Every 10th Atomic Plant is facing a risk of Earthquakes

Most of countries having Nuclear Reactors do not possess capability dealing with an emergency situation

In Japan, after having the most dreadful earthquake as a result of Tsunami which causes Nuclear crises, have paved way to apprehensions regarding the safety of Atomic Reactors in the world.

According to a recent research many Atomic Reactors in the world are facing the danger of Tsunami or earthquakes and it is doubted that this situation can duplicate itself like Japanese “Foko Shimari Reactor”, which would be more disastrous because the their capability dealing with disasters is far more less than Japan. Be ware that Japan possesses the best capability of dealing with disasters.

According to the research of Maple Craft there are 76 Atomic Plants in Japan, Taiwan, China, South Korea, India, Pakistan and America, located at places which can be affected by Tsunami. In different countries of the world there are 442 Atomic Power Plants, in which every 10^th is facing the danger of earthquake. Be ware that most of these plants are situated in Japan, America, Taiwan, Armenia and Slovenia.

The auditor of Maple Craft Mr. Helen Hoj says that although the Atomic crisis of Japan is the first incident of its type but other countries can face this terrible situation. The Atomic Plants that are situated in the Southern Coastal Line in South Korea, Taiwan, South China, India, Pakistan and America or which are under consideration of installation in these areas are considered sensitive as regard to Tsunami. On the other hand the Atomic facilities of America, Taiwan, Armenia, Iran and Slovenia are likely to be affected by earthquake.

According to the Professor Kath Berahnam of Imperial College London, Japan is the most modern country in regards to technology but they are also facing problem in dealing with the crisis of Atomic Plants. Therefore, apprehension is natural for rather less developed countries for their Atomic Plants situated in dangerous zones. Nuclear safety experts refer to the Russian Atomic Plant situated 30 K.m. away from the Capital of Armenia.

In December, 1988 a powerful earthquake hit in the North West of Armenia, in which 25 thousand people were killed. Next year the Metsamore Atomic Plant had to shut down due the dangers of earthquakes. Although one Plant of this Reactor has been made useless, however, the other is operational. International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) has been monitoring the safety protocols of this Plant for a decade; however, apprehensions are still present.

According to World Nuclear Association the present Nuclear Plant of Metsamore is a source of apprehension for European Union and neighboring country “Turkey” situated just 16 kms away from the plant. Many bodies are raising voices for shutting down this Reactor, but Armenia who depends much on this plant for the supply of Energy says that it will remain operational until the establishment of an alternate.

In the recent years, the IAEC has recognized the dangers of drastic natural calamities; therefore, they established the International Seismic Safety Centre in 2008. They also reviewed their safety measure after the situation occurred in the Japanese Fokoshima Plant in regards to Tsunami and earthquakes. Be ware that last month rising Atomic crisis due to Tsunami has once again made the arguments start regarding Nuclear Safety. As a result several countries including Italy, Switzerland and Germany have stopped the installation of their Atomic Plants.

Another Nuclear expert James Acton says, the real problem is that we cannot assume the disaster caused by natural or human fault, that’s why it is essential to inspect the designs and safety protocols of every nuclear reactor in the world. In his opinion it is necessary to provide the information and technology to rather less developed countries in order to save the world from Atomic radiation. Be ware that IAEA already provides technical aid to the less developed countries in regards to nuclear safety protocol.

