Threat of third explosion at Japan nuclear plant revealed
The operator of Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant reports that the cooling system of the Unit 2 is fully down, which could lead to overheating of the unit and an explosion, similar to those that occurred on Friday and Monday.
Takako Kitajima, the official of the Tokyo Electric Power Co. informed that the power plant?s staff is preparing to inject seawater into Unit 2 to cool it down, reports Associated Press.
The same problem caused by destructive earthquakes led to the explosion of the Unit 1 on Friday and Unit 3 on Monday.
The radiation level at Unit 3 of the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, which exploded earlier, is within the security margin, insists the power?s owner Tokyo Electric Power Co.
Earlier reports described a massive column of smoke being seen coming out of the plant?s Unit 3.According to AP news agency, the second blast has left six people injured.
The company says on Monday the radiation level is within 10.65 microsieverts, far less than 500 microsieverts when a nuclear power plant operator must file a report to the government, according to Japanese law.
After the first blast over 180,000 people have been evacuated from the area, up to 160,000 of which may have been exposed to radiation.
Philip White of the Citizen?s Nuclear Information Center told RT that at this point it is difficult to estimate the scale of the damage the blast may have caused.
"We understand that the blast has not breached the containment of the reactor, which is very fortunate. That is the current situation, as reported by the government and Tokyo Electric Power Company," he said. "You cannot rule out, at this stage, a full-scale, worst-case scenario and, of course, there are several other nuclear plants in danger as well."
The first hydrogen explosion, which occurred at Unit 1 of the Fukushima plant on Saturday, injured four people and caused a mass evacuation from the area adjacent to the plant. Following the blast, authorities evacuated 300,000 people living within 30 kilometers of the facility. At least 22 people have reportedly been affected by increased radiation levels.
Japan?s chief government spokesman, Yukio Edano, did warn Sunday that the reactor at Unit 3 of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility could begin a meltdown and an explosion might follow. Reports state the reactor?s fuel rods have been exposed to air and were damaged.
Government spokesmen have said that the facility could withstand the second blast, just as the first reactor did on Saturday.
Further concerns were raised after the level of radiation in the nearby Miyagi prefecture increased 400-fold. It is not clear at the moment if the radiation came from the local nuclear plant, which was reported to be functioning properly, or drifted up from the Daiichi facility at Fukushima following Saturday`s explosion.
"I would hazard the guess that [the radiation] is coming from Fukushima Daiichi No 1 [reactor]," suggested Christopher Simons, professor at the International Christian University in Tokyo. "The good news is that a lot of the steam, which escaped in the explosion from Daiichi reactor No. 1 building yesterday, is relatively light isotopes - that is isotopes such as nitrogen-16. These isotopes have very short half-lives and cannot cause long-term damage to human health."
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