Radiation from Japan's damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is accumulating in marine life off Japan's coast above legal limits for food contamination, Greenpeace said Thursday.
The environmental group said its findings run counter to Japanese government reports that radiation from the Fukushima plant, damaged in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, is being diluted as time passes.
“Despite what the authorities are claiming, radioactive hazards are not decreasing through dilution or dispersion of materials, but the radioactivity is instead accumulating in marine life," Greenpeace radiation expert Jan Vande Putte said in a press release.
The Tokyo Electric Power Co. has released dramatic tsunami images on its website, as a nuclear expert slammed comparisons between the Japan nuclear disaster and Chernobyl.
The photos, which are available on TEPCO's website, show the tsunami that crippled the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant barreling toward the facility before inundating it with water.
The news came as the power company continued to issue press releases reporting radiation in the groundwater and seawater around the plant. It also came two days after the company said it learned that a pressure vessel in reactor No. 1 may be leaking and that the reactor's fuel rods almost melted completely hours after the tsunami hit.
A U.S. physicist said, if accurate, the revelations would indicate a "very, very bad accident" that would be difficult to clean up.
Gas prices: The national average price of a gallon of regular gas dropped two-tenths of a cent overnight to $3.982, according to the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report.
The average price is virtually unchanged from a week ago and is about 13 cents below the record average price of $4.114, recorded on July 17, 2008.
But analysts fear pump prices could rise as Mississippi River floodwaters move downriver toward New Orleans.
"When we've had floodwaters in this part of Louisiana before, it has closed up to 12 refineries," Peter Beutel, an analyst with energy risk management firm Cameron Hanover, told CNNMoney. "The fear here is that we could see refineries close again." Beutel was referring to the impact of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
How much of your paycheck is going to pay for gas? Check out CNNMoney's state-by-state look.
Town waits for flood: The small town of Butte La Rose, Louisiana, is waiting to learn if the Army Corps of Engineers will open the Morganza Spillway to let waters from the swollen Mississippi River into the community of 800 homes.
Hundreds of people heard a dire prediction from Col. Ed Fleming of the Army Corps of Engineers at the town's firehouse.
"I'm telling you the depth of water from right here will be 15 feet," he told them.
Read what CNN's Ed Lavandera found in the Cajun community.
Nuclear accident compensation: Japan's government has announced that victims of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant accident will be getting financial compensation.
Some analysts say total compensation could amount to more than 10 trillion yen ($124 billion).
More than 78,000 people have been displaced by the disaster. The plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power, has made a down payment on compensation of 1 million yen (about $12,000) per household to some families.
Hudson drownings burials: Lashanda Armstrong, who killed herself and her three young children by driving her minivan into the Hudson River last week, will be buried in Spring Valley, New York, on Thursday, but relatives' plans to bury her children alongside her will not be carried out, according to media reports.
The father of the three children, Jean Pierre, announced Wednesday the funeral and burial of the children would be separate from that of their mother.
“After consulting with the Armstrong family, I have decided that the funeral arrangements for Landen, Lance and Laianna should be separate from that of Lashanda’s. My deepest sympathy goes out to La’Shaun and the Armstrong family," Pierre said in a statement released by his lawyer, according to a report in the Poughkeepsie Journal. "I ask that I be given the opportunity to grieve the loss of my three children privately," he said.
That angered Armstrong's aunt, Angela Gilliam, according to a report in the New York Daily News.
"She should be buried with her children, regardless of what she did," the Daily News quoted Gilliam as saying.
The children, an 11-month-old girl, a 2-year-old boy and a 5-year-old boy, will be buried Monday.
Another child, 10-year-old Lashaun Armstrong, escaped the vehicle as it was sinking in the Hudson.
Nuclear zone restrictions: On Friday, Japan will begin enforcing an evacuation order on a 20-kilometer zone around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, a top government official said.
The restriction –in place since the early days of the nuclear disaster - has often been ignored.
Many of the about 78,000 people who have homes in the evacuation zone have gone back in recent weeks to retrieve belongings, and check on farms and businesses.
