Of Clean Water and a Budget Package

Good news. I'm well-rested and able to properly explain it now. I need to do some research, but this is what I have so far.

Japan released about 10,000 metric tons of radioactive water from its Fukushima Daiichi Plant. The radiation levels despite being much higher than the legal limit, are still relatively fine. TEPCO believes that most of the radiation occurred from hydrogen explosions. Iodine-131, which has a half-life of 8 days, was found in the water. Cesium-134 and Cesium-137 were both found. Their levels are far lower, but they have much longer half-lives. 27,000 tons of water was used to cool down the reactor. This water unfortunately became highly toxic.

Areva SA, a French nuclear company, has offered to clean Japan's water. Since the French have roughly 70% of their power come from nuclear plants, they are considered extremely experienced in this.  Areva SA has stated that they clean the water at 50 tons per hour. Tomihisa Oota, a Japanese chemist, has developed a process that is apparently fast though. Through a special mineral powder that collects radiation from the water, his method can clean 1,000 tons of water per hour. During a sample, he had managed to clean water in 10 minutes. If cleaning facilities are built, then this process even with thousands of tons of water would not take much longer, he believes.

Japan has also created a budget package to for relief efforts. It totals $48.5 billion (4 trillion yen) in all, and it was crated without issuing more Japanese government bonds. More of these will likely follow though, since as I stated before, it's been estimated that the damage is around $310 billion. The spending will go toward disaster relief, waste disposal, public works, infrastructure, loans, tax grants to local governments, and employment support. In order to finance this, they had to reinstate high tolls, tap into reserves for pension payouts, and cut in lawmakers' salaries. Considering Japan's population is rapidly aging, this has been a somewhat risky move, but Japan does not want to raise the national debt any higher (right now it's about $10 trillion US). Overall, it's a step in the right direction, but whether it will remain enough is still to be seen.

Sources:
Japan Discloses Data on Radioactive Water Release (WSJ)
Japanese Scientist Develops Powder That Can Clean Fukushima Daiichi Radioactive Water Faster than Areva (WSJ)

化学者が「福島原発の汚染水を浄化できる粉末を開発」 (WSJ)

Japan approves $48.5 billion quake relief spending (Reuters)