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Japan Scrambles To Curb Nuclear Damage After Second Blast, New Hurdle

14.03.2011 14:44

Japanese authorities are taking steps to prevent a third explosion at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant following the failure of reactor cooling systems there -- and explosions at two reactors -- in the aftermath of the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan says the situation at the nuclear power complex remains worrisome, with engineers doing their utmost to prevent damage from spreading. The government is assuring people that the risk of a major radioactive leak remains small.

Low-level radiation was released by the explosions on March 12 and early today, and the wind over the quake-damaged nuclear complex was blowing south today toward the capital, Tokyo. But Japan's Meteorological Agency says the winds will be slow and that what has leaked so far is not expected to affect Tokyo.

Scrambling To Avoid Meltdowns

On March 12, an explosion blew the roof off of the nuclear plant's No. 1 reactor after the earthquake triggered an automatic shutdown of all six reactors.

Diesel-powered emergency backup generators were meant to keep the reactor cores cool during the emergency shutdown. But those generators were flooded and knocked out when the tsunami struck the facility on the northeastern coast of Japan, leaving only emergency batteries to run the cooling system.

Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano says it appears that the second explosion, in reactor No. 3, was triggered when the backup battery power became depleted there and authorities pumped in sea water in a desperate attempt to keep the core from overheating.

"The explosion was believed to be the same sort of explosion as at the reactor No. 1," Edano said. "We had issued an evacuation order for people living within a 20-kilometer radius of the plant and [now] we have told people who were in the process of evacuating to go indoors immediately."

Kaoru Yoshida, a spokesman for Tokyo Electric Power Company, described the blast at reactor No. 3 as a "hydrogen explosion."

"There was a large sound from reactor No. 3 at 11:01 a.m. [local time] and white smoke rose," Yoshida said. "We think it is a hydrogen explosion."

But officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) say they do not think the concrete containment vessels around the two reactors have been breached -- a worst-case scenario that would lead to a major radioactive leak similar to the 1986 Chornobyl nuclear power plant disaster in then-Soviet Ukraine.

Fears of a third explosion and meltdown have been raised by the failure of the cooling system in the nuclear power plant's No. 2 reactor.

The fuel rods in reactor No. 2 were almost fully exposed at one point today when a pump pouring cooling seawater around them ran out of its own fuel. But government spokesman Yukio Edano said ongoing work to cool the No. 2 reactor would hopefully stabilize the situation.

Emergency EU Meeting

In Brussels, the European Commission called an emergency meeting of all 27 energy ministers in the European Union for March 15 to discuss nuclear safety in the wake of Japan's power plant disaster.

EU Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger also has invited national nuclear safety authorities and nuclear power plant operators from across the EU to discuss safety requirements for earthquakes and emergency power supply systems for reactor cooling.

Germany already has announced a safety assessment of all nuclear power plants in the country, while Austria called for "stress tests" on European nuclear reactors -- computer simulations of extreme emergency situations.

The disaster in Japan also is expected to trigger debate on the lifespan of nuclear reactors. The quake-damaged Fukushima power plant was built 40 years ago and had only one more month of operation in its current lifespan before requiring a new permit to continue operations for another 20 years. Authorities who issued those permits say they halted the permit renewal process for Fukushima today.

Massive Blow

Meanwhile, millions of people spent a third night without water, food, or heating in near-freezing temperatures along the devastated northeastern coast. There have been more than 150 aftershocks since the March 11 quake.

Rescue workers were using chainsaws and hand picks to dig out bodies from coastal towns devastated by the earthquake and tsunami as the official death toll from the disaster climbed.

Some 2,000 bodies were discovered along the northeastern coastline on March 14 -- victims of the tsunami that hit the area three days earlier.

That raises the official death toll from the disaster to more than 2,800. But tens of thousands of people are still missing -- including 18,000 people from one town there.

Japan also is suffering economically as a result of the disasters, with share prices on the Tokyo Stock Exchange plunging due to investors' fears of huge losses by Japanese industries -- including global companies like Toyota and Honda.

written by Ron Synovitz in Prague, with contributions from Rikard Jozwiak in Brussels and agency reports

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/japan_nuclear_blast_new_snag/2337483.html

Copyright (c) 2011. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.