Japan’s nuclear crisis appeared to be spinning out of control after workers withdrew briefly from a stricken power plant because of surging radiation levels and a helicopter failed to drop water on the most troubled reactor.

In a sign of desperation, police will try to cool spent nuclear fuel at one of the facility’s reactors with water cannon, normally used to quell riots.

Early in the day, another fire broke out at the earthquake-crippled facility, which has sent low levels of radiation wafting into Tokyo in the past 24 hours, triggering fear in the capital and international alarm.

Japan’s government said radiation levels outside the plant’s gates were stable but, in a sign of being overwhelmed, appealed to private companies to help deliver supplies to tens of thousands of people evacuated from around the complex.

“People would not be in immediate danger if they went outside with these levels. I want people to understand this,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told a televised news conference, referring to people living outside a 30-km (18-mile) exclusion zone. Some 140,000 people inside the zone have been told to stay indoors.

The European Union’s energy chief, Guenther Oettinger, told the European Parliament the plant was “effectively out of control” after breakdowns in the facility’s cooling system.

Workers cleared debris to build a road so fire trucks could reach reactor No 4 at the Daiichi complex in Fukushima, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo. Flames were no longer visible at the building housing the reactor.

High radiation levels prevented a helicopter from dropping water into the No 3 reactor to try to cool its fuel rods after an earlier explosion damaged the unit’s roof and cooling system.

The plant operator described No 3 — the only reactor at that uses plutonium in its fuel mix — as the “priority”.

Plutonium, once absorbed in the bloodstream, can linger for years in bone marrow or liver and lead to cancer.

The situation at No 4 reactor, where the fire broke out, was “not so good”, the plant operator added, while water was being poured into reactors No 5 and 6, indicating the entire six-reactor facility was now at risk of overheating.

“Getting water into the pools of the No 3 and No 4 reactors is a high priority,” Hidehiko Nishiyama, a senior official at Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Administration, told a news conference, adding the pool for spent fuel rods at No 3 was heating up, while No 4 remained a concern.

“It could become a serious problem in a few days,” he said.

A military helicopter may be used again to try to drop water and troops mobilised to help pump water by land, he said.

Nuclear experts said the solutions being proposed to quell radiation leaks at the complex were last-ditch efforts to stem what could well be remembered as one of the world’s worst industrial disasters.

“This is a slow-moving nightmare,” said Thomas Neff, a physicist and uranium-industry analyst at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Japanese Emperor Akihito, delivering a rare video message to his people, said he was deeply worried by the country’s nuclear crisis which was “unprecedented in scale”.

“I hope from the bottom of my heart that the people will, hand in hand, treat each other with compassion and overcome these difficult times,” the emperor said.

Panic over the economic impact of last Friday’s massive earthquake and tsunami knocked $620 billion off Japan’s stock market over the first two days of this week, but the Nikkei index rebounded on Wednesday to end up 5.68 per cent.

Nevertheless, estimates of losses to Japanese output from damage to buildings, production and consumer activity ranged from between 10 and 16 trillion yen ($125-$200 billion), up to one-and-a-half times the economic losses from the devastating 1995 Kobe earthquake.

Damage to Japan’s manufacturing base and infrastructure is also threatening significant disruption to the global supply chain, particularly in the technology and auto sectors.

Scores of flights to Japan have been halted or rerouted and air travellers are avoiding Tokyo for fear of radiation. On Wednesday, both France and Australia urged their nationals in Japan to leave the country as authorities grappled with the world’s most serious nuclear accident since the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine in 1986.

Russia said it planned to evacuate families of diplomats on Friday.

In a demonstration of the qualms about nuclear power that the crisis has triggered around the globe, China announced that it was suspending approvals for planned plants and would launch a comprehensive safety check of facilities.

China has about two dozen reactors under construction and plans to increase nuclear electricity generation about seven-fold over the next 10 years.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said nuclear power was safe provided power stations were built in the right place and designed and managed properly. Russia ordered checks at nuclear facilities on Tuesday.

In Japan, the plight of hundreds of thousands left homeless by the earthquake and devastating tsunami that followed worsened following a cold snap that brought snow to worst-affected areas.

Supplies of water and heating oil are low at evacuation centres, where many survivors wait bundled in blankets.

While the official death toll stands at around 4,000, thousands are listed as missing and the number of dead is expected to rise.

Japanese officials said they were talking to the US military about possible help at the Fukushima plant.

Concern has mounted that the skeleton crew dealing with the crisis might not be big enough or were exhausted after working for days since the earthquake damaged the facility.

Authorities withdrew 750 workers for a time on Tuesday, briefly leaving only 50. All those remaining were pulled out for almost an hour on Wednesday because radiation levels were too high, but they were later allowed to return. By the end of the day, about 180 were working at the plant.

source: Business Standard

Similar Posts:

• Japan nuclear crisis: Radiation spike report ‘mistaken’
• Japan nuclear: Radioactivity 10 million times higher than the usual level
• Radiation Danger Rises as Fukushima Nuclear Plant Crisis Worsens
• Japan agency raises nuclear threat to highest level
• New blasts, fire at nuclear plant in disaster-hit Japan