Japan scrambles to cool nuclear reactors, prevent new blasts Skip to main content

Japan scrambles to cool nuclear reactors, prevent new blasts

Tune in to CNN tonight at 9 ET for a special edition of "AC360º." Anderson Cooper, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and Soledad O'Brien report live from Japan on the quake and tsunami's catastrophic effects.


(CNN) -- Japan's struggle to prevent a dire nuclear event entered its fourth day Monday, with experts saying efforts to flood reactors with seawater represented a last-ditch attempt to abate the crisis but did not mean a full-on tragedy was imminent.

While several plants were affected by Friday's 8.9-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami, the greatest concern is at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility in northeastern Japan.

Government officials and power company workers have experienced several setbacks, including the failure of primary and back-up generators used to help cool radioactive material inside the reactors, as well as high radiation readings outside the facility. Still, nuclear experts said they believe the possibility of massive radiation exposure remains low -- at least for now.

The Japanese government has said it is operating on the presumption that there's been a partial meltdown inside two of the six reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. They have not yet been able to confirm as much, because it is too hot inside the affected reactors to check.

Additionally, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said Sunday that accumulating hydrogen gas "may potentially cause an explosion" in the building housing the No. 3 reactor at the Daiichi plant.

A similar scenario played out Saturday, when a blast caused by hydrogen buildup blew the roof off a concrete building housing the Daiichi plant's No. 1 reactor. But the reactor and its containment system were not damaged in the explosion.

At a second plant, in Onagawa, excessive radiation levels also were recorded, though officials have told the United Nations' atomic watchdog agency that the situation there is "under control."

Later Sunday, the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement that -- based on information the agency received from officials in Japan -- investigators said radiation levels have returned to "normal" and concluded there were "no emissions of radioactivity" from Onagawa's three reactors.

"The current assumption of the Japanese authorities is that the increased level may have been due to a release of radioactive material from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant" located 135 kilometers (about 85 miles) north of Onagawa, the agency said.

There were reports that there were pressure venting actions at a third nuclear plant -- Fukushima Daini, a different facility in the same prefecture as the Daiichi plant. But the International Atomic Energy Agency said such precautions had not taken place at the three reactors there, adding that a fourth reactor was in a safe, cold shutdown.

At least 30,000 people living within 10 kilometers (6 miles) of that facility, have been ordered to evacuate, Edano has said.

Most experts aren't expecting a reprieve of the 1986 Chernobyl meltdown, which killed 32 plant workers and firefighters in the former Soviet Union directly and at least 4,000 more due to cancers tied to radioactive material released by the plant. But in some ways -- including the fact several reactors are affected, compared to one in Chernobyl, and given the potential long-term impact on Japan's energy infrastructure -- the current crisis has a unique set of issues.

"This is unprecedented," said Stephanie Cooke, the author of "In Mortal Hands: A Cautionary History of the Nuclear Age." "You've never had a situation with multiple reactors at risk."

All these problems come despite Japan's solid reputation internationally, when it comes to the manufacture and operation of nuclear plants. Japan is heavily dependent on nuclear power, with 54 plants and another eight slated for construction, said Aileen Mioko Smith of Green Action, an environmental group. All are located in "very seismic" areas, she said.

Daiichi's No. 1 reactor -- the oldest of the six such units at the site, according to World Nuclear Association, all of which are boiling-water reactors -- was connected to the grid in November 1970, making it about 40 years old.

"When you look at the design specifications for many of the nuclear facilities in Japan, they were built to withstand earthquakes -- but not an 8.9 earthquake," said James Walsh, a CNN contributor and research associate at MIT's security studies program. "You're going to have a draw a line at some point, and people thought this was an unlikely occurrence."

A major concern has been the prospect of a nuclear meltdown, which is the catastrophic failure of the reactor core that has the potential for widespread release of radiation.

High levels inside the reactors of hydrogen -- the element behind the explosion concerns -- is a sign of a potential meltdown. So, too, is the detection noted of radioactive cesium outside the Daiichi plant, according to Toshihiro Bannai, an official with Japan's nuclear and industrial safety agency. This could be caused by the melting of fuel rods inside the reactor, indicating at least a partial meltdown.

