[Nafheense]

Japan crisis worse than Three Mile Island, experts say

One reactor shield might be compromised; spent fuel pool leaking radioactivity


msnbc.com staff and news service reports
updated 21 minutes ago 2011-03-15T16:54:22

SOMA, Japan — The catastrophe at Japan's stricken nuclear complex is now worse than Three Mile Island, experts said Tuesday, after the two most recent blasts exposed a spent fuel pool to outside air and might have compromised a reactor shield.
Japanese officials told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that the spent fuel storage area had caught fire and that radioactivity was "being released directly into the atmosphere."
After the fire was extinguished, a Japanese official said the spent fuel pool might still be boiling, though the reported levels of radiation had dropped dramatically by evening.
Experts noted that much of the leaking radiation was apparently in steam from boiling water. It had not been emitted directly by fuel rods, which would be far more virulent, they said.
"It's not good, but I don't think it's a disaster," said Steve Crossley, an Australia-based radiation physicist.
The IAEA said Tuesday that an explosion Monday at the plant, this one within Unit 2, "may have affected the integrity of its primary containment vessel." That means radioactivity could be leaking from the containment vessel.
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said low levels of radiation had spread from the complex along Japan's northeastern coast.
The radiation releases prompted Japan to order 140,000 people to seal themselves indoors and a 30-kilometer (19-mile) no-fly zone was imposed around the site Tuesday.
About the only good news Tuesday was that the winds were expected to blow most of the radioactivity out to sea.
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Soon after the latest events, France's nuclear safety authority ASN said the disaster ranks as a level 6 on the international scale of 1 to 7.
Level 7 was used only once, for Chernobyl in Ukraine in 1986. The 1979 accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania was rated a level 5.
'Catastrophe'
"It is very clear that we are at a level 6," ASN President Andre-Claude Lacoste told a news conference in Paris. "We are clearly in a catastrophe."
Video: At least 15,000 people missing in Japan (on this page) "This event is now closer to a level 6, and it may unfortunately reach a level 7," added David Albright, head of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington, D.C.
At Three Mile Island, the radiation leak was held inside the containment shell — thick concrete armor around the reactor. The Chernobyl reactor had no shell and was also operational when the disaster struck. The Japanese reactors automatically shut down when the quake hit.




The IAEA said about 150 people in Japan had received monitoring for radiation levels and that measures to "decontaminate" 23 of them had been taken.
Clearing up nuclear questions Though Japanese officials urged calm, Tuesday's developments fueled a growing panic amid widespread uncertainty over what would happen next.
In the worst-case scenario, one or more reactor cores would completely melt down, a disaster that would spew large amounts of radioactivity into the atmosphere.
Officials in Tokyo — 150 miles to the south of the plant — said radiation in the capital was 10 times normal by evening but there was no threat to human health.
Closer to the stricken nuclear complex, the streets in the coastal city of Soma were empty as the few residents who remained there heeded the government's warning to stay indoors.
Interactive: How a nuclear plant works Officials just south of Fukushima reported up to 100 times the normal levels of radiation Tuesday morning. While those figures are worrying if there is prolonged exposure, they are far from fatal.


'Please do not go outside'
Officials warned there is danger of more leaks and told people living within 19 miles of the Dai-ichi complex to stay indoors.
"Please do not go outside. Please stay indoors. Please close windows and make your homes airtight," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told residents in the danger zone.
"These are figures that potentially affect health. There is no mistake about that," he said.
Some 70,000 people had already been evacuated from a 12-mile radius from the Dai-ichi complex. About 140,000 are in the new warning zone.

Friday's 9.0-magnitude earthquake and the ensuing tsunami have killed more than 10,000 people.
Desperate efforts
Workers were desperately trying to stabilize the three reactors at Units 1, 2 and 3 that were working when the quake and tsunami struck. Releases of hydrogen gas caused explosions that destroyed the outer structures at each unit.
Unit 4, where the pool is, had been under maintenance and was not operating at the time of the quake and tsunami.



With power out and the regular coolant gone, engineers are now injecting seawater into the reactors as a last-ditch coolant. Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the plant, said it might use helicopters to inject seawater inside the pool area within three days.
Officials said 50 workers were still at the Fukushima site. About 800 other staff were evacuated. The fires and explosions at the reactors have injured 15 workers and military personnel.
The death toll from last week's earthquake and tsunami jumped as police confirmed the number killed had topped 2,400. Officials say that at least 10,000 people may have died in Miyagi province alone, but those deaths are not confirmed.
Story: Millions in Japan freeze without electricity, heat Hajime Sato, a government official in Iwate prefecture, one of the hardest-hit, said deliveries of supplies were only 10 percent of what is needed. Body bags and coffins were running so short that the government may turn to foreign funeral homes for help, he said.


Rescuers also found a 70-year-old woman alive four days after the disaster .
Osaka fire department spokesman Yuko Kotani said the woman was found inside her house that was washed away by the tsunami in northeastern Japan's Iwate prefecture.
Another survivor, described as being in his 20s, was shown on television being pulled from a building further down the coast in the city of Ishimaki after rescue workers heard him calling for help.
Video: Glimmers of hope amid tragedy in Japan (on this page) The impact of the earthquake and tsunami dragged down stock markets. The benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average plunged for a second day Tuesday , nose-diving more than 10 percent to close at 8,605.15 while the broader Topix lost more than 8 percent.
To lessen the damage, Japan's central bank made two cash injections totaling $98 billion Tuesday into the money markets after pumping in $184 billion on Monday.
Initial estimates put repair costs in the tens of billions of dollars , costs that would likely add to a massive public debt that, at 200 percent of gross domestic product, is the biggest among industrialized nations.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42084187...ific?GT1=43001

You see babies getting checked for radiation, a man getting rescued 10 miles at sea, a woman worried about her daughter who was ripped from her arms by the tsunami current, families reuniting. As much as we have a hard time here of processing all this, I can't even begin to imagine what they're going through. And the horror is just beginning.