Worst incident since Chernobyl:
Atomic crisis deepens in Japan
JaPan: Japanese crews grappling with the world's worst nuclear
incident since Chernobyl temporarily pulled out Wednesday as radiation
rose following feared damage to a reactor containment vessel. The
evacuation order at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, where a tall
stack of white cloud billowed high into the sky, deepened the crisis
gripping Japan after an earthquake and tsunami pulverised its east coast
on Friday.
"Around 10:40 am (0140 GMT) we ordered the evacuation of workers...
due to the rise in (radioactivity) data around the gate" of the ageing
plant, a nuclear safety agency official said at a televised news
conference.
The radiation levels peaked at a relatively low 6.4 millisieverts,
officials said, but some three hours later there was no news on whether
the crews had been allowed back into the plant 250 kilometres (155
miles) northeast of Tokyo. With nerves on edge across the world's
third-biggest economy and beyond, people across Asia have been stripping
shelves of essentials for fear of a major emission of radiation from the
stricken power plant on the east coast.
Before the evacuation order, crews at Fukushima contended with a new
fire and feared damage to the vessel containing one of the plant's six
reactor cores.
However, after the Tokyo stock exchange's biggest twoday sell-off in
24 years sparked a global market rout, the headline Nikkei share index
recovered 4.37 percent on Wednesday morning as investors snapped up
bargains.
The Bank of Japan pumped another 3.5 trillion yen ($43.3 billion)
into the financial system, adding to trillions spent this week since the
9.0 magnitude earthquake and towering tsunami crippled a large swathe of
the economy. Authorities are staring at a staggering death toll. The
devastation in tsunami-hit areas such as the small fishing town of
Minamisanriku is absolute, with the northeastern settlement missing
about half of its 17,000 people.
Millions in Japan have been left without water, electricity, fuel or
enough food and hundreds of thousands more are homeless, stoically
coping with snow and freezing rain in the northeast.
At the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, live TV footage showed the
cloud of white smoke rising high into the clear blue sky. The
containment vessel around the core of reactor number three may have
suffered damage, and the "likeliest possibility" for the white cloud was
steam escaping from the vessel, chief government spokesman Yukio Edano
said.
The number-three reactor was hit by a blast Monday that tore off the
outer structure of the reactor building. Fire crews fought a new blaze
early Wednesday at reactor number four, operator Tokyo Electric Power
Co. (TEPCO) said, but it was later extinguished. Engineers have been
desperately battling a feared meltdown at the 40-year-old plant since
the earthquake and tsunami knocked out cooling systems and fuel rods
began overheating.
There have now been four explosions and two fires at the complex,
with four out of its six reactors in trouble. France's Nuclear Safety
Authority said the disaster now equated to a six on the seven-point
international scale for nuclear accidents, ranking the crisis second
only in gravity to the level-seven Chernobyl disaster in 1986.
Sendai, Wednesday, AFP
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