الرئيسية
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese military helicopters and fire trucks poured water
on an overheating nuclear facility on Thursday and the plant operator said
electricity to part of the crippled complex could be restored in a desperate bid
to avert catastrophe.
Washington and other foreign capitals expressed growing alarm about radiation
leaking from the earthquake-shattered plant, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo.
The United States said it was sending aircraft to help Americans leave
Japan.
"The situation continues to be very serious," International Atomic Energy
Agency chief Yukiya Amano told reporters at Vienna airport as he left with a
group of nuclear experts for Japan.
Workers were trying to connect a 1-km (0.6-mile) 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.
U.S. officials took pains not to criticize Japan's government, but
Washington's actions indicated a divide with its close ally about the
perilousness of the world's worst nuclear accident since the Chernobyl disaster
in 1986.
The top U.S. 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 of the power plant.
AP/Yomiuri Shimbun, Kenji
Shimizu
"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.
On Thursday morning alone, military helicopters dumped around 30 tonnes 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 Daiichi 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 minimize 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 on Friday 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, the world's
third-largest economy.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, whose country is not part of the G7,
called the situation a "colossal national disaster."
But Japanese Economics Minister Kaoru Yosano told Reuters the country's
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, surpassing the
previous record high of 79.75 reached in the wake of the Kobe earthquake in
1995.
Japan's Nikkei average fell sharply on opening on Thursday, but ended the day
down just 1.44 percent. The Nikkei has fallen more than 12 percent this week.
CRITICAL REACTOR CONTAINS PLUTONIUM
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 on Thursday appeared to partly succeed, with two of four
water drops over the site hitting their mark. The giant, twin-blade aircraft
have to make precisely timed flyovers and drops to avoid the brunt of the
radiation.
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 very small quantities were ingested.
Sebastian Pflugbeil, president of the private German-based Society for
Radiation Protection, said Japan's efforts to pull the Fukushima plant back from
the brink signaled "the beginning of the catastrophic phase."
"Maybe we have to pray," he said, adding that a wind blowing any nuclear
fallout east into the Pacific would limit any damage for Japan's 127 million
people in case of a meltdown or other releases, for instance from spent fuel
storage pools.
The government warned Tokyo's 13 million people to prepare for a possible
large-scale blackout but later said there was no need for one. Still, many firms
voluntarily reduced power, submerging parts of the usually neon-lit city in
darkness.
In a possible sign of panic, one bank, Mizuho, said all its automated teller
machines in the country crashed twice in the day after excessive transactions at
some branches.
ANXIETY IN TOKYO - AIRPORTS BUSY, STREETS QUIET
A State Department official said flights would be laid on for Americans to
leave Japan, and family of embassy staff had been authorized to go if they
wanted.
Scores of flights to Japan have been halted or rerouted and air travellers
are avoiding Tokyo for fear of radiation.
On Thursday, the U.S. embassy in Tokyo urged citizens living within 80 km (50
miles) of the Daiichi plant to evacuate or remain indoors "as a precaution,"
while Britain's foreign office urged citizens "to consider leaving the area."
The latest warnings were not as strong as those issued earlier by France and
Australia, which urged nationals in Japan to leave the country. Russia said it
planned to evacuate families of diplomats on Friday, and Hong Kong urged its
citizens to leave Tokyo as soon as possible or head south.
Japan's government has told people within 30 km (18 miles) of the plant to
stay indoors.
At its worst, radiation in Tokyo has reached 0.809 microsieverts per hour
this week, 10 times below what a person would receive if exposed to a dental
x-ray. On Thursday, radiation levels were barely above average.
But many Tokyo residents stayed indoors, usually busy streets were nearly
deserted and many shops were closed. At the second-floor office of the Tokyo
Passport Center in the city's Yurakucho district, queues snaked to the first
floor.
"Since yesterday we have had one-and-a-half times more people than usual
coming to apply for a passport or to enquire about getting one," said Shigeaki
Ohashi, a passport official.
SNOW COMPOUNDS MISERY FOR TSUNAMI SURVIVORS
The plight of hundreds of thousands left homeless by the earthquake and
tsunami worsened following a cold snap that brought heavy snow to worst-affected
areas.
Supplies of water and heating oil are low at evacuation centers, where many
survivors wait bundled in blankets.
About 850,000 households in the north were still without electricity in
near-freezing weather, Tohuku Electric Power Co. said, and the government said
at least 1.5 million households lack running water.
"It's cold today so many people have fallen ill, getting diarrhea and other
symptoms," said Takanori Watanabe, a Red Cross doctor in Otsuchi, a low-lying
town where more than half the 17,000 residents are still missing.
The National Police Agency said it has confirmed 4,314 deaths in 12
prefectures as of midnight Wednesday, while 8,606 people remained unaccounted
for in six prefectures.
(Additional reporting by Linda Sieg, Terril Yue Jones, Nathan Layne, Elaine
Lies, Leika Kihara and Mayumi Negishi; Writing by Nick Macfie and Jason Szep;
Editing by John Chalmers and Dean Yates)
on an overheating nuclear facility on Thursday and the plant operator said
electricity to part of the crippled complex could be restored in a desperate bid
to avert catastrophe.
