Shingo Ito, AAP, Reuters and Yahoo!7
March 16, 2011, 9:30 am
Australian search and rescue exposed to radiation
An Australian search and rescue team working in Japan was forced to land at Fukushima aiprort, just 40km from the quake-stricken Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant.
Two personnel were exposed to low levels of radiation which was found on their boots and are now reported to be safe and well.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has announced 145 Australians remain missing in the worst areas of Japan following a devastating earthquake and tsunami last Friday.
As of Wednesday, 3715 Australians were registered as being in Japan. Of those 3230 have been confirmed as safe.
Close to 250 government officials are on the ground and those in the worst affected areas are continuing efforts to contact missing Australians.
A team is also based at the Narita International Airport, near Tokyo, to help Australians leave Japan.
The Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency has warned Australians to continue to stay away from the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant and Miyagi Prefecture on the east coast of Japan after the earthquake damaged reactors there.
However, the agency says there is "a very low to negligible chance of (nuclear) contamination" to Australians in Japan.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is advising Australians to stay outside the 20-30km exclusion zone established around the Fukushima facility.
Updated travel advice from the department confirms that Australians outside the affected areas in Japan "are extremely unlikely to be contaminated and the health risks are negligible".
Japan reactor design caused GE engineer to quit
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A General Electric Co engineer said he resigned 35 years ago over concern about the safety of a nuclear reactor design used in the now crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan.
Dale Bridenbaugh said the "Mark 1" design had "not yet been designed to withstand the loads" that could be experienced in a large-scale accident.
"At the time, I didn't think the utilities were taking things seriously enough," Bridenbaugh, now retired, said in a phone interview. "I felt some of the plants should have been shut down while the analysis was completed, and GE and the utilities didn't want to do that, so I left."
Bridenbaugh said that to the best of his knowledge, the design flaws he had identified were addressed at the Daiichi plant, requiring "a fairly significant expense."
The Aptos, California, resident spoke earlier with ABC News, a unit of Walt Disney Co.
GE in a statement said it has had "40 years of safe operations" of its boiling water reactor Mark 1 technology.
"In 1980 the (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) issued a generic industry order assessing the Mark 1 containment," the Fairfield, Connecticut-based company added. "We responded to this order and issued it to all of our customers."
Following last Friday's 9.0 earthquake and tsunami, the Daiichi plant has suffered several explosions, and is now sending radiation wafting into Tokyo, 150 miles to the south. Authorities are trying to prevent a full meltdown.
Bridenbaugh said that after leaving GE he started a firm to advise state governments on safety issues. Like many, he said he is watching closely as events unfold in Japan.
"I feel sorry for the guys over there trying to handle that thing," he said. "On the other hand you can't say the Fukushima situation is a direct result of the Mark 1 containment. It is a direct result of the earthquake, tsunami and the fact the Mark 1 containment is less forgiving than some of the other reactor versions."
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel and Lewis Krauskopf in New York; Editing by Gary Hill)
Fresh fire breaks out
A fire broke out at the building housing the No.4 reactor of Tokyo Electric Power Co's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the electric utility said on Wednesday. A blaze in the same reactor was extinguished overnight, but began pluming with smoke early this morning.
The new fire caused further panic as Japan remains on high alert for a nuclear disaster.
The news came after two workers were confirmed missing and authorities said two more reactors were at risk of overheating.
The government later said the fire had been brought under control.
A devastating earthquake and tsunami last Friday damaged cooling functions of the plant, forcing the operator to pour seawater into reactors and let out radioactive air into atmosphere to bring down heat and pressure.
Higher radiation detected in Tokyo
An explosion at a quake-crippled nuclear power plant has sent radiation wafting into Tokyo, prompting some people to flee the capital and others to stock up on essential supplies.
The crisis escalated late on Tuesday when operators of the facility said one of two blasts had blown a hole in the building housing a reactor, which meant spent nuclear fuel was exposed to the atmosphere.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan urged people within 30 km (18 miles) of the facility -- a population of 140,000 -- to remain indoors, as Japan grappled with the world's most serious nuclear accident since the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine in 1986.
Officials in Tokyo -- 240 km (150 miles) to the south of the plant -- said radiation in the capital was 10 times normal at one point but not a threat to human health in the sprawling high-tech city of 13 million people.
Toxicologist Lee Tin-lap at the Chinese University of Hong Kong said such a radiation level was not an immediate threat to people but the long-term consequences were unknown.
"You are still breathing this into your lungs, and there is passive absorption in the skin, eyes and mouth and we really do not know what long-term impact that would have," Lee told Reuters by telephone.
Around eight hours after the explosions, the U.N. weather agency said winds were dispersing radioactive material over the Pacific Ocean, away from Japan and other Asian countries.
Japan continues to battle nuclear disaster
Japanese crews are battling to avert a nuclear disaster and say they may pour water from helicopters to stop fuel rods from being exposed to the air and releasing even more radioactivity.
Radiation near the quake-hit Fukushima No.1 plant has reached levels harmful to health and was high overnight, officials said, advising thousands of people to stay indoors after two explosions and a fire at the facility Tuesday.
Four of the six reactors at the crippled facility, 250 kilometres northeast of Tokyo, have now overheated and sparked explosions since Friday's massive earthquake and tsunami knocked out their cooling systems.
The blasts at the seaside plant have shattered buildings housing the reactors but have apparently not penetrated the steel and concrete containers surrounding the fuel rods, reducing the risk of massive contamination.
Workers have used fire-fighting equipment to pump seawater into the reactors - and fears have spiked sharply after separate containment pools holding spent fuel rods at reactor number four started to heat up, threatening to run dry.
If the water in the deep pools evaporates, this would expose the fuel rods to the air, destroying them and sending radioactive materials into the air.
"We have no options other than to pour water from a helicopter, or to spray water from the ground," a spokesman for operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said on television.
"We have to take action tomorrow or the day after."
The water in the containment pool of reactor number four may have been boiling earlier, Kyodo News reported on Wednesday.
Worsening levels of radiation on Tuesday forced the company to pull out most of its hundreds of workers who have been battling the emergency.
They later evacuated the plant's central control room and were now monitoring the site remotely, Kyodo reported.
Tens of thousands have already been evacuated from within a radius of 20 kilometres of the 40-year-old plant, andPrime Minister Naoto Kan urged people living within 10 kilometres of that zone to stay indoors.
"There is no doubt that unlike in the past, the (radiation) figures are at the level at which human health can be affected," chief government spokesman Yukio Edano said on Tuesday.
There was a danger of further leakage, Kan said.
"Please stay indoors, close windows and make your homes airtight," Edano urged residents during a press briefing. "Don't turn on ventilators. Please hang your laundry indoors."
Explosions hit the buildings housing reactors one and three on Saturday and Monday. On Tuesday, a blast hit reactor two at the crippled plant and there was also an explosion at reactor four that started a fire.
TEPCO said the blaze was extinguished later in the morning with US help.
Radiation levels were monitored at 4.548 millisieverts per hour at 11pm (0100 AEDT) and rose further to 7.966 millisieverts less than an hour later at the plant's entrance, Jiji Press reported, quoting TEPCO officials.
Levels fluctuated throughout the day.
A single dose of 1000 millisieverts - or one sievert - causes temporary radiation sickness such as nausea and vomiting.
The continuing nuclear crisis has unnerved regional residents already struggling with the aftermath of the quake and tsunami.
Higher than normal radiation was detected in Tokyo on Tuesday, prompting many people to flee, but a city official said it was not considered at a level harmful to human health and the level fell later in the day.
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