Originally posted by the Voice of America.
Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America,
a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in
the public domain.


Nitrogen Operation Called Successful at Japanese Nuclear Plant

   VOA News  April 07, 2011

   Japanese officials say efforts to pump nitrogen into the containment
   vessel of a damaged nuclear reactor appear to be succeeding, easing
   fears that a hydrogen build-up in the vessel could cause a dangerous
   explosion.
   Operators of the Fukushima nuclear power plant said Thursday that
   pressure is rising inside the plant's Number 1 reactor, indicating the
   stabilizing nitrogen is entering the chamber as planned. They said the
   operation could last for another five days and may be repeated at the
   Number 2 and Number 3 reactors.
   Technicians with the Tokyo Electric Power Company also are pumping
   11,500 tons of contaminated water into the ocean in order to make room
   in a storage area for water from the basements of the damaged reactors
   that is 200,000 times more radioactive. Japan's NHK Television said
   only 2,000 tons remain to be pumped.
   On Wednesday, work crews succeeded in sealing a leak that was allowing
   highly contaminated water from the number two reactor to enter the
   Pacific Ocean, sending radioactivity in places to millions of times the
   legal limit. But NHK said Thursday that highly radioactive water is now
   rising in a tunnel next to the reactor, perhaps because the leaking has
   stopped, and is within one meter of ground level.
   The nuclear accident, caused when a massive earthquake and tsunami
   knocked out cooling systems at the plant's six reactors on March 11, is
   considered the second worst in history. The chairman of a U.N.
   committee that monitors the effects of nuclear radiation said Wednesday
   the accident is "much more serious" than the one at Three Mile Island
   in Pennsylvania in 1979 but not so serious as the Chernobyl accident in
   Ukraine in 1986.
   The chairman, Wolfgang Weiss, said traces of radioactive iodine from
   the Fukushima plant have been detected all around the world, but at
   much lower levels than after the Chernobyl accident.
   Nevertheless, public anxiety is high in several countries, with reports
   of panic purchases of iodine tablets in the western United States and
   of salt in China and South Korea. In South Korea Thursday, some schools
   were closed because of fears that a passing rainfall may be
   radioactive.
   In Japan, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters the
   government was reviewing the standards under which it determines how
   large an area needs to be evacuated because of the nuclear emergency.
   He said the standards were set in anticipation of a sudden, large of
   radiation, but the government now must consider the effects of lower
   levels over a much longer time.
   He also said the government is working to come up with standards under
   which residents of homes inside the 20-kilometer exclusion zone might
   return home for short visits to collect some belongings.

.