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Record floods swamp Australia's northeast

GLADSTONE, Australia (Reuters) – Large parts of Australia's coastal northeast disappeared under floodwaters on Sunday in a spreading disaster that has brought some of the highest floods on record and forced thousands from their homes.
Queensland State Treasurer Andrew Fraser described the floods as a "disaster of biblical proportions" and said the ultimate cost would exceed A$1 billion (1.02 billion).
As forecasters predicted months of more rain, hundreds of residents in the town of Rockhampton, 600 km (370 miles) north of the Queensland state capital Brisbane, fled homes amid rising waters which are expected to reach over 30 feet deep in coming days.
Local Mayor Brad Carter said the town was "like an island." Across the state, the floods have affected around 200,000 people and inundated thousands of properties.
"You can look down a street for a kilometer and see nothing but water," Carter told Reuters by telephone from Rockhampton, a town of 77,000 people. "You see people in boats moving their material in and out of houses."
One person was confirmed dead in the floods on Sunday, while an intense search was under way for a second missing.
Floodwaters were receding in some areas, leaving a mammoth cleanup job, but other areas were still collecting runoff from the Christmas deluge brought by the La Nina weather pattern.
"It is the Fitzroy River flowing through down to Rockhampton that is still rising and expected to get quite near to record levels," Gordon Banks, a senior forecaster in Brisbane with Australia's Bureau of Meteorology, told Reuters.
"Those floods in the south of Queensland are hitting records. We have not seen water that high in recorded history here."
Across the state, thousands have been forced to camp out with friends or in makeshift emergency shelters over the New Year period in a disaster which has hit coal mining and agriculture particularly hard.
Mayor Carter said Rockhampton's airport was closed, road and rail links to the town were mostly cut off, water was lapping at the floorboards of some homes and police had sent reinforcements to prevent any looting.
Rockhampton sits near the mouth of the giant Fitzroy River system, one of Australia's largest, carrying the water from last week's rains down to the coast. Officials said its level had reached 8.85 meters on Sunday.
"I am at the side of the river bank at the moment. It is flowing extremely fast," council official Tony Cullen told Reuters.
Australia's Bureau of Meteorology said flood waters in the town could reach nine meters (30 feet) on Monday and peak at 9.4 meters on Wednesday, a level similar to floods that hit in 1991 and 1954.
Although the rain has largely eased off, flood warnings remain current for many rivers in the state, some communities are expected to be isolated for up to two weeks and eventually further rain is expected.
Police said on Sunday 22 communities were still flooded or isolated. Where floodwaters have started to recede, there are fears of disease and accidents, in what one senior emergency official said would be "a heartbreaking return to homes."
Bureau of Meteorology hydrologist Jeff Perkins said floodwaters would also flow on down to western New South Wales. Normally the tropical wet season would only be beginning around now, meaning more headaches to come for farmers, miners and the general community.
"We have got a couple of months more and a good chance of further rainfall," Perkins told Reuters.

Pakistan flood toll tops 900 as cholera emerges

Evacuating residents carry their belongings through floodwaters the Mohib Bhanda area in Nowshera district. (AFP: A Majeed)

The death toll from Pakistan's worst floods in living memory topped 900 as outbreaks of waterborne disease emerged and penniless survivors sought refuge from the raging torrents.

A total of 862 people have been killed by monsoon rains, flash floods and landslides around the north-west province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and at least 47 have died in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, officials said.
Up to one million people have been affected in all, according to the UN, with thousands of homes and vast swathes of farm land destroyed in a region of Pakistan already reeling from years of extremist bloodshed.
"This is the worst flood in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the country's history," said provincial information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain.
Hundreds of survivors were finding shelter in schools in Peshawar, the main city in north-west Pakistan, and in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir, after escaping the floods with children on their backs.
Pakistani television and photographs shot from helicopters showed people clinging to the walls and rooftops of damaged houses as gushing waters rampaged through villages.
Muqaddir Khan, 25, who fled the floods with nine relatives, said he had lost everything.
"I laboured hard in Saudi Arabia for three years and set up a small shop which was swept away by flooding in minutes," Khan said.
Razia Bibi, 48, said she and her family had a sleepless night watching the floodwaters rise.
"My house has now gone under water and I could escape with only a few belongings," Bibi said.