Washington and other foreign capitals expressed growing alarm about radiation
leaking from the earthquake-shattered plant, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo.
The United States said it was sending aircraft to help Americans leave
Japan.
"The situation continues to be very serious," International Atomic Energy
Agency chief Yukiya Amano told reporters at Vienna airport as he left with a
group of nuclear experts for Japan.
Workers were trying to connect a 1-km (0.6-mile) 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.
U.S. officials took pains not to criticize Japan's government, but
Washington's actions indicated a divide with its close ally about the
perilousness of the world's worst nuclear accident since the Chernobyl disaster
in 1986.
The top U.S. 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 of the power plant.
AP/Yomiuri Shimbun, Kenji
Shimizu
"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.
On Thursday morning alone, military helicopters dumped around 30 tonnes 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 Daiichi 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 minimize 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 on Friday 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, the world's
third-largest economy.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, whose country is not part of the G7,
called the situation a "colossal national disaster."
But Japanese Economics Minister Kaoru Yosano told Reuters the country's
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, surpassing the
previous record high of 79.75 reached in the wake of the Kobe earthquake in
1995.
Japan's Nikkei average fell sharply on opening on Thursday, but ended the day
down just 1.44 percent. The Nikkei has fallen more than 12 percent this week.
CRITICAL REACTOR CONTAINS PLUTONIUM
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 on Thursday appeared to partly succeed, with two of four
water drops over the site hitting their mark. The giant, twin-blade aircraft
have to make precisely timed flyovers and drops to avoid the brunt of the
radiation.
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 very small quantities were ingested.
Sebastian Pflugbeil, president of the private German-based Society for
Radiation Protection, said Japan's efforts to pull the Fukushima plant back from
the brink signaled "the beginning of the catastrophic phase."
"Maybe we have to pray," he said, adding that a wind blowing any nuclear
fallout east into the Pacific would limit any damage for Japan's 127 million
people in case of a meltdown or other releases, for instance from spent fuel
storage pools.
The government warned Tokyo's 13 million people to prepare for a possible
large-scale blackout but later said there was no need for one. Still, many firms
voluntarily reduced power, submerging parts of the usually neon-lit city in
darkness.
In a possible sign of panic, one bank, Mizuho, said all its automated teller
machines in the country crashed twice in the day after excessive transactions at
some branches.
ANXIETY IN TOKYO - AIRPORTS BUSY, STREETS QUIET
A State Department official said flights would be laid on for Americans to
leave Japan, and family of embassy staff had been authorized to go if they
wanted.
Scores of flights to Japan have been halted or rerouted and air travellers
are avoiding Tokyo for fear of radiation.
On Thursday, the U.S. embassy in Tokyo urged citizens living within 80 km (50
miles) of the Daiichi plant to evacuate or remain indoors "as a precaution,"
while Britain's foreign office urged citizens "to consider leaving the area."
The latest warnings were not as strong as those issued earlier by France and
Australia, which urged nationals in Japan to leave the country. Russia said it
planned to evacuate families of diplomats on Friday, and Hong Kong urged its
citizens to leave Tokyo as soon as possible or head south.
Japan's government has told people within 30 km (18 miles) of the plant to
stay indoors.
At its worst, radiation in Tokyo has reached 0.809 microsieverts per hour
this week, 10 times below what a person would receive if exposed to a dental
x-ray. On Thursday, radiation levels were barely above average.
But many Tokyo residents stayed indoors, usually busy streets were nearly
deserted and many shops were closed. At the second-floor office of the Tokyo
Passport Center in the city's Yurakucho district, queues snaked to the first
floor.
"Since yesterday we have had one-and-a-half times more people than usual
coming to apply for a passport or to enquire about getting one," said Shigeaki
Ohashi, a passport official.
SNOW COMPOUNDS MISERY FOR TSUNAMI SURVIVORS
The plight of hundreds of thousands left homeless by the earthquake and
tsunami worsened following a cold snap that brought heavy snow to worst-affected
areas.
Supplies of water and heating oil are low at evacuation centers, where many
survivors wait bundled in blankets.
About 850,000 households in the north were still without electricity in
near-freezing weather, Tohuku Electric Power Co. said, and the government said
at least 1.5 million households lack running water.
"It's cold today so many people have fallen ill, getting diarrhea and other
symptoms," said Takanori Watanabe, a Red Cross doctor in Otsuchi, a low-lying
town where more than half the 17,000 residents are still missing.
The National Police Agency said it has confirmed 4,314 deaths in 12
prefectures as of midnight Wednesday, while 8,606 people remained unaccounted
for in six prefectures.
(Additional reporting by Linda Sieg, Terril Yue Jones, Nathan Layne, Elaine
Lies, Leika Kihara and Mayumi Negishi; Writing by Nick Macfie and Jason Szep;
Editing by John Chalmers and Dean Yates)
