The World

We are borrowing Gideon’s blog to cover Japan’s earthquake. Please keep your comments coming, and please send us any images you have to japan.quake.ft@gmail.com if you are in Japan.

For rolling coverage of global market reaction to events in Japan, follow Jamie Chisholm here.

All times are London time, Japan is 9 hours ahead. By Josh Noble and Kanupriya Kapoor in Hong Kong, Leyla Boulton in London, Johanna Kassel and Anora Mahmudova in New York.

2040 - For more on the market reaction to the crisis in Japan, we turn to our colleagues on FT Alphaville for the financial perspective and fascinating commentary on the markets. Some of their Japanese offerings today:

• Prepare to buy Japan… with both hands
• Mrs Watanabe fears a global market dislocation
• PDRCs, the 30-year swap spread and Japan
• The situation in Tokyo, a view from the ground
• The derivatives hour for the Japanese yen
• The unintended consequences of the nuclear scare

And join the US Alphaville team for US markets live at 10 am EST on Friday for a lively discussion of the week’s events, including Japan, and how they influenced the market.

2025 - Despite assurances by Barack Obama, the Center for Disease Control and the World Health Organisation that dangerous levels of radiation will not reach the US or any of its territories, there are reports of stores selling out of iodine tablets throughout the US. Iodine tablets, which can be taken as a precaution against radiation exposure are only effective if exposed to large amounts of radiation and are in close proximity to the source. In Obama’s statement, he urged citizens not to take preventative measures except to stay informed. 

2015 - In about two hours, the Group of Seven finance ministers are meant to hold a conference call to discuss the crisis in Japan. Investors are watching to see if they make an decision about currency interventions after the yen reached a new high against the US dollar yesterday.

From Reuters:
Nikkei news service reported that G7 ministers, who were set to hold a conference call at 2200 GMT, would agree to currency interventions by Japan to keep the yen from appreciating too swiftly against the dollar. But Nikkei said coordinated G7 action to push the yen down was unlikely.

Japanese Economics Minister Kaoru Yosano told Reuters that neither currency nor stock markets were in a state of turmoil that would warrant G7 action and said Tokyo was more interested in “psychological support” from its partners.

Sources from G7 countries who requested anonymity also said the call of finance ministers and central bankers was unlikely to result in concrete decisions.

“It’s a demonstration of solidarity and a general review of the situation,” one source said.

2005 - CBS reports that travelers coming in from Japan on Wednesday triggered radiation detectors at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago as they passed through customs. Only very small amounts of radiation were detected.

“We are aware of the radiation,” said Chicago Aviation Department spokeswoman Karen Pride. “We are adding screenings and precautionary measures.”

In one instance, radiation was detected in a plane’s air filtration system. Radiation was also found in luggage and on passengers on flights from Japan.

1954 - Breaking: France to restrict export of reactors after Japan-PM

From Reuters:
France will only sell nuclear reactors to countries with sufficient technical capability and the capacity to handle crises like the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, Prime Minister Francois Fillon said on Thursday.

“We will only export nuclear reactors to countries that have reached a level of development and handling of the technology and who have capacity to cope with crises like the one we are witnessing,” Fillon told France 2 television in an interview.

Context: These remarks are quite interesting as Japan is considered to have a very strong infrastructure and is at the cutting edge of technology. Japan has also been an example of effective use of nuclear power before this crisis.

1935 - Barack Obama just spoke outside the White House, emphasising the US’s support for one of its “best friends and closest allies”. He said that the nuclear plant situation, despite best efforts, poses a “substantial risk” to people nearby and the US is working in any way possible to help.

He stressed that there are no risks to the US. “I want to be very clear, we do not expect harmful levels of radiation to reach the US … any states, the west coast, Alaska, Hawaii or US territories in the Pacific.” He urged Americans not to take any preventative actions against effects of radiation, except to stay informed.

The president said that nuclear energy is part of the US’s energy future along with renewable energy sources. He called nuclear power “peaceful”.

He said despite confidence in the US nuclear network, he has asked the NRC to perform a “comprehensive review of the US nuclear system”.

