Two weeks before the earthquake and tsunami that struck northeastern Japan, the Nuclear Security Agency of that country acknowledged Friday that the reactor containment vessel number 3 of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station could be damaged after it was detected the presence in the area water with high levels of radioactivity.
In a press conference, Hidehiko Nishiyama, spokesman for the agency, said water with radiation could come from the reactor core, so it "can not rule out" that you damage the vessel or holding tank, while stressing that "it is premature to offer conclusions."
Japanese engineers working at the Fukushima nuclear plant, located 240 kilometers north of Tokyo, reported that the water in reactor number 3 shows radioactive pollution levels 10,000 times higher than normal.
The earthquake and subsequent tsunami caused serious damage to the nuclear power plant, whose reactor 3 was damaged by a hydrogen explosion on 14 March.
On Thursday, two workers were hospitalized after their feet exposed to contaminated water without using appropriate protective boots while trying to restore power in that reactor. Taken
unsung heroes who are exposed to unknown dangers, some 300 engineers working in Fukushima day and night to contain the leaks of radioactivity in the complex of six reactors.
However, on Thursday had to leave some parts of the complex when the workers they replaced a cable near the unit number 3 were exposed to high pollution when standing on radioactive water.
All were taken to a hospital with possible radiation burns after they dropped water on his boots.
measures
Meanwhile, the authorities ordered the implementation of new emergency procedures in the area.
The government decided to evacuate a 20-kilometer radius around the plant in Fukushima and recommended to those living within a radius of between 20 and 30 miles to stay in their homes, although the Minister spokesman Yukio Edan, was more far and advised them to voluntarily leave the area.
- At 13 million residents of Tokyo were told this week not to give tap water to infants under one year after doubling pollution safe levels, but levels then fell again and the governor of the city drank water in front of the cameras in a purification plant.
Operators of the plant, with the help of firefighters, resumed Friday on water injection units 2, 3 and 4 of the plant, while trying to revive the bombs to start Cooling systems by spraying them with seawater.
Official sources reported that the death toll by the earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan exceeded 10,000, while hundreds of thousands of people still live in temporary shelters. A
660,000 families still have no water service and more than 209,000 remain without power.
Fears of radiation on the ground and beyond, radioactive particles were found in Iceland is the worst crisis in Japan since the Second World War.
As BBC correspondent in Tokyo, Mark Worthington, two Japanese tourists who arrived in China on a flight from the Japanese capital are being treated in hospital for high levels of radiation, although it is unclear how it contaminated.
addition to causing the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986, the earthquake and tsunami left nearly 27,400 people dead or missing in the northeast.