الرئيسية
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese engineers conceded on Friday that burying a
crippled nuclear plant in sand and concrete may be a last resort to prevent a
catastrophic radiation release, the method used to seal huge leakages from
Chernobyl in 1986.
But they still hoped to solve the crisis by fixing a power cable to at least
two reactors to restart water pumps needed to cool overheating nuclear fuel
rods. Workers also sprayed water on the No.3 reactor, the most critical of the
plant's six.
It was the first time the facility operator had acknowledged burying the
sprawling complex was possible, a sign that piecemeal actions such as dumping
water from military helicopters or scrambling to restart cooling pumps may not
work.
"It is not impossible to encase the reactors in concrete. But our priority
right now is to try and cool them down first," an official from the plant
operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co, told a news conference.
As Japan entered its second week after a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and
10-meter (33-foot) tsunami flattened coastal cities and killed thousands of
people, the world's worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl looked far from
over.
Millions of people in Tokyo continued to work from home, some fearing a blast
of radioactive material from the complex, 240 km (150 miles) to the north,
although prevailing winds would likely carry contaminated smoke or steam away
from the densely populated city to dissipate over the Pacific Ocean.
Radiation levels recorded in areas near the plant did not pose an immediate
risk to human health, said Michael O'Leary, the World Health Organisation's
representative in China.
"At this point, there is still no evidence that there's been significant
radiation spread beyond the immediate zone of the reactors themselves," O'Leary
told reporters in Beijing.
Japan's nuclear disaster has triggered global alarm and reviews of safety at
atomic power plants around the world.
President Barack Obama, who stressed the United States did not expect harmful
radiation to reach its shores, said he had ordered a comprehensive review of
domestic nuclear plants and pledged Washington's support for Japan.
The Group of Seven rich nations, stepping in together to calm global
financial markets after a tumultuous week, agreed to join in rare concerted
intervention to restrain a soaring yen.
The top U.S. nuclear regulator said it could take weeks to reverse the
overheating of fuel rods at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.
"This is something that will take some time to work through, possibly weeks,
as you eventually remove the majority of the heat from the reactors and then the
spent-fuel pools," Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko told a
news conference at the White House.
SAND AND CONCRETE SOLUTION MOOTED
Yukiya Amano, head of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA), called the crisis "grave and serious" and urged Japan's prime minister
to release better information after arriving in Tokyo on Friday with a team of
four experts.
"They are racing against time to cool it down and then to contain it. It is
worse than it was at the beginning, but I don't know compared with yesterday,"
he said, adding that the experts would travel to the reactors on Saturday or
Sunday.
Graham Andrew, his senior aide, said helicopters used to dump water on the
plant had shown exposure to small amounts of radiation. "The situation remains
very serious, but there has been no significant worsening since yesterday,"
Andrew said.
The nuclear agency said the radiation level at the plant was as high as 20
millisieverts per hour. The limit for the workers was 100 per hour.
Even if engineers restore power at the plant, it was not clear the pumps
would work as they may have been damaged in the earthquake, tsunami or
subsequent explosions and there are fears of the electricity shorting and
causing another blast.
Japan's nuclear agency spokesman, Hidehiko Nishiyama, said it was also
unclear how effective spraying water on the reactors from helicopters had been
on Thursday. The priority was to get water into the spent-fuel pools, he said.
"We have to reduce the heat somehow and may use seawater," he told a news
conference. "We need to get the reactors back online as soon as possible and
that's why we're trying to restore power to them."
Asked about burying the reactors in sand and concrete, he said: "That
solution is in the back of our minds, but we are focused on cooling the reactors
down."
Jaczko said the cooling pool for spent-fuel rods at the complex's reactor
No.4 may have run dry and another was leaking.
An official at the plant operator said he expected power to be restored at
its most troubled and damaged reactors -- No.3 and No.4 -- by Sunday. Engineers
are trying to reconnect power to the least damaged reactors first.