1910 - Barack Obama is meant to be making a statement on Japan at 1930 GMT. He made an unexpected visit to the Japanese embassy in Washington, where he signed a condolence book for victims of the earthquake and tsunami earlier today.

He wrote:
“My heart goes out to the people of Japan during this enormous tragedy. Please know that America will always stand by one of its greatest allies during their time of need.”

1908 – From one of our autos correspondents Bernard Simon:
General Motors said on Thursday that it would halt production at a truck assembly plant in Louisiana next week due to a shortage of parts from Japan. It declined to identify the parts “for competitive reasons”.

The plant builds Colorado and Canyon pick-up trucks, which are relatively low-volume products. GM said it had sufficient inventory to meet customer demand.

It added that all its other North American plants continue to operate normally.

Hinting at the challenges faced by many businesses that depend on inputs from Japan, the Detroit carmaker said that “we will continue to (work) across the organization to maximize flexibility, supply the most critical operations, and effectively manage cost”.

1900 – Humanitarian aid to survivors in Japan is being delayed because of fuel shortages and the weather conditions. Also, doctors are warning that some evacuees are falling ill because of the lack of clean water and sanitation. Full story

1846 - To better understand the complicated situation with the four nuclear reactors, the FT interactive team has put together a graphic to explain what the status of each is. (click on the image for the graphic to load)

1825 - The IMF said that the Japan has the financial security and infrastructure to rebuild and quickly revive the economy.

“We believe the Japanese economy is a strong and wealthy society and the government has financial resources to address  (its) needs,” IMF spokeswoman Caroline Atkinson said at a routine briefing today.

She declined to comment on the sharp appreciation of the Japanese yen against the dollar, saying only that during the country’s Kobe earthquake in 1995 the currency also rose.

“We do believe that what the Japanese government has been doing … to take decisive actions to ensure the stability of the financial system and to do what is necessary to meet the needs of the people, and then to rebuild infrastructure, is the appropriate policy,” she said.

1813 - UPDATE From the FT’s Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington
The chief US nuclear regulatory official said it could take “weeks” before Japanese officials were able to adequately cool spent fuel pools that he claimed are emitting high amount of radiation.

“This is really what their focus is going to have to be for some time now,” said Gregory Jaczko, chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Mr Jaczko, who caused a stir when he announced on Wednesday that the US believed that the troubled Japanese nuclear facilities were in more dire condition than Japanese officials had acknowledged, said on Thursday that he stood by his view that a spent-fuel storage pool in reactor No 4 was empty. US officials also said that preliminary data it was still analysing and had shared with Japanese officials indicated that the White House had been correct to advise Americans in Japan to evacuate the area around the troubled reactors outside of a 50 mile radius.

The alert was more aggressive than Japanese officials own warning, which suggested citizens steer clear outside a 20km radius.

President Barack Obama on Thursday made a surprise visit to the Japanese embassy, where he signed a book of condolences.

The White House said that coordination between the Japanese government and the US and other countries was “very robust” and that Mr Obama had “great faith in the idea” that the Japanese are fully aware of the gravity of the situation.

1800 – UPDATED : The first US chartered aircraft has left Japan with about 100 people aboard headed for Taiwan and another flight is anticipated on Friday, the US State Department said on Thursday.

“It left about four hours ago and it’s en route to Taipei … the flight did not leave full,” Under Secretary of State Patrick Kennedy said. He said the passengers included family members of US government employees and a small number of private US citizens who have chosen to depart Japan due to the ongoing nuclear crisis. (from Reuters)

1750 -The tectonic plates are still active around Japan. There have been more than 25 aftershocks and the strongest was magnitude 6.1 hitting off the east coast of Hunshu, Japan, according to the United States Geological Society

1733 - From Reuters: Two Democratic senators said they have asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to review the capacity of the country’s nuclear plants to withstand disasters in the wake of the Japan crisis.

Senators Barbara Boxer and Tom Carper asked for the review in a letter to the chairman of the NRC, Gregory Jaczko.

1720 - Efforts to lay a power line to the No 2 reactor were successful, but power has not been reconnected. Spraying of water to the No 3 reactor were stopped Thursday evening Japan time, according to an IAEA statement.

