These are the people that really matter, a ordinary guy out there who's concerned about how things are developing, but keeping it real and trying to get informed. Thanks Ryu, good of you to take time out and write in. Hopefully, others will benefit from your vigilance, too. Here's Ryu's mail:
Otto,
Hi, my name is Ryu from Japan. I've been reading your blog for quite a while now and really enjoying it. Anyway, I'm in the western part of Japan so I'm affected by the recent earthquake. But, the situation in the nuclear power plants in Fukushima is really concerning. So, I'm trying to get information as much as possible. Yeah, your blog posts are helpful, too. So, I've been looking through the web and would like to share some stuff I found.
Japan Visual Journalists Association's members have been in the town of Futaba, where the Fukushima No.1 Power Plant located. The members are the well-known photojournlists like Takashi Morizumi and Ryuichi Hirokawa. And, here's what they found so far. Well, it's in Japanese, and what it says is that at 10:20am, March 13th, they measured radiation at the front gate of the town hall with three kinds of equipments (BEIGER COUNTR DZX2, VICTOREEN 209-SI, and MYRate PRD-10), and the amount of radiation is well over the limits they can detect. The journalists also went to the general hospital, and the result was the same.
Another good source of information is Citizens' Nuclear Information Center's website. They had a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan, and you can watch the video. It's in English as well. Here's the direct link to the video:
I'm just a guy who is very concerned with the situation and hoping it won't get worse. I just wanted to share the info so maybe someone can find it useful. If you need more precise translation for the articles, please let me know.
Regards,
Ryu
UPDATE: Ryu shares more. Thanks man:
You may have noticed already, but Citizens' Nuclear Information Center has its dedicated English site.
http://www.cnic.jp/english/
Also, a non-profit group called Green Action is blogging about the nuclear situation in English. They interviewed Japan Visual Journalists Association's journalists who went to near the Fukushima Daiichi. Unfortunately the interview video is in Japanese, but they transcribed and translated in English. It's better than my summary.
http://www.greenaction-japan.org/modules/entop2/
So, you can share the links on your blog if you'd like. Thanks for your attention, and I really appreciate you and people from all over the world expressing their support. I hope the situation will be like what the article, you posted the linked to, said.
Best,
Ryu