Desperate efforts to prevent catastrophe
Source: Agencies |
March 18, 2011, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
Japanese military helicopters and fire trucks poured water on the overheating Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear facility yesterday and the plant operator said electricity to part of the crippled complex could be restored in a desperate bid to avert catastrophe.
The United States and other foreign countries expressed growing alarm about radiation leaking from the earthquake-shattered plant, 240 kilometers north of Tokyo.
"The situation continues to be very serious," International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano told reporters at Vienna airport as he left with nuclear experts for Japan.
Workers were trying to connect a 1-kilometer long power cable from the main grid to restart water pumps to cool reactor No. 2, which does not house spent fuel rods considered the biggest risk of spewing radioactivity into the atmosphere.
One official from the plant operator told a late night briefing the cable could be connected within hours. Other officials said it was unclear if water pumps at reactor No. 2, which sustained less damage from a series of explosions, would work.
The top US nuclear regulator said the cooling pool for spent fuel rods at reactor No.4 may have run dry and another was leaking.
Gregory Jaczko, head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, told a congressional hearing that radiation levels around the cooling pool were extremely high, posing deadly risks for workers still toiling in the wreckage.
"It would be very difficult for emergency workers to get near the reactors. The doses they could experience would potentially be lethal doses in a very short period of time," he said in Washington.
Japan's nuclear agency said it could not confirm if water was covering the fuel rods. The plant operator said it believed the reactor spent-fuel pool still had water as of Wednesday, and made clear its priority was the spent-fuel pool at the No.3 reactor.
Yesterday morning alone, military helicopters dumped around 30 tons of water, all aimed at this reactor. One emergency crew temporarily put off spraying the same reactor with a water cannon due to high radiation, broadcaster NHK said, but another crew later began hosing it.
Health experts said panic over radiation leaks from the Dai-ichi plant was diverting attention from other life-threatening risks facing survivors of last Friday's earthquake and tsunami, such as cold, heavy snow in parts and access to fresh water.
Inside the complex, torn apart by four explosions since a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami hit last Friday, workers in protective suits and using makeshift lighting tried to monitor what was going on inside the six reactors. They have been working in short shifts to minimise radiation exposure.
The latest images from the nuclear plant showed severe damage after the blasts. Two of the buildings were a mangled mix of steel and concrete.
"The worst-case scenario doesn't bear mentioning and the best-case scenario keeps getting worse," Perpetual Investments said in a note on the crisis.
Financial leaders of the world's richest nations will hold talks today on ways to calm global markets roiled by the crisis and concern it will unravel a fragile global economic recovery. One G7 central banker, who asked not to be named, said he was "extremely worried" about the wider effects of the disaster in Japan.
But Japanese Economics Minister Kaoru Yosano said markets were not unstable enough to warrant joint G7 currency intervention or government purchases of shares.
The yen surged to a record high against the dollar on market speculation Japan would repatriate funds to pay for the massive cost of post-disaster reconstruction. The yen rose as high as 76.25 per dollar yesterday, surpassing the previous record high of 79.75.
Japan's Nikkei ended the day down just 1.44 percent. The Nikkei has fallen more than 12 percent this week.
High radiation levels on Wednesday prevented helicopters from dropping water into reactor No. 3 to try to cool its fuel rods after an earlier blast damaged its roof and cooling system. Another attempt yesterday appeared to partly succeed, with two of four water drops over the site hitting their mark.
The plant operator described No. 3 - the only reactor that uses plutonium in its fuel mix - as the "priority". Experts described plutonium as a pernicious isotope that could cause cancer if small quantities were ingested.
About 850,000 households in the north were still without electricity in near-freezing weather, and the government said at least 1.5 million households lack running water.
Police have confirmed 4,314 deaths while 8,606 people remained unaccounted for.
The United States and other foreign countries expressed growing alarm about radiation leaking from the earthquake-shattered plant, 240 kilometers north of Tokyo.
"The situation continues to be very serious," International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano told reporters at Vienna airport as he left with nuclear experts for Japan.
Workers were trying to connect a 1-kilometer long power cable from the main grid to restart water pumps to cool reactor No. 2, which does not house spent fuel rods considered the biggest risk of spewing radioactivity into the atmosphere.
One official from the plant operator told a late night briefing the cable could be connected within hours. Other officials said it was unclear if water pumps at reactor No. 2, which sustained less damage from a series of explosions, would work.
The top US nuclear regulator said the cooling pool for spent fuel rods at reactor No.4 may have run dry and another was leaking.
Gregory Jaczko, head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, told a congressional hearing that radiation levels around the cooling pool were extremely high, posing deadly risks for workers still toiling in the wreckage.
"It would be very difficult for emergency workers to get near the reactors. The doses they could experience would potentially be lethal doses in a very short period of time," he said in Washington.
Japan's nuclear agency said it could not confirm if water was covering the fuel rods. The plant operator said it believed the reactor spent-fuel pool still had water as of Wednesday, and made clear its priority was the spent-fuel pool at the No.3 reactor.
Yesterday morning alone, military helicopters dumped around 30 tons of water, all aimed at this reactor. One emergency crew temporarily put off spraying the same reactor with a water cannon due to high radiation, broadcaster NHK said, but another crew later began hosing it.
Health experts said panic over radiation leaks from the Dai-ichi plant was diverting attention from other life-threatening risks facing survivors of last Friday's earthquake and tsunami, such as cold, heavy snow in parts and access to fresh water.
Inside the complex, torn apart by four explosions since a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami hit last Friday, workers in protective suits and using makeshift lighting tried to monitor what was going on inside the six reactors. They have been working in short shifts to minimise radiation exposure.
The latest images from the nuclear plant showed severe damage after the blasts. Two of the buildings were a mangled mix of steel and concrete.
"The worst-case scenario doesn't bear mentioning and the best-case scenario keeps getting worse," Perpetual Investments said in a note on the crisis.
Financial leaders of the world's richest nations will hold talks today on ways to calm global markets roiled by the crisis and concern it will unravel a fragile global economic recovery. One G7 central banker, who asked not to be named, said he was "extremely worried" about the wider effects of the disaster in Japan.
But Japanese Economics Minister Kaoru Yosano said markets were not unstable enough to warrant joint G7 currency intervention or government purchases of shares.
The yen surged to a record high against the dollar on market speculation Japan would repatriate funds to pay for the massive cost of post-disaster reconstruction. The yen rose as high as 76.25 per dollar yesterday, surpassing the previous record high of 79.75.
Japan's Nikkei ended the day down just 1.44 percent. The Nikkei has fallen more than 12 percent this week.
High radiation levels on Wednesday prevented helicopters from dropping water into reactor No. 3 to try to cool its fuel rods after an earlier blast damaged its roof and cooling system. Another attempt yesterday appeared to partly succeed, with two of four water drops over the site hitting their mark.
The plant operator described No. 3 - the only reactor that uses plutonium in its fuel mix - as the "priority". Experts described plutonium as a pernicious isotope that could cause cancer if small quantities were ingested.
About 850,000 households in the north were still without electricity in near-freezing weather, and the government said at least 1.5 million households lack running water.
Police have confirmed 4,314 deaths while 8,606 people remained unaccounted for.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
