Summary of events from today in Tokyo
10:30 am
I can’t even keep track of events anymore. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42084187/ns/world_news-asiapacific/I‘m going to run out to the supermarket and see if I can get there before they close this time. 10:42 am NHK is showing, from a helicopter 30 km away, that a great deal of smoke seems to be coming from the #3 reactor building now. No announcements from the government on what it means yet. 12:26 pm Strong earthquake WARNING. Part of the new system to predict earthquakes. Nothing so far. 1:18 pm I guess it worked. Large earthquake (magnitude 6, 5 of 7 on the Japanese scale) in, it looks like Chiba this time. My house shook for like 10 minutes. Aftershock RIGHT NOW. 1:39 pm CNN — Workers at Japan’s damaged nuclear power plant have suspended operations and evacuated, chief Cabinet secretary says. doug
TOKYO (Reuters) – Workers were ordered to withdraw briefly from a stricken Japanese nuclear power plant on Wednesday after radiation levels surged, Kyodo news reported, a development that suggested the crisis was spiraling out of control.Just hours earlier another fire broke out at the earthquake-crippled plant, which has sent low levels of radiation wafting into Tokyo in the past 24 hours, triggering both fear in the capital and international alarm.The workers were allowed back into the plant after almost an hour when the radiation levels had fallen.