20/03 Progress at Japan Reactors; New Signs of Food Radiation

Asahi Shimbun, via Reuters
Sumi Abe, 80, was helped by emergency workers after being rescued along with her 16-year-old grandson in Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture on Sunday, nine days after the earthquake. More Photos »

March 20, 2011
By HIROKO TABUCHI and NORIMITSU ONISHI


TOKYO — Japan appeared to make moderate progress in stabilizing some of the nuclear reactors at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi power plant on Sunday, but at the same time it disclosed new signs of radioactive contamination in agricultural produce and livestock.

The government said it was barring all shipments of milk from Fukushima Prefecture and shipments of spinach from Ibaraki Prefecture, after finding new cases of above-normal levels of radioactive elements in milk and several vegetables.

Relatively high levels were also found in spinach from Tochigi and Gunma Prefectures to the west, canola from Gunma Prefecture and chrysanthemum greens from Chiba Prefecture, south of Ibaraki.

The emergency efforts to mitigate damage at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, meanwhile, brought some notes of relief in the face of persistently dire conditions. The authorities said they had restored water pumps to two damaged reactors, Nos. 5 and 6, that were not of central concern, putting them under control in a state known as “cold shutdown.”

But another reactor that has proved more worrisome, No. 3, continued to bedevil engineers.

The Tokyo Electric Power Company, which runs the plant, appeared to have experienced a serious setback as officials said that pressure buildup at the ravaged No. 3 reactor would require the venting of more radioactive gases.

But at a news conference a few hours later, officials from the power company said that the pressure had stabilized and that they had decided they did not need to release the gases immediately, which would have heightened worries about wider contamination among the population. They said they were unsure what had caused the pressure to rise, highlighting the uncertainty engineers must still grapple with at Fukushima.

The power company also said that on Sunday workers injected 40 tons of water into the storage pool containing spent fuel rods at Unit No. 2, and that firefighters began spraying water into the pool at Unit No. 4. On Saturday, firefighters sprayed water at the storage pool of Unit No. 3 for more than 13 hours.

The reactors placed in cold shutdown were already shut down before the earthquake and the tsunami struck on March 11, posing less of a risk than the other reactors at the plant. But their cooling systems were knocked out, and the fuel rods left inside the reactors started to heat up, together with spent fuel rods in a separate storage pool.

“We are getting closer to bringing the situation under control,” Tetsuro Fukuyama, the deputy chief cabinet secretary of the Japanese government, said of the entire plant late Sunday.

After connecting a mile-long electrical transmission line on Saturday, workers made progress in starting to restore power to the plant, which may allow the operator to restart its cooling systems. The government said that power was returned to Reactor No. 2 at 3:46 p.m. Sunday, and that other reactors were also expected to gain power early in the week.

Even with electrical power extended to the reactors, there was no immediate indication from officials that the damaged pumping systems could be quickly restored.

“In general, our utmost efforts are producing definite results in preventing a worsening of the situation,” said Yukio Edano, the government’s chief cabinet secretary, who confirmed for the first time that the nuclear complex — with heavy damage to reactors and buildings and with radioactive contamination throughout — would be closed once the crisis was over.

Steven Chu, the United States secretary of energy, also conveyed optimism in an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” saying that “with each passing hour, each passing day, things are more under control.”

Japanese technicians who are trying to limit the spread of radiation “are making very good progress,” he said.

Despite the positive tone from officials, steep challenges persist. Workers were trying to avoid further damage to fuel rods in the reactor cores of Nos. 1, 2, and 3, and to prevent rods in the storage pools of Nos. 2, 3 and 4 from overheating.

Some experts project that the longer it takes to resolve the crisis fully, the greater the chances that one or more reactors or fuel storage pools will have to be abandoned, increasing the risk of a catastrophic release of radiation.

The plant remains a hazardous place for the emergency crews trying to stave off further damage. At least 25 workers and five members of the Japanese Self-Defense Force have been exposed to unsafe amounts of radiation, according to the power company. At least 20 workers and four self-defense soldiers have been injured, and two workers remain missing.

Radiation contamination, meanwhile, appears to be spreading rapidly. The substances detected in the food products were iodine 131 and cesium 137, two of the more dangerous byproducts of reactor operations that are feared to have been released from the plants in Fukushima. If absorbed through milk and milk products, iodine 131 can accumulate in the thyroid and cause cancer. Cesium 137 can damage cells and lead to an increased risk of cancer.

Mr. Fukuyama, the deputy chief cabinet secretary, stressed that although the readings were above levels deemed normal, they posed no immediate health risks.

“At current levels, I would let my children eat the spinach and drink the water” from Fukushima, he said. His children did not drink much milk, he added.

None of the produce found to be contaminated has been shipped to market, he said, while acknowledging that contaminated produce that had not been tested could have slipped through.

Spinach from a farm in Hitachi, about 45 miles from the plant, contained 27 times the amount of iodine that is generally considered safe, while cesium levels were about four times higher than is deemed safe by Japan. Meanwhile, raw milk from a dairy farm in Iitate, about 18 miles from the plant, contained iodine levels that were 17 times higher than those considered safe, and milk had cesium levels that were slightly above amounts considered safe.

While challenges with the nuclear facility and radiation contamination persist, stories of individual dramas continued to emerge in the wake of the earthquake and the tsunami that slammed into the country’s northeastern coast on March 11.

On Sunday, two people were reported to have been found alive, nine days after the disaster. An 80-year-old woman and her 16-year-old grandson were found under the debris of their home in Ishinomaki, about 30 miles northeast of the city of Sendai, according to Miyagi Prefecture police officials and the public broadcaster NHK.

The boy, identified as Jin Abe, crawled out of the debris of the family home and was found by local police officers, who called rescuers to free his grandmother, Sumi Abe, NHK reported. Both were hospitalized, but details of their condition were not immediately available.

Meanwhile, the National Police Agency on Sunday raised the official death toll to more than 8,100 from the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and ensuing tsunami. The final toll is now expected to reach nearly 20,000. At a news conference, police officials in Miyagi, the prefecture hit hardest by the tsunami, said they expected the toll there alone to exceed 15,000.

Kantaro Suzuki contributed reporting from Tokyo.