TOKYO (MNI) – Tokyo Electric Power Co plans to pump tons of water
into reactors to the full at the quake-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear
power plant in northern Japan in a desperate bid to keep them from
overheating and preventing a recurrence of expositions.

The plant operator said late on Tuesday that it would increase
water injections into the No. 1 reactor to 10 tons per hour initially
and then to 14 tons, more than double the current hourly rate of 6 tons,
starting on Wednesday.

If the test is successful, TEPCO will proceed with its plan to
completely submerge the nuclear containment vessels at the six-reactor
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power complex located about 200 kilometers
northeast of the capital.

The decision came after two unmanned U.S. robots examined the No. 1
reactor building and found no noticeable leakage.

But Hidehiko Nishiyama, deputy director-general of the Nuclear and
Industrial Safety Agency, warned that the new efforts may increase the
overall weight of the containment vessels and other facilities, making
it more vulnerable in the event of major aftershocks.

“We will ensure the safety of the new operation by checking each
step of the operation carefully,” said Junichi Matsumoto, an official in
charge of TEPCO’s nuclear-power development.

In another development, TEPCO said there might be a leakage from
the spent nuclear fuel pool at the No. 4 reactor building, judging from
the estimated amount of water injected and staying there.

TEPCO said that the temperatures stood at 134.5 degrees
Celsius at the No. 1 reactor, 120.5 degrees at the No. 2 reactor and
82.5 degrees at No. 3 reactor, below the 1,000-plus degree levels they
reached in the first week of the crisis.

The latest efforts form part of its plan to restore the cooling
systems of the six reactors within three months as the first phase of a
roadmap to settle the country’s worst nuclear crisis.

Under the plan announced on April 17, TEPCO aims to complete a cold
shutdown over the following three to six months after the first phase is
completed.

But the utility continues to face stumbling blocks in reducing the
volume of highly radioactive water at the basement of some turbine
buildings and in the trenches around the reactors at the Fukushima
Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Japan’s nuclear safety commission raised on April 12 the alert for
the situation at the complex to 7 from 5, the highest level on the
international scale.

As unabated aftershocks are hampering efforts to quickly restore
the cooling functions at the stricken nuclear power plant, Japan has
tightened its rules on evacuation orders.

Under the new criteria, Japan issues an evacuation order if
radiation exposure exceeds an annual rate of 20 millisieverts, at the
low end of the 20 to 100 millisieverts range for radiation emergencies
set by the International Commission on Radiological Protection.

Until recently, the government had issued an evacuation order if
the radiation exposure tops 50 millisieverts a year.

Under the new rule, the government has urged residents of Iitate
Village, located some 40 kilometers northeast of the quake-hit plant,
among other municipalities which are located out of the 30 kilometer
zone, to evacuate.

Hundreds of aftershocks have jolted wide areas of central, eastern
and northern Japan since the 9.0-magnitude earthquake wrecked the
northeastern Pacific coast on March 11, the largest ever for Japan.

The Japan Meteorological Agency has warned of aftershocks in a
wider area, as the epicenter of the recent earthquake has shifted from
offshore to inland points.

The government of Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan drafted last
Friday the first supplementary budget for fiscal 2011 totalling Y4.015
trillion, mainly to finance the reconstruction of the northeastern areas
wrecked by the powerful earthquake and tsunami.

The official death toll from the March 11 disaster is now 14,435
people, with 11,601 still missing, as of 1600 JST on Tuesday, according
to the National Policy Agency.

tokyo@marketnews.com
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