Low, non-life threatening levels of radiation were detected Wednesday aboard a cargo ship tied up at the Port of Tacoma, according to the United States Coast Guard.
The radiation was detected in the engine room air filters of the Hyundai Oakland, which arrived Tuesday at the port. It is the first ship to arrive at the port from Asia since the post-earthquake/tsunami problems at Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant arose, including reported releases of radioactive material. The ship's last call had been Shanghai, however, according to the Coast Guard the ship had not passed within 250 miles of Japan.
The Coast Guard emphasized that the detected levels aboard the ship were not harmful to human health and were confined to the engine room filters.
State health officials told local TV station KIRO 7 that the "finding was expected because of the radiation that has spread from the nuclear plant across the ocean and the enormous size of the filter on the ship."
The US Customs and Border Protection have been screening all cargo arriving from Japan since the earthquake for radiation.
Austrian researchers using a worldwide system of detectors set up to detect clandestine nuclear weapons tests have calculated that iodine-131 is being released from the Japanese facility at daily levels equal to 73 percent of those seen near Chernobyl after that plant's 1986 disaster. The monitors, including detectors in Alaska, Hawaii and Sacramento, California, also indicate that the daily amount of caesium-137 released from the Fukushima plant is around 60 percent of the amount released from Chernobyl.
The researchers pointed out, however, that while Chernobyl spread radioactive particles in the smoke generated by the massive fire at the Ukrainian plant, the majority of the Japanese radiation is localized to the area around the Fukushima power plant.
Showing posts with label Japanese earthquake. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Japanese earthquake. Show all posts
Friday, March 25, 2011
Damaged Japanese Ports Reopen, Supply Chain and Radiation Concerns Remain
The March 11 earthquake/tsunami disaster in Japan did far less damage to the island nation's port infrastructure than initially thought, but non-marine infrastructure damage is still causing internal supply chain problems and fears of radiation exposure are increasing concerns as post-disaster Japanese cargo begins arriving at international ports.
While actual damage from the 9.0 earthquake appears to have been minimal at most port facilities, the subsequent tsunami was thought to have heavily damaged at least four major ports in the affected area, including: Hachinohe, Ishinomaki, Onahama and Sendai.
Other northern ports that were initially reported to have suffered varying degrees of damage include: Aomori, Hitachinaka, Hitachi, Kesennuma, Kamashi, Miyako, Ofunato, Oarai, Shiogama, and Soma.
Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism reported Thursday that, "Fifteen of 15 ports in the afflicted area are usable. Multi-purpose piers are partly available, excluding Aomori port."
The Ministry also said that the ports are open for both humanitarian and commercial vessels.
Despite the opening of the ports, damage to highway, railroad and factory infrastructure throughout the northeast continues to cause supply chain problems.
Auto manufacturers throughout Japan are struggling to reestablish their supply chains with some automakers, such as Toyota shuttering most of their plants, while others, such as Nissan, restarting production facilities but only as long as on-hand part supplies last. Goldman Sachs has estimated that each lost production day costs Nissan about $25 million in profits.
Consumer electronics manufacturer Sony has shuttered six production plants across Japan until at least the end of March. Major production facilities belonging to Fujitsu, Nikon, Texas Instruments, and Toshiba have also suffered damage and been shuttered. Perhaps more significantly to the electronics industry, the Shin-Etsu Chemical firm has shuttered two production facilities including their Shirakawa facility in Fukushima which produces about 20 percent of the world's supply of the silicon wafers used to make computer and memory chips.
Radiation, which continues to leak from the heavily damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant, is also becoming a concern – and in some cases far from Japan's shores.
While very low-levels of radioactive material from the disaster have been detected at West Coast monitors from Alaska to Sacramento, radiation has also been detected on at least one vessel moving past Japan and on cargo loaded in Japan after the earthquake.
Low, non-life threatening levels of radiation were detected Wednesday in the engine room air filters of a cargo ship tied up at the Port of Tacoma, according to the United States Coast Guard. The ship, the first post-quake ship from Asia to call at the port, had last called at Shanghai. Coast Guard officials pointed out that the ship had not passed within 250 miles of Japan.
On Friday, Chinese officials at the Port of Xiamen detected "abnormal radiation" aboard a cargo vessel that had last called at the Port of Tokyo on March 17. Officials did not provide the exact levels of radiation, or the condition of the ship crew or cargo.
The first vessel to arrive at the Port of Los Angeles carrying post-quake cargo from Japan was inspected and cleared by US Customs and Border Protection staff on Thursday. Customs officials said, "no harmful levels of radiation were found" among the 355 containers that were screened.
