Government confirms blast; says inner container housing fuel rods still intact; allays fears of massive radioactive leak

Moneylife Digital Team

TOKYO: A hydrogen explosion erupted at the earthquake-hit Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan today, troubled second reactor, injuring at least three workers, Japan's nuclear safety agency said. Seven people, six of them soldiers were missing.

The Press Trust of India reported that Japan's Kyodo news agency quoted chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano as saying that the plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co had confirmed the blast did not damage the container of the No 3 reactor. He tried to allay fears that the blast may have caused a massive release of radioactive substances.

"According to the plant chief's assessment, the container's health has been maintained," Mr Edano said. "The possibility is low that massive radioactive materials have spattered."  He said that the blast which blew away the roof and the walls of the building housing the container was similar to an explosion on Saturday at another reactor of the plant, 240 km north of Tokyo. Some media reports said that the explosion was heard even about 40 km away.

The explosion happened just after prime minister Naoto Kan went on television to tell the nation that the situation at the 40-year-old Fukushima nuclear plant was "alarming" and that the authorities were doing their best to prevent the damage from spreading. "We have rescued over 15,000 people and we are working to support them and others. We will do our utmost in rescue efforts again today," he said.

The government sought to play down fears of a dangerous radiation leak, saying the reactor's inner containment vessel, which holds the nuclear fuel rods, was still intact following the blast, which was caused by a hydrogen build up. Engineers have been working desperately to cool the fuel rods, mainly with seawater, after coolant water levels fell following the quake. If they fail, the containers that house the core could melt, or even explode, releasing radioactive material into the atmosphere.

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said the radiation level had not significantly risen. The radiation at the plant's premises today rose over the benchmark limit of 500 micro sievert per hour at two locations, Kyodo reported. The hourly amounts are more than half the 1,000 micro sievert to which people are usually exposed to in one year. The maximum level detected so far around the plant is 1,557.5 micro sievert, which was logged yesterday, the report said.

Reuters news agency reported a Japanese official said before the blast that 22 people had been confirmed to have suffered radiation contamination and up to 190 may have been exposed. Workers in protective clothing have used hand-held scanners to check people arriving at evacuation centres. It also said that US warships and planes helping with relief efforts moved away from the coast temporarily because of low-level radiation. The US Seventh Fleet said the move was precautionary.

Japan's nuclear agency had declared a state of emergency at another nuclear facility at Onagawa after excessive nuclear radiation was reported there. The International Atomic Energy Agency said it was continuing to liaise with the Japanese authorities and monitoring the situation as it evolved.