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2 V) N1 q& t' Y. ~" I2 ]Japan's desperate nuclear containment effort resumes7 q8 X2 l9 Z) @- d O0 s, o4 y
CTV.ca News Staff
9 f8 P6 @. Z' T" u) ~Date: Wed. Mar. 16 2011 8:48 AM ET& D( r6 f7 G" e) V/ c7 Q/ C7 C
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Dangerously high radiation levels prompted officials to briefly halt containment efforts at a crippled nuclear power plant, doing little to allay fears a meltdown could spew radiation over millions of Japanese otherwise spared the worst of the devastating earthquake and tsunami.1 S& m1 U3 {0 r1 ^9 e- J
: c3 F# J+ V- N5 l% X |Emergency crews working at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant were ordered to temporarily stop efforts to cool the facility's overheating reactors amid a surge in radiation levels on Wednesday.6 k; r: b: |. _; B" T
6 D y; Z- G8 qAt a news conference, Japan's top government spokesperson Yukio Edano said the containment vessel of one of the reactors at the plant may have been damaged, possibly sending radioactive steam into the atmosphere.
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"A part of the containment vessel is broken and it seems like the vapour is coming out from there. (It) appears to be that vapour is coming out from the broken part," Edano said, explaining that the ongoing effort to spray sea water onto the reactors was disrupted by the approximately hour-long withdrawal.
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"The workers cannot carry out even minimal work at the plant now," Edano said. "Because of the radiation risk we are on standby."* l+ D. \# C7 ^: H; V
4 o" m/ |: ?5 k* V0 \: tRadiation levels spiked to 1,000 millisieverts before coming down to the 600-800 range later in the day.3 \# }9 N5 E$ p' D& m" v
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An official with the plant's operator Tokyo Electric Power later said workers were preparing to return to their perilous work. Since 750 workers were evacuated from the plant on Tuesday, a core team of between 50 and 70 workers have been rotating in and out of the facility to minimize their radiation exposure. J& S/ I+ u( c
' T, o; `; y! H2 \4 `Watching developments from London, England, environmental radiation expert Ian Fairlie said the crews working in the damaged plant are exposed to a variety of sources of radiation, including internal radiation from breathing in contaiminated air.; s5 _! p# T0 A7 d3 R/ i' _& }+ I
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"So I can understand easily why they'd be withdrawn from time to time," Fairlie told CTV's Canada AM in a telephone interview. "It's really quite a serious situation when they actually have to be withdrawn."& ?3 f: P+ G, f( J1 k' e7 q
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But in a televised news conference, Edano sought to reassure people living near the crippled plant." l$ E9 y }7 ]2 J6 H
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"People would not be in immediate danger if they went outside with these levels. I want people to understand this," Edano said, referring to people living beyond the 30-kilometre exclusion zone that now surrounds the plant.
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. v1 o- u3 e( _' ZEveryone living within an area covering a 20-kilometre radius around the plant has now been evacuated, while the 140,000 people living between 20- and 30- kilometres from the facility have been told to either leave or seal themselves indoors.
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Emperor offers condolences
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Belying the seriousness of the island nation's current predicament, Japan's Emperor Akihito made a rare television appearance in a bid to rally the island nation gripped by the humanitarian crisis triggered by the earthquake and ensuing tsunami that struck the country's northeast on March 11.
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/ J2 U* i! t3 K1 s y: E* i& XIn his unprecedented appearance, Emperor Akihito made it clear his and the nation's hopes are invested in the efforts of those brave few working on the front lines at the Dai-ichi plant.' G; H$ _8 F5 f6 A
7 ^1 K! d8 {- G; G2 m"I fervently hope we can save as many people as possible. I am also deeply concerned about the nuclear situation because it is unpredictable," he said, speaking in Japanese.! Q0 K/ j3 ~8 e8 Y4 a' l3 ]
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"It is my deepest hope that the concerned people can prevent the situation from worsening further."$ d5 D2 ~& s: d5 s: _0 z, T( Q& ?
4 ]9 `) o7 n m# j2 x/ X/ UOfficials had been considering using helicopters to dump cooling water onto the damaged reactors, but that plan was aborted by Wednesday evening.+ n- e4 _; i2 Q( R, t# V9 W: [+ j1 q
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"It's not so simple that everything will be resolved by pouring in water. We are trying to avoid creating other problems," Edano said.9 O0 R# A. W% B, E
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Instead, officials will continue pumping water from the ground to try and keep the nuclear fuel rods submerged. u2 L+ q2 D" s& U
+ N) j* l$ g7 e1 }1 RNormally, the metal rods containing pellets of uranium fuel inside a nuclear reactor's core are cooled with purified water. The resulting steam drives an electricity-generating turbine, while the heat is removed by coolant pumps.( }0 \% z* r9 [* A) n
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When the massive 9.0-magnitude earthquake struck northeast Japan on March 11, the ensuing tsunami knocked out those pumps, as well as their back-up power supply.0 x" T, ^# x9 v- z$ q# U5 s! h
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Since then, three of the plant's six nuclear reactors have suffered explosions, and a fire that broke out in a fourth reactor's fuel storage pond on Tuesday caused radioactive material to be released directly into the atmosphere.
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7 ^" \) v+ s3 ~A spokesperson for Tokyo Electric Power Co., said Wednesday that another fire erupted in the outer housing of the containment vessel at the No. 4 unit.
