Power line may restore nuke plant’s cooling

A NEARLY completed new power line could restore cooling systems in Japan’s tsunami-crippled nuclear power plant, its operator said, raising some hope of easing the crisis that has threatened a meltdown and already spawned dangerous radiation surges.

The conditions at the plant appeared to worsen, with white smoke pouring from the complex and a surge in radiation levels forcing workers to retreat for hours yesterday from their struggle to cool the overheating reactors.

There was confusion last night about the status of water pools surrounding one of the units.

If the water boils off, it means there is nothing to stop the fuel rods getting hotter and ultimately melting down.

The chief of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Gregory Jackzo said Unit 4 may have lost a significant inventory, if not all, of its water, making corrective work very difficult. He also said radiation levels around the site could give emergency workers “lethal doses” of radiation, making it very dangerous for emergency workers to get near the reactors.

However the Japanese authorities and Tokyo Electric Power said there was still water in the pools and everything was “stable” at the stricken Unit 4.

As international concern mounted, Mr Jackzo said he would go to Japan to assess what he called a “serious” situation and urged Tokyo to provide better information to his organisation.

Tokyo Electric Power Co spokesman Naoki Tsunoda said the power line to the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant is almost finished and that officials plan to try it “as soon as possible,” but he could not say exactly when.

The line would revive electric-powered pumps, allowing the company to maintain a steady water supply to troubled reactors and spent fuel storage ponds, keeping them cool. The company is also trying to repair its existing disabled power line.

Yesterday’s pullback by workers who have been pumping seawater into the reactors cost valuable time in the fight to prevent a nuclear meltdown, a nightmare scenario following Friday’s horrific earthquake and tsunami. The disasters pulverised Japan’s north-eastern coast and are feared to have killed more than 10,000 people.

The tsunami destroyed the complex’s backup power system and left operators unable to properly cool nuclear fuel. The 180 emergency workers have been working in shifts to manually pump seawater into the reactors.

Japan’s emperor, in an unprecedented made-for- TV speech, called on the country to work together.

“It is important that each of us shares the difficult days that lie ahead,” said Akihito, 77. “I pray that we will all take care of each other and overcome this tragedy.”

He also expressed his worries over the nuclear crisis, saying: “With the help of those involved I hope things will not get worse.”

But officials are also taking increasing criticism for poor communication about efforts at the complex. There has been growing unease at the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35 board member nations, who have complained that information coming from Japan on the rapidly evolving nuclear disaster is too slow and vague.

IAEA head Yukiya Amano spoke of a “very serious” situation and said he would leave for Tokyo within a day.

He said it was “difficult to say” if events were out of control, but added, “I will certainly have contact with those people who are working there who tackled the accident, and I will be able to have firsthand information.”

The nuclear crisis has partly overshadowed the human tragedy caused by Friday’s 9.0-magnitude earthquake, one of the strongest recorded.

Millions of Japanese have been with little food and water in heavy snow and rain since Friday. In some towns, long lines of cars waited outside the few open gas stations, with others lined up at rice-vending machines.

National broadcaster NHK showed mammoth military helicopters lifting off Friday afternoon to survey radiation levels above the nuclear complex, preparing to dump water onto the most troubled reactors in an effort to cool them down.

The defence ministry later said those flights were a drill — then later said it had decided against making an airborne drop because of the high radiation levels.

“The anxiety and anger being felt by people in Fukushima have reached a boiling point,” the governor of Fukushima prefecture, Yuhei Sato, said in an interview with NHK. He criticised preparations for an evacuation if conditions worsen, and said centres do not have enough hot meals and basic necessities.

More than 4,300 people are officially listed as dead, but officials believe the toll will climb to well over 10,000. Police say more than 452,000 people are staying in temporary shelters such as school gymnasiums.

Yesterday’s radiation spike was believed to have come from the complex’s Unit 3. But officials also admitted that they were far from sure what was going on at the four most troubled reactors, including Unit 3, in part because high radiation levels made it difficult to get very close.

While white smoke was seen rising yesterday above Unit 3, officials could not ascertain the source. They said it could be spewing from the reactor’s spent fuel pool — cooling tanks for used nuclear rods — or may have been from damage to the reactor’s containment vessel, the protective shell of thick concrete.

Masahisa Otsuki, an official with Tokyo Electric Power Co, which owns the complex, said officials are most concerned about the spent fuel pools, which are not encased in protective shells.

“We haven’t been able to get any of the latest data at any spent fuel pools,” he said. “We don’t have the latest water levels, temperatures, none of the latest information for any of the four reactors.”

Yesterday evening government officials said they’d asked special police units to bring in water cannons — normally used to quell rioters — to spray water onto the spent fuel storage pool for Unit 4.

The cannons are thought to be strong enough to allow emergency workers to remain a safe distance from the complex while still able to get water into the pool, said Minoru Ogoda of the Japanese nuclear safety agency.

In the city of Fukushima, meanwhile, about 60kilometres inland from the nuclear complex, hundreds of harried government workers, police officers and others struggled to stay on top of the situation in a makeshift command centre.

An entire floor of one of the prefecture’s office buildings had been taken over by people tracking evacuations, power needs, death tolls and food supplies.

Elevated levels of radiation were detected well outside the 30km emergency area around the plants. In Ibaraki prefecture, just south of Fukushima, officials said radiation levels were about 300 times normal levels by late morning. It would take three years of constant exposure to these higher levels to raise a person’s risk of cancer.

A little radiation was also detected in Tokyo, triggering panic buying of food and water.

Given the reported radiation levels, John Price, an Australian-based nuclear safety expert, said he saw few health risks for the general public so far. But he said he was surprised by how little information the Japanese were sharing.

“We don’t know even the fundamentals of what’s happening, what’s wrong, what isn’t working. We’re all guessing,” he said. “I would have thought they would put on a panel of experts every two hours.”

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the government expects to ask the US military for help, though he did not elaborate. He said the government is still considering whether to accept offers of help from other countries.

There are six reactors at the plant. Units 1, 2 and 3, which were operating last week, shut down automatically when the quake hit. Since then, all three have been rocked by explosions.