Sunday Morning EDT/ Sunday Night Japan Time Updates and Notes. 
The News Is There Is No News. 

Distraction?
Well, they have started another war to take our attention away from the disasters in Japan.
Did you know?
There is a country where genocide between tribes is going on.
A dictator is refusing to honor election results.
There are mass movements of hundreds of thousands of displaced people.
Civil War is in progress.
This country is in Africa.
It is called the Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire).
But no one cares because there is no oil there.


Reactor Status Hard To Find
Curiously, information about the status of the reactors has gotten scarce for the last day and a half.
Unexplainable.net has made the inevitable claim that UFO sightings have been reported around the Fukushima Daiishi complex. Chris Capps in his story, "Why Are UFO's Being Spotted Near Nuclear Accident" speculates that our space brothers are closely monitoring the situation.
I remember the same kinds of stories going around about Chernobyl.
The history of the phenomena in the nuclear age seems to have shown an affinity between UFOs and human nuclear related activities.

Who Will Solve Our Problems?
Who knows where the truth lies, but somehow I doubt aliens are going to make things better on this planet.  I feel the same way about the belief that Jesus is going to come down from the sky and fix everything we have screwed up.

We must find the solution to our problems, and it is a better strategy to operate our lives on that principal rather than on the lazy infantile wish that someone else will do it.


What perplexes me is the nihilist attitude ironically held by so many believers, 
that humans are incapable of solving their problems.
That is tantamount to committing the Sin of Despair. 
And it only leads down a tunnel back, back, back to the Dark Ages. 

Cooling Ponds Not So Cool
Well, the situation at the busted up nuclear plants is that the greatest threat is said to be insufficient cooling water in the spent fuel pools at all 6 reactors. Personally, I would be worrying as much about the fuel in the reactors that were operating at the time of the earthquake/tsunami. We have had reports of partial meltdowns in some of the plants but very little detail. See my previous posts.

What Is News?
NPR was maintaining a useful minute to minute updated blog on the plants, but now it is late March 20 Japan time and that blog seems to have stopped updating early yesterday.
Most of the news now being promulgated about the situation seems to be focusing on the economic ramifications of the accident and how the nuclear industry will be affected.

The Guardian UK has a good spreadsheet on the status of the six plants here. Detailed spreadsheet is HERE. But it was updated, the last I can tell, yesterday afternoon GMT. It is now Sunday night Japan time.

NHK Current Reactor Status
NHK World English is now giving an update on reactor status, which I am monitoring.
Status given by NHK follows:
"A lot is going on."
2 reactor, water level falling in spent fuel pond.
3 reactor, explosions damaged spent fuel pond, water depleted, reactor damaged
4 reactor, reactor damaged, spent fuel pond water depleted
5 and 6 reactor power restored and reactors being cooled, ( those reactors were offline and were the only ones left relatively undamaged after the earthquake)
Seawater is being pumped into the damaged reactors.
Work is going on to restore power to reactor 2.
Spent fuel pool at reactor 2 is depleted but water cannot be pumped from outside because building is not damaged. Attempts to restore power to cooling systems are continuing.
Restoring power to the damaged reactors will be more problematic.

Evacuees
There is no end to the crisis in sight for displaced persons.
Evacuees are asking authorities to investigate them for radiation effects.
Evacuees are given a card showing they are free of contamination after being checked.

Food Problem
Spinach in the affected area is showing 3 to 5 times allowable radioactive iodine and is now being withdrawn from the market. Spinach is called "king of vegetables" in Japan and is a very important foodstuff.

Pessimisme
Phillipe Jamet, a commissioner at the Autorite de Surete Nucleaire, said at a briefing in Paris today“We must avoid being overly optimistic. Many tests are needed to find out if the pumps will work. This will likely take human intervention, like going into control rooms to reconnect valves.” News.gather.com

Not Enough Openness
NHK commentators are requesting more information on the nuclear crisis. They are stating that the government isn't forthcoming enough on radiation levels and status of the reactors.
According to NHK World, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano has suggested that the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant will be demolished.
Japan's SDF has concluded spraying of plant 4's spent fuel rod pond for Sunday. The Defense Ministry reported 100 tons of water were sprayed today.