Japan, nuclear crisis: Blogg

[General Duke]

 

 

Japan nuclear crisis

- Sharp increase in radiation from Fukushima plant

• Smoke rising from badly damaged No 3 reactor

• Another fire seen within No 4 reactor building

• Reactor workers ordered out for health reasons

• Earthquake felt in Shizuoka, south-west of Tokyo

• Read the latest summary of events

• Read the Guardian's latest news story

[General Duke]

According to the Kyodo news agency, Japan's nuclear agency has said that the water level has been dropping in the No 5 reactor as well:

 

The agency said it will closely monitor data on the reactor to prevent the problems that occurred at other reactors.

 

Given what has happened elsewhere this isn't a surprise and we should expect the same thing in No 6 as well. Reactors 4, 5 and 6 were actually out of commission at the time of the earthquake and tsunami, but the danger remains because of the highly radioactive used fuel stored in the reactors. In the case of No 4, it may have had more spent fuel, and it was harmed by the nearby explosions in the 1, 2 and 3 reactors, which was most likely to cause of the first fire in No 4.

 

7.49pm: Jaczko's worrying comments below (see 7.30pm) are at odds with reports from the Japanese media saying that coolant continues to be added into the Fukushima reactors.

 

According to the last report from the Jiji Press agency, posted nearly three hours ago, states:

[General Duke]

'Maximum' effort at stricken plant

 

UN nuclear chief denies situation at earthquake-damaged nuclear plant is out of control as emergency efforts continue.

 

Last Modified: 16 Mar 2011 19:36

 

The Japanese head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, has denied that the situation at an earthquake-damaged nuclear plant is out of control.

 

"It is not the time to say things are out of control," Yukiya Amano told a news conference. "The operators are doing the maximum to restore the safety of the reactor.

 

Yukiya Amano was responding to comments by Guenther Oettinger, the EU energy chief, suggesting that efforts to contain the crisis at the Fukushima plant had failed after efforts to cool a reactor by dumping water on it from a helicopter were abandoned.

 

The plant has been hit by a series of explosions since Friday's quake knocked out reactor cooling systems.

 

"In the coming hours there could be further catastrophic events which could pose a threat to the lives of people on the island," Oettinger told a European Parliament committee.

 

There was hope early on Thursday that a newly built power line that could restore electricity at the plant would soon be ready. If the plant's electricity-powered pumps can be restarted, water could be pumped to the damaged reactors to cool them.

 

Naoki Tsunoda, a spokesman for Tokyo Electric Power Company, said officials planned to try the line as soon as possible, but could not say when, the AP news agency reported.

[General Duke]

Radiation levels

 

Surging radiation levels forced Japan to order emergency workers at the crippled nuclear plant to be briefly moved to a bunker, as reported in the local media, in the desperate battle to cool the overheating reactors.

 

Al Jazeera's Harry Fawcett said workers struggling to avert a nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear complex were allowed to return to the facility later.

 

"The 70 workers who were taken into that protective bunker were able to go back and restart operations crucial to keeping this entire plant cool," he said.

 

"They have been pumping sea water into the reactors; the ones that were active before the earthquake and the ones which were just housing spent fuel."

 

Yukio Edano, the Japanese chief cabinet secretary, said the workers dousing the reactors in a frantic effort to cool them needed to be taken to safety after an explosion a day earlier in the Unit 4 reactor led to a surge in radiation.

 

The blast is thought to have damaged the reactor's suppression chamber, a water-filled pipe outside the nuclear core that is part of the emergency cooling system.

 

Hajimi Motujuku, a spokesman for the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company, said the outer housing of the containment vessel at Unit 4 was in flames on Wednesday.

 

The level of radiation at the plant surged to 1,000 millisieverts early on Wednesday before coming down to 800-600 millisieverts.

[General Duke]

'Lethal doses'

 

But Gregory Jaczko, head of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said Wednesday that emergency workers may have been exposed to "lethal doses" of radiation.

 

"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," told a House subcommittee.

 

Hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated from a 20 km zone around the plant, while those within 30 km of the plant have been told to stay indoors because of the risk from heightened radiation levels.

 

The official death toll from Friday's massive earthquake and tsunami rose to 4,340 on Wednesday although thousands of people are still missing and officials say at least 10,000 have likely been killed.

 

Japanese Emperor Akihito also gave a rare televised address to the nation describing the catastrophe as being of an "unprecedented scale".

 

Many governments have urged their citizens to leave Tokyo and earthquake-affected areas amid concerns Japan's capital could be exposed to dangerous levels of radiation if the situation worsens.

 

Great Britain said Britons in Tokyo should leave because of the "evolving situation at the Fukushima nuclear facility". Australia, France and Germany have also advised their citizens to leave Tokyo.

 

The US said Americans living within 80 km of the plant should leave the area or take shelter indoors.

 

Tokyo reported slightly elevated radiation levels on Tuesday, but officials said the increase was too small to threaten the 39 million people in and around the capital.

 

Businesses have issued similar travel advisories telling people to consider moving away from disaster areas if they have no reason to be there.

 

Meanwhile US forces in Japan have been told to stay at least 80 km from the crippled Fukushima complex without special authorisation.

