Asia

When they were just a few years old, they marched with Gandhi against the laws of an oppressing regime. This weekend a few of the veterans from the 1930 salt march took to the streets again. They were protesting against the democratic government for which they had once fought. The latest nationwide battle is against corruption.

Reverberations from Fukushima crisis are being felt around the world, as plans to build new nuclear power plants are being challenged. The safety of existing plants is being questioned. The cost of nuclear power is projected to rise, and the bottom has fallen out of the uranium market. Here’s a quick glimpse of what’s happening.

Documents reveal that the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan had not been properly inspected, safety procedures had been bypassed and economic considerations had been put first in spite of the risk posed by decisions such as prolonging the life of an obsolete model and accumulating more spent radioactive fuel rods than the plant was supposed to handle.

Japan is facing shortages of bottled water after dangerous radiation levels were detected in water supplies in Tokyo and in other areas. Store shelves were empty across Tokyo after Japanese authorities warned that tap water was too dangerous for consumption by infants. Thousands of people remain without water in areas of northern Japan ravaged by the earthquake and tsunami.

Uncertainty looms large over India’s ambitious civilian nuclear programme as a consequence of the disasters that have struck Japan. The civilian nuclear agreement, which New Delhi and Tokyo were negotiating, is certain to be indefinitely delayed. Also, operationalization of India-U.S. civilian nuclear agreement may take more time than either New Delhi or Washington anticipated.

Japanese officials say today that a fuel storage pool at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station is at, or near to the boiling point. The storage pool is holding 2,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel rods. If the pool begins to boil, more radioactive steam could spew out. Authorities announced success in hooking up power lines to all six reactor units at the plant.

As Japan battles to stave off a nuclear catastrophe, the UN has launched a concerted bid to help the country to cope with the multi-front disaster that Naoto Kan has called Japan’s worst since World War II. As a result of the March 11 devastating earthquake, tsunami and atomic power plant breakdown, over 5,000 people have died and 9,000 others are missing.
By Jaya Ramachandran

The 50 people still working at Japan’s stricken Fukushima reactor are not “being sacrificed”, Dutch nuclear researcher Folkert Draaisma says. It’s not like Chernobyl, where workers were sent in without protection, he adds.
The 50 engineers hold the future of hundreds of thousands of people in their hands. The levels of radiation they are braving have made them heroes to many.

High levels of radiation have leaked from the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan after a third explosion at the crippled plant. The latest blast seriously damaged the Number Two reactor’s steel containment structure. In addition, a fire briefly broke out at the plant’s reactor Number Four. Officials just south of the plant reported up to 100 times the normal levels of radiation.

Nine people have been injured in a second blast at Japan’s Fukushima 1 nuclear power plant. The explosion at the plant’s number three reactor destroyed a wall and sent a plume of smoke billowing into the sky.
On Saturday, the building surrounding the plant’s number one reactor was blown apart but the seal around the reactor was not damaged.