Japan's nuclear power plant hit by a second fire
Another fire broke out at a nuclear reactor early Wednesday morning in Japan. It is the latest in a series of disasters that have stricken the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant.
Gavin Blair and News DeskMarch 15, 2011 23:15Another fire broke out at a nuclear reactor early Wednesday morning in Japan. It is the latest in a series of disasters that have stricken the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant.
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A survivor of Japan's tsunami shows the family pictures she collected from the rubble of her former house in Yamada, Iwate prefecture, on March 15, 2011. (JIJI Press/AFP/Getty Images)
YAMAGATA, Japan — Another fire broke out at a nuclear reactor early Wednesday morning in Japan. It is the latest setback in a series of disasters that have stricken the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant.
The fire comes a day after an explosion and fire at the plant in northeastern Japan caused large amounts of radiation to leak into the air, intensifying concerns over a possible nuclear catastrophe caused by Friday's devastating earthquake and tsunami. The 9.0-magnitute earthquake, which killed at least 10,000 people, damaged the plant's cooling functions.
On Wednesday, the outer housing of the containment vessel at the plant's No. 4 reactor erupted in flames, according to information from the plant's operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Co.
Japan was considering spraying water and boric acid over the plant in an effort to contain the radiation, the AP reports.
The company said the fire broke out because Tuesday's fire, which occurred in the fuel storage pond of the same reactor, had not been completely extinguished.
It was unclear Wednesday if the second fire was completely out as it was too dangerous for workers to get close enough to the reactor to determine what was happening.
The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said two workers at the plant were missing after the multiple explosions and fires, Al Jazeera reports. Fifty workers have stayed behind at the plant, "braving radiation and fire," in an effort to cool the reactors and save Japan from a nuclear disaster.
The Tokyo Electric Power Co has been struggling to bring the crisis at the plant under control. The plant, 140 miles northeast of Tokyo, has suffered multiple explosions since Saturday.
The New York Times reports that authorities are particularly worried about pools for spent fuel rods at several reactors at the plant. The rods are radioactive and "potentially as hot and dangerous as the fuel rods inside the reactors," it states. The No. 4 reactor's pool has lost some of the water needed to keep the rods stable.
Late Tuesday, the government said radiation levels had fallen again, somewhat quelling fears. It remains unclear if the new blaze will cause more radiation to spread.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan earlier said that radiation was spreading from four reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant. A 15-mile exclusion zone was enforced around the plant as engineers battled to bring overheating reactors under control.
And the 140,000 people living within 20 miles of the plant were ordered to leave the area or stay indoors with the windows shut and the air conditioning off.
Meanwhile, continuing aftershocks, some of which have registered as high as 6.0-magnitude, have kept the Japanese on edge.
“I’m really scared. The earthquake on Friday really shook everything here, and nobody knows what’s going to happen at Fukushima,” said a young man working in a clothes shop in Yamagata City, which is in Yamagata Prefecture, one of the worst-hit areas.
“The aftershocks just keep coming. I’ve had enough,” he said.
Yamagata City is located just over the mountains from Sendai, which is in Miyagi Prefecture in northeastern Japan. Sendai was the largest city near the quake's epicenter.
A shell-shocked population becomes more skittish with every tremor, persistent rumbling that would, under normal circumstances, barely register with the northeast's quake-hardened people.
A restaurant in the center of Yamagata city was empty save for two customers today. The waitress said people were scared to leave their homes because of the quake and the fear of radiation, which has been detected as far away as Vladivostock in Russia.
In Yamagata, a sports center is being prepared for evacuees from around the Fukushima plant, even as snow fell heavily Tuesday evening and the city prepared for power outages.
The government began rolling blackouts Wednesday around the country to compensate for the loss of energy from Japan's nuclear power plants, most of which shut down automatically during Friday's earthquake, BBC reports.
The disaster has left more than 500,000 people homeless, and millions of people on the east coast have little food, water or heat.
Despite the difficult situation, however, people here have remained civil.
At long lines for rationed gasoline and limited foodstuffs across the region, there was no jostling for better positions and no arguments.
At a small family-run hotel in the port town of Hitachi, its harbor destroyed, refugees from the devastated areas to the north arrived late into the night Tuesday.
Weary customers who would have likely paid any price for a dry place to lay their head, were given discounts for the lack of running water and the owner's apologized profusely for the lack of running water.
Yet, even as hopes were fading of finding thousands of people missing since the tsunami swept ashore, there were fresh stories of survival.