Full statement:
Japanese authorities have informed the IAEA that engineers were able to lay an external grid power line cable to unit 2. The operation was completed at 08:30 UTC.
They plan to reconnect power to unit 2 once the spraying of water on the unit 3 reactor building is completed.
The spraying of water on the unit 3 reactor building was temporarily stopped at 11:09 UTC (20:09 local time) of 17 March.
The IAEA continues to liaise with the Japanese authorities and is monitoring the situation as it evolves.

1710 – Gregory Jaczko, the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and other US energy officials are  giving a press briefing at the White House.

There are “continued efforts” to pump water into the reactors, but cooling could take a while, even weeks.

A team of US energy experts has gone to Japan to help with the situation.

Jaczko reiterated that there is no nuclear fallout risk for the US.

Separately, the US military says that more than 20,000 US military dependents are eligible for voluntary evacuation.

1701 - A senior official at the IAEA said that the situation at the stricken Japanese nuclear facility is “reasonably stable” compared to yesterday.

“But it is still possible that it could get worse,” Graham Andrew told a news conference.

1651 – Kyodo news agency says Germany temporarily to move functions of embassy in Tokyo to Osaka amid nuclear crisis. See this useful FT roundup of what other embassies still in Tokyo are doing to evacuate staff.

1636 – The White House has just announced that US President Barack Obama will make a statement about Japan at 3:30 p.m. EDT (1930 GMT).

1605 – Tepco has released this video footage of the Fukushima plant, shot at 1600 local on March 16. A Tepco employee says it first shows reactor number three, followed by number four. The employee says he can see water in number four, where the damage is also described as more serious than in number three.  This FT interactive graphic provides a quick guide to the different reactors.

1552 – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will reconsider plans to build a nuclear plant to generate electricity, his office said today in a text message to Bloomberg.

1538 – VIENNA (AP) : Yukiya Amano, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, has left for Japan to assess the nuclear crisis.

1517 – The nuclear crisis in numbers: spreads on Tokyo Electric Power Co‘s credit default swaps, which insure against the cost of the company defaulting on its Y7181b debt, have soared since the earthquake crippled its Fukushima plant on March 11 – reflecting growing concern about the company’s struggle to stabilise the stricken plant.

10/03/2011 41
11/03/2011 40
14/03/2011 127
15/03/2011 366
16/03/2011 295
17/03/2011 385

Title: 5-year CDS spread
Source: Markit

1500 – While fast-moving and complex, here is what we understand to be the situation at Fukushima Daiichi at midnight Tokyo time:

• At the three reactors that were active at the time the tsunami struck – reactors 1, 2 and 3 – sea water continues to be pumped into the reactor containers in an effort to cool the cores. There have been no further reported problems at the actual reactors themselves on Thursday.
• Instead, attention has been firmly on the spent fuel pools – swimming pool like containers where used nuclear fuel is stored. All 6 reactors at the plant have a spent fuel pool.
• The water boiled away in the pools at reactors No 3 and No 4 exposing the fuel and leaking radiation into the air.
• The deteriorating fuel rods and rising radiation prompted the moves to dump water from helicopter and firetruck on Thursday by the Japanese Self Defence Force. Tepco says that the firetrucks have had some success, though we are waiting for new radiation readings.
• Engineers are also trying to connect the Fukushima Daiichi plant to a power grid. Once achieved, this could enable the built-in cooling systems at the plant to be reactivated, depending on earthquake and tsunami damage. But that had not been achieved on Thursday. The tsunami knocked out the plants backup power generators, which power the built-in water pumps.

1445 – Tepco, the company that runs Fukushima Daiichi, has joined Twitter under the handle @OfficialTEPCO. Just three hours after joining, it had over 75,000 followers. The Japanese Prime Ministers office, meanwhile, has just 16,000.

1358 – Gavyn Davies makes the case for co-ordinated yen intervention on his FT blog.

1338 – Gwen Robinson gives us this report from the ground in Tokyo, on the US offer to its 100,000 citizens of transportation to ‘safehaven locations in Asia’.

1247 – The UK has told citizens to stay at least 80km away from Fukushima Daiichi – echoing the call from the US, but contradicting the Japanese evacuation zone, which remains at 20km, reports BBC.

1157 – How to help, give cash not goods, says USAID.

