Japan could encase the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in concrete and sand in a final attempt to stop massive quantities of radioactive material from escaping the site, the facility's operator indicated on Friday (see GSN, March 17).
(Mar. 18) - A girl is scanned for radiation on Wednesday in Japan's Fukushima prefecture. Concrete and sand might be placed over a severely damaged facility in the region in a final effort to prevent major radioactive material releases, the site's operator said on Friday (Ken Shimizu/Getty Images).
Tokyo Electric Power's first reference to the option -- employed in the aftermath of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster -- suggested efforts to prevent materials at the facility's six reactors from overheating might prove unsuccessful, according to Reuters (Saoshiro/Negishi, Reuters I, March 18).
Untreated material could melt down or even re-enter the fission process, potentially resulting in much larger radioactive material releases than have been seen so far from the plant crippled by Friday's 9.0-magnitude earthquake and devastating tsunami, the New York Times reported. Officials have said the events probably caused no fewer than 10,000 deaths (Tabuchi/Bradsher, New York Times I, March 18).
"It is not impossible to encase the reactors in concrete. But our priority right now is to try and cool them down first," Reuters quoted a representative of the operator as saying (Saoshiro/Negishi, Reuters I).
Authorities were spraying seawater into the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 reactors using fire hoses, and the Japanese Self-Defense Forces dropped four water loads into the No. 3 reactor by helicopter, the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Thursday, referencing reports by the Japanese government. The U.N. nuclear watchdog noted that damage had occurred to the cores of the three three reactors, but that the situation "appears to be relatively stable" (International Atomic Energy Agency release, March 18).
"The water is likely to have reached the target,
(Mar. 18) - A girl is scanned for radiation on Wednesday in Japan's Fukushima prefecture. Concrete and sand might be placed over a severely damaged facility in the region in a final effort to prevent major radioactive material releases, the site's operator said on Friday (Ken Shimizu/Getty Images). Tokyo Electric Power's first reference to the option -- employed in the aftermath of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster -- suggested efforts to prevent materials at the facility's six reactors from overheating might prove unsuccessful, according to Reuters (Saoshiro/Negishi, Reuters I, March 18).
Untreated material could melt down or even re-enter the fission process, potentially resulting in much larger radioactive material releases than have been seen so far from the plant crippled by Friday's 9.0-magnitude earthquake and devastating tsunami, the New York Times reported. Officials have said the events probably caused no fewer than 10,000 deaths (Tabuchi/Bradsher, New York Times I, March 18).
"It is not impossible to encase the reactors in concrete. But our priority right now is to try and cool them down first," Reuters quoted a representative of the operator as saying (Saoshiro/Negishi, Reuters I).
Authorities were spraying seawater into the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 reactors using fire hoses, and the Japanese Self-Defense Forces dropped four water loads into the No. 3 reactor by helicopter, the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Thursday, referencing reports by the Japanese government. The U.N. nuclear watchdog noted that damage had occurred to the cores of the three three reactors, but that the situation "appears to be relatively stable" (International Atomic Energy Agency release, March 18).
"The water is likely to have reached the target,
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