The BBC’s Chris Hogg reports on life inside the nuclear exclusion zone
Workers at Japan’s quake-hit nuclear plant are trying to prevent radioactive water from seeping into the sea.
Highly radioactive liquid has been found inside and outside several reactor buildings.
Small amounts of plutonium have also been detected in soil at the plant – the latest indication that one of the reactors suffered a partial meltdown.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan said his government was on maximum alert, and the situation remained “unpredictable”.
Japan’s Nuclear Safety Agency said there was still no confirmation that radioactive water has seeped into the sea from flooded tunnels within the Fukushima Daiichi plant.
Water levels in underground tunnels adjoining reactors 1, 2 and 3 had been stable, the agency said.
Workers from plant operator Tepco have been piling sandbags and concrete blocks around the shafts, which lie between 55m and 70m from the shore, the agency said.
FUKUSHIMA UPDATE (29 MAR)Reactor 1: Damage to the core from cooling problems. Building holed by gas explosion. Highly radioactive water detected in reactorReactor 2: Damage to the core from cooling problems. Building holed by gas blast; containment damage suspected. Highly radioactive water detected in reactor and adjoining tunnelReactor 3: Damage to the core from cooling problems. Building holed by gas blast; containment damage possible. Spent fuel pond partly refilled with water after running low. Highly radioactive water detected in reactorReactor 4: Reactor shut down prior to quake. Fires and explosion in spent fuel pond; water level partly restoredReactors 5 & 6: Reactors shut down. Temperature of spent fuel pools now lowered after rising highPlutonium: Found at five locations in soil – levels said to represent no danger to human health
Q&A: Fukushima radiation alert A new way to look at radiation Q&A: Health effects of radiationWater in the tunnel linked to the No 2 reactor was measured at more than 1,000 millisieverts an hour, a dose which could cause radiation sickness. Radiation levels in water in tunnels adjoining reactors 1 and 3 were much lower.
Work to safely remove the contaminated water is a priority, government officials said, but stressed more water would need to be used to continue to cool fuel rods.
“We need to avoid the fuel rods from heating up and drying up. Continuing the cooling is unavoidable… We need to prioritise injecting water,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told a news conference.
Tepco and the safety agency say the exact source of the radioactive leak is unknown.
But, like the discovery of plutonium, the high levels of radiation found inside and outside reactor buildings are likely to have come from melted fuel rods.
Theories for the leak centre on two possibilities: steam is flowing from the core into the reactor housing and escaping through cracks, or the contaminated material is leaking from the damaged walls of the water-filled pressure control pool beneath the No 2 reactor.
The plutonium – used in the fuel mix in the No 3 reactor – is not at levels that threaten human health, officials said.
Engineers are battling to restore power and restart the cooling systems at the stricken nuclear plant, which was hit by a powerful quake and subsequent tsunami over two weeks ago.
Operator Tepco has been accused of a lack of transparency and failing to provide information more promptly. It was also heavily criticised for issuing erroneous radiation readings at the weekend.
On Tuesday, National Strategy Minister Koichiro Gemba said the government could consider temporarily nationalising the energy giant.
His comments came a day after shares in the company dropped to their lowest level in three decades.
The massive 9.0-magnitude quake and the subsequent tsunami on 11 March are now known to have killed more than 11,000 people, with at least 16,700 people still missing across north-eastern Japan.
“During the day, these frail, crumpled people sit bundled up in blankets around the space heater that is inadequate to warm the large common room”
Karen Mueller Red Cross, northern JapanAid worker’s diary
The authorities are struggling to identify about 4,000 bodies in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures.
”They were collected at places far from their residential areas (due to being swept away by the tsunami), or their families as a whole must have been washed away by the tsunami,” a senior official at the National Police Agency was quoted by Kyodo news agency as saying.
Police are posting information about clothes and physical appearance online, the report said.
Some 190,000 people are continuing to live in temporary shelters, many having to cope with food, water and fuel shortages.
The breakdown of local administration has also left municipal offices struggling to assess the damage and casualties in some coastal areas devastated by the tsunami, national broadcaster NHK reports.
Prime Minister Kan is expected to visit the devastated city of Rikuzentakata, in Iwate prefecture, on Saturday.
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Is shedding weight harder while stressed or missing sleep?
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Managing sleep and stress levels can help in the battle against obesity, according to scientists in the US.
