Live press conference starting NHK

[Hannah Bell]

http://yokosonews.com/live/

[Hannah Bell]

1. 5 papers handed out

they haven't started it yet, still standing by

[Hannah Bell]

2. there's been breaking news without detail on japanese media that reactor 2

plant 1 rods are exposed again, this is probably what the conference is about but still waiting

[Hannah Bell]

6. starting

it was previously reported that valve got shut down/stuck

we dont know why

was it power or what

we don't know

how many valve was already open reporter asks

i heard the number two

was it possible to open

we opened it again

because the pressure raised and we had to lower it

so right now is it exposed fully

we don't know fully but we are kind of sure the water has risen

what's the status now

we don't know but we have the valve open and are releasing pressure and will be able to put in sea water

the radiation detected = 750 micro sv

[Hannah Bell]

7. they're now talking about numbers from yesterday

they're trying to reconfirm the numbers/level of radiation

[Hannah Bell]

9. the one point i don't know which part but it says one location

i don't know where i'm sure it's inside the power plant but the level has raised to above 3000 (?) micro sv

at 9:20 pm i heard the valve had opened

we know we have reached the 3000 and we are taking seriously

so how about the #2 exposed fuel what's the status

......

they keep asking to confirm what the numbers on the paper are they are talking about that right now off mike

....

[Hannah Bell]

11. fukushima #2

the site is overloaded

[jannyk]

3. Please keep us updated, I can't stream and don't understand Japanese anyway. nt

[godai]

4. Excellent simultaneous English translation. n/t

[godai]

5. Excerpts...

#1 has been safely stopped.

#2 pressure is building (sounds similar to 1 and 3)

Some radiation (new) at Fukushima 2 - reported to authorities

(Reporters sound sceptical)

[godai]

8. Kind of chaotic.

Officials seem to want to focus of old information. There are no clear responses.

[jannyk]

10. Nothing about exposed rods?

[godai]

12. Yes, but confusing.

"This press conference is a mess in terms of organization" (the translator)

My grasp of what was said is that reactor #2 is following the same path as #1 and #3 (both of which have had hydrogen explosions)

There're a lot of contradictory statements during the Q&A.

They're not indicating that overall, anything is worse, but, who knows.

[jannyk]

14. meanwhile CNN just did a weather report on wind patterns from

Japan to US and now a segment on taking iodine!!!!

[godai]

15. Translator, understandably, is kind of shutting down.

Simultaneous translation is really mentally tiring and he's stopped trying to translate everything. Seems like mostly nothing new.

[Hannah Bell]

16. i've completeely lost the feed.

[Hannah Bell]

21. ok back it's a TEPCO presser on TBS Japan

q: so, are you trying to open up the valve? (or vent?)

a: so we are trying to open it right now, the vent

q: how will you check the level?

q: what does -600 mean, the water level in the document

a; it depends on the pressure level, if the pressure level changes the level is different

a; pressure level is down so

the actual number 9:58 PM is 9.5 micro sv, this is fukushima daini (plant 2)

now we are going to explain the document detail

monitor involves no 3, we had a little increased radiation, we have decided...

rise was at 2f monitoring post

we have to check it again and let you know

monitoring post is about 10 km from plants 1 & 2

q; so what is this chapter 10 all about

a; radiation increase at plant 2 may have something to do with problem at plant 1 which is 10 km away

tbs has stopped showing the conference

****

translators saying:

so nothing really new, a lot of skipping around

we just had a tepco conference -- the company in charge of the fukushima plants

my live translation was so messed up, don't trust it

we're going to wait until the writers who were there look at the papers, review it

all the writers who were there were asking questions about the paper

we got a lot of the same information they've been telling us

mainly they talked about the 2nd reactor of reactor 2, plant 1

they did mention that the radiation was higher

[Hannah Bell]

22. so there's some things i (translator) got from the presser

1. some of the reactors are safely cooled but
2. fukushima plant 1's second reactor is now having the most problem
3. the original #2 fuel rod exposure was resolved about 5 hours ago but about 1 (?) hour ago valve got shut down & pressure increased to right now they're trying to open up the valve at the time of press conference
4. fukushima has 2 plants which are 10 km from each other
5. they're finding higher radiation levels at plant 2 & saying it may be related to what's happening at plant 1

the translator is having his assistant research what the "experts" are saying in the japanese media now

nhk source now saying there may be more than 15K people missing at this point

....

the rise in radiation detected (at plant 2) was from 0 to 9.5 micro sv/hr
according to various experts, not life-threatening

[Hannah Bell]

13. there has been but the initial presentation was so rapid fire it was

hard to understand

right now the site is overloaded and there's no feed for me

they will have the same press conference on nhk english but there's a delay usually between the japanese tv & the rerun with foreign translations

nothing yet at nhk english

[robdogbucky]

17. Thank you Hannah Bell for your service in this regard...

I just wish there weren't so many "We don't know," answers, but it is still unfolding, no?


valve got shut down/stuck

we don’t know why

was it power or what

we don't know

so right now is it exposed fully

we don't know fully but we are kind of sure the water has risen

what's the status now

we don't know…..



I will feel much better, living here on the west coast like we are, when there are more substantive answers to such questions.

I just got up a while ago and I can see the tension has not eased at all.


Bummer

[godai]

18. Great question..

Q- So, the pump ran out of power. Was that because the worker wasn't paying attention?

A- We're still investigating.

They're being so evasive and dismissive.

[godai]

19. Still going on but there won't be anything new forthcoming. n/t

[godai]

20. Reporters were pissed.

One female reporter ended with..What are you going to say to the Japanese people??

One of the people on this site said...The reporters were violently asking their questions.

News conference has ended now.