No one will be allowed within 3 kilometers of the crippled nuclear facility and entry within 20 kilometers of the plant will be highly regulated, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters Thursday.
People who temporarily return to their homes, businesses and farms must wear a protective suit and ride into the restricted zone on a designated bus.
Car of the Year: The winner of the World Car of the Year will be announced at the New York International Auto Show on Thursday.
Finalists are the Audi A8, the BMW 5 Series and the Nissan LEAF, whittled down from an original list of 39 entries.
A panel of 66 automotive journalists from 24 countries votes for the winner.
Congress is on a two-week recess, but that doesn't mean news is lacking from Washington. Watch CNN.com Live for continuing coverage of the government spending fight in Washington.
Today's programming highlights...
12:00 pm ET - White House briefing – The battle over government spending is expected to top Press Secretary Jay Carney's agenda with the White House press corps, along with the situations in Japan and Libya.
1:45 pm ET - Obama honors Air Force football – President Obama takes a brief break from the bruising budget battle to present the Commander-in-Chief Trophy to the Air Force Academy football team. The trophy is awarded annually to the best service academy football team.
CNN.com Live is your home for breaking news as it happens.
Tax Day: Today is the deadline to file your federal income taxes for 2010.
The Internal Revenue Service has a free electronic filing service available for those who make less than $58,000 a year. Get details on that service here. Other electronic filing options are also available from the IRS as well as information on how to file extensions.
For those filing on paper, the U.S. Postal Service is extending hours at locations around the country so taxpayers can meet the midnight deadline.
Engineers will need up to nine months to fully shut down the damaged reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the scene of the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl, its owners announced Sunday.
The U.S. State Department is lifting the voluntary departure order issued for dependents of U.S. government employees in Japan, allowing families to return to the country.
The departures were authorized after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami damaged the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility and led to releases of radiation from damaged nuclear reactors.
In a travel alert posted on its website, the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo said that while the situation at the Fukushima nuclear facility "remains serious and dynamic," the radiation dangers outside a 50-mile radius evacuation zone are low and "do not pose significant risks to U.S. citizens."
"Based on the much reduced rate of heat generation in the reactor fuel after one month of cooling and the corresponding decay of short-lived radioactive isotopes, even in the event of an unexpected disruption at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, harmful exposures to people beyond the 50-mile evacuation zone are highly unlikely," the embassy statement said.
Travel inside the evacuation zone is still not recommended. Major U.S. government and military facilities are outside the 50-mile zone.
The families of military personnel who left Japan for "safe havens" in the U.S. are awaiting Pentagon orders authorizing their return, Stars and Stripes reported.
“Family members will soon receive instructions on how to obtain return flights and proceed from their selected locations,” Stripes quotes a statement from U.S. Forces Japan as saying.
The U.S. Embassy statement said the American government is using the same safety standard in allowing the return of dependents as it would if such an event occurred in the United States.
A “time stop.” That’s what photographer Athit Perawongmetha found when he entered the Fukushima evacuation zone to document the ghost town left behind in the wake of the nuclear crisis in Japan. The traffic lights were still on and air conditioners were running, but there were no people. “The city is untouchable. Everything I see is like a dream,” he said.
Perawongmetha documented the scene with his camera, taking photos of the destruction from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, which knocked out the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant's cooling systems, leaving operators with no way to keep the three operational reactors from overheating after they shut down.
He came back with photos of empty streets, abandoned houses left open, cats and dogs forsaken by their owners, and shoes left in a doorway, waiting for their owners’ return – but no people.
On April 6, the first day of his journey into Fukushima, Perawongmetha did not see a single person.
Using only a mask as protection from the radiation, he and his travel companions used GPS to explore the area within the 30-kilometer (18.6-mile) evacuation zone. On the second day inside the zone, April 7, they did not realize how close they were to the plant. When they looked at a map later that night, they realized they were five kilometers (three miles) from the nuclear plant.
