Electrical Power cable progress at Fukushima Daiichi Unit 2 and one diesel units is working again

IAEA - Japanese authorities have informed the IAEA that engineers were able to lay an external grid power line cable to unit 2. The operation was completed at 08:30 UTC. It is now 6:30 PM UTC (14:30 UTC)

They plan to reconnect power to unit 2 once the spraying of water on the unit 3 reactor building is completed.

The spraying of water on the unit 3 reactor building was temporarily stopped at 11:09 UTC (20:09 local time) of 17 March.

World Nuclear News - The power cable was to be connected when radiation levels had died down after a planned venting operation at unit 2.

In addition, one of the emergency diesel units can now be operated and will be used to supply unit 5 and 6 alternately to inject water to their used fuel pools. Later, the power will be used to top up water in the reactor vessels.

Casualties among power plant workers

* Two Tepco employees have minor injuries.
* Two contractors were injured when the quake struck and were taken to hospital, one suffering two broken legs.
* A Tepco worker was taken to hospital after collapsing and experiencing chest pains.
* A subcontract worker at an "important earthquake-proof building" was found unconscious and was taken to hospital.
* Two Tepco workers felt ill whilst working in the control rooms of Fukushima Daiichi units 1 and 2 and were taken to the medical centre at Fukushima Daini.
* Four workers were injured in the hydrogen explosion at Fukushima Daiichi 1. They were all taken to hospital.
* Eleven workers (four Tepco workers, three subcontract workers and four members of Self Defence Force) were hurt following a similar explosion at Fukushima Daiichi 3. They were transferred to the Fukushima Daini plant. One of the Tepco employees, complaining of pain in his side, was later transferred to hospital.
* The whereabouts of two Tepco workers, who had been in the turbine building of Fukushima Daiichi unit 4, is unknown.
* Only one casualty has been reported at the Fukushima Daini plant. A worker in the crane operating console of the exhaust stack was seriously injured when the earthquake struck. He subsequently died.

Contamination cases

* One Tepco worker working within the reactor building of Fukushima Daiichi unit 3 during "vent work" was taken to hospital after receiving radiation exposure exceeding 100 mSv, a level deemed acceptable in emergency situations by some national nuclear safety regulators.
* Nine Tepco employees and eight subcontractors suffered facial exposure to low levels of radiation. They did not require hospital treatment.
* Two policemen were decontaminated after beng exposed to radiation.
* An unspecified number of firemen who were exposed to radiation are under investigation.