Japan appeared to make
moderate progress in stabilizing some of the nuclear reactors at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi power plant on Sunday, but at the same time it disclosed
new signs of radioactive contamination in agricultural produce and livestock.
The government said it was
barring all shipments of milk from Fukushima Prefecture and shipments of spinach from Ibaraki Prefecture, after finding new cases of above-normal levels of radioactive elements in milk and several vegetables.
Relatively
high levels were also found in spinach from Tochigi and Gunma Prefectures to the
west, canola from Gunma Prefecture and chrysanthemum greens from Chiba Prefecture,
south of Ibaraki.
The emergency efforts to mitigate damage at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, meanwhile, brought
some notes of relief in the face of persistently dire conditions. The authorities said
they had restored water pumps to two damaged reactors, Nos. 5 and 6, that were not of central concern, putting them under control in a state known as “cold shutdown.”
But
another reactor that has proved more worrisome, No. 3, continued to bedevil engineers.
The Tokyo Electric Power Company, which runs the plant, appeared to have experienced a
serious setback as officials said that pressure buildup at the ravaged No. 3 reactor
would require the venting of more radioactive gases.
But at a news conference a few hours later, officials from the power company said that the
pressure had stabilized and that they had decided
they did not need to release the gases immediately, which would have heightened worries about wider contamination among the population. They said they were
unsure what had caused the pressure to rise, highlighting the
uncertainty engineers must still grapple with at Fukushima.
The power company also said that on Sunday workers injected
40 tons of water into the storage pool containing spent fuel rods at Unit No. 2, and that firefighters began spraying water into the pool at Unit No. 4. On Saturday, firefighters sprayed
water at the storage pool of Unit No. 3 for more than 13 hours.
The reactors placed in cold shutdown were already shut down before the earthquake and the tsunami struck on March 11, posing less of a risk than the other reactors at the plant. But their cooling systems were knocked out, and the fuel rods left inside the reactors started to heat up, together with spent fuel rods in a separate storage pool.
“We are getting closer to bringing the situation under control,” Tetsuro Fukuyama, the deputy chief cabinet secretary of the Japanese government, said of the entire plant late Sunday.
After
connecting a mile-long electrical transmission line on Saturday,
workers made progress in starting to restore power to the plant, which may allow the operator to restart its cooling systems. The government said that
power was returned to Reactor No. 2 at 3:46 p.m. Sunday, and that other reactors were also expected to gain power early in the week.
Even with electrical power extended to the reactors,
there was no immediate indication from officials that the damaged pumping systems could be quickly restored.
...
Workers were
trying to avoid further damage to fuel rods in the reactor cores of Nos. 1, 2, and 3, and to prevent rods in the storage pools of Nos. 2, 3 and 4 from overheating.
Some experts project that
the longer it takes to resolve the crisis fully, the greater the chances that one or more reactors or fuel storage pools will have to be abandoned, increasing the risk of a catastrophic release of radiation.
The plant remains a hazardous place for the emergency crews trying to stave off further damage.
At least 25 workers and five members of the Japanese Self-Defense Force have been exposed to unsafe amounts of radiation, according to the power company. At least 20 workers and four self-defense soldiers have been injured, and two workers remain missing.
...
Mr. Fukuyama, the deputy chief cabinet secretary, stressed that
although the readings were above levels deemed normal, they posed no immediate health risks.
“At current levels,
I would let my children eat the spinach and drink the water” from Fukushima, he said. H
is children did not drink much milk,
he added.
...
Spinach from a farm in Hitachi, about 45 miles from the plant, contained
27 times the amount of iodine that is generally considered safe, while cesium levels were about
four times higher than is deemed safe by Japan. Meanwhile, raw milk from a dairy farm in Iitate, about 18 miles from the plant, contained
iodine levels that were 17 times higher than those considered safe, and milk had cesium levels that were slightly above amounts considered safe.
...
