Japan's twin disasters: March 13 liveblog

Japan's twin disasters: March 13 liveblog

Here's a blog of the events around the Pacific Rim after an 8.9-magnitude earthquake off Japan's coast triggered a devastating tsunami as they happened on March 13. Stay up to date with an all new liveblog for March 14. There, we'll keep you right up to date with the latest developments as they happen. Click here to read it.

Blog: Mar11-12 - Mar 14

(All times are local in Japan GMT+9)

• Timestamp: 

  12:16am

  That's it for today's liveblog - thanks for reading. But you can stay up to date with an all new liveblog for March 14. There, we'll keep you right up to date with the latest developments as they happen. Click here to read it.

• 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 radiationleak at another plant nearby.

• Timestamp: 

  11:44pm

  A Japanese man has been found alive - 15km out at sea - clinging to wreckage from the roof of his home, two days after the tsunami swept him from the shore.

  Hiromitsu Shinkawa, 60, is from Minamisouma - one of the cities worst hit by the devastating wave. He is said to be in good condition, depite his ordeal.

  Local media report he and his wife returned home after fleeing in order to gather some belongings.

  She was swept away and engulfed by the torrent of water.

• Timestamp: 

  11:30pm

  More on the developing emergency at the Onogawa nuclear facility, 155km north of the crisis-hit Fukushima plant. The IAEA statement says:

  The alert was declared as a consequence of radioactivity readings exceeding allowed levels in the area surrounding the plant. Japanese authorities are investigating the source of
  radiation.

• Timestamp: 

  11:22pm

  With three nuclear reactors at the Fukushima facility under states of emergency, the International Atomic Energy Association says that the Onagawa nuclear power plant is also reporting a state of emergency.

  Onagawa contains the most modern nuclear reactor in all of Japan, but it's not yet clear if that is the unit affected.

  Like the Fukushima facility, it is also operated by the Tokyo Electric Power Co.

• Timestamp: 

  11:10pm

  An explosion in No.3 reactor would be much more dangerous than yesterday's blast due to its mix of plutonium and uranium, nuclear scientist Imad Khadduri tells Al Jazeera. More from him soon.

• Timestamp: 

  10:57pm

  Steff Gaulter, Al Jazeera's Senior Meterologist, has been speaking to us. She says:

  The seismic activity appears to be calming down a little in Japan.

  Yesterday between 0GMT and 12GMT, there were 49 aftershocks which were of magnitude 5.0 or higher. Today in the same period there were 26.

  The risk of a tsunami has also been downgraded. The risk for the east of the country is an “advisory”, meaning there could be a tsunami up to a height of 0.5m. Yesterday there was a “warning”, meaning a tsunami was likely up to a height of 2 metres.

• Timestamp: 

  10:45pm

  A factory facility in Sendai burns, as strong aftershocks continue to shake Japan's largest island.

  

• Timestamp: 

  10:36pm

  More on that press conference from Japan's nuclear safety commmittee on the No.3 reactor at Fukushima:

  - Water level has been increased, temperature lowered within the reactor

  - Trouble occurred with the pump so they switched the water source to sea water

  - This injection of sea water was unstable in the beginning, which initially caused the water level to be lowered significantly, but was eventually raised after a thorough investigation

  - A high level of hydrogen was generated when the core of the reactor was not fully cooled down

  - The hydrogen level is being monitored at the upper level of the reactor so it could be likely that hydrogen is being stored there

  - Measures are being taken to prevent No.3 reactor from exploding

• Timestamp: 

  10:28pm

  More on those radiation levels emerging from the Fukushima plant. Japanese nuclear safety officials have said the radiation did spike earlier today, but has diminished again now.

  10:00am - radiation level at 15 microsievert
  1:44pm - radiation level increases
  1:52pm - levels peak at 1557 microsievert - reportedly equivalent to three stomach X-rays
  2:42pm - levels return to 184.1 microsievert

  Japan's nuclear safety committe says the hydrogen in Reactor No.3 may trigger an explosion - but it will not cause much damage to the reactor’s pressure vessel.

  If explosion does take place, radiation within the vicinity will still not be harmful to the human body, they say.
  
  

• Timestamp: 

  10:20pm

  The US relief effort in Japan has been named Operation: Tomodachi - or "friendship".

• Timestamp: 

  10:06pm

  Al Jazeera's Taymoor Tabili tells us:

  In this part of Sendai, things seems normal - but you only have to go into a shop and see the shelves picked clean, or see the queues at petrol stations to observe things are far from normal.

