Sakuraa Nihongo Resource Centre

It was to be the first such organised return trip since the government declared a 20-kilometre (12-mile) exclusion zone around the plant after the March 11 quake-tsunami, and sealed it off as a legal no-go zone on April 21.

The plant, where reactor cooling systems were knocked out by the giant wave, has been hit by explosions and leaked radiation into the air, ground and sea in the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl 25 years ago.

In all, more than 85,000 people have been moved to shelters from areas around the plant, including from a wider 30-kilometre zone, where people were first told to stay indoors and later urged to leave.

On the first organised trip back, about 95 people from Kawauchi-mura, a village southwest of the plant, were to wear protective clothing and carry radiation dosimeters and walkie-talkies to visit their houses for two hours.

“I didn’t think I would be feeling this tense before I return to my house,” local resident Masao Yanai told TV Asahi at a public gym just outside the off-limits area that served as their gathering place.

“Authorities say the level of radioactive contamination should not harm human health. But, yes, the contamination is a bit worrying.”

Yanai hoped to make the best of the two-hour trip, during which each villager was allowed to fill a 70-by-70-centimetre (27.5 by 27.5-inch) plastic bag with personal items, such as family photos, money and bank records.

“I don’t remember where I put some of my things. It’s difficult to know how well things will go,” he added.

The residents held a practice session last week and were to receive another lecture at the gym, before being bussed into the area. They were banned from taking out pets, livestock, water or food.

During their visit, they must also avoid any action that might compromise their protective clothing, including using the bathroom.

Once their visit is over in the early afternoon, they will be bussed back to the public gym for health checkups and radiation screenings, both of themselves and any items they are bringing out.

Before the home visit started, some elderly men said they wished to feed their pets, and bring family photos and medical equipment.

Another man said he wished to check on the cows at his farm.

The move came after plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co opened the doors linking the reactor building to its adjacent turbine building Sunday evening, and confirmed that the resultant release of radioactive materials into the air had not raised radiation levels on the premises, according to the firm.

Nine workers went into the reactor building around 4:20 a.m. and measured radiation and other conditions inside for about 30 minutes, TEPCO said, without immediately announcing the radiation readings.

If the radiation level is confirmed to be safe for workers to operate inside, they will start building a new cooling system for the reactor—the most severely damaged of the six at the plant—which lost cooling functions in the March 11 quake and tsunami.

Restoration work at the reactor has been hampered by a hydrogen explosion on March 12 and high radiation levels since.

In the envisaged next step, workers will install and adjust equipment including a heat exchanger and instruments to measure the water levels in the reactor’s pressure vessel containing nuclear fuel and the containment vessel shrouding it, the company said.

No rises in the radiation level have been seen at nine observation points in the plant located some 220 kilometers northeast of Tokyo since the double-entry doors were opened shortly past 8 p.m. Sunday, TEPCO said.

The government’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency and the Environment Ministry began measuring the same day radiation levels in debris left by the quake-tsunami disaster in Fukushima Prefecture to consider ways to dispose of it and address the fears of local people.

The debris has been stored at makeshift scrap yards in coastal and central areas of the prefecture due to fears of contamination with radioactive materials.

Removing the 25,000 tons of contaminated water that has collected in the basement of the Fukushima Daiichi plant will allow workers access to the reactors to restore their cooling systems.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. removed some 660 tons of highly contaminated water in the past two days from one of the trenches to a “condenser” inside the No.2 reactor turbine building. The condenser has a capacity to store 3,000 tons of liquid.

But the country’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said that the water level at the vertical part of the trench as of 07: 00 a.m. local time Thursday had increased by about 3.5 centimeters from the level observed at 6 p.m. local time Wednesday, according to Kyodo News report.

The agency’s official said that the rise is likely linked to the continued water injection into the No. 2 reactor core.

Thursday’s reading is about 2.5 centimeters lower than the figure before the removing started.

