I found a blog of an independent non-Japanese with a Geiger counter who was taking radiation readings off the roof of his apartment block in Tokyo (which ranged from normal to 22 times normal (still harmless) and posting it online in English. I began following this website closely.
I woke up this morning to a message on the phone from my Dad saying that he'd heard I'd failed to get my family out of the capital yesterday and that I should give them a call as soon as I woke up, no matter if it was the middle of the night there time - if they heard the phone they'd pick up. This didn't put me in the best of moods, as I have a bit of a thing about my parents using words like 'fail' when referring to myself, but I tried to shrug it off, because basically he was right. Then I went into the kitchen and heard about the other explosion at the plant and that rods had been left uncovered in various reactors and must have experienced a partial meltdown. After breakfast I set out to do something, anything, if only just to keep busy until I woke up properly and then at least I'd be in a better position and with more information to think.
I was the first group in line at the local drugstore and succeeded in getting some eggs and bread which I handed into the flat, and then headed up the 100 yen store to try and get some other stuff only to read that due to the power outages they'd open at 11:00am. So I mosied over to the hardware store (a surprisingly reassuring place to browse around in a crisis) looking for a weathervane, because I'd realised that with the blackouts - no internet - no wind direction information. But after wandering through the aisles looking for one I decided a long stick with a bit of ribbon would probably work just as well. But my eyes paused at the variety of meters they had behind the glass case - voltmeters, lightmeters, sound meters. I wanted to ask if they had any geiger counters, but it was just too damned apocalyptic. Although if they'd had a cheap one that could hang around your neck or something for ￥2000, I would have bought it.
The idea I'd had yesterday about a last ditch way to leave Tokyo, was germinating in my brain and I asked if they had any maps. They didn't, but suggested the 7/11 over the road. I looked into buying a couple of bicycles, one with a front seat for our son to sit in, so that if the worst came to the worst we could cycle south west down to Itami. But in the end I went to Machida bus station and was able to buy a couple of tickets for the overnight bus to Osaka.
At the Fukushima nuclear plant more problems arose, one of which was a fire breaking out at Unit 4 involving spent fuel rods from the reactor, normally kept in a water-filled spent fuel pool to prevent overheating. Radiation levels at the plant rose significantly but subsequently fell back. Radiation equivalent dose rates at Unit 3 were recorded to be 400 millisieverts per hour. People are recommended not to expose themselves to more than 1 millisievert per year.
No comments:
Post a Comment