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Although visible flames and smoke from the unit subsided, Japan's nuclear safety agency could not confirm the fire was out.# o/ B, I* d& s( x8 J1 U
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Responding to reports that 70 per cent of the nuclear fuel rods at the No. 1 reactor are damaged, along with 33 per cent of the fuel rods at the No. 2 reactor, Minoru Ohgoda said, "We don't know the nature of the damage, and it could be either melting, or there might be some holes in them."7 Z' K& x) ^9 Y, y% M
# Y) c4 d( X5 \ S& GIn an interview from Montreal, Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility President Gordon Edwards said he's heartened by the fact the risk of a major catatrophe is decreasing with each passing day.* Z9 z6 P) y- i
, ~/ i9 A P1 K @. b"The actual heat output which is driving these accidents is diminishing," Edwards told CTV's Canada AM.
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' J2 H- Z$ T" [) H6 g9 S' f4 {"Even after the first day it had diminished by 90 per cent, and since that time it has diminished again by 90 per cent. So if they can win this battle, stretch it out long enough and prevent the core from melting then they have an increasing chance of preventing a complete meltdown."' Q# }; Q. \- {0 F1 i2 }
6 b1 M2 X" }6 k; {5 g4 D$ N5 EBut Edwards tempered his optimism with a caveat.
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- z( x: R+ i- K( R"The bad news is they're just not in control." 9 ]' g, a! h! S% b: i
& h B" [ g( h4 S1 I! L6 Y6 g3 KHumanitarian Crisis
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The deepening crisis at the Fukushima plant has spurred the evacuation of an area covering a 20-kilometre radius around the plant, and spurred authorities to tell the 140,000 people living between 20- and 30- kilometres from the facility to either leave the area or seal themselves indoors., N* Q7 `) W% q
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The government has ordered all 47 prefectures (provinces) nationwide to report the results of environmental radiation observations every day, twice a day if possible.- R# M8 S3 r4 F, n
& `7 U: y/ g8 l- s1 zIn Tokyo, approximately 220 kilometres south of the crippled nuclear plant, officials said radiation reached 10 times normal levels following the fire at the Fukushima plant, but did not pose a threat to the health of the city's 13 million people.
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& D6 X; i8 ?4 I( n5 [The reports nevertheless sparked panic buying of food, water and survival supplies among the few people who ventured outdoors. Many shops and offices remained closed, however, while public transit and streets remained largely deserted.2 l/ }+ b2 @; y* Y3 M9 L, n' n
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And the fear of a radioactive cloud blowing from the damaged reactors is not limited to Japan, triggering concern as far away as the U.S. Pacific Northwest and British Columbia where pharmacies report a run on potassium iodide.& R# u8 l% [3 `2 _& t3 Y7 A3 A \0 Z
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For the millions of displaced people struggling to survive in northeastern Japan's four hardest-hit prefectures -- Iwate, Miyagi, Fukushima and Ibaraki -- life is going on with little access to basics including water or heat.
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# i) |+ w0 X* Y/ ~; b' t; e4 B- q( KTohuku Electric Power Co. said as many as 850,000 households there are still without power, while the government estimates at least 1.5 million have no running water.; E9 q5 j* U$ _5 B1 z* [
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As many as 440,000 people are estimated to be living in temporary shelters throughout the region. Officials say more than 11,000 people are dead or missing since the quake, although they predict the number of confirmed dead will ultimately exceed 10,000.
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: d: Q7 K; a3 o. s2 `, Z( F"It is important that each of us shares the difficult days that lie ahead," the 77-year emperor said in his televised address Wednesday. "I pray that we will all take care of each other and overcome this tragedy." E1 E7 M' O+ M3 L0 [# d% U
, L C" x! N5 X0 I+ rInvestors showed some confidence in Japan Wednesday, as Japan's stock market showed signs of a rebound after losing some US$620 billion in the first two days of trading since the disaster.! ~& \& \( ]; U$ z$ `$ b, ]9 V
+ h/ B1 M1 F( ] N1 H/ x2 `The Nikkei index ended the day's trading up 5.68 per cent, reversing the trend of the day before when the market closed at its lowest level in almost two years.
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. T0 \, n, ^% ]& K4 QJapan's Central Bank was also active for the third-straight day, pumping more cash into Tokyo's money markets for a total infusion of more than US$688 billion since Monday.
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Initial estimates peg the cost of repairing the damage caused by the earthquake and tsunami at more than the US$159 billion of the catastrophic 1995 Kobe earthquake that claimed 6,400 lives.8 l' l. v1 x8 Y9 {' @2 M5 T- V0 U
' y. a- X% f wSeverity scale
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Responding to Japan's frustrated attempts to contain a possible nuclear catastrophe, the French nuclear safety authority has upgraded the severity of the ongoing accident to level six out of seven on the international scale.
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5 P2 F" u( C/ X7 _1 WLevel seven on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale has been invoked only once, following the 1986 disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine.
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6 _ d/ @4 }& e$ q% A' G, }7 dThe head of France's Nuclear Safety Authority, Andre-Claude Lacoste told reporters on Tuesday that the situation in Japan is less severe than the core explosion at Chernobyl, but worse than the 1979 partial core meltdown at Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania.
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( ^ }" f. _0 LThe incident at Three Mile Island was rated a level 5, which corresponds to "an accident with wider consequences," while level 6 is reserved for a "serious accident."9 _% F! v8 E9 C" Z) o4 b/ X
$ @; y4 W3 s+ p4 qThe day after the quake, Japanese officials rated the situation at the plant in Fukushima prefecture as a 4 on the seven-point scale, meaning it's an accident with "local consequences."
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9 X, `! S- T2 j8 _% L3 O" nDespite the changing situation, they have not changed their rating. |
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