Radioactive water was found in the basements of the No.1 to No.3 reactor turbine buildings, and the nearby trenches connected to them. The water totaled about 60,000 tons.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average lost 155.77 points, or 1.6 per cent, to trade at 9,563.93 while the broader Topix index was down 11.82 points, or 1.39 per cent, at 840.52.

The government raised the level at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station from 5 to 7 late in the morning. Level 7 had only been applied previously to the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

The accident level was elevated after the government’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency determined that the plant has been releasing massive amounts of radioactive materials, which are posing threats to human health and the environment over a wide area, the public broadcaster NHK reported.

The plant was severely damaged by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Its power was knocked out and its cooling functions failed, leading to overheating, explosions and radiation leaks.

For a month, the government and the plant’s operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Co, have been struggling to stabilize the plant.

On currency markets at 11:08 am (0208 GMT), the dollar traded at 84.22—24 yen, down from Monday’s 5 pm quote of 84.74-76 yen.

Source name:http://www.hindu.com/2011/04/08/stories/2011040850400200.htm

The Japanese government on Tuesday raised the accident level at a damaged nuclear power plant to 7, the worst on an international scale, from the current 5.

Level 7 had only been applied previously to the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine.

The accident level was raised after the government’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency determined that the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station has been releasing massive amounts of radioactive materials, which are posing threats to human health and the environment over a wide area, the public broadcaster NHK reported The agency gauged the level with the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES).

The six—reactor nuclear plant, located 250 km north-east of Tokyo was damaged in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, which shut down its cooling systems, leading to partial meltdowns, explosions, fires and radiation releases.

Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said it was looking into a report from the U.N. atomic agency about high levels of radiation in the village of Iitate, 40 kilometers from the plant in Fukushima prefecture.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said the level in one spot tested in Iitate was twice its suggested threshold for evacuation.

NISA spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama said officials were checking radiation levels in the village, which lies outside even a voluntary evacuation area 30 kilometers from the plant. He said most residents have left, but about 100 have chosen to stay.

“We take it seriously,” he said Thursday. “We may consider asking these people to evacuate. But we need more time to study the situation.” People in a 20-kilometer radius around the plant have already been ordered to leave their homes.

Experts say the spike does not pose an immediate danger to human health, but evacuation recommendations tend to be conservative to prevent longterm exposure to any elevation in radiation levels.

Operations continued Thursday to cool down the dangerously overheated Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which has leaked radiation after being damaged in the March 11 quake and tsunami.

The mission to stabilize the plant, 250 kilometers northeast of Tokyo, has become more complicated since the discovery a week ago that radioactive water is pooling inside, restricting the areas in which crews can work.

It also puts emergency crews in the uncomfortable position of having to pump in more water to continue cooling the reactor while simultaneously pumping out contaminated water.

French nuclear officials who are experts of the removal of such radiation have recently arrived to help out, and the IAEA is also sending experts. On Thursday, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France arrived in Tokyo on Thursday for talks with Prime Minister Naoto Kan.

Contamination from the plant has been seeping into the sea, posing no threat to human health because fishing and swimming aren’t allowed in the vicinity but sparking concern about the continued leaks, Nishiyama said.

However, radiation levels are rising. Seawater some 330 meters from the shore south of the plant measured 4,385 times the legal limit, up from 3,355 times the allowed amount the previous day, officials from plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co said.

Experts say the radioactive particles are unlikely to build up significantly in fish, but the seafood concerns in the country that gave the world sushi are yet another blemish for Brand Japan.

Radioactive iodine is short-lived, with a half-life of just eight days, and in any case was expected to dissipate quickly in the vast Pacific Ocean. It does not tend to accumulate in shellfish.

Other radioactive particles have been detected in the waters near the plant, and some have made their way into fish. Trace amounts of radioactive cesium-137 have been found in anchovies as far afield as Chiba, near Tokyo, but at less than 1% of acceptable levels.

“We have repeatedly told consumers that it is perfectly safe to eat fish,” said Shoichi Takayama, an official with Japan’s fishery agency.