Japan installs fans at nuke plant
Source: Agencies |
May 4, 2011, Wednesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
Workers at Japan's crippled nuclear plant began putting up equipment yesterday to allow the start of repairs to its cooling systems, key to bringing reactors under control after they were badly damaged in the March 11 quake and tsunami.
Soldiers moved to within 10 kilometers of the Fukushima complex to search for those still missing following the disaster, the first time the military is conducting searches in this area since the plant began leaking radiation after the disaster hit.
Tokyo Electric Power has said it may take the rest of the year to bring the nuclear plant back under control.
The company said it had begun constructing special tents at the entrance to turbine buildings so workers can move in and out. It is also installing fans with filters at the No.1 reactor to reduce radiation inside to one-twentieth of current levels within days.
"We want to suck out the air in the building and use the filter to remove radiation from the dust," TEPCO spokesman Junichi Matsumoto said.
Soil containing radioactive materials up to 1,000 times the normal level were found from the bottom of the sea near the nuclear plant, Matsumoto added.
The magnitude-9.0 quake and massive tsunami knocked out the cooling systems at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, 240 kilometers north of Tokyo, causing it to leak radiation.
The natural disaster killed about 14,700 people and left some 11,000 others missing.
As the search for the missing continued, 560 Japanese Self-Defense Force soldiers began working within a 10 kilometer radius of Fukushima Dai-ichi, the Defense Ministry said.
People living within a 20 kilometer radius of the plant were evacuated and banned from going home on April 21.
Soldiers moved to within 10 kilometers of the Fukushima complex to search for those still missing following the disaster, the first time the military is conducting searches in this area since the plant began leaking radiation after the disaster hit.
Tokyo Electric Power has said it may take the rest of the year to bring the nuclear plant back under control.
The company said it had begun constructing special tents at the entrance to turbine buildings so workers can move in and out. It is also installing fans with filters at the No.1 reactor to reduce radiation inside to one-twentieth of current levels within days.
"We want to suck out the air in the building and use the filter to remove radiation from the dust," TEPCO spokesman Junichi Matsumoto said.
Soil containing radioactive materials up to 1,000 times the normal level were found from the bottom of the sea near the nuclear plant, Matsumoto added.
The magnitude-9.0 quake and massive tsunami knocked out the cooling systems at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, 240 kilometers north of Tokyo, causing it to leak radiation.
The natural disaster killed about 14,700 people and left some 11,000 others missing.
As the search for the missing continued, 560 Japanese Self-Defense Force soldiers began working within a 10 kilometer radius of Fukushima Dai-ichi, the Defense Ministry said.
People living within a 20 kilometer radius of the plant were evacuated and banned from going home on April 21.
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