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Chicago - Fears of nuclear radiation in Japan have now hit Chicago, after a plane landing at O'Hare Airport tested for positive for radiation, but an expert in the field cautioned that there was no risk to the public from the incident. A spokeperson for American Airlines confirmed that two planes from Tokyo tested positive for radiation Wednesday, one at O'Hare and one landing in Dallas. The radiation at O'Hare was coming from a routine medical shipment that was bound for Mexico. U.S. Customs said the radiation test was positive, but at no time was the radiation at unsafe levels....

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is calling for a comprehensive safety review at the 104 nuclear reactors in the U.S. in the wake of the Japanese disaster. The president is asking the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to examine nuclear plants to ensure they can withstand earthquakes and other disasters. Obama said lessons can be learned from the unfolding nuclear disaster caused by last week's earthquake and tsunami in Japan. In televised remarks Thursday, The president said U.S. officials do not expect harmful levels of radiation to reach the West Coast of the continental U.S., Hawaii or Alaska. He repeated the statement...

1. Americans should leave. 2. Radiation will not reach the U.S. 3. The CDC do not recommend that people take precautionary measures except for staying inside (cowering is optional). 4. US nuclear plants are safe. However, what we can learn now in Japan may make them even safer. 5. SAR teams from US will help in Japan. The US military is pitching-in. 6. Responders are being given the best equipment. 7. American citizens are mobilizing to help. You can do so on (website suchandsuch). 8. Japan and the US share many cultural bonds. This friendship is certain to bring everyone...

Lufthansa, KLM Cancel Flights to Tokyo's Narita Airport Panicked passengers hoping to flee Japan waited for hours at the country's largest international airport today as concerns about radioactive fallout heightened. The international and domestic terminals at Narita International Airport were crammed with passengers leaving the capital Germany's Lufthansa airline became the first major carrier to cancel flights to irst major carrier to cancel flights to Narita International Airport, which services Tokyo, and will reroute all flights through Nagoya and Osaka, some 300 miles south of the capitol. Dutch carrier KLM followed. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said, "There is no...

Rice Gone from Tokyo Area Supermarkets Tokyo, March 16 (Jiji Press)--Rice has sold out at supermarkets in the Tokyo metropolitan area due to the disruption of transportation networks in the Tohoku northeastern Japan region hit by the massive 9.0-magnitude earthquake Friday. Given the emergency situation, Ito-Yokado supermarkets, operated by Seven & i Holdings Co. <3382>, held special sales events in the Tokyo metropolitan area Wednesday, and customers stood in long lines in front of the stores well ahead of their opening. "Now that school lunches have been suspended, I need more rice than usual," a housewife in her 40s from...

As is tradition in Japan, loudspeakers sound at 5pm every day to tell children it is home time. In Ofunato, their song, laced in tragic irony: "Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away, now it seems as though they're here to stay".

Talk show host Glenn Beck has called Japan’s latest deadly earthquake a message from God. His remarks come after a tsunami caused by a magnitude-8.9 earthquake hit the Japanese coastline last Friday, claiming an estimated 10,000 lives. Since the quake occured, several nuclear power plants risk meltdown after receiving damage. "I'm not saying God is, you know, causing earthquakes – well I'm not not saying that either!" Beck said on television Monday. "What God does is God's business, I have no idea. But I'll tell you this – whether you call it Gaia or whether you call it Jesus, there's...

Minutes before Emperor Akihito made his first-ever television address to his people, the Japanese public broadcaster NHK instructed its editors to cut into the speech if important news on the unfolding nuclear crisis broke. In a country where the Emperor is treated with a reverence verging on the worshipful, both the public speech and the orders to show discourtesy to it if need be illustrate just how deep the cultural impact of Japan's earthquake and tsunami has been. Dressed in a dark suit, and seated against a backdrop designed to evoke the appearance of a traditional paper screens, Emperor Akihito...

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

US Energy Secretary Steven Chu told Congress Wednesday that Japan's ongoing nuclear crisis appears "more serious" than the 1979 Three Mile Island partial reactor meltdown. Chu's comments came in response to a question comparing the incidents from Representative Ed Whitfield, a Kentucky Republican, as Chu was testifying before the House of Representatives' Energy and Power Subcommittee. "I think the events unfolding in Japan actually appear to me to be more serious than Three Mile Island," Chu said. "To what extent, we don't really know right now. They're unfolding on an hour-by-hour basis and there are conflicting reports." "That's one of...