German shipping lines Hapag-Lloyd and Claus-Peter Offen have stopped calling at the central Japanese ports of Tokyo and Yokohama, citing radiation fears. Hamburg Sud, which initially had stopped calling at Tokyo and Yokohama last week, resumed calls at the two ports on Thursday.
Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and the United States are restricting food and milk imports from the zone around the crippled nuclear power plant.
China has implemented tougher restrictions that cover dairy, aquatic and vegetable products from five Japanese prefectures.
South Korea has banned all food products from four Japanese prefectures around the Fukushima power plant.
Taiwan has banned foodstuffs from five Japanese prefectures and advised local fisherman not to fish in Japanese waters.
Canada, the European Union, Great Britain, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam have all stepped up monitoring of Japanese imports.
While actual damage from the 9.0 earthquake appears to have been minimal at most port facilities, the subsequent tsunami was thought to have heavily damaged at least four major ports in the affected area, including: Hachinohe, Ishinomaki, Onahama and Sendai.
Other northern ports that were initially reported to have suffered varying degrees of damage include: Aomori, Hitachinaka, Hitachi, Kesennuma, Kamashi, Miyako, Ofunato, Oarai, Shiogama, and Soma.
Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism reported Thursday that, "Fifteen of 15 ports in the afflicted area are usable. Multi-purpose piers are partly available, excluding Aomori port."
The Ministry also said that the ports are open for both humanitarian and commercial vessels.
Despite the opening of the ports, damage to highway, railroad and factory infrastructure throughout the northeast continues to cause supply chain problems.
Auto manufacturers throughout Japan are struggling to reestablish their supply chains with some automakers, such as Toyota shuttering most of their plants, while others, such as Nissan, restarting production facilities but only as long as on-hand part supplies last. Goldman Sachs has estimated that each lost production day costs Nissan about $25 million in profits.
Consumer electronics manufacturer Sony has shuttered six production plants across Japan until at least the end of March. Major production facilities belonging to Fujitsu, Nikon, Texas Instruments, and Toshiba have also suffered damage and been shuttered. Perhaps more significantly to the electronics industry, the Shin-Etsu Chemical firm has shuttered two production facilities including their Shirakawa facility in Fukushima which produces about 20 percent of the world's supply of the silicon wafers used to make computer and memory chips.
Radiation, which continues to leak from the heavily damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant, is also becoming a concern – and in some cases far from Japan's shores.
While very low-levels of radioactive material from the disaster have been detected at West Coast monitors from Alaska to Sacramento, radiation has also been detected on at least one vessel moving past Japan and on cargo loaded in Japan after the earthquake.
Low, non-life threatening levels of radiation were detected Wednesday in the engine room air filters of a cargo ship tied up at the Port of Tacoma, according to the United States Coast Guard. The ship, the first post-quake ship from Asia to call at the port, had last called at Shanghai. Coast Guard officials pointed out that the ship had not passed within 250 miles of Japan.
On Friday, Chinese officials at the Port of Xiamen detected "abnormal radiation" aboard a cargo vessel that had last called at the Port of Tokyo on March 17. Officials did not provide the exact levels of radiation, or the condition of the ship crew or cargo.
The first vessel to arrive at the Port of Los Angeles carrying post-quake cargo from Japan was inspected and cleared by US Customs and Border Protection staff on Thursday. Customs officials said, "no harmful levels of radiation were found" among the 355 containers that were screened.
German shipping lines Hapag-Lloyd and Claus-Peter Offen have stopped calling at the central Japanese ports of Tokyo and Yokohama, citing radiation fears. Hamburg Sud, which initially had stopped calling at Tokyo and Yokohama last week, resumed calls at the two ports on Thursday.
Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and the United States are restricting food and milk imports from the zone around the crippled nuclear power plant.
China has implemented tougher restrictions that cover dairy, aquatic and vegetable products from five Japanese prefectures.
South Korea has banned all food products from four Japanese prefectures around the Fukushima power plant.
Taiwan has banned foodstuffs from five Japanese prefectures and advised local fisherman not to fish in Japanese waters.
Canada, the European Union, Great Britain, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam have all stepped up monitoring of Japanese imports.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Earthquake Disaster Shutters Japanese Auto Industry
Nearly the entire Japanese auto industry has been shuttered in the wake of Friday's 9.0 earthquake and tsunami, either due to direct damage to manufacturing facilities or other infrastructure and utility-related problems, according to a research report from IHS Automotive released Monday.
While the report made clear that the situation in Japan was still being appraised, it pointed to at least temporary closures to facilities throughout Japan operated by Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Toyota, Subaru and Suzuki.