1155 – As a country prone to natural disasters, Japan has a list of items people should have at the ready in a ‘grab-bag’. Here’s what should be in it, courtesy of the BBC.

1150 – Here’s the latest on Japan from FT Alphaville:

• What’s moving the yen?
• On top of everything, Mizuho bank is having ATM problems
• The unintended consequences of the nuclear scare
• Chinese fuel publicity stunts in action?
• The derivatives hour for the Japanese yen

1126 – The latest official deathtoll from Friday’s tsunami stands at 5,457, with 9,508 reported missing.

1112 – Official calls for energy conservation appear to have worked – the Tepco president says a major blackout in Tokyo is now unlikely after residents quickly acted to conserve power.

1101 - Military fire trucks have started spraying water onto reactor No.3 at Fukushima Daiichi.

1038 – We reported earlier on a salt rush in China. Caijin provides the photographics evidence.

0940 – The Japanese Prime Minister Office – @JPN_PMO – just released this message on Twitter:

@JPN_PMO: Demand 4 electricity has surged today. Great possibility of massive power outage in the area served by TEPCO this evening.

@JPN_PMO: Please conserve electricity as much as possible. Your cooperation is greatly appreciated

0930 – Here are Thursday’s key developments so far:

• Japanese military helicopters dumped water on reactor No.3 at Fukushima Daiichi plant on Thursday morning in an effort to cool the overheating reactor.
• At 1340 Tokyo time, NHK reported that helicopter dumps were over, and that cooling measures would be focused on water cannons and pumps on the ground.
• There are now between 150 and 180 workers at the plant, after extra technicians were sent in.
• Tepco is working to forge a power connection into a different electricity company’s power grid in the hope of restarting the existing water pumps at the plant
• At 1630 Tokyo time, Tepco warned that power consumption was rising due to cold weather, and that rolling power cuts might not reduce stress on the grid enough to prevent widespread blackouts on Thursday night.
• Early on Wednesday morning, the US advised its citizens to move at least 80km away from the Fukushima Daiichi power plant – much further than the 20km recommended by the Japanese. The US State department is also offering evacuation flights for those who wish to leave Japan for the first time.
• Japanese markets closed slightly lower – the Nikkei 225 dropped 1.4 per cent. The yen reached a record high against the dollar in overnight trading. G7 finance ministers will discuss the situation in Japan in a special teleconference on Friday.
• The Italian Embassy measured radiation levels from the Embassy roof in Tokyo on Wednesday. Levels were found to be one third that of typical radiation levels in Rome, the Embassy said.

0840 – Ben McLannahan, the FT’s Asia Lex writer, says that the Bank of Japan could be forced to drop huge amounts of currency in an effort to cool the over-heated yen.

0821 – If you missed Mure Dickie’s video report from Ofunato – a town destroyed by Friday’s tsunami, watch it here.

0724 – To recap – the US has urged its citizens in Japan to get at least 80km away from the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Japanese authorities maintain that the current evacuation area of 20km is sufficient, but that residents between 20km and 30km should stay indoors. The US has also offered to provide transportation out of Japan to ‘safehaven locations in Asia’ for those who wish to leave.

0717 - Chinese citizens across the whole country are rushing to buy salt, which has already sold out in many urban supermarkets. They are responding to rumours that China’s seasalt will likely be contaminated by radiation from Japan and state media reports refuting this rumour have only exacerbated the panic buying as nobody believes them.

0647 – Here’s what Lex has been writing about Japan this week:

• Yen intervention
• Reinsurers and Japan
• Japan’s thirst for LNG
• Japanese banks: shock amplifiers
• Catastrophe and the power of panic

0637 – NHK Television broadcasts pictures showing people in the snow using umbrellas to collect drinking water. Millions of homes in northern Japan remain without electricity or running water.

0636 – The Japanese miracle is not over – our Asia editor David Pilling in the FT.

0632 – Amid shortages, a surplus of hope – Japanese novelist Ryu Murakami in the New York Times.

0600 - Tepco says 304 technicians are now at the plant, working in shifts. 252 of them were on-site when the quake hit, including the “Fukushima 50″ who were left in after the evacuation on Tuesday. The 50 or so – it’s a rough count – were the only ones working “for a couple of hours” before levels dropped enough to send some of the evacuated personnel back in.