DOLLAR GAINS AS FINANCIAL LEADERS INTERVENE
The U.S. dollar surged more than two yen to 81.80 after the G7's pledge to
intervene, leaving behind a record low of 76.25 hit on Thursday.
Japan's Nikkei share index ended up 2.7 percent, recouping some of the week's
stinging losses. It has lost 10.2 percent this week.
U.S. markets, which had tanked earlier in the week on the back of the crisis,
rebounded on Thursday but investors were not convinced the advance would last.
The yen has seen steady buying since the earthquake, as Japanese and
international investors closed long positions in higher-yielding, riskier assets
such as the Australian dollar, funded by cheap borrowing in the Japanese
currency.
Expectations that Japanese insurers and companies would repatriate billions
of dollars in overseas funds to pay for a reconstruction bill that is expected
to be much costlier than the one that followed the Kobe earthquake in 1995 also
have helped boost the yen.
850,00 WITHOUT ELECTRICITY; WATER SUPPLIES LOW
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, heating oil and fuel are low at evacuation centers, where
many survivors wait bundled in blankets. Many elderly lack proper medical
supplies. Food is often rationed.
The government said on Friday it was considering moving some of the hundreds
of thousands of evacuees to parts of the country unscathed by the devastation.
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 1.6 million households lacked running water.
The National Police Agency said on Friday it had confirmed 6,539 deaths from
the quake and tsunami disaster, exceeding 6,434 who died after the Kobe
earthquake in 1995. But 10,354 people are still missing.
RADIATION WITHIN TOKYO AT AVERAGE LEVELS
The government has told everyone living within 20 km (12 miles) of the plant
to evacuate, and advised people within 30 km (18 miles) to stay indoors.
The U.S. embassy in Tokyo has 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." Other
nations have urged nationals in Japan to leave the country or head south.
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 and Friday, radiation levels were within average levels.
Tokyo's 13 million residents were warned on Thursday to prepare for a
possible large-scale blackout but the government later said there was no need
for one. Still, many firms are voluntarily reducing power and trains are
reducing services.
crippled nuclear plant in sand and concrete may be a last resort to prevent a
catastrophic radiation release, the method used to seal huge leakages from
Chernobyl in 1986.
But they still hoped to solve the crisis by fixing a power cable to at least
two reactors to restart water pumps needed to cool overheating nuclear fuel
rods. Workers also sprayed water on the No.3 reactor, the most critical of the
plant's six.
It was the first time the facility operator had acknowledged burying the
sprawling complex was possible, a sign that piecemeal actions such as dumping
water from military helicopters or scrambling to restart cooling pumps may not
work.
"It is not impossible to encase the reactors in concrete. But our priority
right now is to try and cool them down first," an official from the plant
operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co, told a news conference.
As Japan entered its second week after a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and
10-meter (33-foot) tsunami flattened coastal cities and killed thousands of
people, the world's worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl looked far from
over.
Millions of people in Tokyo continued to work from home, some fearing a blast
of radioactive material from the complex, 240 km (150 miles) to the north,
although prevailing winds would likely carry contaminated smoke or steam away
from the densely populated city to dissipate over the Pacific Ocean.
Radiation levels recorded in areas near the plant did not pose an immediate
risk to human health, said Michael O'Leary, the World Health Organisation's
representative in China.
"At this point, there is still no evidence that there's been significant
radiation spread beyond the immediate zone of the reactors themselves," O'Leary
told reporters in Beijing.
Japan's nuclear disaster has triggered global alarm and reviews of safety at
atomic power plants around the world.
President Barack Obama, who stressed the United States did not expect harmful
radiation to reach its shores, said he had ordered a comprehensive review of
domestic nuclear plants and pledged Washington's support for Japan.
The Group of Seven rich nations, stepping in together to calm global
financial markets after a tumultuous week, agreed to join in rare concerted
intervention to restrain a soaring yen.
The top U.S. nuclear regulator said it could take weeks to reverse the
overheating of fuel rods at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.