  On the surface, things seem normal - but try to do anything like buy a train ticket, and you have to queue for a very long time. The highway here is half-closed, presumably to let emergency vehicles through.

• Timestamp: 

  10:03pm

  Tokyo Electric Company says the radiation level has gone beyond the government standard, reports Japan's public broadcaster NHK World.

• Timestamp: 

  9:50pm

  Reuters says a third reactor at the quake-damaged Fukushima nuclear plant is now having sea water pumped into it to cool fuel rods and avert meltdown. We'll keep you updated.

• Timestamp: 

  8:43pm

  Pope Benedict XVI says he's praying for the quake and tsunami victims and in his traditional Sunday blessing, he praised the "dignity and courage" with which the Japanese are coping with the tragedy.

  Benedict also encouraged aid workers who are bringing comfort to those afflicted, saying God was with them.

• Timestamp: 

  8:12pm

  PM Kan also said the current situation is the worst crisis Japan has experienced since the end of the Second World War.

• Timestamp: 

  8:05pm

  Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan says the nuclear crisis is not the same as the Chernobyl disaster of 1986.

  "Radiation has been released in the air, but there are no reports that a large amount was released," Jiji news agency quoted him as saying. "This is fundamentally different from the Chernobyl accident. We are working to prevent damage from spreading."

• Timestamp: 

  8:03pm

  Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, in a broadcast news conference, says reactor 3 might be showing some "failure" which has to be solved and air pressure has to be lowered.

  "Currently, the radiation monitor hasn't showed any change, "he said.

  "A short while ago, they started seawater injection into the reactor" and the level of water has been rising, he said, "but it seems that the gage is not showing the water is going up."

• Timestamp: 

  7:28pm

  Japan's biggest instant noodle maker Nissin says it will deliver 1 million packets to victimsin the northeast

  Nissin Foods Holdings Co. Ltd. said it will also deliver "kitchen cars." These are vehicles equipped with gas-powered kitchenettes and running water for cooking noodles.

• Timestamp: 

  7:21pm

  The Japanese government has increased the number of troops to be deployed to the disaster zone to 100,000.

  "They're sending in all available resources, to try and rescue  and bring relief to people who've been trapped by the earthquake and the ensuing tsunami," Al Jazeera's Shakuntala Santhiran, in Tokyo, said.

  "It's proving very difficult with the blocked roads and also many aftershocks." 

• Timestamp: 

  6:43pm

  Dr Ilham al-Qaradawi, a professor of nuclear physics at Qatar University, says the possible meltdown in the Fakushima facility does not necessarily have to become dangerous.

  "The meltdown means that the heat has been so great that parts of the core of the reactor has started to melt or be damaged by the heat. It does not necessarily mean it's becoming dangerous because it depends on how this is going to be contained by the containment of the reactor.

  "It could be that the reactor core could be completely damaged but there is no release of radioactivity and that's the important part." 

• Timestamp: 

  5:10pm

  A Japanese man who was swept 15km out to sea by the tsunami has been plucked to safety after being spotted clinging to a piece of wreckage.

  60-year-old Hiromitsu Shinkawa was swept away along with his house on Friday and was rescued earlier today off Fukushima prefecture.

  "I ran away after learning that the tsunami was coming," Shinkawa told rescuers according to Jiji Press.

  "But I turned back to pick up something at home, when I was washed away. I was rescued while I was hanging to the roof from my house."

• Timestamp: 

  5:03pm

  About 2.5 million people across Japan are without electricity and at least a million households have gone without water since the quake struck. 

• Timestamp: 

  4:43pm

  More astonishing footage has emerged of the moment the tsunami slammed into Japan's coastline. Houses were being crushed like tin cans and cars washed away by the massive wave.

• Timestamp: 

  4:15pm

  NHK television quotes a police chief as saying more than 10,000 are feared dead in Miyagi prefecture. Our correspondent Wayne Hay, on the ground in Miyagi, said earlier that some buildings in the port town of Minamisanriku were moved 3km by the tsunami.

• Timestamp: 

  4:05pm

  Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano warns of the risk of a second explosion at the Fukushima plant, but says reactor 3 could withstand it as reactor 1 did yesterday.

  "There is the possibility of an explosion in the third reactor, as in the case of the first reactor," he said, adding there would be no effect on the health of nearby residents.

• Timestamp: 

  3:53pm

  The Japanese Meteorological Agency says that there is a 70 per cent chance of a major aftershock in the next three days of a magnitude of 7 or more.