0547 – A radiation perspective check. The Italian Embassy in Tokyo carried out a radiation level reading from the Embassy roof on March 16. The radiation levels typically recorded in Rome are three times higher that recorded in Tokyo on Wednesday.

0540 – A markets perspective check. Which Asian equity markets have fallen more than the Nikkei 225 so far this year in dollar terms (as of Thursday 3pm Tokyo time)?

• Taiwan’s Taiex
• Philippines PSEi
• India’s Sensex
• Vietnam Ho Chi Minh index

All of the above, plus the Singapore Straits Times index, and Australia’s ASX/200 have fallen more than the Topix Index

0514 – The FT’s Asia editor David Pilling is in Tokyo. He sends us an update:

David Pilling: Japan’s humanitarian efforts are being hampered by the unfolding nuclear crisis, which is unnerving some of the foreign teams. Many of those teams did not come equipped to deal with radiation. “The nuclear disaster is turning them cautious,” said Sadako Ogata, president of the Japan International Co-operation Agency. “I don’t know exactly how many are leaving. Some people are very worried, but I don’t think the radiation effects are going to be that strong.”

JICA, which normally leads Japan’s humanitarian efforts abroad, is helping to co-ordinate Japan’s own efforts following last week’s quake and tsunami, in particular helping to integrate foreign assistance . It has also made some its buildings in Sendai, Tokyo and elsewhere available as evacuation centres. Mrs Ogata said one of JICA’s buildings in Shibuya, a central district of Tokyo, was being used to treat dialysis patients who could not be taken care of in more rudimentary facilities in the north-east. Several thousand such patients were being sent, she said.

0450 - In spite of growing fears of a crisis at Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear power plants, more earthquakes, rolling power cuts, food shortages and transport disruptions, some bankers don’t want to leave. Click here to read more from the FT’s Gwen Robinson.

0440 – There won’t be any more helicopter water drops at Fukushima Daiichi on Thursday, says NHK. Instead efforts will focus on ground-level operations – i.e. water pumps and cannons.

0421 - Tepco is working to restore its power lines at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant by bringing a power line inside the plant from a high voltage power transmission line running nearby. If successful, it aims to use power from Tohoku Electricity to activate water pumps it plans to take into the plant but at the same time, it is also working on reactivating existing water pumps that were damaged by tsunami waves.

0404 - The Fukushima 50 are no longer just 50. The team battling to cool reactors at Fukushima Daiichi has been reinforced to somewhere between 150 and 180.

0402 – The G7 finance ministers will hold a teleconference on Friday evening US time time to discuss the situation in Japan. Bloomberg reports the call will be at 7am Tokyo time.

0339 – The White House has released a readout on Obama and Kan’s call, here’s a flavour of it:

The President emphasized that the U.S. is determined to do everything possible to support Japan in overcoming the effects of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck on March 11. The President briefed Prime Minister Kan on the additional support being provided by the U.S., including specialized military assets with expertise in nuclear response and consequence management…

The two leaders reaffirmed that U.S. and Japanese experts and officials would continue to cooperate closely and they agreed to remain in close touch through this challenging period. The President promised that the United States will always stand by Japan, our close friend and ally.

0335 – The FT’s Tim Johnston in Bangkok says that the Thai authorities are screening incoming passengers for radiation at the airport and handing out iodine tablets to passengers going to Japan.

0243 – Here’s a Youtube clip of the helicopter water drop as shown on NHK:

0242 - Edano: Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, spoke with US President, Barack Obama who offered his condolences and said the US was prepared to send nuclear experts as well as assist in the medium-to-long term reconstruction effort.

0239 – Yukio Edano is addressing the press live on Japanese television.

0227 – One of readers in Tokyo – Andrew Hasegawa – has sent us this update:

Andrew Hasegawa: This morning on the way to my office in central Tokyo I observe long lines of cars waiting to buy petrol from petrol stations with supplies. More importantly a truck seen delivering petrol to a station that had run out in central Tokyo. Hopefully supply shortages finish soon.