'Unprecedented' rain

Pakistan's weather bureau said an "unprecedented" 312 millimetres of rain had fallen in 36 hours in the north-west, but predicted only scattered showers during coming days.
In neighbouring Afghanistan, flash floods have killed at least 65 people and affected more than 1,000 families, officials said.
More than 3,700 houses have been swept away by the floods in Pakistan and the number of people made homeless is rising, the provincial minister said.
"The flash floods destroyed maize and (rice) paddy crops in Nowshera (town)," Mr Hussain said.
"Our rescue teams are also trying to extricate some 1,500 tourists who are stranded in the Kalam and Behrain towns of Swat district," he said, referring to a region where the military last year waged a major anti-Taliban offensive.
"We are also getting confirmation of reports about an outbreak of cholera in some areas of Swat," Mr Hussain added.
The army said it had sent boats and helicopters to rescue stranded people and its engineers were trying to open more roads and divert swollen rivers.
-AFP

Chinese earthquake rescues mount

A Tibetan woman prays in front of a partially-collapsed house in the earthquake-hit Jiegu town, Yushu, in west China's Qinghai province, on April 15.Rescuers in a mountainous Tibetan area of western China continued to pull survivors and victims out of the rubble Thursday after strong earthquakes left more than 700 people dead.
China's Xinhua News Agency said 760 people died in the quake, while 243 people were still missing. The news agency reported 11,477 people had been injured — 1,174 of them severely.
Several schools collapsed in the quakes. State television quoted an education official as saying 66 children and 10 teachers had died. In one collapsed elementary school, rescuers digging with their hands pulled out 23 students alive.
Miao Chong Gang, the deputy director of China's disaster relief agency, said that apart from finding survivors, the impending challenge is to take care of about 80,000 people who have lost their homes. Authorities say the quakes crushed at least 15,000 homes.
Yang Xusheng of China's Red Cross Society said the cold weather in the mountainous region means tents and blankets are desperately needed.

Winds hamper recover efforts

"Temperature may drop below zero in the evening and this is very difficult for people who have to stay outside as a result of the quake," Yang said.
Rescue and recovery efforts are being made difficult by the area's geography and altitude, along with high winds.
Trucks need 12 hours to get from the main airport, as roads and bridges are smashed. Meanwhile, rescue workers quickly get exhausted because of the elevation: the quake-hit counties are more than 4,000 metres above sea level.
Yang Maowei, a captain of one of China's national earthquake rescue teams, said his men have never worked at that altitude, adding that some of his teammates have already experienced minor altitude sickness.
Members of the Chinese leadership scrambled their travel plans in the wake of the disaster.
Premier Wen Jiabao arrived in Yushu on Thursday evening. He put off a planned trip next week to Indonesia, Brunei and Burma. President Hu Jintao, who was in Brazil, cancelled his plan to go to Venezuela and Peru so he could return home.

Taiwan Typhoon Death Toll Expected to Reach 500

Taiwan's president says the death toll from flooding and mudslides triggered by Typhoon Morakot will likely exceed 500 people, in the worst storm to hit the island in 50 years.

Ma Ying-jeou told aides at a national security meeting Friday that nearly 400 people were probably buried alive when a mudslide covered the village of Shiao Lin in southern Kaohsiung county. More than 100 people have been confirmed dead due to the disaster.

Mr. Ma's government has been criticized for what many say was its slow response to the crisis. Thousands of villagers were trapped when floods and mudslides wiped out scores of bridges and roads after Morakot hit last week, dumping more than two meters of rainfall on the island.

Taipei has deployed troops to the region to rescue thousands of villagers and provide emergency aid, mainly by helicopter.

Rescue officials in Taiwan are appealing to foreign governments for large helicopters that are capable of airlifting earth-moving equipment and prefabricated houses.

Mr. Ma's Cabinet is expected to create a special budget to cover more than $3 billion in estimated damages incurred by Typhoon Morakot.

The typhoon also damaged undersea cables, disrupting Internet and telephone services to several countries in East Asia. Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom issued a statement Friday, saying it is working on restoring service.

