Fire flares at building holding spent fuel rods
Workers evacuate stricken nuclear plant
Setback as Japan struggles to contain spiraling nuclear crisis
Workers are removed from Nuclear Plant due to rising radiation. What does this mean for the fore different containment facilities? What does this mean for Japan? Will another group of workers go in?
Radiation levels rise in Tokyo
Panic swept Tokyo on Tuesday as radiation levels surged in the city, causing some to leave the capital and others to stock up on food and supplies. Several embassies advised staff and citizens to leave affected areas, tourists cut short vacations and multinational companies either urged staff to leave or said they were considering plans to move outside Tokyo.
msnbc.com staff and news service reports
FUKUSHIMA, Japan — Workers at a quake-damaged atomic power plant suspended operations and evacuated Wednesday after a surge in radiation made it too dangerous to remain there, dealing a setback to Japan’s frantic efforts to stem a nuclear crisis.
"All the workers there have suspended their operations. We have urged them to evacuate, and they have," Japan's chief cabinet secretary, Yukio Edano said, according to a translation by NHK television.
Edano said that a surge in radiation Wednesday meant workers were unable to continue even minimal efforts at the stricken nuclear plant.
Earlier Wednesday, a fire broke out anew at one damaged nuclear reactor, a day after the power plant emitted a burst of radiation that panicked an already edgy Japan.
Nuclear power plant operator Tokyo Electric Power, or TEPCO, said it was considering dispersing boric acid, a fire retardant, from a helicopter over the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant's No. 4 reactor.
About three hours after the blaze erupted Wednesday, Japan's nuclear safety agency said flames could no longer be seen at No. 4. But it was unable to confirm that the blaze had been put out, and clouds of white smoke were billowing from the reactor, according to live video footage of the plant.
The newly troubled reactor left the Japanese government struggling to contain a spiraling crisis caused by last week's 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami, which are estimated to have killed more than 10,000 people.
Damage to multiple reactors at the Dai-ichi plant sent low levels of radiation wafting into Tokyo, prompting some people to flee the capital and triggering growing international alarm.
Also Wednesday, a fuel pool at the No. 3 reactor may have heated and produced steam, the plant's operator said.
The reactor on fire was one of four in serious trouble at the facility, home to six reactors. It was idle when the earthquake struck on Friday, but it had a fuel storage tank on top of the building — an area where spent nuclear fuel is kept cool.
On Tuesday, a fire broke out in the storage tank, causing radioactivity to be released into the atmosphere. TEPCO said the new blaze erupted because the initial fire had not been fully extinguished.Story: Pool holding spent nuclear fuel now at risk
Two workers inside the unit were missing after the first fire, Japan's nuclear safety agency said. The status of the nuclear reactor and storage pool inside the building was not known.
Also Wednesday, TEPCO estimated an estimated 70 percent of the nuclear fuel rods have been damaged at the No. 1 reactor and 33 percent were damaged at the No. 2 reactor.
Those reactors' cores are believed to have partially melted when the Friday quake disrupted their cooling functions, the Kyodo News Agency said.
Officials were also concerned about the reactors in Units 5 and 6.
Units 5 and 6 were loaded with nuclear fuel but not producing when Friday's quake and tsunami struck. They had been considered stable, but on Tuesday a senior Japanese official said temperatures there were also slightly elevated.
"The power for cooling is not working well and the temperature is gradually rising, so it is necessary to control it," Edano told reporters.
"Plant operators were considering the removal of panels from units 5 and 6 reactor buildings to prevent a possible buildup of hydrogen," the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement.
"It was a buildup of hydrogen at units 1, 2, and 3 that led to explosions at the Dai-ichi facilities in recent days," it added.
After the first fire at reactor No. 4 was extinguished, a Japanese official said the pool used to cool the spent fuel rods might still be boiling.
Experts noted that much of the leaking radiation was apparently in steam from boiling water. It had not been emitted directly by fuel rods, which would be far more virulent, they said.
"It's not good, but I don't think it's a disaster," said Steve Crossley, an Australia-based radiation physicist.
The fuel rods are encased in safety containers meant to prevent them from resuming nuclear reactions, nuclear officials said. But they acknowledged that there could have been damage to the containers.
