Workers at Japan's crisis-hit Fukushima nuclear plant Tuesday faced the challenge of preventing radioactive water from seeping out while keeping reactors cool.
The discovery of plutonium in soil near the plant and other radiation leaks did not help the situation at the plant's nuclear crisis, the worst since World War II, triggered by the 9-magnitude killer earthquake accompanied by towering Pacific Ocean tsunami tidal waves.
Four of the plant's six reactors have been hit with monumental problems ranging from overheating spent fuel rods, turbine buildings flooded with highly radioactive water to failed cooling systems. Hydrogen explosions immediately after the quake blew away roofs of some of the reactors, raising the threat radiation escape.
Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of plant, says steam condensers at the plant's No. 2 and 3 reactors are flooded, preventing workers from removing radioactive water from inside the turbine buildings, without which they will have not have the use of critical equipment housed in those buildings to cool the reactors, Yomiuri Shimbun reported.
The situation was similar at No. 1 reactor, where utility workers have not been able to pump out water collecting the basement of the turbine building.
Japan's top government spokesman, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano Monday blamed the high level of radiation on the surface of the radioactive water at No. 2 reactor on water overflowing after coming in contact with the partially melted nuclear fuel rods.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Edano noted the challenge of maintaining balance between spraying enough water to cool the reactors while at the same time preventing radioactive water from escaping.
"If we need to increase water injection, this is what we need to do. If we stop water injection, fuel rod temperatures may increase and that may result in overheating. But fundamentally, we need to drain the water as soon as possible," he said, CNN reported.
France's Areva SA nuclear fuel company, responding to a request from Tokyo Electric, planned to send two experts to Japan to help resolve the Fukushima plant crisis, Kyodo News reported Tuesday, quoting the French Industry and Energy Minister Eric Besson as saying on public radio.
The French experts will be involved in removing radioactive materials from contained in water, Besson said.
Kyodo said Japanese power companies use Areva to process uranium-plutonium mixed-oxide fuel, so-called MOX fuel.
The plutonium discovery came from soil tested at five locations at the plant, the utility said.
The plutonium may have come from the damaged reactors. While it posed no immediate health risk, the utility said it would increase its monitoring activities.
The No. 3 reactor, which has been quite problematical, uses MOX for nuclear reactions in which plutonium is a byproduct and the element can pose a major health risk only if inhaled or ingested, but the problem is its radioactivity strength can last thousands of years.
In other developments, Tokyo Electric said workers have restored external electric power to the No. 3 reactor, which would help restore the cooling system there. (Officialwire)
