FUKUSHIMA —
Efforts to cool down the overheating reactors and spent fuel continued Friday at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which was crippled a week ago by a massive earthquake and tsunami, with workers braving the risk of radiation exposure to prevent the problems from developing into a catastrophe.
The unprecedented cooling mission, which was launched Thursday by the Self-Defense Forces by spraying tons of water over the plant’s No. 3 reactor building, was bolstered on the second day with more pumps, after efforts were focused in the morning to restore power to some of the reactors’ cooling systems, the government said.
Seven SDF fire trucks began shooting 50 tons of water at a spent fuel pool of the No. 3 reactor in the afternoon, after up to 64 tons of water was aimed at it the day before by SDF helicopters and five of the trucks plus a police water cannon truck.
The Tokyo Fire Department is slated to join in the mission at the Fukushima plant with 30 trucks capable of discharging massive amounts of water to high places and some 140 firefighters of its ‘‘hyper rescue’’ team, who are specialists in rescue operations in large-scale disasters.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the fire department’s trucks are considering dousing a spent nuclear fuel pool at the No. 1 reactor, although it does not pose as imminent a threat as the No. 3 and No. 4 reactors of releasing radioactive materials into the air, to extend all possible means.
Radiation readings at the troubled nuclear plant have consistently followed a downward path through Friday morning, according to data taken roughly 1 kilometer west of the plant’s No. 2 reactor, but plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co stopped short of calling the move a trend.
The radiation level at 11 a.m. dropped to 265.0 microsievert per hour from 351.4 microsievert per hour at 12:30 a.m. Thursday. It measured 292.2 microsievert per hour at 8:40 p.m. Thursday, shortly after SDF trucks sprayed water at the No. 3 reactor pool as part of efforts to avert any massive emission of radioactive materials into the air from the facility.
JAPAN TODAY
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