0121 – The helicopters have temporarily stopped dropping water so that the experts can assess whether the operation is helping cool the overheating reactors. NHK says Japan’s police force is preparing to spray water into reactors 3 and 4 from high pressure fire trucks with the capacity to contain 4 tonnes of water

0117 – NHK says spraying from the police water canon trucks will begin after the aerial water spray operation is finished. They also report that helicopter pilots are wearing protective gear and have equipments measuring radiation levels.

0110 – Japanese military helicopters have dropped water on two reactors a total of 4 times so far, but the distance from the reactors and inability to hover over the reactors due to the high level of radiation make the efforts less effective, an NHK expert said. The depth of the spent fuel pools mean at this rate this exercise would have to be repeated 100 times to cool it, he said.

0059 – NHK reports that SDF helicopters began spraying the No 3 reactor. NHK says those helicopters have capacity to carry 7.5 tonnes of water, but they do not know how much of water was dropped so far

0036 – Japan’s NHK TV station reports that water canon trucks have arrived at Fukushima as Tepco is preparing to spray water into the complex’s No.3 reactor. The plant operator is worried about the reactor unit’s spent-fuel cooling pool, which has been overheating, threatening to send more radioactive steam into the atmosphere.

0035 – Here are some images of devastation:

SDF logistics camp which organises the food and fuel distribution to the forces

On the way to Kamaishi

What’s left of the ground floor of a shop around Kamaishi
The remains of the fishing company building at Hongo

The wreckage of Hongo

0020 – Update: Japanese stocks plunged on renewed concern that a worsening nuclear crisis may cripple the economy, Bloomberg reports. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell 3.5 percent to 8,774.26 in early trading. The Bank of Japan is injecting a further Y5,000bn ($61bn) into the banking system, continuing its effort to calm markets in the wake of the yen’s spike to a record high against the dollar. That came on top of a total of Y28,000bn already offered in same-day operations this week.

0001 – NHK’s live footage, shot from helicopters about 35 km away from the Fukushima Daiichi power station,  shows white steam rising from the No 2, No3 and No 4 reactors.

2345 – AP reports that US environmental regulators are deploying more radiation monitors in the western states and Pacific territories, as officials seek to mollify public concern over exposure from damaged nuclear plants in Japan. This is timely, as the weather agency in Japan says that the wind near Fukushima is forecast to blow to the northwest on Thursday, moving towards the Pacific Ocean.

2330 – It seems that yesterday’s rally in Japanese markets is going to be short-lived. Futures show that the Nikkei Average is set for falls, while the flury of late trading activity in New York led the yen to hit a post-war record high against the dollar. The high for the day was 79.57 versus the dollar

2320 – Yukiya Amano, the UN atomic energy chief said he planned to fly to Japan on Thursday to seek first-hand information on the situation at a stricken nuclear power plant in his home country, Reuters reports. He will then brief the IAEA’s board in Vienna, as soon as he returns.

2300 – As morning breaks in Japan, I’m handing the reins over to Anora Mahmudova.

2248 - The level of radiation detected at the Tepco Fukushima plant has fallen steadily over the past 12 hours, an official at Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said on Thursday, Reuters reports.

A level of 752 microsieverts per hour was recorded at the plant’s main gate at 5 pm (0800 GMT) on Wednesday, said the official, Tetsuo Ohmura. The monitoring point was then changed to the plant’s west gate and readings were taken every 30 minutes, he said. At 5 am the reading was 338 microsieverts per hour.

That level was still much higher then it should be, but was not dangerous, and that by comparison absorption of a level of 400 was normal from being outside over the course of a year, Mr Ohmura said.

2240 – As David Pilling, our Asia editor, arrives in Tokyo, he shares a poignant view of the spirit of the Japanese people and how this will lead to eventual recovery.

For anyone who knows Japan, who has seen its workers on the factory floor or its craftsmen at their meticulous business, these are heartening stories. Japan is a country with few natural resources beyond its people. These are the people who created the Japanese miracle and who maintained another kind of Japanese miracle even when the world had grown bored and disillusioned with its stagnant economy.

2230 - The US embassy in Tokyo has released a new message from the ambassador to US citizens in the country reiterating the advice to evacuate all areas within 80km of the site.

