Monday, March 21, 2011

Japan:


2 March 2011 Last updated at 01:58 GMT

New smoke seen at Japan reactor

Damaged No 3 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plantReactors at Fukushima Daiichi suffered severe damage

Japan quake

Smoke and steam have again been seen above reactors at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, seriously damaged by the 11 March earthquake.
Efforts to restore electricity supplies to the plant have been temporarily halted, Kyodo news agency reports.
Japan's Trade Minister Banri Kaieda said it was hard to say the situation was heading in a safe direction.
IAEA director-general Yukiya Amano said earlier he had "no doubt that this crisis will be effectively overcome".
Workers at the Fukushima Daiichi plant have been battling to cool reactors and spent fuel ponds to avoid a large-scale release of radiation.
Meanwhile, the death toll from the quake and tsunami has risen to 8,450, with nearly 13,000 people missing.
More than 350,000 people are still living in evacuation centres in northern and eastern Japan.
Food shipments halted
The Fukushima plant was crippled by fire and explosions after the 11 March quake and tsunami.

FUKUSHIMA UPDATE

  • Reactor 1: Damage to the core from cooling problems. Building holed by gas explosion. Power lines attached.
  • Reactor 2: Damage to the core from cooling problems. Building holed by gas blast; containment damage suspected. Power lines attached.
  • Reactor 3: Damage to the core from cooling problems. Building holed by gas blast; containment damage possible. Spent fuel pond partly refilled with water after running low.
  • Reactor 4: Reactor shut down prior to earthquake. Fires and explosion in spent fuel pond; water level partly restored.
  • Reactors 5 & 6: Reactors shut down. Temperature of spent fuel pools now lowered after rising high.
The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission - whose staff are in Tokyo conferring with the Japanese government and industry officials - said the Japanese nuclear crisis appeared to be stabilising.
The NRC said that reactors 1, 2 and 3 had some core damage but their containment was not currently breached.
Early on Tuesday, white vapour was seen rising from reactor 2 and hazy smoke from the reactor 3, Kyodo news agency reported.
Meanwhile, the government has ordered a halt to some food shipments from four prefectures around the Fukushima nuclear plant, as concern increases about radioactive traces in vegetables and water supplies.
Villagers living near the plant have been told not to drink tap water because of higher levels of radioactive iodine.
The suspension - which the government said was just a precaution - applies to spinach from the prefectures of Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi and Gunma, as well as milk from Fukushima.

Analysis

image of Richard BlackRichard BlackEnvironment correspondent, BBC News
Technicians at the Fukushima plant are now battling with damage inflicted to electrical systems by the tsunami - and possibly by the earthquake that preceded it, and the gas explosions that subsequently rocked some of the reactor buildings.
Mains electricity has now arrived at three buildings, and at least in one it has been successfully connected to water pumps.
Some of the circuitry that distributes power around the site has been damaged, and it may be some days before all pumps and all instruments can be connected.
Some key information - such as the water temperature in some of the spent fuel ponds - is still missing, perhaps because instruments were destroyed by fire.
Nevertheless, the power station is undeniably more stable than at any time last week, and for the first time the International Atomic Energy Agency says it 'has no doubt' that the crisis will be overcome.
Over the weekend spinach and milk produced near the nuclear plant was found to contain levels of radioactive iodine far higher than the legal limits.
However, senior government official Yukio Edano told a news conference that eating or drinking the contaminated food would not pose a health hazard. "I would like you to act calmly," he said.
The World Health Organization said it had no evidence of contaminated food reaching other countries. However, China, Taiwan and South Korea have announced plans to toughen checks of Japanese imports.
"We have been using helicopters to deliver relief goods to some places but for today we have to switch the delivery to places that we can reach by road," he said.
Some aid from foreign countries has started to arrive, and the government has started the process of finding temporary housing in other parts of the country for those made homeless.
Workers in north-east Japan have begun building temporary homes for the displaced. The prefabricated metal boxes with wooden floors were put up on the hillside near the devastated town of Rikuzentakata.
Nearly 900,000 households are still without water.     ( SOURCE:bbc)
BBC news graphic
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)