Japan

Fukushima Needs This Gigantic, Water-Spewing Truck with Football Field Reach

TEPCO is desperately trying to keep Fukushima’s scalding fuel rods from overheating. So they need water. Swimming pools of it. Pumping that much water isn’t easy—but this massive rig 700 gallons per minute with an astounding 70-meter boom. The $2 million Putzmeister 70Z (aka THE JUGGERNAUT) is the big brother of another Putzmeister model currently…

Tech News Sam Biddle Apr 18

Watch People Take to a Hill To Escape the Japanese Tsunami’s Destruction

This video was posted a week ago, and the tsunami itself was early March. But a point of view this powerful—this terrifying—resonates today, and will long after Japan has picked up the pieces and put them back together. [The First Post]

Tech News Brian Barrett Apr 18

There Are 27 Olympic Swimming Pools’ Worth of Radioactive Water in Fukushima

There is a lot of dangerous, radioactive water inside Fukushima, as TEPCO struggles to keep the fuel rods from burning up. Water accumulates—TEPCO estimates there are 67,000 tons of irradiated water inside. How much water is that? 67,000 tons is a tricky amount to visualize—but it’s enough to fill 27 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Splish splash.…

Tech News Sam Biddle Apr 18

Homemade Camera Looks Like Your Nan’s Kitsch Lamp

Little is known about this homemade camera that was spotted on the streets of Tokyo, other than it uses medium-format film and has a 360-degree lens which kind of resembles a crystal ball, as Photojojo said. I wonder if you can see the photo-future by staring into that lens? [Tokyo Camera Style via Photojojo]

Tech News Kat Hannaford Apr 15

Photographers Survey Japan One Month After the Earthquake

The Big Picture has a quality photo package of Japan one month after the massive earthquake and tsunami. There’s still wreckage, aftershocks, evacuations and radiation, reminding us Japan has a long road to recovery. [The Big Picture]

Tech News Adrian Covert Apr 14

William Gibson contributes to a new anthology for Japan earthquake relief, available after just one month

You can read a new piece by William Gibson and help donate to the Red Cross efforts in Japan at the same time, thanks to a new anthology that just went on sale at Amazon. The book, 2:46: Aftershocks: Stories from the Japan Earthquake, was organized largely via Twitter and represents a new way of…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders Apr 13

Japanese Gov Detects New Dangerous Isotope around Fukushima

The Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology say they’ve found leaked strontium 89 and 90 in dirt and plant samples around Fukushima—the first instance since the accident last month. Strontium 90 is particularly disturbing, as it possesses a half life of 29 years, and can be inhaled or ingested, accumulating in the…

Tech News Sam Biddle Apr 13

Huge Robots are Clearing the Fukishima Powerplant Debris

TEPCO started using large remote-controlled excavation vehicles to clear the debris around the Fukishima plants this past weekend, including power shovels and bulldozers. The work is being controlled by operators in lead-covered operating rooms using cameras mounted on the robots and around the area. These machines are being used in conjunction with the remote controlled…

Tech News Brian Lam Apr 13

Fukushima Radiation Leaks Could Surpass Chernobyl’s

TEPCO reps say something we never thought we’d hear them admit: on the heels of the Fukishima crisis being bumped up to a Chernobyl-grade 7, officials say still-leaking plant could ultimately release more radiation than its Russian counterpart. [Kyodo News] https://gizmodo.com/japanese-nuclear-crisis-upgraded-to-chernobyl-level-5791067

Tech News Sam Biddle Apr 12

Japanese Nuclear Crisis Upgraded to Chernobyl Level

The badly-damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant has been upgraded from 5 to 7 on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale. That’s, in case you were wondering, out of seven. The only other nuclear crisis to reach the same… [Gawker]

Tech News Gawker Apr 11

Hundreds of Safes Full of Quake Victims’ Money Are Washing up on the Shores of Japan

Citizens in Japan (especially the elderly) like to keep a fair amount of cash on hand in their homes. And after the earthquake and tsunami wreaked havoc on homes, money (and safes full of money) are washing up on shore and appearing in the debris of ravaged towns. Safes are washing up along the tsunami-battered…

Tech News Adrian Covert Apr 11

Japan Expands Evacuation Zone Again as Radiation Rises

The Japanese government has tapped five towns and cities outside of the current mandatory evacuation zone surrounding the Fukushima plant for mandatory departure, after the detection of escalating radiation levels. The evac order, however, will take up to a month. https://gizmodo.com/japan-widens-evacuation-zone-around-crippled-nuke-plant-5785675 We’re not sure why the government would tell residents that they’re in danger while…