Consistent with the NRC guidelines that apply to such a situation in the United States, we are recommending, as a precaution, that American citizens who live within 50 miles (80 kilometers) of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant evacuate the area or to take shelter indoors if safe evacuation is not practical.

2219 – One of our reporters here has been in touch with US citizens stationed at the Yokosuka Naval Base, 180 miles south of the nuclear site. They said they were told on Tuesday that they were exposed to small amounts of radiation, which was compared to the amount in a chest x-ray. While the base has no plans to evacuate, some family members are choosing to err on the side of caution and head south.

2209 – The IAEA has just released official temperatures from the cooling pools around the reactors at the nuclear facility. According to IAEA experts, a typical spent fuel pool temperature is kept below 25 ˚C under normal operating conditions.

Unit 4
14 March, 10:08 UTC:  84 ˚C
15 March, 10:00 UTC:  84 ˚C
16 March, 05:00 UTC:  no data

Unit 5
14 March, 10:08 UTC:  59.7 ˚C
15 March, 10:00 UTC:  60.4 ˚C
16 March, 05:00 UTC:  62.7 ˚C

Unit 6
14 March, 10:08 UTC:  58.0 ˚C
15 March, 10:00 UTC:  58.5 ˚C
16 March, 05:00 UTC:  60.0 ˚C

Context from the IAEA:

Spent fuel that has been removed from a nuclear reactor generates intense heat and is typically stored in a water-filled spent fuel pool to cool it and provide protection from its radioactivity. Water in a spent fuel pool is continuously cooled to remove heat produced by spent fuel assemblies …  The temperature of a spent fuel pool is maintained by constant cooling, which requires a constant power source.

Given the intense heat and radiation that spent fuel assemblies can generate, spent fuel pools must be constantly checked for water level and temperature. If fuel is no longer covered by water or temperatures reach a boiling point, fuel can become exposed and create a risk of radioactive release. The concern about the spent fuel pools at Fukushima Daiichi is that sources of power to cool the pools may have been compromised.

2203 – Just to highlight some of the statements from Gregory Jaczko, the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, during his Congressional testimony today.

Via Reuters:

“We believe that around the reactor site there are high levels of radiation. It would be very difficult for emergency workers to get near the reactors. The doses they could experience would potentially be lethal doses in a very short period of time.”

“We believe at this point that Unit Four may have lost a significant inventory, if not lost all, of its water.”
Officials in Japan have not said how much water remains in the pool.
Mr Jaczko said there was the possibility of a crack in the spent fuel pool in reactor No3, “which could lead to a loss of water in that pool”.
The NRC chairman also said the spent fuel pool level in reactor No 2 “is decreasing.”
While the NRC has 11 experts in Tokyo monitoring the situation, he added that the NRC’s information “is limited”.
“We’ve been very careful only to provide information that we believe is very reliable,” he said.

2150 – The Group of Seven finance ministers have called for a conference call Thursday night to discuss the financial implications of the crisis in Japan, according to Reuters.

Reuters reports:

The call will  “discuss steps to help Japan cope with financial and economic impact of its disaster, a G7 source said on Wednesday.

The source declined to comment on whether the finance ministers and central bankers would discuss intervention in Japan’s foreign exchange market.”

2144 – I should also note that the Nasdaq and S&P have wiped out this year’s gains in trading on Wednesday.
From our Wall Street report:

Global fears left the S&P index down 2 per cent to 1,256.88 at the close, adding to the 1.1 per cent fall on Tuesday and bringing the total losses for the week so far to 3.6 per ce nt. The index is on track for the heaviest weekly decline in seven months.

2130 – Our FT Alphaville colleagues have posted on the yen hitting a high of 77.33  Check it out. Thanks to FT AV for the handy graph as well.

Context:
As Reuters says, traders are nervously watching whether the Bank of Japan will intervene in the currency market to stem yen gains. A stronger currency makes Japanese exports less competitive and hurts the economy.

2118 – Yen has now hit 77.99 against the dollar. Our markets desk said the flurry of late trading led to the drop.

2100 – BREAKING: The yen has reached a post-war record high against the dollar. The high for the day was 79.57 versus the dollar.