Nuclear Meltdown

Choppers dump water on reactor

(China Daily)
Updated: 2011-03-18 08:08

Inside the complex, torn apart by four explosions since a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami hit last Friday, workers in protective suits and using makeshift lighting tried to monitor what was going on inside the six reactors. They have been working in short shifts to minimize radiation exposure.

Japan said the United States would fly a high-altitude drone over the stricken complex to gauge the situation, and had offered to send nuclear experts.

A US State Department official said flights would be laid on for Americans to leave, and family of embassy staff had been authorized to leave if they wanted.

Health experts said panic over radiation leaks from the plant was diverting attention from other life-threatening risks facing survivors of the earthquake and tsunami, such as cold, heavy snow in parts and access to fresh water.

The latest images from the nuclear plant showed severe damage to some of the buildings after the four explosions. Two of the buildings were a mangled mix of steel and concrete.

Sebastian Pflugbeil, president of the private German-based Society for Radiation Protection, said Japan's efforts to pull the nuclear plant back from the brink signaled "the beginning of the catastrophic phase".

"Maybe we have to pray," he said, adding that a wind blowing any nuclear fallout east into the Pacific would limit any damage for Japan's 127 million people in case of a meltdown or other releases, for instance from spent fuel storage pools.

Low and harmless concentrations of radioactive particles were heading from Japan toward the US, Lars-Erik De Geer, research director at the Swedish Defense Research Institute, a government agency, said, citing data from a network of international monitoring stations.

A large-scale power outage was still possible in Tokyo and surrounding areas, Japan's trade minister said. The earthquake and tsunami cut electricity supplies.

In a possible sign of panic, one bank, Mizuho, said all its automatic teller machines in the country crashed twice during the day after excessive transactions at some branches.

A stream of gloomy warnings and reports on the crisis from experts and officials around the world triggered falls in global stock markets.

Earlier, one G7 central banker, who asked not to be named, said he was "extremely worried" about the wider effects of the crisis in Japan, the world's third-largest economy.

G7 finance ministers will hold a conference call on Friday to discuss steps to help Tokyo cope with the financial and economic impact of the disaster, a source said.

High radiation levels on Wednesday prevented helicopters from dropping water into the No 3 reactor to try to cool its fuel rods after an earlier blast damaged its roof and cooling system.

AP contributed to this story.