People getting too little or too much sleep were less likely to lose weight in a six month study of 472 obese people.
Their report in the International Journal of Obesity showed that lower stress levels also predicted greater weight loss.
A UK sleep expert said people need to “eat less, move more and sleep well”.
Approximately a quarter of adults in the UK are thought to be clinically obese, which means they have a Body Mass Index greater than 30.
Nearly 500 obese patients were recruited for the first part of a clinical trial by the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research in the US.
For six months they had to eat 500 fewer calories per day, exercise most days and attend group sessions.
The authors report that “sleep time predicted success in the weight loss programme”.
People with lower stress levels at the start also lost more weight.
The researchers added: “These results suggest that early evaluation of sleep and stress levels in long-term weight management studies could potentially identify which participants might benefit from additional counselling.”
Dr Neil Stanley, from the British Sleep Society, said the sleep community had been aware of this for a while, but was glad that obesity experts were taking notice.
“We’ve always had the eat less move more mantra. But there is a growing body of evidence that we also need to sleep well”, he said.
“It’s also true that if you’re stressed, then you’re less likely to behave, you’ll sit at home feeling sorry for yourself, probably eating a chocolate bar.”
Dr David Haslam, chair of the National Obesity Forum, said: “It’s a great idea to find predictors of who will respond to therapy, if this is a genuine one.”
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At least 11 Pakistani soldiers have been killed in an ambush by suspected militants close to the Afghan border, officials say.
The military convoy was attacked in the north-west Khyber tribal region, near the city of Peshawar.
The dead included a colonel and a captain in the paramilitary Frontier Corps, a government official said.
Pakistani forces are often targeted by militants linked to al-Qaeda and the Taliban in the tribal regions.
Islamabad has launched several operations against insurgents along the Afghan border over the past two years.
Khyber government official Iqbal Khan said the convoy had been returning from a mission in three vehicles when it was attacked. He said several of the attackers were also killed, but gave no more details.
One report said 14 soldiers had died.
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The note was alleged to have been planted in a cell at Maghaberry Prison
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The lawyer for a man in whose cell a prison officer is alleged to have planted a note has said the police and justice minister must conduct a thorough investigation.
The note is believed to have contained personal details about the former Governor of Maghaberry prison.
It was found in the cell of dissident republican suspect Brendan McConville.
His solicitor, Kevin Winters, said his client believed he “was set up”.
He also said Mr McConville would challenge the case against him over the murder of PSNI officer Stephen Carroll.
The note was found in the suspect’s cell in December 2009.
The governor at the time, Steve Rodford, resigned a short time later because of fears he was under threat.
Prisoner Ombudsman Pauline McCabe has completed a 15-month investigation into the incident.
She concluded the note was hidden in the cell by a member of staff opposed to planned reforms at the prison.
Mr Rodford resigned less than five months after he was appointed.
Security was one of the factors in his decision as his wife had left Northern Ireland weeks earlier because of concerns they were being targeted by dissident republicans.
The ombudsman has now said that, “on the balance of probabilities” the note was planted in the cell by a member of prison service staff and that the purpose was to encourage the governor to reconsider the planned changes.
Ms McCabe has also concluded that prison staff leaked incorrect information to the media that Mr Rodford was being actively targeted by dissident republicans.
The ombudsman said there were reasonable grounds to indicate that one member of staff may have committed a disciplinary and criminal offence.
The police have now launched a criminal investigation.
In a statement, the prison service said it took the matter very seriously and had launched a disciplinary investigation, which has been adjourned until the police complete their inquiry.
It confirmed it had received a copy of the Prisoner Ombudsman’s report following a complaint by prisoner Brendan McConville.
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Ed Miliband is concerned about the decline political engagement among the public
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Ed Miliband has vowed the biggest shake-up in the way the Labour Party is run since it was founded in 1918 in an effort to halt declining membership.
The Labour leader wants to give the public a formal role in policy formation – and allow them to become “registered supporters” free of charge.
It has been interpreted by some as a move to dilute union influence.
But Mr Miliband says drastic action is needed to halt the slide in participation affecting all parties.
The aim of the “Refounding Labour” project, headed by shadow cabinet member Peter Hain, is to transform Labour into a more outward-looking organisation.