“Many more auto plants throughout the country are at risk of closure, some owing to temporary rolling blackouts that are being considered in order to conserve power in light of the damage to several Japanese nuclear power plants, and some through disruption to the country’s transport infrastructure, affecting everything from parts delivery, personnel mobility and shipping activity at the country’s ports.”
IHS said that in addition to those closures, and the disruption to the country’s transportation and power networks, dozens of other auto parts manufacturing facilities have also been affected.
These problems could quickly ripple outward to impact the rest of the world, IHS said, since many car makers, including those in the U.S., rely on parts manufacturers located in the hardest hit areas of Japan.
“Stoppages at those plants that produce parts that have second or third sources for manufacturing are unlikely to affect overall production very much, but disruption to production of parts that are unique and cannot be easily shifted has the potential to hit output badly at several automakers through the near term,” the report said.
Honda shuttered a research and development facility north of Tokyo after a cafeteria wall collapsed in the earthquake, and has closed several manufacturing facilities until at least March 20. Honda produces about 80 percent of its US-market cars in the United States.
While Mazda has most of its production facilities in the relatively unscathed southern parts of Japan, the carmaker idled production anyway.
Mitsubishi planned to keep its plants closed until at least Tuesday at it evaluates its supply chain logistics with suppliers in the northern part of Japan.
Nissan reported building or equipment damage at six plants, including the Oppama plant where it makes the new electric Nissan Leaf. The carmaker is assessing the impact to future Leaf supply to the United States. Nissan, which manufactures about 80 percent of its vehicles in Japan, said it is shuttering four Japanese plants until at least Wednesday, while two others will shut until at least Friday. The firm lost 2,300 finished vehicles in the disaster, and said some shipments of vehicles to the US could be delayed.
Subaru, which closed all of its domestic factories over the weekend, planned to resume production Monday.
Suzuki said all of its Japanese plants would be closed until at least March 17, when the company would reevaluate the situation.
Toyota shuttered production at all of its plants in Japan at least through Wednesday, curtailing 45 percent of the firm's global production. The car maker lost about 40,000 vehicles in the disaster, although IHS points out that this amount can easily be made up once production restarts. The company has two factories in the heavily damaged northern area of Japan.
While the report made clear that the situation in Japan was still being appraised, it pointed to at least temporary closures to facilities throughout Japan operated by Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Toyota, Subaru and Suzuki.
“Many more auto plants throughout the country are at risk of closure, some owing to temporary rolling blackouts that are being considered in order to conserve power in light of the damage to several Japanese nuclear power plants, and some through disruption to the country’s transport infrastructure, affecting everything from parts delivery, personnel mobility and shipping activity at the country’s ports.”
IHS said that in addition to those closures, and the disruption to the country’s transportation and power networks, dozens of other auto parts manufacturing facilities have also been affected.
These problems could quickly ripple outward to impact the rest of the world, IHS said, since many car makers, including those in the U.S., rely on parts manufacturers located in the hardest hit areas of Japan.
“Stoppages at those plants that produce parts that have second or third sources for manufacturing are unlikely to affect overall production very much, but disruption to production of parts that are unique and cannot be easily shifted has the potential to hit output badly at several automakers through the near term,” the report said.
Honda shuttered a research and development facility north of Tokyo after a cafeteria wall collapsed in the earthquake, and has closed several manufacturing facilities until at least March 20. Honda produces about 80 percent of its US-market cars in the United States.
While Mazda has most of its production facilities in the relatively unscathed southern parts of Japan, the carmaker idled production anyway.
Mitsubishi planned to keep its plants closed until at least Tuesday at it evaluates its supply chain logistics with suppliers in the northern part of Japan.
Nissan reported building or equipment damage at six plants, including the Oppama plant where it makes the new electric Nissan Leaf. The carmaker is assessing the impact to future Leaf supply to the United States. Nissan, which manufactures about 80 percent of its vehicles in Japan, said it is shuttering four Japanese plants until at least Wednesday, while two others will shut until at least Friday. The firm lost 2,300 finished vehicles in the disaster, and said some shipments of vehicles to the US could be delayed.
Subaru, which closed all of its domestic factories over the weekend, planned to resume production Monday.
Suzuki said all of its Japanese plants would be closed until at least March 17, when the company would reevaluate the situation.
Toyota shuttered production at all of its plants in Japan at least through Wednesday, curtailing 45 percent of the firm's global production. The car maker lost about 40,000 vehicles in the disaster, although IHS points out that this amount can easily be made up once production restarts. The company has two factories in the heavily damaged northern area of Japan.