Tuesday night, Japan ordered TEPCO to inject water into the pool "as soon as possible to avert a major nuclear disaster."
The IAEA also said Tuesday that an explosion Monday at the plant, this one within Unit 2, "may have affected the integrity of its primary containment vessel." That means radioactivity could be leaking from the containment vessel.
After the first fire at No. 4, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said low levels of radiation had spread from the complex along Japan's northeastern coast.
Levels of 400 millisieverts per hour had been recorded near No. 4 after the first fire, the government said. Exposure to over 100 millisieverts a year is a level that can lead to cancer, according to the World Nuclear Association.
The radiation releases prompted Japan on Tuesday to order 140,000 people to seal themselves indoors and a 30-kilometer (19-mile) no-fly zone was imposed around the site for commercial traffic.
Weather forecasts for the Fukushima area were for snow and wind Wednesday, blowing toward the east out to sea. That's important because it shows which direction a possible nuclear cloud might blow.
'Clearly in a catastrophe'
Soon after the latest events, France's nuclear safety authority ASN said the disaster ranks as a level 6 on the international scale of 1 to 7.
Level 7 was used only once, for Chernobyl in Ukraine in 1986. The 1979 accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania was rated a level 5.
"It is very clear that we are at a level 6," ASN President Andre-Claude Lacoste told a news conference in Paris. "We are clearly in a catastrophe."
"Right now it's worse than Three Mile Island" but it's nowhere near the levels of radioactivity released during Chernobyl, added Donald Olander, a professor emeritus of nuclear engineering at the University of California at Berkeley.
At Three Mile Island, the radiation leak was held inside the containment shell — thick concrete armor around the reactor. The Chernobyl reactor had no shell and was also operational when the disaster struck. The Japanese reactors automatically shut down when the quake hit.
The IAEA said about 150 people in Japan had received monitoring for radiation levels and that measures to "decontaminate" 23 of them had been taken.
How much radiation is dangerous?
- Radiation is measured using the unit sievert, which quantifies the amount of radiation absorbed by human tissues. One sievert is 1,000 millisieverts (mSv). One millisievert is 1,000 microsieverts.The average person in the United States is exposed to about 6.2 millisieverts a year, mostly from background radiation and medical tests.Some facts about radiation exposure:
- A person would need to be exposed to at least 100 mSv a year to have an increase in cancer risk. Exposure to 1,000 mSv (1 sievert) over a year would probably cause a fatal cancer many years later in five out of every 100 people who receive that much radiation.
- A total body CT scan exposes a person to about 10 mSv.
- A mammogram exposes a woman to about 0.7 mSv.
- CT colonography is about 5 to 8 mSv.
- A CT heart scan is about 12 mSv.
- A typical chest X-ray involves exposure of about 0.02 mSv
- A dental X-ray can be 0.01 mSv.
- Coast-to-coast airplane flight exposes a person to about .03 mSv. Airline crews flying the New York-Tokyo polar route are exposed to 9 mSv a year.
Sources: Reuters; New England Journal of Medicine; American Cancer Society; World Nuclear Association and Taiwan's Atomic Energy Council
Story: What you need to know about the twin disasters in Japan
In the worst-case scenario, one or more reactor cores would completely melt down, a disaster that would spew large amounts of radioactivity into the atmosphere. Video: At least 15,000 people missing in Japan
Officials in Tokyo — 150 miles to the south of the plant — said radiation in the capital was 10 times normal by Tuesday evening but there was no threat to human health. The city is home to 13 million people.
Closer to the stricken nuclear complex, the streets in the coastal city of Soma were empty as the few residents who remained there heeded the government's warning to stay indoors.Interactive: How a nuclear plant works
Officials just south of Fukushima reported up to 100 times the normal levels of radiation Tuesday morning. While those figures are worrying if there is prolonged exposure, they are far from fatal.
Officials warned there is danger of more leaks and told people living within 19 miles of the Dai-ichi complex to stay indoors.
"Please do not go outside. Please stay indoors. Please close windows and make your homes airtight," Edano told residents in the danger zone.