Rising fears about the nuclear crisis in Japan along with disappointing U.S. economic news sent stocks falling Wednesday. Stocks opened lower then dropped sharply in midmorning trading after the European Union's energy chief was quoted as saying that Japan's nuclear crisis could get worse. Japan temporarily suspended work at a stricken nuclear plant after a surge in radiation made it too dangerous for workers to remain there. That came a day after Japan's prime minister said four crippled reactors at a nuclear power plant were leaking dangerous amounts of radiation. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 165, or 1 percent,...

Surging radiation levels temporarily halted work to cool the troubled reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, raising worries that officials are running out of options to stabilize the escalating catastrophe. "We're very close now to the point of no return," Dr. Michio Kaku, a theoretical physicist, said. "It's gotten worse. We're talking about workers coming into the reactor perhaps as a suicide mission and we may have to abandon ship."

Jason Kelly is an author and blogger living in Japan. He has been documenting events at his blog since the earthquake hit last week. In his latest post, aptly titled Cleaned Out, Kelly gives us a picture tour of a grocery store in Sano, Japan, about 40 miles northwest of Tokyo. According to Jason, infrastructure damage, rolling blackouts and other problems have left about 35% to 50% of all stores in his town closed, with grocery stores completely out of food. Gas stations are either rationing fuel or have run completely dry.

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...

JIM BERKLAND, GEOLOGIST: The month of October, March, and April are the three most devastating earthquakes in terms of damage in the San Francisco Bay Area in history. And we are having on the 19th of this month not only the full moon, but within an hour the closest approach of the moon to the earth until the year 2016. The next day is the equinoctial tides. So you're bringing together three of the maximum tide raising forces. We know about the ocean tides. But there is also an Earth tide. And there is a tide in the ground water....

AFP Snow blankets Japan's tsunami deadlands Wed, Mar 16, 2011 TOKYO, JAPAN - A blanket of snow covered disaster areas of northeast Japan on Wednesday, amid a cold snap in the debris-strewn wastelands created by last week's quake and tsunami catastrophe. Survivors and rescue crews - already facing an acute lack of water, supplies and fuel, power blackouts and poor telecommunications - had their troubles compounded by snow flurries over roads and rubble. Temperatures in the worst-hit Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures fell sharply to near zero degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit), and the meteorological agency forecast a drop to...

The fear that a nuclear cloud could float from the shores of Japan to the shores of California has some people making a run on iodine tablets. Pharmacists across California report being flooded with requests. State and county officials spent much of Tuesday trying to keep people calm by saying that getting the pills wasn't necessary, but then the United States surgeon general supported the idea as a worthy "precaution." U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin is in the Bay Area touring a peninsula hospital. NBC Bay Area reporter Damian Trujillo asked her about the run on tablets and Dr. Benjamin...

Why NBC is "in the tank" for Barack Obama: The second largest company in the world is General Electric. GE owns NBC. It also builds nuclear power reactors. Is it any wonder then that NBC favored Obama from the start? According to the LA Times, “Obama is the largest beneficiary of money from companies that have a stake in nuclear energy’s future.” Are we surprised then that Tim Russert prematurely called Obama the Democratic nominee? Or that Russert allowed Obama to ramble on about how great nuclear power is on Meet the Press? Take a look at Obama's Exelon connection...

Japan raced to avert a catastrophe on Wednesday after an explosion at a quake-crippled nuclear power plant sent radiation wafting into Tokyo, prompting some people to flee the capital and others to stock up on essential supplies. The crisis escalated late on Tuesday when operators of the facility said one of two blasts had blown a hole in the building housing a reactor, which meant spent nuclear fuel was exposed to the atmosphere. Prime Minister Naoto Kan urged people within 30 km (18 miles) of the facility -- a population of 140,000 -- to remain indoors, as Japan grappled with...

Just got back from the health food store. I went to get some Xylitol. Xylitol is a natural sugar that helps with sinus infections, that sort of thing. Phone was ringing off the hook. Gal behind the counter was automatically answering "Sorry, we're sold out"... Anybody guess what people were wanting?