The next day, Perawongmetha went with his friends to a radiation screening center to be tested. Their levels were within the acceptable range despite how close they came to the plant. After learning that his radiation levels were OK, Perawongmetha said he wanted to return.
On Monday, Perawongmetha went inside the evacuation zone for the third time. This time he was not taking any chances; he wore a full protective suit and mask. He went within 1.5 kilometers (one mile) of the plant, closer than he had ever been.
Perawongmetha said he decided to go “to see something inside because all the press didn’t go inside before.”
He said the crisis has given him a great respect for the Japanese.
“I thought that the Japanese people kept very calm ... and (didn't) panic with the thing that happened,” he said. “They keep their feelings inside; they try to stay very quiet and wait for some help.”
Perawongmetha is from Bangkok, Thailand. He arrived in Japan on March 21. It was his first time in Japan and his first assignment covering an earthquake or tsunami.
“It is quite sad about these things happening in Japan,” Perawongmetha said. “This is a real big crisis for Japan. I hope that Japan will come back soon, like they came back after World War II."
The budget battle continues in Washington as President Obama and Congress consider spending cuts and the debt ceiling. Watch CNN.com Live for continuing coverage of this developing story.
Today's programming highlights...
10:00 am ET - Natural gas drilling hearing - Two Senate environment subcommittees consider natural gas drilling and its impact on public health and the environment.
Japanese authorities Tuesday "provisionally" declared the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident a level 7 event on the international scale for nuclear disasters, putting the current crisis on par with the 1986 disaster at Chernobyl.
Regulators have determined the amount of radioactive iodine released by the damaged reactors at Fukushima Daiichi was at least 15 times the volume needed to reach the top of the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Association said. That figure is still about 10 percent of the amount released at Chernobyl, the agency reported.
The amount of radioactive Cesium-137, which has a half-life of 30 years, is about one-seventh the amount released at Chernobyl, according to the agency.
Level 7, a "major accident," is the highest level on the event scale. The 1986 Chernobyl, Ukraine, event also was rated a level 7. For more information about the ratings, see this interactive.
FULL STORY
It's been a month since an earthquake and subsequent tsunami rocked Japan, leaving more than 27,000 people dead or missing. From decimated towns that are far from recovery to the delicate reminders of how life used to be, today's Gotta Watch focuses on life in Japan one month after the crisis began.
Anatomy of a ghost town – It looks like any other town, except for one thing. It's devoid of life. Earthquake and tsunami damage forced so many residents from their homes. All that's left are the subtle signs of a hasty retreats and elevated radiation levels.
One budget battle appears to be over, but two more economic fights are coming to a head. Watch CNN.com Live for continuing coverage of the economic conflict in Washington.
Today's programming highlights...
9:30 am ET - Wartime contracting hearing - The Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan meets to discuss whether the federal government can learn from non-governmental organization in creating more effective and less costly federal contracting.
A magnitude 7.1 earthquake rattled the northeastern coast of Japan Monday evening, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.
Japan's Meteorological Agency issued a tsunami warning, predicting a potential wave of two-meters in Miyagi, Fukushima and Chiba and Ibaraki prefectures.
The quake was centered about 164 kilometers (101 miles) northeast of Tokyo, according to the USGS. Residents in Tokyo felt the jolts.
FULL STORY
Ripple effects from the earthquake and tsunami in Japan continued to be felt by the U.S. work force this week as Japanese automakers announced cuts in plant production at North American factories.
While the cuts were expected, the news signals the long road ahead for Japan's economy, the world's third largest, and how other nations will be affected.
Japan's big three - Honda, Nissan and Toyota - and the global auto industry are increasingly hampered by parts suppliers in Japan who are struggling in the aftermath of the worst disaster to strike the island nation since World War II.
The 19-year-old native of Japan says he will donate all the money he wins on the PGA Tour this year, including this weekend's Masters, to his earthquake- and tsunami-ravaged homeland.
Ishikawa, who shot a 1-under-par 71 in the first round of the Masters, won $2 million last year, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. He said he hopes to inspire his country by playing well.