 

Reuters news agency, citing the US military, said potassium iodide tablets have been given to some air crews ahead of missions as a precaution against radiation, though no personnel in Japan are showing signs of radiation poisoning

[General Duke]

 

Concern grows for 'out of control' plant as Britons advised to consider leaving Tokyo

US nuclear chief says no more water in spent fuel pool at plant

• New power lines being laid to the Fukushima plant 'almost complete'

• In rare public address, Emperor Akihito says he is 'deeply concerned'

[Ibtisam]

Japan has raised the alert level at a stricken nuclear plant from four to five on a seven-point international scale for atomic accidents.

 

The move places the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi site two levels below Ukraine's 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

 

The head of the UN's nuclear watchdog warned in Tokyo meanwhile that the battle to stabilise the plant was a race against the clock.

 

The crisis was triggered by last week's 9.0-magnitude quake and tsunami.

 

The Japanese nuclear agency's decision to raise the alert level to five grades the Fukushima situation as an "accident with wider consequences".

 

It also places the crisis on a par with the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in the US in 1979.

 

Japan's atomic crisis was triggered by last week's natural disaster, which has left more than 16,000 people dead or missing.

 

According to the latest figures, 6,405 people are confirmed as dead and about 10,200 are listed as missing.

'Race against time'

 

Further heavy snowfall overnight in the quake zone has brought more misery to survivors and all but ended hopes of finding anyone else alive in the rubble.

 

On Friday, people across the nation observed a minute's silence at 1446 local time (0546 GMT), exactly a week after the disaster.

 

Relief workers in the disaster zone bowed their heads and elderly survivors in evacuation centres wept as the country paused to remember.

 

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Yukiya Amano, arrived in Tokyo and said the Fukushima crisis was a "race against the clock".

 

"This is not something that just Japan should deal with, and people of the entire world should co-operate with Japan and the people in the disaster areas," said Mr Amano, a Japanese citizen.

 

He said he would not visit the Fukushima Daiichi site on his current trip to the country.

 

His four-member team of nuclear experts would start by monitoring radiation in the capital, he said, before moving to the vicinity of the quake-hit facility, reports Kyodo news agency.

[General Duke]

The head of the UN nuclear watchdog has warned that Japan's battle to regain control at a failing power plant was a race against time, as the crisis entered a second week.

 

Yukiya Amano also urged the prime minister, Naoto Kan, to provide more detailed information. Japanese media reported that Kan pledged to do so.

 

Earlier, Amano told reporters: "This is not something that just Japan should deal with, and people of the entire world should co-operate with Japan and the people in the disaster areas."

 

Seven days after the earthquake and tsunami triggered the nuclear crisis many of the survivors observed a minute's silence. They paused at 2.46pm, the moment the quake struck.

 

More than 6,400 people have been confirmed dead, police have said, including more than 3,600 in Miyagi, the worst-hit prefecture. In Iwate more than 1,900 are confirmed dead, while the figure for Fukushima is approaching 600. The fate of tens of thousands more remains unknown.

 

Miyagi's governor, Yoshihiro Murai, urged people to move away, saying it would be difficult to provide housing in the near future.

 

Shortages of petrol and obstructed routes have left many in the 2,200 emergency shelters across the disaster zone short of food, fuel, water and medicine.

 

Officials have warned that the nuclear incident is hampering efforts to deliver aid to victims of the disaster, making drivers reluctant to travel to areas even outside the exclusion zone.

 

The government's chief spokesman admitted it had been overwhelmed.

 

"The unprecedented scale of the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan, frankly speaking, were among many things that happened that had not been anticipated under our disaster management contingency plans," Yukio Edano said.

 

"In hindsight we could have moved a little quicker in assessing the situation and co-ordinating all that information and provided it faster."

 

Japan's nuclear safety agency said the problems at the Fukushima Daiichi No 1 plant were at level five or "accident with wider consequences" – comparable to the events at Three Mile Island – on an international scale used to assess such incidents.

 

On Saturday it rated the situation as level four, having "local consequences", but events have escalated. The French nuclear watchdog has argued it constitutes a "serious accident", which would be level six. Chernobyl rated seven, the highest point on the scale.

 

Fire trucks doused a reactor at the facility with tonnes of water on Friday in a renewed attempt to cool reactor No 3.

 

It is thought that spent fuel rods were exposed as water levels dropped in a storage pool, leading to significant increases in radiation levels.

 

There is also concern about water levels in the pools at units 1 and 4, and the pools in units 5 and 6 are also thought to be warming.

 

Radiation readings taken 1km west of unit 2 offered some hope, dropping from 351.4 per hour just after midnight to 265μSv/h at 11am. But there have been enormous variations in readings at different parts of the plant and within short spaces of times.

 

A spokesman for the Japanese nuclear agency said steam or smoke was seen on Friday morning at No 2 unit – where the containment vessel is damaged – and acknowledged that the authorities could yet bury the reactors in sand and concrete, as happened at Chernobyl in 1986.

 

Hidehiko Nishiyama said the priority was adding water to the spent fuel pools. Asked about the "Chernobyl solution", he replied: "That solution is in the back of our minds, but we are focused on cooling the reactors down."

 

The units may not cool down for weeks, the head of the US nuclear regulatory commission has warned. Gregory Jaczko said on Thursday night the situation "continues to be very dramatic", adding: "I really don't want to speculate on where this could go."

 

The plant's operators say workers are attempting to restore power to the cooling systems of two reactors by the end of the day, and two more by Sunday. But there are fears that the systems themselves may have been damaged.

 

In the US, Barack Obama said the situation posed a substantial risk to nearby residents. The US has advised its citizens to evacuate or take shelter if within 80km (50 miles) of the plant, a recommendation adopted by Britain and Canada.