Radiation Forces US 7th Fleet to Reposition Ships

The U.S. 7th Fleet has temporarily repositioned its ships and aircraft away from Japan’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi Nuclear Power Plant after detecting low-level contamination in the air and on its aircraft operating in the area.

The source of this airborne radioactivity is a radioactive plume released from the power plant, officials said.

In a statement announcing the decision, officials emphasized that the maximum potential radiation dose received by anyone aboard a ship that passed through the area was less than the radiation exposure received from about a month of exposure to natural background radiation from sources such as rocks, soil and the sun.

Japan Quake, Tsunami To Disrupt Asia Shipping Operations For Weeks

SINGAPORE (Dow Jones)–With many Japanese ports still closed after Friday’s powerful earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan, it could take several days if not weeks before shipping activity in the region returns to normal, traders and shipbrokers said Sunday.

“The structural stability at the ports will need to be certified before normal shipping can resume and this could take weeks,” said an official with a global oil major, who didn’t want to be identified.

“No official announcement has been received about the status of the ports, but it appears likely that those on the Pacific shoreline of Honshu Island will be out of operation for some time. There have been multiple reports of vessels running aground or colliding as a result of the massive wave that followed the 8.9 magnitude quake. Damage to infrastructure in the affected area is thought to be extensive,” an internal report of a Singapore-based shipping agent said.

“There are some unconfirmed reports indicating that a number of vessels have ran aground in the vicinity of the northeastern part of the Pacific basin of Japan,” another shipping company report said.

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