Small Amount of Radiation Reaches California

Japan quake live blog: Small amount of radiation reaches California, official says

U.S. Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Robert Bannister removes mud sediment from behind a damaged building in Hachinohe, Japan.

March 18th, 2011
01:39 PM ET


A magnitude 9.0 earthquake hit northern Japan on March 11, triggering tsunamis that caused widespread devastation and crippled a nuclear power plant. Are you in an affected area? Send an iReport. Read the full report on the quake's aftermath and check out our interactive explainer on Japan's damaged nuclear reactors.

[1:39 p.m. ET Friday, 2:39 a.m. Saturday in Tokyo] Monitors in Sacramento, California, have detected a small amount of radioactive material from the earthquake-struck nuclear power plant in Japan, an official with the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization said. The exact amounts were not available, but were far less than what would be considered harmful to human health, the official said.

[12:55 p.m. ET Friday, 1:52 a.m. Saturday in Tokyo] Japan is no stranger to disaster, rebuilding after a history of destructive quakes and tsunamis and the atomic bomb attacks of World War II. But the 9.0 earthquake of March 11 is testing that mettle anew, writes CNN's Eliott C. McLaughlin.

[11:52 a.m. ET Friday, 12:52 a.m. Saturday in Tokyo] Japan's Meteorological Agency said Friday that the nation has experienced 262 aftershocks of magnitude 5 or greater. That's a record number of aftershocks for any quake in Japanese history, Kyodo News reports.

[11:28 a.m. ET Friday, 12:28 a.m. Saturday in Tokyo] Seven days after the 9.0 quake off Japan, donations to nonprofit organizations have reached about $87 million, according to a tally by the Chronicle of Philanthropy, a newspaper covering nonprofits. In comparison, one week after the earthquake in Haiti, donations totaled about $275 million. In the case of Hurricane Katrina, it was over $522 million, CNNMoney reports.

[10:57 a.m. ET Friday, 11:57 p.m. Friday in Tokyo] In the wake of the crisis in Japan, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is advising consumers to beware of inadvertently buying fake iodide products that are supposed to help protect against radiation.

[10:41 a.m. ET Friday, 11:41 p.m. Friday in Tokyo] Residents and tourists in Hawaii are helping Japan disaster relief by snapping up T-shirts with the "o" in "aloha" replaced by the red sun in Japan's flag, CNN affiliate KHON reports. People are lining up to buy the shirts, which sell for $20, the station reports. About 1,500 a day are being sold with all proceeds going to the relief effort.

[10:13 a.m. ET Friday, 11:13 p.m. Friday in Tokyo] About 1,000 Navy personnel and their aircraft based at Atsugi Naval Air Facility in Japan are temporarily moving to Guam, the Pacific Daily News reports. F/A-18 Super Hornets, EA-6B Prowlers and E-2C Hawkeye planes of Aircraft Carrier Wing 5 will fly out of Anderson Air Force Base on Guam, according to the report. The wing's helicopters and transport aircraft will remain in Japan to help in relief operations, it said.

[9:49 a.m. ET Friday, 10:49 p.m. Friday in Tokyo] Tokyo has become a "ghost town" compared to its condition before last week's earthquake, iReporter Christina Ras shows in a series of pictures.

[9:43 a.m. ET Friday, 10:43 p.m. Friday in Tokyo] No expansion of the 12.4-mile (20-kilometer) evacuation zone around the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is necessary, Hidehiko Nishiyama, deputy head of Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, said at a briefing Friday.

[9:03 a.m. ET Friday, 10:03 p.m. Friday in Tokyo] Toyota's popular Prius hybrid car may be in short supply in the coming months, Time reports. The car's batteries are made in a factory near Sendai while the vehicle itself is assembled near Tokyo. Although both plants were not damaged in the quake, Toyota does not know when production can resume because of the reduction in power supplies and rolling blackouts now imposed in the affected areas. Time, citing Autodata, says there were 18,000 Priuses available in the U.S. at the beginning of the month.

[8:03 a.m. ET Friday, 9:03 p.m. Friday in Tokyo] The governor of Japan's hard-hit Miyagi prefecture on Friday asked residents who've lost their homes to the earthquake and tsunami to move to other areas while recovery efforts are under way, according to a Kyodo News service report in the Japan Times. Displaced residents could be gone for six months until temporary housing is built, the report said.

"Living conditions will be improved if they move to other prefectures," Gov. Yoshihiro Murai is quoted as saying. "It is a nonbinding request. I hope people affected by the quake will cooperate."

[7:44 a.m. ET Friday, 8:44 p.m. Friday in Tokyo] Japan's death toll in the earthquake and tsunami rose to 6,911 on Friday, the National Police Agency reported. At least 10,316 people are missing.

[7:31 a.m. ET Friday, 8:31 p.m. Friday in Tokyo] Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Friday that the situation at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant remains "very grave." Kan said he is committed to doing all that is needed to overcome the nuclear crisis and stressed that this was not a time for pessimism.

[7:24 a.m. ET Friday, 8:24 p.m. Friday in Tokyo] Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Friday that the nation experienced a "great deal of confusion" in the delivery of relief supplies to earthquake and tsunami victims, but that obstacles are being overcome.