Taiwan mudslide survivors found

About 700 people missing in southern Taiwan after Typhoon Morakot have been found alive, army officials say.

People from several villages are said to have made it to higher ground before mud and rock engulfed their homes.

Among the survivors found by rescue teams are 200 from Hsiaolin village, reports the Taiwan Central News Agency.

However, despite frantic rescue efforts in Hsiaolin and elsewhere since the weekend, hundreds of people are still missing, feared buried under the mud.

See graphic showing level of rainfall Morakot brought to Taiwan

President Ma Ying-jeou said hundreds of people were likely to have died.

He was visiting the rescue operation centre in Qishan in rural southern Taiwan.

Military helicopters have been ferrying villagers out of communities cut off by the storms and floods after roads and bridges were washed away.

"We have found around 700 people alive in three villages last night and 26 more this morning. We are deploying 25 helicopters to evacuate them," said Maj Gen Richard Hu, a senior official in the rescue effort.

The typhoon struck Taiwan at the weekend, causing the worst flooding in 50 years. The official death toll stands at 63.

'Save my village'

The BBC's Cindy Sui in Qishan says the authorities fear that hundreds more people could still be trapped.

In pictures: Taiwan rescue 'Washed away by the typhoon' Eyewitness: Pacific storms

In Hsiaolin alone, rescue workers said about 100 were unaccounted for as of Tuesday and thought possibly to have been buried alive.

Our correspondent says family members from surrounding areas have been converging on Hsiaolin, demanding that helicopters be sent to their villages too.

Some are carrying signs that read, "Save my village".

The search for survivors has been a slow process as the only way in and out of the villages is by helicopter, our correspondent adds.

The BBC's Alastair Leithead, also at the Qishan rescue base, says a high school playing field has become a landing pad for helicopters, and ambulances are lining the running track to ferry the injured to hospital.

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Alastair Leithead: "It's been another tough day for the rescuers"

Morakot lashed Taiwan with at least two metres (80in) of rain over the weekend.

It is typhoon season in the North West Pacific, which brings storms like Morakot with exceptionally high rainfall and strong winds, said Liam Dutton from the BBC Weather Centre.

But, to put it in context, he said Morokot brought around 40 times as much rain to Taiwan as would fall on a typical wet weekend in the United Kingdom.

Typhoon Morakot has caused at least $225m (£135m) in agricultural damage, while nearly 30,000 houses are still without power and 750,000 homes are without water, according to the latest estimates from officials.

The storm also hit mainland China, where about 1.4 million people were evacuated from coastal areas, eight people died in flooding and up to 10,000 homes were destroyed.

In the town of Pengxi in China's eastern province of Zhejiang, a landslide toppled seven older houses, reportedly killing two people.

Meanwhile in Japan, another seasonal storm, Typhoon Etau, caused floods and landslides that have killed at least 15 people since the weekend and left a dozen missing.

About 1,000 people spent Tuesday night in shelters and 4,600 households were without water, officials said.

TAIWAN FLOODED BY TYPHOON MORAKOT

1. Rainfall recorded in Alishan, Taiwan between 7-9 August 2009

2. Average height of Taiwanese male

3. Height of Toyota Landcruiser

Soldiers and rescuers help victims evacuate flooded village Laiji, following Typhoon Morakot, in Jiayi County, central Taiwan Photo: AP

Soldiers and rescuers help victims evacuate flooded village Laiji, following Typhoon Morakot, in Jiayi County, central Taiwan Photo: AP

Taiwan deployed an extra 4,000 troops to bolster its rescue operations after villag

Pressure is growing on the government to step up rescue efforts as residents of mountain villagers grow short of food and water four days after typhoon Morakot created the worst floods for 50 years.

With bridges smashed and roads cut by landslides due to heavy rains over two days, rescuers are relying on helicopters to drop supplies and evacuate the worst affected.

