Workers Evacuated as Black Smoke Billows from Fukushima Nuclear Reactor
Posted by JAC on 3/23/2011, 5:25 am
http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/23/japan.nuclear.crisis/index.html?on.cnn=1#




Tokyo (CNN) -- Officials evacuated workers at the quake-damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant Wednesday afternoon as a black plume of smoke billowed above one of the reactors, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said.

The company said it was unclear what was causing the smoke, which rose above the plant as workers were continuing efforts to cool down fuel rods and restore power there.

Earlier Wednesday, Tokyo government officials advised residents to stop giving tap water to infants after tests detected higher levels of radioactive iodine that officials said was likely caused by problems at the plant, located 240 kilometers (150 miles) away.

Tests found iodine levels exceeding government standards for infants at a purification plant supplying Tokyo and some surrounding cities, officials said.

Government samples taken Tuesday night found 210 becquerels of radioactive iodine per kilogram of water -- more than double the government limit, Tokyo's water agency said.

The standards for infants are more stringent than for adults: 300 becquerel per kilogram.

"There's no immediate health threat," Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara told reporters, urging people to "stay calm."

Earlier Wednesday, Japan's government expanded food shipment restrictions after the health ministry said tests detected radioactive materials at levels exceeding legal limits in 11 types of vegetables grown near the facility.

Workers have been scrambling to cool down fuel rods at the nuclear plant since a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and massive tsunami on March 11 knocked out cooling systems there. Some radiation has been released, officials said.

Police say the dual disaster has killed at least 9,408 people and left at least 14,716 missing, many of them killed as a wall of water rushed in following the quake.

Meanwhile, about 387,000 evacuees are staying at 2,200 shelters, Kyodo News reported. Relief efforts to help them and other victims continued, with U.S. military helicopters delivering food, clothes and supplies to some of the hardest hit areas.

In addition to the stories of people struggling to survive in quake-ravaged towns in northeastern Japan, the plight of workers braving high radiation levels to solve problems at the troubled plant has also drawn attention.

"We are constantly switching over all the time, since the work cannot be stopped," one worker told Japanese television network TV Asahi.

It has settled down quite a lot compared to the beginning, and we could even begin to see a bright hope that maybe it would somehow work out in a little bit," another worker said in what the network said were the first televised interviews with workers at the troubled plant.

But authorities said Wednesday that work was far from over at the plant.

The Tokyo Fire Department planned to start spraying water into the spent-fuel storage pool outside the plant's No.3 reactor Wednesday afternoon, said Hidehiko Nishiyama of Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency. Power has been restored in the control room at that reactor -- which officials say could be a key step in bringing cooling systems back online.

The No. 3 reactor has been a priority for authorities trying to contain damage to the plant and stave off a possible meltdown.

Its fuel includes plutonium mixed with the uranium in its fuel rods, which experts say could cause more harm than regular uranium fuels in the event of a meltdown.

With the nuclear plant's six reactors in various states of disrepair, concerns have mounted over a potentially larger release of radioactive material from the facility.

Efforts over the past several days have focused on restoring power at the facility while fire trucks and cement pumps sprayed water on spent fuel ponds, which contain used fuel rods with radioactive material.



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Workers Evacuated as Black Smoke Billows from Fukushima Nuclear Reactor - JAC, 3/23/2011, 5:25 am
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