SDF choppers drop water on troubled Fukushima reactor
(Blogger: What took them so long to think of this?)
TOKYO, March 17, Kyodo
(EDS: UPDATING)
Self-Defense Forces helicopters dropped water on the troubled No. 3 reactor of the Fukushima nuclear power plant on Thursday morning as it is feared the reactor may have released radioactive steam due to damage to its containment vessel.
The Defense Ministry had given up on the deployment of Ground Self-Defense Force helicopters due to the high radiation level Wednesday.
Tokyo police, meanwhile, plan to use a water cannon truck to attempt to cool a spent fuel rod pool in a bid to contain the disaster at the troubled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station in Japan.
In the unprecedented move, they aim to cool the possibly overheating pool of the No. 4 reactor to prevent the discharge of highly-concentrated radioactive materials.
Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the nuclear plant, will install temporary electric power supply to activate pumps to send water to reactors and pools. A TEPCO official said the plan was ''highly likely'' to be carried out.
The building housing the No. 4 reactor suffered what appeared to be a hydrogen explosion early Tuesday following the devastating earthquake and tsunami last week. A fire also broke out Wednesday there.
In the face of the extraordinary nuclear crisis, the focus is now on how to cool the possibly overheating pools that store spent nuclear fuel rods at the No. 4 as well as No. 3 reactors.
Unless the spent fuel rods are cooled down, they could deteriorate and emit radioactive materials.
The U.S. military, meanwhile, will operate a Global Hawk unmanned high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft, possibly on Thursday, to take images of the inside of the building that houses the No. 4 reactor, according to Japanese government sources.
Among the six reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, part of the No. 2 reactor's containment vessel, critical to holding harmful radioactive substances, suffered damage in the pressure-suppression chamber connected to the vessel following Tuesday's apparent hydrogen explosion.
An estimated 70 percent of the nuclear fuel rods have been damaged at the plant's No. 1 reactor and 33 percent at the No. 2 reactor, Tokyo Electric said Wednesday.
The cores of the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 reactors are believed to have partially melted with their cooling functions lost in the wake of Friday's magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami.
The government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said Wednesday that the water level had dropped in the No. 5 reactor, which was not in service when the killer quake jolted northeastern Japan, posing the risk of overheating. The agency said it will closely monitor data on the reactor to prevent the problems that occurred at other reactors.
The government has set the evacuation zone covering areas within a 20 kilometer radius of the plant.
==Kyodo
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