"These are figures that potentially affect health. There is no mistake about that," he said.Japanese city now an eerie ghost town
Some 70,000 people had already been evacuated from a 12-mile radius from the Dai-ichi complex. About 140,000 are in the new warning zone.
Friday's 9.0-magnitude earthquake and the ensuing tsunami have killed more than 10,000 people.
70 workers at plant
Workers were desperately trying to stabilize the three reactors at Units 1, 2 and 3, which were operating when the quake and tsunami struck. Releases of hydrogen gas caused explosions that destroyed the outer structures at each unit.
Fourteen pumps have been brought in to get seawater into those three reactors, and TEPCO said it would try to inject seawater into the tank holding the spent rods at No. 4.
Officials said 70 workers were at the complex, struggling with its myriad problems. The workers, all of them wearing protective gear, are being rotated in and out of the danger zone quickly to reduce their radiation exposure.
About 800 other staff were evacuated. The fires and explosions at the reactors have injured 15 workers and military personnel.
Prime Minister Kan himself lambasted TEPCO for taking so long to inform his office about one of the blasts, Kyodo news service reported.
"The TV reported an explosion. But nothing was said to the premier's office for about an hour," a Kyodo reporter quoted Kan as telling power company executives. "What the hell is going on?"Story: Millions in Japanese cold struggle without electricity, heat
The Dai-ichi plant is the most severely affected of three nuclear complexes that declared emergencies after suffering damage in Friday's quake and tsunami. The damage raised questions about the safety of such plants in coastal areas near fault lines and adding to global jitters over the industry.
The Fukushima Dai-ichi complex was due to be decommissioned in February but was given a new 10-year lease on life.
Its reactors were designed by General Electric. (Msnbc.com is a joint venture between NBC Universal and Microsoft. GE is a part owner of NBC Universal.)
Japan has a total of 55 reactors spread across 17 complexes nationwide.Story: Reactor design in Japan has long been questioned
The impact of the earthquake and tsunami dragged down stock markets. The benchmark Nikkei 225 stock averageplunged for a second day Tuesday, nose-diving more than 10 percent to close at 8,605.15 while the broader Topix lost more than 8 percent. It bounced back about 6 percent in early trading Wednesday.
To lessen the damage, Japan's central bank has made several injections of cash into financial markets. The addition of $43 billion on Wednesday came after injections of $283 billion the previous two days.
Initial estimates put repair costs in the tens of billions of dollars, costs that would likely add to a massive public debt that, at 200 percent of gross domestic product, is the biggest among industrialized nations.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
About 800 other staff were evacuated. The fires and explosions at the reactors have injured 15 workers and military personnel.
Prime Minister Kan himself lambasted TEPCO for taking so long to inform his office about one of the blasts, Kyodo news service reported.
"The TV reported an explosion. But nothing was said to the premier's office for about an hour," a Kyodo reporter quoted Kan as telling power company executives. "What the hell is going on?"Story: Millions in Japanese cold struggle without electricity, heat
The Dai-ichi plant is the most severely affected of three nuclear complexes that declared emergencies after suffering damage in Friday's quake and tsunami. The damage raised questions about the safety of such plants in coastal areas near fault lines and adding to global jitters over the industry.
The Fukushima Dai-ichi complex was due to be decommissioned in February but was given a new 10-year lease on life.
Its reactors were designed by General Electric. (Msnbc.com is a joint venture between NBC Universal and Microsoft. GE is a part owner of NBC Universal.)
Japan has a total of 55 reactors spread across 17 complexes nationwide.Story: Reactor design in Japan has long been questioned
The impact of the earthquake and tsunami dragged down stock markets. The benchmark Nikkei 225 stock averageplunged for a second day Tuesday, nose-diving more than 10 percent to close at 8,605.15 while the broader Topix lost more than 8 percent. It bounced back about 6 percent in early trading Wednesday.
To lessen the damage, Japan's central bank has made several injections of cash into financial markets. The addition of $43 billion on Wednesday came after injections of $283 billion the previous two days.
Initial estimates put repair costs in the tens of billions of dollars, costs that would likely add to a massive public debt that, at 200 percent of gross domestic product, is the biggest among industrialized nations.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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