Mr Hain said: “It is imperative we use this period of Opposition to leapfrog the other parties by refounding our own, so that Labour emerges refreshed and reinvigorated.
“Fewer voters are wedded to one particular party these days.
“Just as politics has become more global it has also become more local. So what matters more than ever is how Labour engages with people in their neighbourhoods on local issues.”
Party membership has been in decline across Europe for decades and the UK now has one of the lowest rates of membership among other established democracies with 1.5% saying they belonged to a party in 2001.
Labour Party members will hold consultation meetings in May, with rule changes to be considered first by the party’s National Executive and then its annual conference in September.
The Lib Dems and Conservatives have also been experimenting with ways to boost membership and reach out to non-aligned voters, including open primaries to select candidates and cut-price membership schemes.
Mr Miliband became Labour leader in September 2010, four months after the party recorded its worst General Election performance since 1983.
The document says the 400,000 votes cast in the leadership election was double the number who voted in the most recent Conservative leadership election, but also notes that three million people could have taken part.
It says “the challenge now is to find ways of involving still more of our supporters in future elections”, including the possibility of allowing registered supporters to vote.
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A US scheme to pinpoint future VIPs has spent 70 years introducing power-brokers-to-be to the American way. So how can you tell who will one day be a head of state?
They’re out there, somewhere, embarking on their relentless climb to the top.
The next generation of politicians, cultural pioneers, business executives and media voices are starting their first jobs, desperate to escape obscurity, determined to make a name for themselves.
All you have to do is find them.
Predicting who will one day run our lives might not be an easy task, but a little-known scheme run by the US State Department has demonstrated an uncanny capacity to pinpoint these leaders-in-waiting.
It has received little attention during its history, but since 1940 the International Visitor Leader Program (IVLP) has proved remarkably prescient when it comes to guessing who might one day govern the planet.
A history of talent-spotting1940 – US begins cultural exchanges for the first time under the guidance of Nelson Rockefeller1948: Smith-Mundt Act creates agency to “promote a better understanding of the United States in other countries, and to increase mutual understanding”1950: Foreign Leader Program established, later renamed International Visitor Program2004: name changed to International Visitor Leadership Program
As part of the highly prestigious – and expensive – programme, participants are hand-picked to spend typically three weeks visiting Washington DC and three additional towns or cities, meeting their counterparts and other VIPs and experts – all highly valuable networking experience for any ambitious young man or woman on the climb.
Of the current cabinet, some 11 members are alumni of the scheme, according to the US Embassy in London.
Former prime ministers Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Margaret Thatcher and Edward Heath were all participants early in their careers.
Nor are British heads of government the only ones to have been talent-spotted. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Zimbabwean premier Morgan Tsvangirai are among serving leaders who have passed through the project’s ranks.
In the UK alone, over 2,500 citizens have travelled to the US as part of the IVLP. But those hoping to apply for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity – admission is strictly invitation-only.
Conspiracy theorists warn the scheme is all about an imperial power meddling in the affairs of sovereign regimes, seducing their future political leaders and moulding them into Washington-approved candidates.
The IVLP and me
Muddassar Ahmed, 28, chief executive of PR agency Unitas, has visited the US twice under the scheme and formed the John Adams Society for IVLP alumni
“I was recommended by the US cultural attache in London who had seen some documentaries I had made. He was interested in my community activism.
“I wouldn’t say I was hostile to the US beforehand but I did have assumptions which were challenged by seeing it for myself. I met some people I’ll keep in touch with for the rest of my life.
“It was a fascinating experience. I was particularly lucky to get to meet Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s senior adviser on Muslim engagement.
“My colleagues joke that they’ve implanted me with an American bug.
“But I think what the experience has given me is a more considered opinion of the US.”
But its supporters say it operates more subtly than that, aiming not to convert opponents but to give future opinion-formers an understanding of how America works.
One recent attendee is Victoria Eastwood, who was working as a producer on Channel 4 News when one of her State Department contacts with whom she would arrange US government interviewees for Jon Snow nominated her for the scheme.
In 2009 she was taken to New York, Nebraska, and San Francisco, where she was introduced to former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
The visit did not alter the journalist’s scepticism about the 2003 invasion of Iraq, with which Ms Rice was closely associated. But she acknowledges that the experience deepened her appreciation of how the American system operates and, in turn, ensured her coverage of US affairs could offer an insider’s perspective.
