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| Reactor Breach |
The authorities said they would assist people who want to leave the area from 12 to 19 miles outside the facility and said they were encouraging "voluntary evacuation" from the area. Those people had been advised March 15 to stay indoors, while those within a 12-mile radius of the plant had been ordered to evacuate.
Officials said the recommendation was based on concerns about access to safe food and drinking water, rather than new information about radiation levels.
The U.S. government has advised American citizens to stay at least 50 miles away from the Daiichi facility.
The crisis escalated as the death toll from the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami exceeded 10,000 victims.
Across the battered northeastern coast, hundreds of thousands of people whose homes were destroyed still have no power, no hot meals, and in many cases, no showers for 14 days.
Water in a turbine building at Fukushima Daiichi was so radioactive that three workers suffered leg burns on Thursday and renewed fears that the hazardous material could only have come from inside reactor Unit 3's primary containment building or through its main steam system.
That unit is of special concern because it uses mox, a fuel that has extremely dangerous and long-lasting plutonium in addition to uranium.
A leak directly from inside the reactor threatens immediate harm to workers and raises the prospect of much longer-term contamination of the facility and area.
The National Institute of Radiological Sciences said the radioactivity of the water that the three workers had stepped into was 10,000 times the level normally seen in coolant water at the plant.
The owner, Tokyo Electric Power Co., said it was switching to fresh water to cool reactor cores in Units 1 and 3 because of worries that salt from seawater might have formed thick crusts around the nuclear fuel rods. The crusts could block the cooling water and allow heat to build up again.
Two U.S. Navy barges carrying fresh water are heading to the area to help in the cooling efforts, Japanese authorities said, and they are expected in about three days.
One nuclear power expert said that iodine-131 and other contaminants were found in water outside Units 1 and 2, which could point to leaks from the primary containment buildings there as well.
Because of the relatively fast pace of decay of iodine-131, it would most likely be coming from inside the reactor vessels rather than from the used nuclear fuel rods in storage pools, which are older.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said pressure readings at Units 2 and 3 were "unreliable," for example, because of possible damage to the sensors.
What was clear was that the battle to regain control of the reactors was far from over.
"The situation at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant is still very grave and serious," Prime Minister Naoto Kan said in a live TV address. "We must remain vigilant. We're trying to prevent a deterioration of the situation, and we are still not in a position where we can be optimistic. We must treat every development with the utmost care."
The uncertain nuclear situation again halted work at the Fukushima Daiichi complex, where authorities have been scrambling to stop the overheated facility from leaking dangerous radiation.
Low levels of radiation have been seeping out since the March 11 quake and tsunami knocked out the plant's cooling system, but a breach could mean a much larger release of contaminants.
The most likely consequence would be contamination of the groundwater.
Friday marked two weeks since the magnitude-9.0 quake triggered a tsunami that flattened cities along the northeastern coast.
With the cleanup and recovery operations continuing and more than 17,400 listed as missing, the final number of dead was expected to surpass 18,000.
Mr. Kan apologized to farmers and business owners for the toll the radiation has had on their livelihoods.
Several countries have halted some food imports from areas near the plant after elevated levels of radiation were found in raw milk, seawater, and 11 kinds of vegetables, including broccoli, cauliflower, and turnips.
Sources: http://toledoblade.com
