LA Times News

LA Times News

Weather and radiation levels are key factors in exposure

Posted: 18 Mar 2011 07:50 PM PDT

How much radiation is released by the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant and the prevailing weather conditions will determine the spread of radioactive particles and the subsequent cleanup required.

Nobody knows how much radiation ultimately will be released in the Japanese nuclear crisis. That and the weather are the biggest factors in how much environmental cleanup will eventually be needed. Here are answers to some basic questions.

Was Japan's volcano eruption linked to its earthquake?

Posted: 18 Mar 2011 08:46 PM PDT

The eruption of the Shinmoedake volcano hundreds of miles away may be linked to the quake, but it's difficult to prove, one scientist says. In general, though, one can easily affect the other.

The Shinmoedake volcano on Japan's southern island of Kyushu, 950 miles from the epicenter of last week's magnitude 9 earthquake, spewed ash and rocks up to 2.5 miles into the air March 13. The volcano had erupted Jan. 19 and several times afterward, most recently Feb. 1. Its re-eruption just two days after the massive temblor prompted many to wonder whether the quake could have triggered that event.

Options are few to prevent Japan nuclear catastrophe

Posted: 18 Mar 2011 06:50 PM PDT

As a crack is discovered in a Fukushima spent fuel pool, officials confront two crucial tasks: preventing a runaway chain reaction into the nuclear fuel and maintaining a massive flow of seawater through the damaged pools and reactor vessels.

Workers struggling to contain radioactive releases from the Fukushima power plant face two critical tasks to avoid turning a nuclear disaster into a catastrophe: preventing a runaway chain reaction into the nuclear fuel and maintaining a massive flow of seawater through the damaged pools and reactor vessels.

Protests return to Syrian cities

Posted: 18 Mar 2011 06:55 PM PDT

In Damascus, anti-government demonstrators hit the streets after noon prayers. Several are beaten and arrested.

Anti-government protesters took to the streets in Syria on Friday for the third time in a week despite the threat of beatings and arrest.

Other regimes emboldened by Kadafi's tactics

Posted: 18 Mar 2011 06:09 PM PDT

The dictator has used brute force to stay in power. Arab leaders in Yemen and elsewhere are following suit.

Moammar Kadafi has ruled this country for four decades using tools also at the disposal of other Arab leaders. He shrouded his dirty deeds in nationalist ideology. He tactically doled out the country's oil money. He kept tabs on his enemies here and abroad.

In Japan, workers struggling to hook up power to Fukushima reactor

Posted: 18 Mar 2011 05:44 PM PDT

Engineers continue effort to restore electricity, but it's unknown if the cooling systems at the Fukushima plant will work. A moment of silence is observed to mark one week since the magnitude 9 earthquake and ensuing tsunami; the official death toll in Japan is now more than 6,900.

Fighting exhaustion and radiation fears, engineers struggled anew Saturday to complete the crucial task of hooking up a damaged nuclear plant to the electricity grid to help cool damaged reactors. The official count of dead and missing in the quake and tsunami soared above 17,000, making this Japan's worst disaster since World War II.

Radiation from Fukushima plant detected in Sacramento, EPA says

Posted: 18 Mar 2011 03:54 PM PDT

'Minuscule quantities' of radiation from the stricken Japanese nuclear power plant are found in Sacramento, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

A minuscule amount of radiation from the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor in Japan was detected in Sacramento but at such a low level that it posed no threat to human health, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Friday afternoon.

Residents of Japan quake region wonder where the government is

Posted: 18 Mar 2011 03:47 PM PDT

Most people have endured their privations with stoicism, but anger is rising over lack of basic services. For many, the slow response is reminiscent of that to the quake in Kobe in 1995.

There may be radioactive particles wafting out of the sky, but Masahiro Hamaguchi has a more pedestrian concern about the air around him: the dribble of cold, wet snow.

No sign of harmful radiation in Tokyo, officials say

Posted: 18 Mar 2011 02:17 PM PDT

There's no evidence that residents of Tokyo and other large Japanese cities are being exposed to dangerous levels of radiation, U.N. and World Health Organization officials say.