"This is something that will take some time to work through, possibly weeks,
as you eventually remove the majority of the heat from the reactors and then the
spent-fuel pools," Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko told a
news conference at the White House.
SAND AND CONCRETE SOLUTION MOOTED
Yukiya Amano, head of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA), called the crisis "grave and serious" and urged Japan's prime minister
to release better information after arriving in Tokyo on Friday with a team of
four experts.
"They are racing against time to cool it down and then to contain it. It is
worse than it was at the beginning, but I don't know compared with yesterday,"
he said, adding that the experts would travel to the reactors on Saturday or
Sunday.
Graham Andrew, his senior aide, said helicopters used to dump water on the
plant had shown exposure to small amounts of radiation. "The situation remains
very serious, but there has been no significant worsening since yesterday,"
Andrew said.
The nuclear agency said the radiation level at the plant was as high as 20
millisieverts per hour. The limit for the workers was 100 per hour.
Even if engineers restore power at the plant, it was not clear the pumps
would work as they may have been damaged in the earthquake, tsunami or
subsequent explosions and there are fears of the electricity shorting and
causing another blast.
Japan's nuclear agency spokesman, Hidehiko Nishiyama, said it was also
unclear how effective spraying water on the reactors from helicopters had been
on Thursday. The priority was to get water into the spent-fuel pools, he said.
"We have to reduce the heat somehow and may use seawater," he told a news
conference. "We need to get the reactors back online as soon as possible and
that's why we're trying to restore power to them."
Asked about burying the reactors in sand and concrete, he said: "That
solution is in the back of our minds, but we are focused on cooling the reactors
down."
Jaczko said the cooling pool for spent-fuel rods at the complex's reactor
No.4 may have run dry and another was leaking.
An official at the plant operator said he expected power to be restored at
its most troubled and damaged reactors -- No.3 and No.4 -- by Sunday. Engineers
are trying to reconnect power to the least damaged reactors first.
DOLLAR GAINS AS FINANCIAL LEADERS INTERVENE
The U.S. dollar surged more than two yen to 81.80 after the G7's pledge to
intervene, leaving behind a record low of 76.25 hit on Thursday.
Japan's Nikkei share index ended up 2.7 percent, recouping some of the week's
stinging losses. It has lost 10.2 percent this week.
U.S. markets, which had tanked earlier in the week on the back of the crisis,
rebounded on Thursday but investors were not convinced the advance would last.
The yen has seen steady buying since the earthquake, as Japanese and
international investors closed long positions in higher-yielding, riskier assets
such as the Australian dollar, funded by cheap borrowing in the Japanese
currency.
Expectations that Japanese insurers and companies would repatriate billions
of dollars in overseas funds to pay for a reconstruction bill that is expected
to be much costlier than the one that followed the Kobe earthquake in 1995 also
have helped boost the yen.
850,00 WITHOUT ELECTRICITY; WATER SUPPLIES LOW
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, heating oil and fuel are low at evacuation centers, where
many survivors wait bundled in blankets. Many elderly lack proper medical
supplies. Food is often rationed.
The government said on Friday it was considering moving some of the hundreds
of thousands of evacuees to parts of the country unscathed by the devastation.
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 1.6 million households lacked running water.
The National Police Agency said on Friday it had confirmed 6,539 deaths from
the quake and tsunami disaster, exceeding 6,434 who died after the Kobe
earthquake in 1995. But 10,354 people are still missing.
RADIATION WITHIN TOKYO AT AVERAGE LEVELS
The government has told everyone living within 20 km (12 miles) of the plant
to evacuate, and advised people within 30 km (18 miles) to stay indoors.
The U.S. embassy in Tokyo has 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." Other
nations have urged nationals in Japan to leave the country or head south.
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 and Friday, radiation levels were within average levels.
Tokyo's 13 million residents were warned on Thursday to prepare for a
possible large-scale blackout but the government later said there was no need
for one. Still, many firms are voluntarily reducing power and trains are
reducing services.
