Japan Disaster TickerTape Update 110329 13:55

Here are the TickerTape Updates from the NHK Online Website as of 13:55 on March 29, 2011.
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One other bit of news that keeps showing up, is that TEPCO seems to be continually apologizing for their errors, discrepancies, poor reporting, etc. in spite of being spanked a few times by Yukiyo Edano (that guy in the blue work uniform who shows up all the time for the news conferences). But... they apparently continue to resist outside, international oversight, and visits to the actual site.
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* Tokyo Electric Power Company says plutonium has been found in soil samples from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. But it says the level detected is the same as that found in other parts of Japan and does not pose a threat to human health.
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* Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano says the detection of trace amounts of plutonium in ground at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant means the situation there is extremely serious.
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(Cam's Note: Do the above two reports not seem slightly ... contradictory?)
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* The government's nuclear safety agency has ordered Tokyo Electric Power Company to closely monitor radiation and water levels in tunnels outside the turbine buildings for 3 damaged reactors.
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(Cam's Note: It's time that the work be taken out of TEPCO's incompetent hands, and given to another body, methinks.)
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* Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano says water must be pumped continuously into the No.2 reactor at the troubled Fukushima nuclear plant, despite the leak of highly radioactive water from the unit.
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* Japanese Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa says Self-Defense Forces troops if asked would work to remove highly radioactive water found leaking at the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
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* Prime Minister Naoto Kan has rejected views that his visit to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant a day after the earthquake delayed the crucial initial response to the developing disaster.
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* Japan's semi-public Geospatial Information Authority says the March 11th tsunami flooded a total 443 square kilometers of land in the 4 prefectures of Aomori, Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima.
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* Japan's Land Ministry has found that the tsunami on March 11th ran more than 40 kilometers upstream from river mouths.
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* A government study has found that dramatic changes in tide levels in the sea off northern Japan continued for about 6 hours after a massive tsunami struck on March 11th.
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* Over 28,000 people are dead or missing following the huge earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan's northeastern coast on March 11th.
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* Electric power companies in Japan have put on hold plans to restart nuclear reactors now undergoing checkups, and to build new ones.