity.

• Timestamp: 

  4:15am

  Russia is sending two groups of rescuers to join the Japanese recovery effort.

  A cargo aircraft carrying a 50-strong team has left Moscow, while 25 have embarked on a helicopter from Khaborovsk in Russia's far east.

  More than 1million people in Japan remain without water or power, and whole towns have been swept away.

• Timestamp: 

  3:45am

  As if the people of Japan didn't have enough to deal with.

  A volcano on the southern island of Kyushu has begun to spew ash and rock, the country's weather agency has announced.

  Shonmoedake mountain is more than 1,500km from the epicentre of Friday's earthquake, and it's not yet clear if the eruption is linked to the earlier seismic activity.

• Timestamp: 

  3:13am

  The catastrophe in Japan is so far known to have claimed 1,400 lives.
  
  Minami Sanriku appears to be one of the worst hit coastal towns. It now lies buried under a sea of mud, with 10,000 of its residents unaccounted for.
  
  Al Jazeera's Wayne Hay has more.

• Timestamp: 

  2:59am

  Insurance claims following Japan's offshore earthquake could hit US$35billion, according to initial estimates.

  That's more than the entire global catastrophe loss for the insurance industry in 2010.

  What's more - risk modelling company AIR, who came up with the figures, said that amount doesn't include the effects of the tsunami that followed the quake, or any potential losses from nuclear damage.

• Timestamp: 

  2:45am

  Panic over at Tokai.

  The cooling pump failed at the plant - just 120km from Tokyo - but an additional pump is now working and cooling the reactor, a plant spokesman says. Masao Nakano said:

  Our seawater pump, powered by a diesel generator, stopped because of the tsunami and we then manually stopped one of our cooling systems.

  But the other cooling systems and other pumps are working well, and temperatures of the reactor have continued to fall smoothly.

  
  Tokai No. 2 is one of a string of nuclear power plants located along Japan's coast, which was hit by a 10-metre (33 foot) tsunami triggered by a powerful Pacific Ocean seabed earthquake on Friday.

  At the worst-hit facility, the Fukushima No1 plant, crews have struggled desperately to keep cooling two reactors by pouring seawater into them, after an explosion yesterday blew off the roof and walls of No1 reactor's outer building.

• Timestamp: 

  1:53am

  Is this the nightmare scenario of nuclear meltdown becoming real? And what can be done to contain the nuclear threat while at the same time dealing with the widespread destruction caused by Japan's largest recorded earthquake?

  Al Jazeera's Inside Story examines. Indepth anylsis and amazing footage below.

• Timestamp: 

  1:34am

  The New York Times has an amazing, yet horrifying, "before and after" photo gallery. Not that we want you to leave our site, of course. But you won't want to miss this. Click here. But be sure to come right back!

• Timestamp: 

  1:29am

  Yet more worrying trouble for Japan's nuclear power systems. Following "partial meltdowns" at Fukushima nuclear plant, and a state of emergency being declared at Onagawa after a radiation leak, now "Tokai No.2" plant is in jeopardy.

  The cooling system pump at the nuclear plant, 120km north of Tokyo, has stopped.

  It is also a boiling water reactor, and suffered a nuclear accident in 1999.

  We'll keep you updated...

   

• Timestamp: 

  1:14am

  Afghan president Hamid Karzai has spoken of his sorrow, as he signed a book of condolence at the Japanese embassy in Kabul. He said:

  The people of Afghanistan find themselves together in the pain and the difficulties of the people of Japan.

  His words come after officials in the southern Afghanistan city of Kandahar announced it was donating US$50,000 to help with relief efforts in Japan.

  Japan, the world's third-largest economy, has pledged some US$5billion in aid to war-ravaged Afghanistan over the next five years.

• Timestamp: 

  1:00am

  The United States Geological Service says the huge earthquake off the coast of Japan actually moved the island some 2.4m west.

  The Pacific plate reportedly pushes under a far western wedge of the North American plate at the rate of about 83mm (3.3 inches) a year - but a colossal earthquake can provide enough of a jolt to dramatically move the plates. USGS seismologist Paul Earle said:

  With an earthquake this large, you can get these huge ground shifts. On the actual fault, you can get 20metres of relative movement, on the two sides of the fault.

• Timestamp: 

  12:55am

  We mentioned yesterday that liquefaction - the process by which sand and water trapped metres underground bubbles to the surface - was causing some problems at Tokyo Disneyland.

  Now, we understand the theme park was drenched with water-logged segments.
  
  There were 69,000 people at the Disneyland and the adjacent Tokyo Disney Sea, built on a landfill in Tokyo Bay, when the quake occurred, a spokesman at the local Urawa police station said.
  
  There were no injuries reported.

• Timestamp: 

  12:37am

  With more states of emergency being declared at nuclear facilities in Japan, nuclear scientist Imad Khadduri says the risk of damage from meltdown is less than in disasters such as Chernoyl and Three Mile Island.
  
  He talks to Al Jazeera's Kamahl Santamaria and outlines the likely outcomes.

  
  
• Timestamp: 

  12:14am

  More on the situation at the Onagawa nuclear facility.
  
  The "lowest level of a state of emergency" was declared "as a consequence of radioactivity readings exceeding allowed levels in the area surrounding the plant", said the International Atomic Energy Agency.
  
  But, according to Japanese authorities, the three reactor units at the Onagawa nuclear power plant "are under control".

  The IAEA, the UN's nuclear watchdog, said that venting of the damaged Onagawa reactor unit had started
  at 9:20am in Japan "through a controlled release of vapour."

  The operation was intended to lower pressure inside the reactor containment. Following the failure of the high pressure injection system and other attempts of cooling the plant, the authorities had first injected water and
  then sea water into the unit.

  The authorities have informed the IAEA that accumulation of hydrogen is possible ... The IAEA is continuing to liaise with the Japanese authorities and is monitoring the situation as it evolves.

• Timestamp: 

  12:04am

  Japanese safety officials say the cooling system at the quake-damaged Onagawa nuclear plant has not been damaged, and the rise in reported radiation levels is due to a radiation leak at another plant nearby.

• Timestamp: 

  12:02am

  Welcome to our live blog for up-to-the-minute reports as events unfold, following the huge earthquake off Japan's coast, which triggered a 10m tsunami. Here, we'll bring you everything that happens on March 14 - but if you feel you've missed out, you can catch up with yesterday's liveblog by clicking here.