Workers at Japan's tsunami-damaged nuclear power plant on Wednesday finally halted a leak that was sending a tide of radioactive water into the Pacific and exacerbating concerns over the safety of seafood, the operator said.
It was a rare bit of good news for the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex and the coastal areas surrounding it, where high levels of seawater contamination have angered fishermen and prompted the government to set limits for the first time on the amount of radiation permitted in fish.
But in a sign that workers still face several challenges before the overheating reactors are stabilized, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said it plans to inject nitrogen gas into one of the reactors. Nitrogen can prevent highly combustible hydrogen from exploding — as it did three times at the compound in the early days of the crisis.
There is no immediate possibility of an explosion, but the "nitrogen injection is being considered as a cautionary measure," said spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama of Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.
TEPCO said the process could begin as early as Wednesday evening in Unit 1 — where pressure and temperatures are the highest — according to spokesman Junichi Matsumoto. The same measures will eventually be taken at the other two troubled reactors.
The 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami that followed are believed to have killed as many as 25,000 people. Hundreds of miles (kilometers) of coastline have been destroyed and the country's fishing industry devastated.
Since the crush of water flooded the plant and knocked out cooling systems, workers there have been desperately trying to cool overheated reactors. The effort has required spraying large amounts of water and allowing it to gush out wherever it can escape, sometimes into the sea.
While officials have said the crack in a maintenance pit plugged early Wednesday was the only one found, they have not explicitly ruled out that radioactive water is leaking into the sea from another point.
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http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=13305742
It was a rare bit of good news for the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex and the coastal areas surrounding it, where high levels of seawater contamination have angered fishermen and prompted the government to set limits for the first time on the amount of radiation permitted in fish.
But in a sign that workers still face several challenges before the overheating reactors are stabilized, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said it plans to inject nitrogen gas into one of the reactors. Nitrogen can prevent highly combustible hydrogen from exploding — as it did three times at the compound in the early days of the crisis.
There is no immediate possibility of an explosion, but the "nitrogen injection is being considered as a cautionary measure," said spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama of Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.
TEPCO said the process could begin as early as Wednesday evening in Unit 1 — where pressure and temperatures are the highest — according to spokesman Junichi Matsumoto. The same measures will eventually be taken at the other two troubled reactors.
The 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami that followed are believed to have killed as many as 25,000 people. Hundreds of miles (kilometers) of coastline have been destroyed and the country's fishing industry devastated.
Since the crush of water flooded the plant and knocked out cooling systems, workers there have been desperately trying to cool overheated reactors. The effort has required spraying large amounts of water and allowing it to gush out wherever it can escape, sometimes into the sea.
While officials have said the crack in a maintenance pit plugged early Wednesday was the only one found, they have not explicitly ruled out that radioactive water is leaking into the sea from another point.
Read More
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=13305742
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