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I thought you folks would like to be in the know. EnvirReporter is taking the radiation monitoring readings for the West Coast live on UStream. Just wanted to get this up here for your reference.

The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization shows how weather patterns this week might disperse radiation from a continuous source in Fukushima, Japan. The forecast does not show actual levels of radiation, but it does allow the organization to estimate when different monitoring stations, marked with small dots, might be able to detect extremely low levels of radiation.

01.00 Matt Alt, a writer and translator, tweets: Second drop of water at 9:53am local time, appears to have hit both #3, #4 00.59 The Foreign and Commonweath Office has updated travel advice and told Britons to observe a 50mile radius exclusion zone from Fukushima. 00.52 A Japanese military helicopter dumped water from a huge bucket onto the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant, television images showed. 00.50 Mat Alt, a writer and translator, tweets Chinook helicopter just dropped water on #3! 00.47 Operators at Fukushima plant hope to run an electricity cable to the site that could help pump water...

The radiation level of 1,000 MilliSieverts (MSV) at the power plant in Fukushima, Japan is hundred Rem. A person in America gets a year 620 Rem of radiation. The only diff is, that 1,000 MSV (100 Rem) per hour at Fukushima, is way higher than 620 Rem spread through the 8,760 hours a year. of course, if a person reads that the radiation level at the plant is 400 MSV per hour (instead of 1000 MSV P/H that it once reached), the person indeed knows that it is a high level. However, with the above information at hand, one understands...

Reuter's Breaking Headline only at this time...

Thanks to a nuclear-industry practice known as channeling law, General Electric (GE: 19.59, 0.00, 0.00%) doesn’t appear to be on the hook for liabilities related to the nuclear crisis at Japanese reactors designed 40 years ago by the blue-chip conglomerate. Since the magnitude 9.0 earthquake that has paralyzed Japan, GE’s stock has slumped as much as 7.4%, in part due to worries about its legal exposure to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility, which is said to be teetering near a nuclear catastrophe. However, analysts believe GE has little to worry about from a legal perspective and its bottom line may...

Wednesday, March 16, 2011 Fuel Rods Damage At Fukushima's 2 Reactors Estimated At 70%, 33% TOKYO (Kyodo)--An estimated 70 percent of the nuclear fuel rods have been damaged at the troubled No. 1 reactor of the Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant and 33 percent at the No. 2 reactor, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Wednesday. The reactors' cores are believed to have partially melted with their cooling functions lost after Friday's magnitude 9.0 earthquake rocked Fukushima Prefecture and other areas in northeastern and eastern Japan.

Live Thread for March 16, 2011. Please post Fukushima reactors stories here.

SDF Choppers Unable To Drop Water On Nuke Reactor Due To Radiation TOKYO (Kyodo)--The Self-Defense Forces will not conduct a planned operation Wednesday to drop water from helicopters on the troubled No. 3 reactor of the Fukushima nuclear power plant because of the high radiation level around the plant, Defense Ministry officials said. The Ground Self-Defense Force helicopters were on standby to drop water on the reactor as it is feared the reactor may have released radioactive steam due to damage to its containment vessel.

Tokyo Electric Power Company temporarily evacuated workers from the Fukushima nuclear power station early on 16 March as radiation levels hit a new high at reactor 3. White fumes have been seen coming from reactor 3 and the operator fears that there has been damage to the suppression chamber. A fire also occurred overnight at reactor 4.

Latest news from Japan: From the BBC- 1456: Tepco says it may start pouring water from a helicopter over Fukushima Daiichi's reactor four in the next few days, to cool the spent-fuel pool. 1439: A 30km (18 mile) no-fly zone is in place around Fukushima, says the IAEA. 1436: The IAEA says Monday's blast at Fukushima may have affected the integrity of the containment vessel - there are fears of more serious radioactive leaks if happen. 1435: Following earlier reports, it appears there has been more than one strong aftershock in Japan - AP reports two tremors measuring over 6.0...

Fox news saying they left the plant

Air that may contain radioactive materials will be vented from a nuclear power plant in quake-stricken Fukushima Prefecture. The Tokyo Electric Power Company has decided to release air from the reactor's containment vessels, aiming to avoid their breakdown. The company issued a warning about its Fukushima Number One Plant early on Saturday morning. It said the pressure value for the reactor's containment vessels had risen, and that if the value was correct, the vessels could break down. Tokyo Electric says the amount of air to be released will be small and that it will notify residents near the plant before...