Japan in bid to stop explosion
Source: Agencies |
April 7, 2011, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
Japan began pumping nitrogen gas into its crippled nuclear reactor, refocusing the fight against the world's worst nuclear disaster in 25 years on preventing an explosive buildup of hydrogen gas at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant.
Workers began injecting nitrogen into the containment vessel of reactor No. 1 last night, following a morning breakthrough in stopping highly radioactive water leaking into the sea at another reactor in the six-reactor complex.
"It is necessary to inject nitrogen gas into the containment vessel and eliminate the potential for a hydrogen explosion," an official with plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co told a news briefing.
The possibility of another hydrogen explosion like those that ripped through reactors 1 and 3 early in the crisis, spreading high levels of radiation into the air, was "extremely low," he said.
But TEPCO suspected that the outside casing of the reactor vessel was damaged, said the official.
"Under these conditions, if we continue cooling the reactors with water, the hydrogen leaking from the reactor vessel to the containment vessel could accumulate and could reach a point where it could explode," he said.
Although engineers had succeeded after days of desperate efforts to plug the leak at reactor No. 2, they still need to pump 11.5 million liters of contaminated water back into the ocean because they have run out of storage space at the facility. The water was used to cool over-heated fuel rods.
The growing concerns of nearby South Korea and China about radioactive fallout from Japan were underscored when China's health ministry reported traces of radioactive iodine in spinach.
The two western neighbors of Japan have reportedly complained they have not been fully informed about TEPCO's plans to release radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean.
"We are instructing the trade and foreign ministries to work better together so that detailed explanations are supplied especially to neighboring countries," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told a news conference.
Experts insisted the low-level radioactive water to be pumped into the ocean posed no health hazard.
Radioactive iodine detected in the sea has been recorded at 4,800 times the legal limit, but has since fallen to about 600 times the limit.
The water remaining in the reactors has radiation 5 million times legal limits.
Workers began injecting nitrogen into the containment vessel of reactor No. 1 last night, following a morning breakthrough in stopping highly radioactive water leaking into the sea at another reactor in the six-reactor complex.
"It is necessary to inject nitrogen gas into the containment vessel and eliminate the potential for a hydrogen explosion," an official with plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co told a news briefing.
The possibility of another hydrogen explosion like those that ripped through reactors 1 and 3 early in the crisis, spreading high levels of radiation into the air, was "extremely low," he said.
But TEPCO suspected that the outside casing of the reactor vessel was damaged, said the official.
"Under these conditions, if we continue cooling the reactors with water, the hydrogen leaking from the reactor vessel to the containment vessel could accumulate and could reach a point where it could explode," he said.
Although engineers had succeeded after days of desperate efforts to plug the leak at reactor No. 2, they still need to pump 11.5 million liters of contaminated water back into the ocean because they have run out of storage space at the facility. The water was used to cool over-heated fuel rods.
The growing concerns of nearby South Korea and China about radioactive fallout from Japan were underscored when China's health ministry reported traces of radioactive iodine in spinach.
The two western neighbors of Japan have reportedly complained they have not been fully informed about TEPCO's plans to release radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean.
"We are instructing the trade and foreign ministries to work better together so that detailed explanations are supplied especially to neighboring countries," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told a news conference.
Experts insisted the low-level radioactive water to be pumped into the ocean posed no health hazard.
Radioactive iodine detected in the sea has been recorded at 4,800 times the legal limit, but has since fallen to about 600 times the limit.
The water remaining in the reactors has radiation 5 million times legal limits.
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