Tomohisa Shoko, Yasuhiro Otomo, and Atsushi Shiraishi: The next day of the disaster – a report from a Japanese disaster medical assistance team

Pictured: Tomohisa Shoko, the corresponding author. On 11 March 2011, at 2:46 pm Japan time, a massive 9.0-magnitude earthquake struck off the Pacific coast of Japan’s Tohoku (northeastern) region. The maximum seismic intensity, level seven (on the Japan Meteorological Agency’s scale), was recorded in Kurihara City, northwestern Miyagi Prefecture. About 25 minutes after the quake, […]

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Ryuki Kassai: Update from Fukushima – the second seven days of the disaster

First of all, I want to express my sincere gratitude to those who provided us with useful information, who kindly donated to us, who warmly encouraged us, who thoughtfully conveyed our messages abroad, and who continue to pray for Japan after the disaster. […]

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Cheryl Rofer: Reading Fukushima status reports

Now that things are happening less rapidly at Fukushima, I’ve been looking less frequently at the status reports. It became obvious early on that the general aftermath of the earthquake, the loss of electrical power and communication, and other factors were leading to erroneous reports and too much instant interpretation. Taking some time helps to […]

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Cheryl Rofer on the nuclear reactors damaged in the Japanese earthquake

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has six reactors. It is located on Japan’s northeast coast, close to the earthquake’s epicenter. A tsunami higher than any anticipated took the plant’s generators out of service. In a nuclear power plant, the core, where the nuclear reactions take place, generates heat, which boils water and further heats […]

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