Japan tries to avert nuclear meltdown at 3 reactors

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Japan tries to avert nuclear meltdown as tsunami toll rises

By Taiga Uranaka and Ki Joon Kwon Taiga Uranaka And Ki Joon Kwon – 1 hr 33 mins

ago

FUKUSHIMA, Japan (Reuters) – Japan fought on Sunday to avert a meltdown at three

earthquake-crippled nuclear reactors, describing the massive quake and tsunami,

which may have killed more than 10,000 people, as the nation's biggest crisis

since World War Two.

The world's third-largest economy is struggling to respond to a disaster of epic

proportions, with more than 1 million without water or power and whole towns

wiped off the map.

" The earthquake, tsunami and the nuclear incident have been the biggest crisis

Japan has encountered in the 65 years since the end of World War II, " a

grim-faced Prime Minister Naoto Kan told a news conference.

" We're under scrutiny on whether we, the Japanese people, can overcome this

crisis. "

As he spoke, officials worked desperately to stop fuel rods in the damaged

reactors from overheating, which could in turn melt the container that houses

the core, or even explode, releasing radioactive material into the atmosphere.

The government said a building housing a second reactor at the same complex in

Fukushima was at risk of exploding after a blast blew the roof off the first the

day before. The complex is 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo.

Later it said it was pouring seawater into a third reactor to release a build-up

of pressure.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the lowest state of emergency

had been declared at a separate nuclear power plant north of the town of Sendai,

which bore the brunt of the tsunami.

However, Japan's nuclear safety agency said there had been a rise in radiation

at the Onagawa facility due to leakage from the Fukushima plant and there was no

problem with the cooling process there.

Fukushima's No. 1 reactor, where the roof was ripped off, is 40 years old and

was originally scheduled to go out of commission in February but had its

operating license extended another 10 years.

But Kan said the crisis was not another Chernobyl, referring to the nuclear

disaster of 1986 in Soviet Ukraine.

" Radiation has been released in the air, but there are no reports that a large

amount was released, " Jiji news agency quoted him as saying. " This is

fundamentally different from the Chernobyl accident. "

Nevertheless, France recommended its citizens leave the Tokyo region, citing the

risk of further earthquakes and uncertainty about the nuclear plants.

Broadcaster NHK, quoting a police official, said more than 10,000 people may

have been killed as the wall of water triggered by Friday's 8.9-magnitude quake

surged across the coastline, reducing whole towns to rubble.

Almost two million households were without power in the freezing north, the

government said. There were about 1.4 million without running water.

Kyodo news agency said about 300,000 people were evacuated nationwide, many

seeking refuge in shelters, wrapped in blankets, some clutching each other

sobbing.

Authorities have set up a 20-km (12-mile) exclusion zone around the Fukushima

Daiichi plant and a 10 km (6 miles) zone around another nuclear facility close

by. Around 140,000 people have been moved from the area, while authorities

prepared to distribute iodine to protect people from radioactive exposure.

The nuclear accident, the worst since Chernobyl, sparked criticism that

authorities were ill-prepared for such a massive quake and the threat that could

pose to the country's nuclear power industry.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said there might have been a partial

meltdown of the fuel rods at the No. 1 reactor at Fukushima. Engineers were

pumping in seawater, trying to prevent the same happening at the No. 3 reactor,

he said in apparent acknowledgement they had moved too slowly on Saturday.

" Unlike the No.1 reactor, we ventilated and injected water at an early stage, "

Edano told a news briefing.

The No. 3 reactor uses a mixed-oxide fuel which contains plutonium, but plant

operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said it did not present unusual

problems.

Asked if fuel rods were partially melting in the No. 1 reactor, Edano said:

" There is that possibility. We cannot confirm this because it is in the reactor.

But we are dealing with it under that assumption . "

He said fuel rods may have partially deformed at the No. 3 reactor but a

meltdown was unlikely to have occurred.

" The use of seawater means they have run out of options, " said Lochbaum,

director of the Union of Concerned Scientists Nuclear Safety Project.

TEPCO said radiation levels around the Fukushima Daiichi plant had risen above

the safety limit but that it did not mean an " immediate threat " to human health.

Edano said there was a risk of an explosion at the building housing the No. 3

reactor, but that it was unlikely to affect the reactor core container.

The wind over the plant would continue blowing from the south, which could

affect residents north of the facility, an official at Japan's Meteorological

Agency said.

The disaster prompted an angry response from an anti-nuclear energy NGO in Japan

which said it should have been foreseen.

" A nuclear disaster which the promoters of nuclear power in Japan said wouldn't

happen is in progress, " the Citizens' Nuclear Information Center said. " It is

occurring as a result of an earthquake that they said would not happen. "

SEARCH FOR THE MISSING

Kan said food, water and other necessities such as blankets were being delivered

by vehicles but because of damage to roads, authorities were considering air and

sea transport. He also said the government was preparing to double the number of

troops mobilized to 100,000.

Thousands spent another freezing night huddled in blankets over heaters in

emergency shelters along the northeastern coast, a scene of devastation after

the quake sent a 10-meter (33-foot) wave surging through towns and cities in the

Miyagi region, including its main coastal city of Sendai.

In one of the heavily hit areas, Rikuzentakata, a city close to the coast, more

than 1,000 people took refuge in a school high on a hill. Some were talking with

friends and family around a stove. The radio was giving updates. On the walls

were posters where names of survivors at the shelter were listed.

Some were standing in front of the lists, weeping.

Kyodo news agency reported there had been no contact with around 10,000 people

in one town, more than half its population.

A Japanese official said there were 190 people within a 10-km radius of the

nuclear plant when radiation levels rose and 22 people have been confirmed to

have suffered contamination. Workers in protective clothing were scanning people

arriving at evacuation centers for radioactive exposure.

GOVERNMENT CRITICISED

The government, in power less than two years and which had already been

struggling to push policy through a deeply divided parliament, came under

criticism for its handling of the disaster.

" Crisis management is incoherent, " blared a headline in the Asahi newspaper,

saying information and instructions to expand the evacuation area around the

troubled plant were too slow.

There has been a proposal of an extra budget to help pay for the huge cost of

recovery.

The Bank of Japan is expected to pledge on Monday to supply as much money as

needed to prevent the disaster from destabilizing markets and its banking

system. It is also expected to signal its readiness to ease monetary policy

further if the damage from the worst quake since records began in Japan 140

years ago threatens a fragile economic recovery.

Before news of the problem with reactor No. 3, the U.N. nuclear safety agency

said the plant accident was less serious than both the Three Mile Island

accident in 1979 and Chernobyl.

An official at the agency said it rated the incident a 4 according to the

International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES). Three Mile Island was

rated 5 while Chernobyl was rated 7 on the 1 to 7 scale.

The earthquake was the fifth most powerful to hit the world in the past century.

It surpassed the Great Kanto quake of September 1, 1923, which had a magnitude

of 7.9 and killed more than 140,000 people in the Tokyo area.

The 1995 Kobe quake killed 6,000 and caused $100 billion in damage, the most

expensive natural disaster in history. Economic damage from the 2004 Indian

Ocean tsunami was estimated at about $10 billion.

(Additional reporting by Risa Maeda and Leika Kihara in Tokyo and Meyers

and Kim Kyung-hoon in Sendai; Writing by Nick Macfie; Editing by Chalmers)