Tempers flared as Taiwan's President, Ma Ying-jeou, found himself jostled by angry survivors on a visit to the flood-affected area of Tainan in the south. "What is the government doing? It's too late, they cannot be saved," said one angry man.

The official death toll in Taiwan now stands at 108, with some 14,000 airlifted to safety, however an unknown number of people are still unaccounted for.

Taiwan estimates the storm has caused £135m in agricultural damage and left tens of thousands of homes without power and water. Phone and internet services were being re-connected, although some repairs to damaged undersea cables could take up to 2 months.

"32 DEAD, SOS," read a sign painted in red on a smashed bridge at the only entrance to the village of Hsinfa, a hot spring resort where bodies were found buried by mudslides.

"We are helpless. We are forgotten. We have been waiting for the helicopters without supplies," one villager told the AFP news agency.

Floodwaters have also created several artificial lakes, further endangering survivors. In the southern township of Toayuan 300 villagers were told to run to higher ground about 30 minutes before a lake burst its banks. Two nearby lakes were expected to burst soon, official said.

More than 320 helicopters have been deployed in the rescue mission, although conditions are treacherous with the saturated and unstable ground making it unsafe to land in many places.

Crews are being forced to use ropes and winches to rescue survivors, slowing up the pace of rescue missions. On Tuesday a rescue helicopter crashed in poor weather, killing all three crew.

In Cishan, the main forward rescue base, patience was running thin among relatives waiting at a makeshift landing strip for days for news of family members.

"How can they be so slow? Clearly they should be sending more helicopters, right?" said Yan Min-rong, 29, as he pored over lists of survivors.

Taiwan has appealed to the international community for specialist heavy-lift helicopters and aircraft capable of delivering cranes and diggers directly onto the mountainsides to speed up operations. Japan, the US and China have also made donations to the rescue effort.

The rescue work has also taken on a political dimension, since the greatest devastation has been caused in the south of the country, a stronghold of opposition parties who have accusing the government of being slow to react.

President Ma swept to power last year promising to kick-start Taiwan's flagging economy, particularly through closer trade ties with China, however tyhpoon Morakot is expected to deepen already-gloomy third quarter growth forecasts.

Mexico Day Care Fire

Eduardo Bours, the governor of the Mexican state of Sonora, grimaces while listening to a reporter's question after visiting the three burn victims of a day care center fire in Hermosillo, Mexico, at the Shriners Hospital in Sacramento, Calif., Tuesday, June 9, 2009. A fourth victim, of fire that killed 44 children and injured 38 children and adults, Friday, is expected to arrive at the Shriners Hospital sometime Tuesday evening

China: 5,335 students dead, missing in 2008 quake

AP – In this photo taken on April 13, 2009, Xu Changyun holds a picture of his son Xu Mengtao,who was 15 when …

BEIJING – China said Thursday that 5,335 students died or remain missing from last year's Sichuan earthquake, the first official tally for students in what became a politically charged issue because of allegations of shoddy school construction.
No reason was given for the release of the number now, just days before the one-year anniversary of the disaster that launched an outpouring of grief around China and united the country in a massive rescue effort.
The official Xinhua News Agency said the overall death toll for Sichuan province in the May 12 earthquake was unchanged at 68,712. Some 18,000 people are still officially listed as missing, and are presumed dead.
The government released tolls for the dead and missing weeks after the 7.9-magnitude earthquake hit Sichuan and several other provinces, but refused until now to give a toll for the number of students. It has been a sensitive issue because of widespread accusations that almost 7,000 classrooms crumbled because of slipshod construction methods or because building codes were ignored.
Many parents of dead children have demanded that authorities be made answerable for the collapses of the schools.
The official China Daily said Thursday that the Cabinet had ordered that safety controls over the construction and rebuilding of schools be strengthened.
A statement from the Cabinet said there would be severe punishment for those who engage in illegal practices.
"The quality of school buildings is a concern of the social stability and should be the focus of local authorities at present and in the coming days," it said.
The deaths of the children also touched a nerve nationwide and raised questions about corruption and mismanagement that have flourished amid China's breakneck economic growth.
Police and others have blocked parents of the dead children from staging protests to seek information. A recent Amnesty International report chronicles instances in which dozens of parents were questioned or detained by police while seeking answers from courts and local officials. It also said lawyers who took on such cases were pressured into dropping them.

