Nuclear fears stagnate

Soldiers of Japan's Self-Defense Force and firefighters search for victims among the rubble Monday in Matsushima, Miyagi Prefecture. Photo: CFP

By Liu Linlin

Japan's efforts to stop a complete meltdown at a nuclear station north of Tokyo made little progress Monday when another explosion hit the site after Friday's devastating earthquake.

The hydrogen explosion, caused by insufficient cooling, tore apart the building housing the No. 3 reactor at the Fukushima Daichi No. 1 power plant, about 250 kilometers away from the capital.

The wall of the building collapsed, and 11 people were injured, but officials insisted that the blast did not damage the reactor core or its containment vessel.

Meanwhile, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said Monday that nuclear fuel rods at the No. 2 reactor were fully exposed to the air earlier in the day after a brief failure of water coolant around the reactor core, Japan's Jiji News Agency reported.

TEPCO said they had resumed pouring seawater into the No. 2 reactor, but a meltdown of the fuel rods could not be ruled out.

Yukio Edano, Japan's chief government spokesman, said that ongoing work to cool the No. 2 reactor would hopefully stabilize the situation, and that further explosions were unlikely, adding that radiation around the site was at a tolerable level for humans.

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano said Monday that Tokyo has officially asked the UN atomic watchdog to send a team of experts to help in the crisis.

The Fukushima plant went into production in 1971. It houses six reactors made by General Electric. It is one of the largest nuclear power stations in the world, with a combined power generation of 4.7 gigawatts.

When the earthquake struck Friday, the No. 4, No. 5 and No. 6 reactors were under maintenance, and the other three were automatically shut down. However, the ensuing tsunami paralyzed the backup engines that were supposed to power the plant's cooling system.

Experts say the country is now facing a serious of accumulating problems, suggesting that radioactive releases of steam from the crippled plants could go on for weeks or even months, the New York Times reported.

US warships and planes helping in the relief efforts have temporarily moved away from the coast because of low-level radiation from the stricken nuclear power plant, the US Navy said Monday.