2 reactors now 'safe' in Japan
Source: Agencies |
March 21, 2011, Monday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
The operator of Japan's leaking nuclear plant said last night two of the six reactor units are now safely under control after their fuel storage pools cooled down.
Tokyo Electric Power Company declared Units 5 and 6 safe after days of pumping water into the reactors pool brought temperatures down.
Bringing the two units under control marks a minor advance in the efforts to stop the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex from leaking radiation. The two units are the least problematic of the six reactor units at the plant, which began overheating after the earthquake-triggered tsunami disrupted the plant's cooling systems.
Three hundred engineers have been struggling inside the danger zone to salvage the six-reactor Fukushima plant.
There were reports, however, of an unexpected spike in pressure inside one troubled reactor as concerns grew that minor contamination of food and water is spreading.
The pressure increase raised the possibility that plant operators may need to deliberately release radioactive gas, erasing some progress in the nuclear crisis.
A week after the natural disasters, Japan's National Police Agency said the number of bodies collected so far stood at 8,450, while 12,931 people were listed as missing.
There was some good news yesterday. A teenage boy's cries for help led to the rescue of his 80-year-old grandmother from a wrecked house in a rare rescue after so many days.
Beyond the disaster area, an already shaken public grew uneasy with official reports that traces of radiation first detected in spinach and milk from farms near the nuclear plant are turning up farther away in tap water, rain and even dust. In all cases, the government said the radiation levels were too small to pose an immediate risk.
"I'm worried, really worried," said Mayumi Mizutani, a 58-year-old Tokyo resident shopping for bottled water at a neighborhood supermarket to give her visiting 2-year-old grandchild. "We're afraid because it's possible our grandchild could get cancer."
Forecasts for rain, she said, were an added worry.
At the troubled nuclear complex, operator Tokyo Electric said yesterday's rise in pressure at one reactor had stopped, though at a high level.
Temperatures inside the reactor reached 300 degrees Celsius.
The higher reactor pressure may have been caused by the pumping of seawater into the vessel, Tokyo Electric manager Hikaru Kuroda said.
Using seawater to douse Unit 3 and the plant's other reactors or storage pools - Unit 4 was sprayed again yesterday - was a desperate measure. Seawater is corrosive, and is damaging the finely milled machine parts of the plant, rendering it ultimately unusable.
The government acknowledged yesterday that the complex would be scrapped once the emergency is resolved.
"It is obviously clear that Fukushima Dai-ichi in no way will be in a condition to be restarted," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said.
Growing concerns about radiation add to the overwhelming chain of disasters Japan has struggled with since the 9.0-magnitude quake.
The quake spawned a tsunami that ravaged the northeastern coast and displaced 452,000 people, who are living in shelters.
Fuel, food and water remain scarce. The government in recent days acknowledged being caught ill-prepared by a disaster the prime minister called the worst crisis since World War II.
Bodies piling up in some of the devastated communities are badly decomposing even amid chilly rain and snow.
"The recent bodies, we can't show them to the families. The faces have been purple, which means they are starting to decompose," said Shuji Horaguchi, a disaster relief official setting up a center to process bodies in Natori, on the outskirts of Sendai.
"Some we're finding now have been in the water for a long time, they're not in good shape. Crabs and fish have eaten parts."
Before the disasters, safety drills were seldom if ever practiced and information about radiation exposure rarely given in Futuba, a small town in the shadow of the nuclear plant, according to 29-year-old Tsugumi Hasegawa. She is living in a shelter with her 4-year-old daughter and feeling bewildered.
"I still have no idea what the numbers they are giving about radiation levels mean. It's all so confusing. And I wonder if they aren't playing down the dangers to keep us from panicking. I don't know who to trust," said Hasegawa, crammed with 1,400 people into a gymnasium on the outskirts of Fukushima City.
No contamination has yet been reported in Japan's main food export - seafood - worth US$3.3 billion a year.
Tokyo Electric Power Company declared Units 5 and 6 safe after days of pumping water into the reactors pool brought temperatures down.
Bringing the two units under control marks a minor advance in the efforts to stop the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex from leaking radiation. The two units are the least problematic of the six reactor units at the plant, which began overheating after the earthquake-triggered tsunami disrupted the plant's cooling systems.
Three hundred engineers have been struggling inside the danger zone to salvage the six-reactor Fukushima plant.
There were reports, however, of an unexpected spike in pressure inside one troubled reactor as concerns grew that minor contamination of food and water is spreading.
The pressure increase raised the possibility that plant operators may need to deliberately release radioactive gas, erasing some progress in the nuclear crisis.
A week after the natural disasters, Japan's National Police Agency said the number of bodies collected so far stood at 8,450, while 12,931 people were listed as missing.
There was some good news yesterday. A teenage boy's cries for help led to the rescue of his 80-year-old grandmother from a wrecked house in a rare rescue after so many days.
Beyond the disaster area, an already shaken public grew uneasy with official reports that traces of radiation first detected in spinach and milk from farms near the nuclear plant are turning up farther away in tap water, rain and even dust. In all cases, the government said the radiation levels were too small to pose an immediate risk.
"I'm worried, really worried," said Mayumi Mizutani, a 58-year-old Tokyo resident shopping for bottled water at a neighborhood supermarket to give her visiting 2-year-old grandchild. "We're afraid because it's possible our grandchild could get cancer."
Forecasts for rain, she said, were an added worry.
At the troubled nuclear complex, operator Tokyo Electric said yesterday's rise in pressure at one reactor had stopped, though at a high level.
Temperatures inside the reactor reached 300 degrees Celsius.
The higher reactor pressure may have been caused by the pumping of seawater into the vessel, Tokyo Electric manager Hikaru Kuroda said.
Using seawater to douse Unit 3 and the plant's other reactors or storage pools - Unit 4 was sprayed again yesterday - was a desperate measure. Seawater is corrosive, and is damaging the finely milled machine parts of the plant, rendering it ultimately unusable.
The government acknowledged yesterday that the complex would be scrapped once the emergency is resolved.
"It is obviously clear that Fukushima Dai-ichi in no way will be in a condition to be restarted," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said.
Growing concerns about radiation add to the overwhelming chain of disasters Japan has struggled with since the 9.0-magnitude quake.
The quake spawned a tsunami that ravaged the northeastern coast and displaced 452,000 people, who are living in shelters.
Fuel, food and water remain scarce. The government in recent days acknowledged being caught ill-prepared by a disaster the prime minister called the worst crisis since World War II.
Bodies piling up in some of the devastated communities are badly decomposing even amid chilly rain and snow.
"The recent bodies, we can't show them to the families. The faces have been purple, which means they are starting to decompose," said Shuji Horaguchi, a disaster relief official setting up a center to process bodies in Natori, on the outskirts of Sendai.
"Some we're finding now have been in the water for a long time, they're not in good shape. Crabs and fish have eaten parts."
Before the disasters, safety drills were seldom if ever practiced and information about radiation exposure rarely given in Futuba, a small town in the shadow of the nuclear plant, according to 29-year-old Tsugumi Hasegawa. She is living in a shelter with her 4-year-old daughter and feeling bewildered.
"I still have no idea what the numbers they are giving about radiation levels mean. It's all so confusing. And I wonder if they aren't playing down the dangers to keep us from panicking. I don't know who to trust," said Hasegawa, crammed with 1,400 people into a gymnasium on the outskirts of Fukushima City.
No contamination has yet been reported in Japan's main food export - seafood - worth US$3.3 billion a year.
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