— Dangerous levels of radiation escaped a quake-stricken nuclear power
plant after one reactor’s steel containment structure was apparently
breached by an explosion, and a different reactor building in the same
complex caught fire after another explosion,
leaders told a frightened population. Authorities warned that people
within 20 miles of the crippled reactors should stay indoors to avoid
being sickened by radiation.
The fast-moving developments at the Fukushima No. 1 (
catapulted the 4-day-old nuclear crisis to an entirely new level,
threatening to overshadow even the massive damage and loss of life
spawned by a devastating earthquake and tsunami.
Prime Minister
nationwide address to the Japanese people, called for calm even as he
acknowledged the radiation peril. Dressed in industrial-style blue
coveralls, he offered solemn assurances that authorities were doing
“everything we can” to contain the leakage.
“There is a danger of even higher radiation levels,” he said — chilling words to a nation where the atomic bombings of
Cabinet Secretary
speaking shortly afterward, said radiation levels around the plant’s
six reactors had climbed to the extent that “without a doubt would
affect a person’s health.” But he insisted that outside the existing
12-mile evacuation zone, there was little or no health danger.
But people anywhere close to the plant were told to
turn off ventilators drawing air from outdoors and not to hang laundry
in the open air in order to avoid contamination.
The announcements, more than 12 hours after the
situation at the Unit 2 reactor at the Fukushima plant began to
deteriorate with the exposure of its fuel rods to air, heightening the
threat of meltdown, generated anger and fear in the earthquake-affected
area and beyond. Many Japanese do not believe that either the
government or the plant’s operator,
The mayor of a small city that falls partly within
the evacuation zone offered an unusually harsh public critique of the
utility and Kan’s administration.
“The government and
the mayor of Minamisoma, told the public broadcaster NHK. “We need the
government to keep us informed, to send emergency supplies and to help
move residents who are inside the evacuation zone.”
Survivors of the U.S. atomic bombings in World War II have been criticizing the nuclear power company’s handling of the crisis.
“Nuclear power generation has been said to be safe
but it was proved that it’s very fragile,” Hirotami Yamada, 79, bureau
chief of the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Survivors Council, told Kyodo.
The explosion followed an early morning acknowledgment from
that, because of human error, the fuel rods inside the Unit 2 reactor
had been at least partly exposed to air for more than two hours during
two separate incidents the previous evening, allowing them to heat up
and causing a buildup of explosive hydrogen gas. Independent experts
said it was a grave development that heightened the risk of an
uncontrolled release of radiation into the environment.
Authorities also disclosed that a fire broke out at
the complex’s Unit 4 after a blast left two gaping holes in an outer
wall. The fire was later reported to have been extinguished, though it
was unclear what caused it.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said Japanese
officials told them that the explosion and subsequent fire were located
at the unit’s spent-fuel storage pond and that radioactivity was being
released directly into the atmosphere.
By Tuesday afternoon, Kyodo was reporting that the pond was boiling because the water level was too low.
Authorities also reported that the only two reactors
where explosions have not occurred — Units 5 and 6 — were registering
rising temperatures.
The U.S. government mobilized emergency resources to help
grapple with the developing nuclear crisis, dispatching a team of
Nuclear Regulatory Commission experts late Monday, activating an
atmospheric radioactivity monitoring center at
In the best-case scenario, the situation at the
damaged reactors will take weeks, if not months, to stabilize, U.S.
nuclear experts said.
“They do not have the situation under control,” said
The company’s acknowledgement that a “suppression
pool” at the bottom of Unit 2, designed to serve as a last line of
defense against a meltdown, was believed to have been breached could
represent a major escalation of the crisis, said
“If that is true, then there is a path to the control room, the workers and the outside environment,” he said.
The cooling problems at Unit 2 represent the most serious development yet in the crisis at the plant, said nuclear specialist
When the fuel rods get too hot and react with water,
they produce hydrogen gas that vents from the reactor into the
containment building. When enough hydrogen accumulates, it becomes
explosive. Containment buildings around two other reactors at the
Fukushima complex already suffered explosions, on Saturday and Monday.
Engineers had begun using fire hoses to pump
seawater into the Unit 2 reactor — the third at the plant to receive
the last-ditch treatment — after the emergency cooling system failed.
Company officials said workers were not paying sufficient attention to
the process, however, and let the pump stall, allowing the fuel rods to
become partly exposed to the air.
Once the pump was restarted and water flow was
restored, another worker inadvertently closed a valve that was designed
to vent steam from the containment vessel. As pressure built up inside
the vessel, the pumps could no longer force water into it and the fuel
rods were once again exposed.
Four officials from
in dark suits and looking somber began their nationally televised news
conference hours after the onset of the problems at the Unit 2 reactor
by bowing and apologizing for the worry caused.
In something of a contradiction, officials at
Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said that, even in a worst-case
scenario, the three troubled reactors at Fukushima had been
depressurized by the release of radioactive steam, which would decrease
the destructiveness of any breach, according to Kyodo News.
But other nuclear experts said it remained possible
that an overheated uranium core in any of these reactors could melt
down and breach its containment vessel, exposing the environment to a
radioactive plume.
The seriousness of the situation was further underscored Monday when the
A flight ban was imposed within 20 miles of the Fukushima plant because of the radiation danger.
The U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet also said Monday that it had ordered the aircraft carrier
Nearly 200,000 Japanese had already been evacuated
from a 12-mile zone surrounding the plant, and the company said it had
moved 750 workers away from the plant, leaving 50 to deal with the
crisis.
In the U.S., the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Monday that it had received a formal request from
Another serious risk involves the more than 200 tons
of spent nuclear fuel that is stored in pools adjacent to the reactors,
Alvarez said. Those cooling pools depend on continually circulating
water to keep the fuel rods from catching fire. Without power to
circulate the water, it heats up and potentially boils away, leaving
the fuel rods exposed to air.
An aerial image of the Fukushima plant shows the
loss of high-capacity cranes needed to move equipment to service the
reactor. The photo also appears to show that the spent fuel pool is
steaming hot, which may indicate the water is boiling off, Alvarez said.
U.S. nuclear experts said they were particularly
concerned about the Unit 3 reactor because it is fueled in part with
plutonium, an element used in hydrogen bombs that can be more difficult
to control than the enriched uranium normally used to fuel nuclear
power plants.
Atmospheric Release Advisory Center at Livermore to create
sophisticated computer models of how the radioactive releases from
Fukushima No. 1 would disburse into the atmosphere. The center, which
was created to deal with contamination in the event of a nuclear war,
played a key role in predicting contamination patterns during the 1986
Chernobyl nuclear crisis.
Even before the admission of how serious the
problems at the Fukushima complex had become, there were signs that the
legendary patience and politeness of Japanese in the face of such
adversity was wearing thin. In
was repurposed into a disaster-relief center. There, in an oft-repeated
scene, a woman in red pants and a brown coat berated government workers
for sitting comfortably in their offices with heat, 24-hour power and
water while the rest of the prefecture lacked basic services.
Voice cracking, she said the government had been far
too slow in restoring the electricity and repairing roads and basic
infrastructure.
“She’s complaining that our operation doesn’t work so well,” said
a government worker in the senior citizen department, who was helping
distribute food as an emergency volunteer. “Actually, it’s true. We’re
so overwhelmed.”
Adding to the sense of anxiety, strong aftershocks
have rippled across a wide area since Friday’s quake, with fresh jolts
shaking
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King reported from
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