0512: Japanese fire engines have now resumed spraying water on the Fukushima plant, Japan's news agencies report
0519: A total of 50 tonnes of water will be discharged, NHK says. It adds that the operation is focusing on reactor 3.
0529: chicoharlan: tweets: "NHK commentator sees vapor rising from unit 3, guesses it indicates water blasting is hitting target - the spent fuel pool."
FEATURE: Troubled Fukushima nuke plant rekindles Three Mile Island memories
By Scott Dixon
CAMP HILL, Pennsylvania, March 18, Kyodo
For residents near Three Mile Island, a nuclear power plant along the Susquehanna River in central Pennsylvania, images of workers at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant trigger reminders of their traumatic experiences during the 1979 nuclear accident.
''I look at the people in Japan and it's heartbreaking to me,'' resident Paula Kinney, 63, told Kyodo News in a recent interview at her home in central Pennsylvania.
''I speak for so many people...we're praying for them,'' she said while trying to hold back tears.
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Little Tokyo community mourns tragedy, rallies support
By Jody Godoy
LOS ANGELES, March 18, Kyodo
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa joined Japanese Consul General Junichi Ihara and more than 600 attendees at the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center in the Little Tokyo area on Thursday evening to mourn Japan's quake and tsunami victims and show solidarity with the shaken country.
''We say today to our Japanese brothers and sisters: you are not alone,'' said Villaraigosa. The mayor praised ''the resilience and the courage of the Japanese people'' and offered ''our deepest condolences and prayers.''
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0037: Engineers are accelerating efforts to restore cooling functions to reactors at the damaged Fukushima plant on Saturday, reports Kyodo news agency. They are hoping to reconnect the electricity to reactor number 2 later today.
0044: Members of Tokyo Fire Department's 'hyper rescue team' have joined the operation to cool down reactor 3 by spraying it with 90 tonnes of water, according to Kyodo.
0201: Tokyo fire department is to resume water spraying operations at Fukushima nuclear plant at noon, local time, NHK reports. The operation to cool fuel rods at the plant comes as workers continue operations to restore electricity to the plant.
0131: The confirmed death toll from the quake and tsunami has risen to 7,197, according to Japan's National Police Agency, and another 10,905 people are listed as missing.
The earthquake and tsunami which struck on 11 March are known to have killed more than 7,600 people, while more than 11,000 remain missing.
2:15pm
The official death toll from Japan's devastating earthquake and tsunami has risen to 8,133 with 12,272 still missing, Kyodo news agency said, citing the police.
Police earlier said they feared more than 15,000 people had died in one prefecture alone, Miyagi, in the March 11 disaster.
2:00pm
Nuclear officials: Pressure rises again at Japanese reactor, requiring new radiation release. (AP)
1:03pm
The operator of Japan's quake-hit nuclear plant says it will be difficult to restore power to the cooling system for reactor No. 2 by the end of the day, Jiji Press reported.
5:40pm
Japan's top government spokesman says the country's tsunami-ravaged nuclear plant must eventually be scrapped.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano's comment Sunday was the first word from the government that the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex will have to be closed once its overheating reactors are brought under control.
Closing the plant is inevitable, since the seawater that emergency crews are using to cool the reactors is corrosive, rendering key parts of the complex unusable.
Edano says the plant will be in no condition to be restarted.
5:21pm
NHK domestic now showing live pictures of a rescue chopper carrying two survivors who have just been discovered. The survivors are an 80 year old and 16 year old who are reported to have been rescued in Ishinomaki.
5:00pm
The operator of Japan's tsunami-damaged nuclear plant has backed away from plans for a tricky venting of radioactive gas at one of the troubled reactors, saying that pressure inside has stabilized.
Tokyo Electric Power company officials say the company has decided that there is no immediate need to vent the pressure at the Unit 3 reactor of the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant.
They say the pressure is relatively high, but that it has stabilized.
4:09pm
NHK reports that technicians will not be releasing air from the containment vessel of No. 3 in order to reduce the pressure inside. The pressure in there is now reported to be stable.
Death toll tops 10,000 as 2 weeks pass since quake-tsunami disaster
TOKYO, March 26, Kyodo
Two weeks after the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami hit northeastern and eastern Japan, the official death toll topped 10,000 while more than 240,000 people were still sheltering in about 1,900 evacuation centers as of Friday.
Direct damage from the disaster, including destroyed homes and roads, is estimated at between 16 trillion to 25 trillion yen, while radiation leaks at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant continue to cause widespread anxiety.
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Gov't asks people within 20-30 km of nuke plant to leave voluntarily
TOKYO, March 25, Kyodo
The Japanese government on Friday encouraged people living within 20 to 30 kilometers of the troubled nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture to leave voluntarily, citing concerns over access to daily necessities, while maintaining its directive for them to remain indoors and for residents within 20 km of the plant to evacuate.
The government asked heads of affected municipalities to encourage people to voluntarily move farther away, promising to provide its full support in helping them to relocate, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told a news conference.
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Official police toll as of 10 a.m. this morning: 10,151 dead and 17,053 missing. #Japan
Levels of radioactive materials soaring in sea near nuke plant
TOKYO, March 26, Kyodo
Levels of radioactive materials are skyrocketing in the sea near the crisis-hit nuclear power station in Fukushima Prefecture, the government's nuclear safety agency said Saturday, while the plant's operator has started injecting fresh water into the No. 2 reactor core to enhance cooling efficiency.
According to the government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, radioactive iodine-131 at a concentration 1,250.8 times the legal limit was detected Friday morning in a seawater sample taken around 330 meters south of the plant, near the drain outlets of its troubled four reactors.
The level rose to its highest so far in the survey begun this week, after staying around levels 100 times over the legal limit. It is highly likely that radioactive water in the plant has disembogued into the sea, Tokyo Electric Power Co said.
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