Tech News Sam Biddle Apr 11

Multiple Earthquakes Rock Japan, as Tsunami Alarm is Rung

As Japan marks the one-month anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami which killed tens of thousands of people, more quakes have shaken the country today. First, a 7.1-magnitude earthquake in the Ibaraki Prefecture, which resulted in a 3-foot tsunami warning being issued for 6pm local time (5am EST). A second earthquake, measuring 2 on the…

Tech News Kat Hannaford Apr 11

Prepare for the Worst by Deploying the Best

Members of the U.S. Marines Chemical Biological Incident Response Force (CBIRF) are in country, ready and willing to help the Japanese respond to the still-critical nuclear disaster that threatens their nation. Seen here is a decontamination exercise, currently underway. [SFGate]

Tech News Jack Loftus Apr 9

Japan’s New Wasteland

What you’re looking at isn’t a scene from a sci-fi flick. It’s real life—a phalanx of Japanese police in hazmat suits, carrying off a body found inside the deserted radius of Fukushima. Radiation levels within the danger zone continue to fluctuate, but with the population evacuated, the environs in ruin, and radioactive fuel scattered across…

Tech News Sam Biddle Apr 8

How Japan’s Tsunami Massive Debris Plume Will Hit California and Hawaii

If you live in Hawaii, California, British Columbia, Alaska or Baja California, here is some bad news: According to computer models made by scientists at the International Pacific Research Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa, all the debris washed out by the Japan tsunami is coming your way. This is how the trash will spread…

Tech News Jesus Diaz Apr 7

“Hand-Screened for Radioactivity” Is Going to Be the New “Grown Locally”

If you’re willing to throw down $140 for the tasting menu at Le Bernardin—perhaps the greatest seafood-oriented restaurant in the country, with three Michelin stars and four from the NYT—you can nom on the fluke sashimi without worrying about radioactive contamination. That’s because in addition to no longer sourcing seafood from Japan, chef Eric Ripert’s…

Tech News Matt Buchanan Apr 7

TEPCO Pulls off Explosion-Averting Operation at Fukushima

Some rare good news: TEPCO reports their efforts to prevent another hydrogen explosion at Fukushima by pumping reactor No. 1 full of nitrogen is a success. How long this measure will hold off another dangerous buildup is unclear. [Kyodo News] https://gizmodo.com/workers-pumping-fukushima-full-of-nitrogen-to-prevent-e-5789461

Tech News Sam Biddle Apr 7

Japan’s Rescue Robot Brigade Takes to Fukushima

In an environment as inhospitable as Japan’s wasted Fukushima nuclear plant, there’s no feasible way for humans to partake in salvage efforts. Which is why Japan has called on the services of 23 brave rescue robots to enter the heart of darkness. The bots, recently introduced by Japan’s International Rescue System Institute, will be deployed…

Tech News Brian Barrett Apr 7

Workers Pumping Fukushima Full of Nitrogen to Prevent Explosion

The volatile mix of seawater and melting fuel rods is producing hydrogen and oxygen gas—the stuff that blew the lids off Fukushima twice last month. To avert another disastrous hydrogen explosion, workers are blowing inert nitorgen gas inside. https://gizmodo.com/second-explosion-at-the-fukushima-daiichi-nuclear-plant-5781611 The effort is going on at this very moment, and the consequences are quite dire—documents obtained…

Tech News Sam Biddle Apr 6

Fukushima Needs This Gigantic, Water-Spewing Truck with Football Field Reach

Watch People Take to a Hill To Escape the Japanese Tsunami’s Destruction

There Are 27 Olympic Swimming Pools’ Worth of Radioactive Water in Fukushima

Homemade Camera Looks Like Your Nan’s Kitsch Lamp

Photographers Survey Japan One Month After the Earthquake

William Gibson contributes to a new anthology for Japan earthquake relief, available after just one month

Japanese Gov Detects New Dangerous Isotope around Fukushima

Huge Robots are Clearing the Fukishima Powerplant Debris

Fukushima Radiation Leaks Could Surpass Chernobyl’s

Japanese Nuclear Crisis Upgraded to Chernobyl Level

Hundreds of Safes Full of Quake Victims’ Money Are Washing up on the Shores of Japan

Japan Expands Evacuation Zone Again as Radiation Rises

Multiple Earthquakes Rock Japan, as Tsunami Alarm is Rung

Prepare for the Worst by Deploying the Best

Japan’s New Wasteland

How Japan’s Tsunami Massive Debris Plume Will Hit California and Hawaii

“Hand-Screened for Radioactivity” Is Going to Be the New “Grown Locally”

TEPCO Pulls off Explosion-Averting Operation at Fukushima

Japan’s Rescue Robot Brigade Takes to Fukushima

Workers Pumping Fukushima Full of Nitrogen to Prevent Explosion

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