Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Japan changes its tradition funeral for lack of fuel

In some cities in Japan has begun to bury victims of the earthquake and tsunami of March 11 due to lack of fuel for the crematoria, Nipponese media reported. The government Higashimatsushima city in Miyagi prefecture, the most affected by natural castástrofe, said he has purchased land to bury up to 1,000 bodies.

The mayor, Hideo Abe, said that funerals are a temporary solution and that the bodies will be cremated within two years. In Japan there is no tradition of burying the dead, but of incineration. According to the latest figures provided by the National Police, the earthquake and tsunami caused 9,079 dead and 12,645 missing.

Some 310,000 people are housed in emergency shelters. Meanwhile, energy company TEPCO, which operates the Fukushima nuclear power plant severely damaged by the disaster, has apologized to the refugees from the area surrounding the nuclear plant. "We feel that we've caused so many disturbing" said Norio Tsuzimi, board member of TEPCO, during a visit to an emergency shelter, according to Kyodo news agency.

Tsuzimi visited a school, converted into a hostel in the city of Tamura, about 40 kilometers from the Fukushima nuclear plant I, which they had fled many people who lived near the plant. The Japanese government ordered the evacuation of all people living within a radius of 20 kilometers from the nuclear plant.

According to the television channel NHK, the defense minister, Toshimi Kitazawa, announced that the Army made daily flights over the plant to measure the temperature inside the facility. So far, only there were two flights a week to measure the temperature. Because of the earthquake and tsunami had ceased to operate the cooling systems of nuclear power, so that temperatures had risen sharply in the reactors and in pools to cool fuel rods used.

Police and firefighters threw again Tuesday seawater on the reactor 3 of the plant to reduce the temperature. This work had been suspended on Monday after smoke that will rise on two reactors and steam. The reactor 3 is especially dangerous because the fuel rods contain not only uranium but also plutonium, a highly toxic radioactive substance.

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