China quake survivors have bittersweet baby boom

Luo Gang’s wife, Zhang Anhui, gave birth to a boy. The couple lost their 11-year-old girl last year. “We were in a bad way after the earthquake. . . . Now, we are better,” Luo said. “A new life has been created to take the place of the one that was taken away.”

A year after the tragedy in Sichuan, couples who lost an only child are rebuilding their families for emotional and economic reasons.
By Barbara Demick May 3, 2009
Reporting from Mianzhu, China -- Ten months and 25 days after he buried his only child, Luo Gang became a father again at a makeshift hospital cobbled out of aluminum trailers.For weeks after his 11-year-old daughter was killed in last May's massive earthquake here in Sichuan province, his wife cried so uncontrollably that her family feared she might be having a breakdown.
China's school tragedy
China quake toll
China quake survivors still wait for word
China mountainside holds untold number of quake dead
"If you don't have another baby, my sister will be grieving her whole life," Luo said his brother-in-law advised him.Luo said he was shocked by the tactlessness of the suggestion."We were in a bad way after the earthquake. My wife couldn't stop crying," recalled Luo, a 35-year-old welder, his eyes sunken deep with fatigue after a long night waiting for his wife to give birth to their son. He spoke outside the hospital room where his perfect little baby, born a few hours before, lay wrapped in bunting in a metal bassinet next to his mother, both sleeping contentedly.
"Now, we are better. A new life has been created to take the place of the one that was taken away."
FOR THE RECORD:An earlier version of this article credited the photograph of the Luo family in a hospital room to Barbara Demick. Leo Chen was the photographer.
To say that survivors of the May 12 earthquake, which killed an estimated 70,000 people, are recovering would be premature, given that many are still living in tents and searching for the remains of their loved ones.But thousands of couples in their 30s and 40s, most of whom lost their only children, have decided they cannot afford to wait.The result is a bittersweet baby boom, the joy of each birth tempered by the rawness of the recent loss."Chinese people are very practical," said a maternity nurse at the Mianzhu City Hospital. The nurse, who did not wish to be quoted by name, said that eight of the 70 mothers in the maternity ward had lost children in the earthquake.Nobody likes to use the term "replacement baby," which sounds callous, but many of the newborns in Sichuan wouldn't exist if not for the deaths of their siblings in the earthquake, given China's one-child policy.In Mianzhu, 50 women who lost children in the quake have given birth and 400 are pregnant, said Song Tao, director of family planning for the town.Family planning officials, who enforce the limits on family size, are encouraging couples who lost their only child to have another. The government is paying for fertility counseling, operations to reverse vasectomies and tubal ligations, as well as removals of intrauterine devices, the most common form of birth control in China.The motives are not purely humanitarian. The government needs to quell resentment over its unpopular limits on family size. Sichuan has long been a battleground over the policy, with the government strictly enforcing the one-child limit. (In many other parts of China, farmers can have a second child if the first is a girl, but not in Sichuan.)Among Sichuan's predominantly rural population, most people have no retirement plans other than the long-ingrained Chinese tradition that children care for their elders."The earthquake very much highlights the vulnerability of the one-child policy," said Gu Baochang, a professor of demographics at People's University in Beijing."These people are not covered by any social security program. They rely completely on their children for elderly support. And it's not just money. Once they are old, without children they have no place in society."It might sound calculating, but the death of a child is an economic as well as emotional catastrophe for many Chinese couples.