March 20 - Staying put and turning off embassy info

11:30 PM - Things getting back to normal enough that I felt confident to return the go-bags to the closet.   Plants #5 and 6 under control, but plants 3 and 4 still a problem.  The feeling of uneasiness in Tokyo seems to have been reduced by the increase of independent monitoring.  Hopefully, restoring electricity to the plants can help stabilize #1 and 2.  But this problem isn't going to be over for months. 

1:21 PM - Very good discussion of where things stand at the nuclear plants, what could still happen and what to look for in the near term.  From NPR...Update on Fukushima power plants
Key point... "Mr. LOCHBAUM: Well, one of the concerns with doing that is that the water weighs about eight pounds per gallon. The spent pools are on fire, or maybe on fire, and you're trying to get that situation resolved. One of the things you don't want to do is have the cure be worse than the problem originally.
If you put too much weight on top of the spent fuel pool, you could cause the racks that are holding the fuel assemblies to collapse. If the spent fuel reconfigures, you could actually cause a critical mass to be formed and restart a nuclear chain reaction and have a reactor core operating outside of containment."  Not good.


9:38 AM - Yesterday, the only issue of concern was a travel warning from the embassy that urged US citizens to leave.  This was a departure from the previous information that told us we could leave if we wanted to but there was really no reason to do so.  The embassy, despite my efforts to get clarification, offered no explanation.  Ambassador Roos seems to issue by the minute updates about how helpful the embassy is being, but on this rather important issue, he has been content to let a confused message stand.  So...  I'm ignoring the embassy messaging now.  I'll base my decisions on other sources of info, and all of those other sources (especially radiation level reports) indicate there is no problem in Tokyo that would cause me to leave.... yet.  Many expats are leaving, however, Leaving I think they are spooked by the uncertainty rather more than the reality of the situation.  Can't blame those with kids for wanting to get some distance between them and the power plants.  Kids are out of school right now, having finished their academic year.  There will likely be some tough choices to be made as the school year begins again in early April.

Beautiful day here.  Sunny and warm.  Friends say (and my own experience here is similar) that lines for food are going down.  The initial disruption to supply is mostly over and hoarders have their pantries full.  Now it is a matter of seeing what the 'new normal' becomes.  Businesses, trying to avoid disruption to operations, seem to be eying a move to Osaka.  Whether that is a temporary measure or whether Osaka begins to challenge Tokyo's dominance is not yet clear.

Seems pretty difficult to plug in to relief efforts in the area around Fukushima.  Going there on one's own to try to help would just add to the problem, but it is hard to sit on my hands and do nothing as the stories of the victims trickles out. Aftermath