There is no sign that harmful levels of radiation are drifting into Tokyo or other large cities in Japan, according to United Nations and World Health Organization officials.

Japanese officials warn of long-term hardships ahead

Posted: 18 Mar 2011 01:40 PM PDT

The governor of hard-hit Miyagi prefecture asks survivors to relocate because even temporary housing will not be ready for as long as a year. Conditions are bleak at the nation's shelters, where 380,000 displaced people are staying.

Japanese officials are girding the nation for months of hardship, warning about ongoing rolling electricity blackouts and asking quake refugees to move elsewhere in the country, as it became clear that even temporary homes won't be quickly built.

Radiation levels normal in California, officials say

Posted: 18 Mar 2011 10:52 AM PDT

'We have not detected any increases beyond what you'd expect historically. Nothing you can attribute to Japan,' says Philip Fine of the South Coast Air Quality Management District in Southern California.

Radiation levels in California remain normal, air quality officials said Friday morning.

Pakistan pulls out of talks with U.S. on Afghan war

Posted: 18 Mar 2011 10:45 AM PDT

By pulling out of upcoming talks on the war in Afghanistan, Pakistan signals its anger over an American drone missile strike that it says killed civilians along the Afghan border. The U.S. says it hit a compound where militants were meeting.

Pakistan on Friday pulled out of upcoming talks with the U.S. on the war in Afghanistan, a move meant to convey Islamabad's anger over an American drone missile strike that it says killed a gathering of civilians along the Afghan border.

Clinton unimpressed by Libya cease-fire, says Kadafi must go

Posted: 18 Mar 2011 09:40 AM PDT

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton brushes aside Libya's claim that it will observe a cease-fire with rebels; she calls for a pullback of Libyan troops and insists that Moammar Kadafi leave power. President Obama will speak on the Libya situation Friday.

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday brushed aside Libya's claim that it would observe a cease-fire in fighting with rebels, and she insisted that the nation's crisis could only end with the departure of Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi.

Dozens of Yemen protesters shot dead

Posted: 18 Mar 2011 05:05 PM PDT

Witnesses in Sana say pro-government forces, many of them in civilian clothing, opened fire on the protesters shortly after prayers. At least 45 are dead and hundreds more injured. President Ali Abdullah Saleh reportedly declares a state of emergency.

Pro-government gunmen in Yemen on Friday shot at protesters demanding the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, killing at least 45 people and wounding hundreds more in Sana, the capital.

Jean-Bertrand Aristide returns to Haiti, days before presidential election

Posted: 18 Mar 2011 04:22 PM PDT

Former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide throws a combustible new element into Haiti's upcoming election as he returns from exile. The polarizing leftist ex-priest says he's not returning to politics.

Former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide returns home from exile in South Africa to boisterous throngs despite international pressure to keep him away before Sunday's elections.

Libya announces cease-fire as military intervention looms

Posted: 18 Mar 2011 07:48 AM PDT

Moammar Kadafi's regime announces a 'stoppage of all military operations' against rebels. A top Libyan official says the U.N. resolution to create a no-fly zone, with possible armed intervention, violates Libya's rights as a sovereign nation.

The Libyan government announced an "immediate ceasefire and stoppage of all military operations" against rebel-held enclaves Friday following a resolution adopted by the U.N. Security Council to establish a no-fly zone and to take "all necessary measures," including armed intervention, to prevent a humanitarian disaster.

U.S. nuclear officials suspect Japanese plant has a dire breach

Posted: 18 Mar 2011 01:50 AM PDT

A leak in a spent fuel pool at the Fukushima nuclear plant would be an unprecedented problem with no clear remedy, experts say.

U.S. government nuclear experts believe a spent fuel pool at Japan's crippled Fukushima reactor complex has a breach in the wall or floor, a situation that creates a major obstacle to refilling the pool with cooling water and keeping dangerous levels of radiation from escaping.