On Sunday, Noriyuki Shikata, a spokesman for Prime Minister Naoto Kan repeated Edano's assertion that the situation is "under control" and said he would not describe what was occurring in the reactors as a "meltdown."

Cooke, who also is editor of Nuclear Intelligence Weekly for the atomic-energy community, said she's not convinced authorities have a full handle on what she called "this hugely dangerous technology."

"The more they say they're in control, the more I sense things may be out of control," she said.

The fact that the Daiichi plant has a containment vessel is one reason experts are not as concerned about a high death toll, even if a full meltdown does occur. And James Acton, of the nuclear policy program at Washington-based think tank the Carnegie Endowment, notes that the word "meltdown" can mean a lot of different things.

"There's both significant uncertainty about what's going on at the moment, and significant uncertainty about the possible outcomes," said Acton.

He said that he believes that a major explosion at one of the Daiichi plant's reactors is "almost inconceivable. I think that worst-case outcome is unbelievably unlikely in this case."

Still, he and others noted that the measures taken thus far by Japanese authorities -- especially the decision to inject sea water and boron into the affected reactors -- indicate that they are giving up future use of the Daiichi plant and focusing solely on protecting people and the environment.

Walsh notes that this action suggests authorities felt that they had "no other choice," since both salt and boron will corrode the reactor.

"Essentially, they are waving the white flag and saying, 'This plant is done,'" Walsh said. "This is a last-ditch mechanism to try to prevent overheating and to prevent a partial or full meltdown."

Edano has said there have not been any leaks of radioactive material at either of the affected plants. Radioactive steam has been released purposefully to alleviate growing pressure in Daiichi's two affected reactors -- in an amount that authorities have described as minimal, even amid reports of some high radiation levels in the general public.

Still, at one medical facility in Koriyama, about one hour from the nuclear plant, about 1 in 5 people being tested for high radiation levels are being referred to a hospital for further testing. About 1,000 people have been tested so far, officials said.

And on Sunday, Edano said that doctors were examining nine people who had been evacuated from the Daiichi vicinity, who tested positive for high radiation levels on their skin and clothing.

Even if there's is no further catastrophe, the nuclear situation -- part of what Prime Minister Kan called the "toughest and most difficult crisis for Japan" since the end of World War II -- has clearly made an impact.

Cooke said that it may take years to fully assess the damage at the worst-hit reactors, much less have them working in. And authorities may never definitively measure how much radiation was emitted, or how many people got sick because of it.

Then there's the short- and long-term impact of Japan's electric grid: Soon after the quake, power was knocked out to 10% of Japan's households. Most of those people now have electricity, though experts say it is highly unlikely the most affected reactors will ever be operational again.

Beyond that, the crisis may have a significant impact the nuclear power movement. Walsh noted that while some countries, like China, may go forward in creating new reactors, others planned for South Korea, Turkey and elsewhere may pull back.

But assessing the far-reaching implications of the current crisis isn't the top priority now. Instead, the focus is more on making sure that the situation does not deteriorate even further and put more lives at risk.

If the effort to cool the nuclear fuel inside the reactor fails completely -- a scenario that experts who have spoken to CNN say is unlikely -- the resulting release of radiation could cause enormous damage to the plant and/or release radiation into the atmosphere or water. That could lead to widespread cancer and other health problems, experts say.

Authorities have downplayed such a scenario, insisting the situation appears under control and that radiation levels in the air are not dangerous. Still, as what they described as "a precaution," more than 200,000 people who live within 20 kilometers (12 miles) of the plant have been ordered to leave the area.

"The bottom line is that we just don't know what's going to happen in the next couple of days and, frankly, neither do the people who run the system," added Dr. Ira Helfand, a member of the board of Physicians for Social Responsibility.

What is known, he added, is that Japan's nuclear facilities are "way out of whack."

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/13/japan.nuclear.reactors/index.html

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