Japan sees some stabilisation in nuclear crisis

TOKYO,  (Reuters) – One of six tsunami-crippled  nuclear reactors appeared to stabilise today as Japan  raced to restore power to the stricken power plant to cool it  and prevent a greater catastrophe.
Engineers reported some rare success after fire trucks  sprayed water for about three hours on reactor No.3, widely  considered the most dangerous at the ravaged Fukushima Daiichi  nuclear complex because of its use of highly toxic plutonium.
“The situation there is stabilising somewhat,” Chief Cabinet  Secretary Yukio Edano told a news conference.
Engineers earlier attached a power cable to the outside of  the mangled plant in a desperate attempt to get water pumps  going that would cool overheating fuel rods and prevent a deadly  radiation leak.
They hope electricity will flow by Sunday to four reactors  in the complex about 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo.
Edano said radiation levels in milk from a Fukushima farm  about 30 km (18 miles) from the plant, and spinach grown in  Ibaraki, a neighbouring prefecture, exceeded limits set by the  government, the first known case of contamination since the  March 11 earthquake and tsunami that touched off the crisis.
But he said these higher radiation levels still posed no  risk to human health.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan, facing Japan’s biggest disaster  since World War Two, sounded out the opposition about forming a  government of national unity to deal with a crisis that has left      nearly 7,000 people confirmed killed and turned whole towns into  waterlogged, debris-strewn wastelands.
Another 10,700 people are missing, many feared dead in the  disaster, which has sent a shock through global financial  markets, with major economies joining forces to calm the  Japanese yen.
Officials connected a power cable to the No. 2 reactor and  planned to test power in reactors No. 1, 2, 3 and 4 on Sunday.
Working inside a 20-km (12-mile) evacuation zone at  Fukushima, nearly 300 engineers got a second diesel generator  attached to reactor No. 6 working, the nuclear safety agency  said. They used the power to restart cooling pumps on No. 5.
“TEPCO has connected the external transmission line with the  receiving point of the plant and confirmed that electricity can  be supplied,” the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co   , said in a statement.
Nearly 1.5 km (a mile) of cable is being laid before  engineers try to crank up the coolers at reactor No.2, followed  by numbers 1, 3 and 4 this weekend, company officials said.
“If they are successful in getting the cooling  infrastructure up and running, that will be a significant step  forward in establishing stability,” said Eric Moore, a nuclear  power expert at U.S.-based FocalPoint Consulting Group.
If that fails, one option is to bury the sprawling  40-year-old plant in sand and concrete to prevent a catastrophic  radiation release. The method was used at the Chernobyl reactor  in 1986, scene of the world’s worst nuclear reactor disaster.
Underlining authorities’ desperation, fire trucks sprayed  water overnight in a crude tactic to cool reactor No.3,  considered the most critical because of its use of mixed oxides,  or mox, containing both uranium and highly toxic plutonium.
Japan has raised the severity rating of the nuclear crisis  to level 5 from 4 on the seven-level INES international scale,  putting it on a par with the Three Mile Island accident in  Pennsylvania in 1979. Some experts say it is more serious.
Chernobyl, in Ukraine, was a 7 on that scale.
HUMANITARIAN EFFORT
The operation to avert large-scale radiation has  overshadowed the humanitarian crisis caused by the 9.0-magnitude  quake and 10-metre (33-foot) tsunami.
Some 390,000 people, many elderly, are homeless, living in  shelters in near-freezing temperatures in northeastern coastal  areas.
Food, water, medicine and heating fuel are in short supply  and a Worm Moon, when the full moon is closest to Earth, could  bring floods to devastated areas.
“Everything is gone, including money,” said Tsukasa Sato, a  74-year-old barber with a heart condition, as he warmed his  hands in front of a stove at a shelter for the homeless.
Health officials and the U.N. atomic watchdog have said  radiation levels in the capital Tokyo were not harmful. But the  city has seen an exodus of tourists, expatriates and many  Japanese, who fear a blast of radioactive material.
“I’m leaving because my parents are terrified. I personally  think this will turn out to be the biggest paper tiger the world  has ever seen,” said Luke Ridley, 23, from London as he sat at  Narita international airport using his laptop.
Officials asked people in the 20 km “take cover” zone to  follow some directives when going outside: Drive, don’t walk.  Wear a mask. Wear long sleeves. Don’t go out in the rain.
Though there has been alarm around the world,  experts say  dangerous levels of radiation are unlikely to  spread to other nations.
The U.S. government said “minuscule” amounts of radiation  were detected in California consistent with a release from  Japan’s damaged facility, but there were no levels of concern.