“I was quite conscious that I didn’t want to go on some kind of propaganda trip,” Victoria says.
“But what they are doing is exposing you to people in power so that if I’m looking at something like Iran sanctions I know the person who’s responsible for putting that policy into practice.”
Like Victoria, not all participants are aspiring politicians. The novelist Hanif Kureishi took part in 1986, four years before the Buddah of Suburbia brought him widespread public attention, and the British artist Angela Palmer is another recent recipient. Nor do all alumni go onto achieve fame and recognition.
There is, however, an obvious chicken-an-egg question: does the status of individuals singled out as future leaders become a self-fulfilling prophecy?
Prof Giles Scott-Smith, an international relations expert at Roosevelt Academy in the Netherlands, has studied the programme extensively. He acknowledges that being invited onto it carries a high degree of prestige and can bring participants into elite networks earlier in their careers than might have been the case otherwise.
But he argues that there tends to be a clear logic behind invitations, citing the example of former Dutch prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende, who was talent-spotted for the scheme by the US embassy in 1985 when he was an obscure figure, working for a city council and as a researcher for the Christian Democrat party.
“They really keep track of what’s going on in the House of Commons very closely”
Prof Giles Scott-Smith International relations expert at Roosevelt Academy
Despite this apparently humble status, Prof Scott-Smith says Balkenende was already a keen networker, leading US officials to conclude he would be getting ahead under his own steam regardless of their intervention.
Similarly, when Nicolas Sarkozy met the mayor of New York, Ed Koch, as part of the programme while himself mayor of the Paris suburb Neuilly-sur-Seine, the future French president milked the occasion for all the publicity it was worth, Prof Scott-Smith adds – suggesting that a true potential leader will manage to get at least as much out of the visit as the State Department.
He says the programme succeeds because it comes with no strings attached, which overcomes many sceptical invitees and allows them also to feel immune from accusations of manipulation.
But he believes it is nonetheless a prime example of US “soft power” in action, shaping first impressions and casting America within the context of one’s own ambitions, aspirations, ideas, and possibilities.
In the London embassy, he observes, staff do not so much conduct their own surveillance as tap into existing local knowledge about potential rising stars.
“They really keep track of what’s going on in the House of Commons very closely,” Prof Scott Smith says. “They’ll have one political officer who is assigned to follow each political party.
What to look for in a potential leader
Prof Jonathan Gosling, director of the Centre of Leadership Studies at the University of Exeter
“It may be their personality, it might be their ambition, it might be their staying power, it might be what they’ve achieved already.
“Leadership is about a comfort in taking authority for themselves and for others.
“It’s about having a dependable stance that others feel they can rely on.
“But sometimes, as with Winston Churchill, it’s a case of cometh the hour, cometh the man – it’s not something you can forsee.”
“What they want to do is pick up as much local knowledge as possible. That means talking to political party leaders but it also involves having good contacts with museum directors and so on.
“It’s not just a US operation. It’s about mutual interest. There’s this ongoing fascination with the US. We’re still in a world where we look to the US for leadership, for influence, for potential sources of solutions.”
Not everyone views the programme so benignly, however. Intelligence expert Robin Ramsay, editor of Lobster magazine, accepts it is likely that all the beneficiaries of the project’s largesse would have risen to the top anyway.
But he argues that the notion of a major power courting the future elite of another nation state offers cause for alarm.
“I’m concerned because I think Britain should be independent,” he says. “I think the idea of a foreign country interfering in our politics is worrying.”
Certainly, a 2006 study by Prof Scott-Smith (PDF) suggests the programme was used in the early 1980s to reach out to young Labour politicians, including Blair and Brown, at a time when scepticism about the Atlantic alliance was prevalent within the party.
However, Philip Breeden, press counsellor at the US embassy in London, insists such concerns are misplaced. He says the scheme works to the advantage of both his country and those of the programme’s alumni.
“There’s an obvious benefit to have people in public life understanding each other better across national boundaries,” he says. “This is people-to-people diplomacy, not country-to-country diplomacy.
“What we’re looking for is people who are making a contribution to their community, who we think will advance in their chosen career path, who will serve as a good link between our two countries.”
Whatever your view of the scheme, one truth remains unquestionable: our future elite are still out there. And if anyone can find them, the Americans know how to do it.
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