• Timestamp: 

  3:41pm

  This line just dropped from AP: "Japanese government spokesman warns of fresh threat from
  explosion at another nuclear unit". We'll of course let you know when we find out more. Don't forget that you can also watch our live stream.

• Timestamp: 

  2:56pm

  Harry Fawcett wraps up the latest developments in Fukishima, where thousands are sheltering in evacuation centres.

• Timestamp: 

  2:47pm

  AP news agency quotes police saying they have found another 200 bodies in Miyagi.

  The total death toll keeps changing as more bodies are recovered. One of the latest reports said 1,000 people are confirmed dead and hundreds more are missing.

• Timestamp: 

  1:58pm

  CNN quotes experts saying the earthquake appears to have moved the main island of Japan by 2.4m and shifted the Earth on its axis.

  Reports from the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in Italy estimated the quake shifted the planet on its axis by nearly 10cm.

• Timestamp: 

  1:31pm

  The Japan Meteorological Agency has revised the magnitude of Friday's earthquake to 9.0, up from 8.9.

• Timestamp: 

  1:27pm

  Our correspondent Steve Chao was just reporting live for us in the town of Natori, where smashed cars and rubble are littered across big swathes of land. He says many bodies have been pulled out since floodwaters receded but there is yet no official count of the dead and injured. There is no electricity and phone lines are disrupted.

  

   

• Timestamp: 

  1:12pm

  Al Jazeera's Harry Fawcett, reporting from Motomiya, not far from the quake-hit nuclear plants in Fukushima, says residents are queuing up at local supermarkets, stocking up on food, and flocking to petrol stations to fill up the tanks ahead of any possible emergency.

• Timestamp: 

  11:06am

  The Associated Press agency reports that the Japanese authorities have said another reactor at the quake-hit nuclear plant was in trouble after its cooling system also failed.
  
  "All the functions to keep cooling water levels in No. 3 reactor have failed at the Fukushima No. 1 plant," plant operator Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) said, adding that pressure was rising slightly.

• Timestamp: 

  7:15am

  More on the danger posed by that second developing problem at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. A Tokyo Electric Power Co spokesman said:

  All the functions to keep cooling water levels in No.3 reactor have failed at the Fukushima No.1 plant.

  As of 5:30am, water injection stopped and inside pressure is rising slightly.

  An emergency report on the plant's condition has been filed with the government, he added.

  

• Timestamp: 

  6:56am

  AFP says the operator of the Fukushima nuclear power plant, where a second reactor system is overheating, says there is a risk of a second explosion. We'll keep you updated right here.

• Timestamp: 

  6:51am

  The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission are sending a pair of its people to Japan. Chairman Gregory Jaczko said:

  We have some of the most expert people in this field in the world working for the NRC and we stand ready to assist in any way possible.

  The NRC is an independent agency mandated by Congress to regulate commercial nuclear power plants and other nuclear materials in the US, and said the pair were experts in boiling water nuclear reactors and were part of a broader US aid  team sent to the disaster zone.

• Timestamp: 

  6:37am

  Yesterday, we reported that three people had tested positive for elevated radiation levels. That number has now jumped to 160, says a Japanese nuclear safety official.

• Timestamp: 

  6:29am

  Fukushima nuclear plant - where a huge explosion yesterday blew the outer walls and roof off the No.1 reactor building - faces a new problem.

  The emergency cooling system of No.3 reactor has now also stopped working, the Japan Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency has announced.

  Sea water is being pumped into the No.1 reactor chamber to cool its fuel rods - and officials are scrambling to secure a means of of supplying water to the No.3 reactor.

• Timestamp: 

  6:17am

  First it was 6,000 - then 45,000... Now about 140,000 people have been told to evacuate areas near the two Fukushima nuclear power plants following Friday's earthquake, said the UN atomic watchdog. The International Atomic Energy Agency said:

  Evacuations around both affected nuclear plants have begun ... but full evacuation measures have not been completed.

• Timestamp: 

  6:12am

  After the devastating earthquake off the coast of north-east Japan damaged the cooling system of several reactors at Fukushima's nuclear power facility, a large explosion appears to have blown the external walls and roof off one of the reactor buildings.
  
  Al Jazeera's Sonia Gallego reports on what this means for the safety of the plant - and of the thousands of people who live nearby.  Watch the footage of the explosion, and an explanation of what happened - and might happen next - below.

• Timestamp: 

  6:00am

  Welcome to our new liveblog for March 13, keeping you up to date with the latest from Japan and around the Pacific Rim. If you've missed out on anything, catch up with the previous days' blog, which covers everything that's happened since the devastating earthquake and tsunami struck, by clicking here.