Update on containing the damage to Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant:
TOKYO (MarketWatch) — Tensions in Japan remained high Saturday as officials worked to stabilize a nuclear reactor following an explosion that resulted from damage caused by the strongest earthquake in the nation’s history.
Japanese officials reported on Saturday night local time that radioactive leaks from the Fukushima Daiichi No. 1 nuclear reactor were receding. The government earlier extended a nuclear emergency evacuation order requiring residents within 12 miles of the Daiichi plant to leave the area, up from an earlier radius of 6 miles.
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NHK earlier cited Fukushima authorities as saying that the ceiling of the reactor building had collapsed. It said radioactivity at the site was rising to 20 times normal levels. Other reports said the walls of the building that housed the reactor had been blown away.
Earlier Saturday, authorities said that Tepco had succeeded in relieving the pressure building up in the reactor.
“If the water level remains at this level, the reactor core might be damaged, but we are now pouring water into the reactor to prevent it from happening,” Dow Jones Newswires quoted a Tepco spokesman as saying.
Japanese media had reported earlier Saturday that the reactor could already be experiencing a meltdown, but the risk of widespread radiation leakage from it would be mitigated if the container of the reactor were to remain intact.
Full article here: Japan works to control leaks at nuclear plant – MarketWatch.
