Smoke billowed from a building at Japan’s crippled nuclear power plant Friday as emergency crews worked to reconnect electricity to cooling systems and spray more water on overheating nuclear fuel at the tsunami-ravaged facility.U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency, told reporters Friday just after arriving in Tokyo.
"This is not something that just Japan should deal with, and people of the entire world should cooperate with Japan and the people in the disaster areas.""This is not something that just Japan should deal with, and people of the entire world should cooperate with Japan and the people in the disaster areas."Last week's 9.0 quake and tsunami in Japan's northeast set off the nuclear problems by knocking out power to cooling systems at the reactors. The unfolding crises have led to power shortages in Japan, forced auto and other factories to close.Japanese government has been slow in releasing information on the crisis, even as the troubles have multiplied.
In a country where the nuclear industry has a long history of hiding its safety problems, this has left many people – in Japan and among governments overseas – confused and anxious.U.N. nuclear agency said Thursday there had been "no significant worsening" at the nuclear plant but that the situation remained "very serious."
Graham Andrew told reporters in Vienna that nuclear fuel rods in two reactors were only about half covered with water.Workers have been dumping seawater when possible to control temperatures at the plant since the quake and tsunami knocked out power to its cooling systems.
But they tried even more desperate measures on Units 3 and 4.Police said more than 452,000 people made homeless by the quake and tsunami were staying in schools and other shelters, as supplies of fuel, medicine and other necessities ran short.
Both victims and aid workers appealed for more help.The storage pools need a constant source of cooling water.
Even when removed from reactors, uranium rods are still extremely hot and must be cooled for months, possibly longer, to prevent them from heating up again and emitting radioactivity.
In Washington, the State Department warned U.S. citizens to consider leaving the country and offered voluntary evacuation to family members and dependents of U.S. personnel in the cities of Tokyo, Yokohama and Nagoya.
Share This Story to Your Friends ---
No comments:
Post a Comment