A 70-year-old woman was found in her home in the town of Otsuchi, Sky News reported. It said she was suffering from hypothermia, but otherwise unhurt. A man was also rescued from the town of Ishimaki. A day earlier, a four-month-old girl was pulled, uninjured, from rubble in the town of Ishinomaki.
The fire comes a day after an explosion and fire at the plant in northeastern Japan caused large amounts of radiation to leak into the air, intensifying concerns over a possible nuclear catastrophe caused by Friday's devastating earthquake and tsunami. The 9.0-magnitute earthquake, which killed at least 10,000 people, damaged the plant's cooling functions.
On Wednesday, the outer housing of the containment vessel at the plant's No. 4 reactor erupted in flames, according to information from the plant's operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Co.
Japan was considering spraying water and boric acid over the plant in an effort to contain the radiation, the AP reports.
The company said the fire broke out because Tuesday's fire, which occurred in the fuel storage pond of the same reactor, had not been completely extinguished.
It was unclear Wednesday if the second fire was completely out as it was too dangerous for workers to get close enough to the reactor to determine what was happening.
The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said two workers at the plant were missing after the multiple explosions and fires, Al Jazeera reports. Fifty workers have stayed behind at the plant, "braving radiation and fire," in an effort to cool the reactors and save Japan from a nuclear disaster.
The Tokyo Electric Power Co has been struggling to bring the crisis at the plant under control. The plant, 140 miles northeast of Tokyo, has suffered multiple explosions since Saturday.
The New York Times reports that authorities are particularly worried about pools for spent fuel rods at several reactors at the plant. The rods are radioactive and "potentially as hot and dangerous as the fuel rods inside the reactors," it states. The No. 4 reactor's pool has lost some of the water needed to keep the rods stable.
Late Tuesday, the government said radiation levels had fallen again, somewhat quelling fears. It remains unclear if the new blaze will cause more radiation to spread.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan earlier said that radiation was spreading from four reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant. A 15-mile exclusion zone was enforced around the plant as engineers battled to bring overheating reactors under control.
And the 140,000 people living within 20 miles of the plant were ordered to leave the area or stay indoors with the windows shut and the air conditioning off.
Meanwhile, continuing aftershocks, some of which have registered as high as 6.0-magnitude, have kept the Japanese on edge.
“I’m really scared. The earthquake on Friday really shook everything here, and nobody knows what’s going to happen at Fukushima,” said a young man working in a clothes shop in Yamagata City, which is in Yamagata Prefecture, one of the worst-hit areas.
“The aftershocks just keep coming. I’ve had enough,” he said.
Yamagata City is located just over the mountains from Sendai, which is in Miyagi Prefecture in northeastern Japan. Sendai was the largest city near the quake's epicenter.
A shell-shocked population becomes more skittish with every tremor, persistent rumbling that would, under normal circumstances, barely register with the northeast's quake-hardened people.
A restaurant in the center of Yamagata city was empty save for two customers today. The waitress said people were scared to leave their homes because of the quake and the fear of radiation, which has been detected as far away as Vladivostock in Russia.
In Yamagata, a sports center is being prepared for evacuees from around the Fukushima plant, even as snow fell heavily Tuesday evening and the city prepared for power outages.
The government began rolling blackouts Wednesday around the country to compensate for the loss of energy from Japan's nuclear power plants, most of which shut down automatically during Friday's earthquake, BBC reports.
The disaster has left more than 500,000 people homeless, and millions of people on the east coast have little food, water or heat.
Despite the difficult situation, however, people here have remained civil.
At long lines for rationed gasoline and limited foodstuffs across the region, there was no jostling for better positions and no arguments.
At a small family-run hotel in the port town of Hitachi, its harbor destroyed, refugees from the devastated areas to the north arrived late into the night Tuesday.
Weary customers who would have likely paid any price for a dry place to lay their head, were given discounts for the lack of running water and the owner's apologized profusely for the lack of running water.
Yet, even as hopes were fading of finding thousands of people missing since the tsunami swept ashore, there were fresh stories of survival.
A 70-year-old woman was found in her home in the town of Otsuchi, Sky News reported. It said she was suffering from hypothermia, but otherwise unhurt. A man was also rescued from the town of Ishimaki. A day earlier, a four-month-old girl was pulled, uninjured, from rubble in the town of Ishinomaki.
-- Additional reporting by Hanna Ingber Win in Mumbai and Barry Neild in London.
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