"I understand that people, especially in Sendai, they are living in hell, and I would love to show the energy and power of what golf can bring to those people."
The "non-essential" government worker is one of 800,000 who will not get paid if the government shuts down. The Montana resident works for the U.S. Forest Service and doesn't consider the work he does "non-essential," since some of the work he does includes protecting the U.S.-Canadian border. Thatcher tells CNNMoney.com, "I've worked with the Forest Service over 30 years and I'm damn proud to be a Forest Service employee."
The baseball player at Mount Pisgah, a small private school in Johns Creek, Georgia, is turning heads as a relief pitcher with a reported 85-mph fastball.
But it's not the fastball that has people talking. It's the fact that Sandy is a girl, one of just a few across the country playing high school baseball.
"I've seen and coached with a lot of boy pitchers the same age, and she has got just as much or more talent than half of them," Joey Hamilton, a former major-league pitcher and one of Sandy's private coaches, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
"I love baseball; it's my favorite sport and always has been," Almon told the paper. "I don't know how to explain it other to say that baseball just comes natural to me. Other sports, like basketball, are work. Baseball is not that way."
The Sacramento, California, high school senior has achieved an honor few of her peers can match: A school in Liberia has been named for her.
Robbins founded Textbooks for Liberia when she was in eighth grade. The organization has sent more than 10,000 books to the West African nation, CNN affiliate KXTV reports.
In gratitude for her work, officials named a new school in Monrovia, the Liberian capital, for her.
"The school is taking enrollment now and it should be starting in the fall. It's the Casey Robbins International School," said Robbins, who visited the site in February. "It's definitely a cool thing for me. I got to have a picture with the sign for my school."
Robbins said she plans to continue and possibly expand the program while attending Stanford University after graduation.
Japan's government has lifted restrictions on vegetables and milk from some parts of the country's north after inspections found radiation levels below legal limits for three straight weeks, a top government official announced Friday.
A roundup of the day's business news headlines:
Stocks fall slightly following Japan quake
U.S. stocks fell slightly Thursday after Japan was hit with another major earthquake and the price of oil rose above $110 a barrel.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 17 points, or 0.1%, to 12,409; the S&P 500 dropped 2 points, or 0.2%, to 1,334; and the Nasdaq Composite lost 3.6 points, or 0.1%, to 2,796.
A 7.1-magnitude earthquake occurred off the coast of Japan shortly after 10:30 a.m. ET, only a few miles west the March 11 earthquake. The news sent the Dow down as much as 95 points, but stocks slowly recovered throughout the afternoon.
Japan's news agency NHK issued a tsunami warning that was lifted two hours later, with no reports of major damage. The troubled Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant did not experience any further damage, according to NHK.
[Update 12:06 p.m. ET, 1:06 a.m. Friday in Japan] The tsunami warning and advisories for Japan have been lifted, public broadcaster NHK reported.
[Update 11:20 a.m. ET, 12:20 a.m. Friday in Japan] Workers evacuated the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant following an earthquake Thursday, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said. TEPCO has communication with the plant and the power is still on. There were no immediate reports of damage.
The U.S. Geological Survey downgraded the magnitude of the latest Japan earthquake to 7.1; the quake had been given a preliminary magnitude of 7.4.
[Posted 10:57 a.m. ET, 11:57 p.m. in Japan] A magnitude-7.4 earthquake struck Japan on Thursday, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. The epicenter was off the coast of Miyagi Prefecture.
Public broadcaster NHK reported a tsunami warning for Miyagi, saying people in the area should evacuate from the shore to a safe place.
NHK also reported a tsunami advisory for Iwate Prefecture, saying a tsunami is expected to arrive in coastal regions there as well.
Are you there? Please send your stories, photos and videos to iReport.com.
FULL STORY
The battle over the federal budget is dominating the talk in Washington today. CNN.com Live is there for all the latest developments.
Today's programming highlights...
9:00 am ET - House budget debate - House lawmakers will be focusing on the budget this morning when they resume their session on Capitol Hill. Senate debate resumes at 10:00 am ET.
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