Active Planet: Japan's woes worsen

There are at least 10,000 people dead following the strongest earthquake ever registered in Japan: so strong that Japan - which has its own scale and does not follow the Richter scale - is having to consider redefining the scale - extending it because the quake of 11 March was, almost literally, off the scale.

It was almost off the Richter scale, too. Of a possible maximum 10, it was 9.8.

That's a hell of a big quake. The one that devastated Christchurch a matter of days earlier was 7.2.

But since 11 March, the area around Sendai has suffered a string of aftershocks. There is debate as to what events are aftershocks and which are new events. For those on the ground, such technical argument is otiose. Yesterday, a 6.1 magnitude (Richter) quake struck at 17.1km underground (and underwater) but, according to the Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System it affects a largely unpopulated area in the Tohuku province - which as an entire area has a population of some 9.9 million. It was 109 km from Sendai.

But this morning, another quake, this time slightly larger at 6.5 magnitude in an almost identical position did raise a tsunami alert, albeit only temporarily. The alert was more technical than terrifying: Japan Meteorological Agency warned of a tsunami of 50cm.

What was terrifying was the report over the weekend that radiation levels escaping the Fukushima-Daiichi plant on Sunday (yesterday) had spiked at some 10 million times the normal levels in one of the damaged reactors. Then Tokyo Electric Power issued a statement which is not especially encouraging: the worker who took the reading did not confirm it because it was so high that remaining in position was too dangerous. The company says that the figure "is not credible" but has not released a correction. It appears there are no remote or robotic readers in the plant at reactor 2.

Worse, official government figures say that its readings in puddles close to reactor 2 show levels of more than 1,000 times normal - that would mean that workers would receive their annual permitted dose of radiation in just 15 minutes.

These safety issues are hampering investigations into just where the radioactivity is coming from: all fires have now been extinguished and there are no obvious dust clouds. This is giving rise to concern that the radioactivity is being carried out of the reactor in leaks from cooling water systems.

There is some additional support for this theory: radioactivity levels in the surrounding sea have risen to more than 1,800 times normal.

And all the while, workers are trying to keep the reactors and spent rods cool: at last - some two weeks into the crisis, they have been able to set up piping so that they are able to deliver fresh water into the plant instead of the short-term, emergency and less desirable sea water they had been able to insert. But the threat of meltdown remains.

The fallout is economic and political as well as radioactive: Singapore has banned food imports from parts of Japan having identified elevated levels of radiation in fruit and vegetables. Other countries have identified problems and are reviewing the situation. Malaysia says that it is scanning all passengers arriving from Japan but have found no elevated levels of radiation in any arrivals.

Japan's famed "just in time" method of manufacturing is causing problems as manufacturers find that their downstream supply chains have been cut: aside from transport problems, factories have disappeared or are inside the 80km exclusion zone around the nuclear plant. Although most major factories now have power and water - and most of their staff - that is not the case in component production facilities which are often much smaller businesses to which major manufacturers outsource.

But of a more pressing nature is that of supply of food into some of the most devastated areas around Sendai: areas - each of several square kilometres - were laid waste by the tsunami. Where there once were roads there are now piles of broken buildings and other property. The scale of the disaster is still unfolding: an estimated 17,000 people are still missing. Bodies are being collected in makeshift mortuaries and a plan to create a mass grave for the unidentified has been put on hold following protests. But with such massive devastation there is the brutal reality that all those who might have been able to identify victims are themselves dead.

Several days ago, the authorities said that the Tokyo water supply was not safe for babies. Increasingly, the population is sceptical of announcements and taking the view that all such are understating the risk. So a run on bottled water ensued as the population at large decided not to drink tap water. That led to the bizarre concept of the government hoarding water so as to distribute it to nursing mothers and those with babes in arms - provided they could prove the child they were carrying was theirs.

If there is a saving grace, at least providing temporary respite, it's that airborne radiation is not reaching Tokyo in any significant quantity. And that, so long as there is no greater crisis at the nuclear plants, is probably the best news that anyone can hope for at present.

Or almost: last week, more than 2km inland, a rice paddy flooded with the wrong kind of water, was being examined. Some odd movement attracted attention. It turned out to be a baby porpoise. Just a metre long, had had a few superficial scratches that showed no signs of infection and its movements showed no signs of pain or distress suggesting no internal injuries. A paddy worker waded into the field and coaxed the porpoise to him and picked it up in his arms, then waded to the edge of the field. The animal was handed over to a local animal welfare group who, it is understood, intend to return it to the sea. Hopefully, not part of the sea that is massively radioactive.