- The massive 8.9-magnitude quake damaged two power plants' cooling systems and workers are using workarounds to keep the nuclear cores cool.
- An explosion at the aging Fukushima No. 1 atomic plant blew apart the building housing one of its reactors.
- The United States has sent nuclear experts to help contain the potential nuclear disaster.
An aerial view of the Japanese nuclear power plant Fukushima Daiichi, Japan. Click to enlarge this image.
Corbis
Japan raced to avert a meltdown of two reactors at a quake-hit nuclear plant Monday as the death toll from the disaster on the ravaged northeast coast was forecast to exceed 10,000.
An explosion at the aging Fukushima No. 1 atomic plant blew apart the building housing one of its reactors Saturday, a day after the biggest quake ever recorded in Japan unleashed a monster tsunami.
The atomic emergency escalated as crews struggled to prevent overheating at a second reactor where the cooling system has also failed, and the government warned that it too could suffer a blast.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan said the situation at the stricken power plant remained grave, and that Japan was facing its worst crisis since the end of World War II -- which left the defeated country in ruins.
"The current situation of the earthquake, tsunami and the nuclear plants is in a way the most severe crisis in the 65 years since World War II," Kan said in a televised national address Sunday.
"Whether we Japanese can overcome this crisis depends on each of us," said the premier, who was dressed in an emergency services suit.
Rolling power outages were due to start later Monday as the quake and tsunami crippled nuclear power plants in the northeast. Millions of people were left without electricity after the disaster hit Friday. Japan's nuclear industry provides about a third of its power needs.
Top government spokesman Yukio Edano said it was highly likely that a partial meltdown had occurred at the plant's number one reactor, and a second was possible at the plant 250 kilometers (160 miles) northeast of Tokyo.
"There is the possibility of an explosion in the number three reactor," he said, while voicing confidence that it would withstand the blast as the first reactor had.
A meltdown occurs when a reactor core overheats and causes damage to the facility, potentially unleashing radiation into the environment.
Edano said that some radiation had escaped in the accident, but that the levels released into the air were so far not high enough to affect human health.
Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power said that despite continuing efforts, it had not managed to ensure that the tops
No comments:
Post a Comment