BREAKING NEWS - JAPANESE ADMIT RADIATION LEAKS SERIOUS ENOUGH TO KILL -THE PLANTS HAVE TO BE BURIED...

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The moment nuclear plant chief WEPT as Japanese finally admit that radiation leak is serious enough

to kill people

By David Derbyshire

Last updated at 8:55 PM on 18th March 2011

y Officials admit they may have to bury reactors under concrete - as happened at Chernobyl

y Government says it was overwhelmed by the scale of twin disasters

y Japanese upgrade accident from level four to five - the same as Three Mile Island

y We will rebuild from scratch says Japanese prime minister

y Particles spewed from wrecked Fukushima power station arrive in California

y Military trucks tackle reactors with tons of water for second day

Overwhelmed: Tokyo Electric Power Company Managing Director Akio Komiri cries as he leaves after a

press conference in Fukushima

The boss of the company behind the devastated Japanese nuclear reactor today broke down in tears - ashis country finally acknowledged the radiation spewing from the over-heating reactors and fuel rods was

enough to kill some citizens

Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency admitted that the disaster was a level 5, which is classified

as a crisis causing 'several radiation deaths' by the UN International Atomic Energy.

Officials said the rating was raised after they realised the full extent of the radiation leaking from the

plant. They also said that 3 per cent of the fuel in three of the reactors at the Fukushima plant had been

severely damaged, suggesting those reactor cores have partially melted down.



After Tokyo Electric Power Company Managing Director Akio Komiri cried as he left a conference to brief

journalists on the situation at Fukushima, a senior Japanese minister also admitted that the country was

overwhelmed by the scale of the tsunami and nuclear crisis.

He said officials should have admitted earlier how serious the radiation leaks were.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said: 'The unprecedented scale of the earthquake and tsunami that

struck Japan, frankly speaking, were among many things that happened that had not been anticipated

under our disaster management contingency plans.

'In hindsight, we could have moved a little quicker in assessing the situation and coordinating all that

information and provided it faster.'

Nuclear experts have been saying for days that Japan was underplaying the crisis' severity.

It is now officially on a par with the Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania in 1979. Only the

explosion at Chernobyl in 1986 has topped the scale.

Deputy director general of the NISA, HideohikoNishiyama, also admitted that they do not know if the

reactors are coming under control.

He said: 'With the water-spraying operations, we are fighting a fire we cannot see. That fire is not

spreading, but we cannot say yet that it is under control.'

But prime minister Naoto Kan insisted that his country would overcome the catastrophe

'We will rebuild Japan from scratch,' he said in a televised speech: 'In our history, this small island nation

has made miraculous economic growth thanks to the efforts of all Japanese citizens. That is how Japan

was built.'

It comes after pictures emerged showing overheating fuel rods exposed to the elements through a huge

hole in the wall of a reactor building at the destroyed Fukushima nuclear plant.

More...

y Elderly patients left to die in hospital six miles from Japan's stricken nuclear power plant

y 'We have been betrayed': Mayor of town near stricken Japanese nuclear plant claims his people

have been 'abandoned'

y Courage of the Fukushima Fifty: This is suicide, admit workers trying to avert a catastrophe

y Dark days in ghost town of Tokyo: The deserted streets of a once vibrant capital now crippled by

power cuts

y First Japanese radioactive particles reach U.S. West Coast but UN official claims they're a 'billion

times' beneath danger levels

y Symbol of a nation's agony, the boy of nine searching shelters for his family

y No sushi: Rice and raw fish could be off menu as fears rise of Japanese food contamination

Radiation is streaming into the atmosphere from the used uranium rods at reactor number four, after a

45ft-deep storage pool designed to keep them stable boiled dry in a fire.

And some of the radioactive material could reach Britain within a fortnight, according to experts.

However they say it will not be dangerous when it reaches our shores while low levels of radiation have

already hit Southern California.

Scroll down for video



Exposed: this shots shows a gaping hole in the building of reactor number four. The green crane, circled,

is normally used to move spent fuel rods into a 45ft deep storage pond, just out of shot. But the pool

has now boiled dry and the spent rods are heating up and releasing radiation



Boiled dry: This shot shows of the inside of reactor number four at the Fukushima nuclear plant before

the disaster. The spent fuel storage pool is seen at the front of the shot. The rods are at the bottom of

the pool, which has now boiled dry

A UN official said the radiation reaching America is 'about a billion times' beneath health-threatening

levels.



An airborne plume of radiation is expected to be swept towards Europe, and again officials stress that

the levels reaching the UK will not be high enough to pose any risk to human health.

Lars-Erik De Geer of the Swedish Defence Research Institute, said particles would eventually be detected

across Europe.

'It is not something you see normally,' he said. 'But it is not high from any danger point of view. It is only

a question of very, very low activities so it is nothing for people to worry about.'

The prediction that particles could reach Britain within two weeks is based on previous data, gathered

by scientists observing nuclear testing in China.

Meanwhile, workers at the devastated power station are continuing their desperate battle to prevent a

complete meltdown which some fear could be as bad as Chernobyl.

The latest pictures show a whole wall missing from the building housing reactor number four. Inside, a

green crane normally used to move spent fuel rods into the storage pool can be seen. Underneath the

crane, but not seen in the picture, is the 45ft-deep spent fuel storage pool which has boiled dry.

Officials at Fukushima are rapidly running out of options to halt the crisis. Military trucks are spraying

the reactors for a second days with tons of water arcing over the facility.

Engineers are trying to get the coolant pumping systems knocked out by the tsunami working again after

laying a new power line from the main grid.

And they today admitted that burying reactors under sand and concrete - the solution adopted inChernobyl - may be the only option to stop a catastrophic radiation release.

It was the first time the facility operator had acknowledged burying the sprawling 40-year-old complex

was possible, a sign that piecemeal actions such as dumping water from military helicopters or

scrambling to restart cooling pumps may not work.

'It is not impossible to encase the reactors in concrete. But our priority right now is to try and cool them

down first,' an official from the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co, told a news conference.

But some experts warned that even the concrete solution was not without risks.

'It's just not that easy,' Murray Jennex, a professor at San Diego State University in California, said when

asked about the so-called Chernobyl option for dealing with damaged reactors, named after the

Ukrainian nuclear plant that exploded in 1986.

More...

y Elderly patients left to die in hospital six miles from Japan's stricken nuclear power plant

y 'We have been betrayed': Mayor of town near stricken Japanese nuclear plant claims his people

have been 'abandoned'

y Courage of the Fukushima Fifty: This is suicide, admit workers trying to avert a catastrophe

y Dark days in ghost town of Tokyo: The deserted streets of a once vibrant capital now crippled by

power cuts

y First Japanese radioactive particles reach U.S. West Coast but UN official claims they're a 'billion

times' beneath danger levels

y Symbol of a nation's agony, the boy of nine searching shelters for his family

y No sushi: Rice and raw fish could be off menu as fears rise of Japanese food contamination

'They (reactors) are kind of like a coffee maker. If you leave it on the heat, they boil dry and then they

crack,' he said.

'Putting concrete on that wouldn't help keep your coffee maker safe. But eventually, yes, you could

build a concrete shield and be done with it.'

And Yukiya Amano, the head of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency said workers were in a

'race against the clock' to cool the reactor.

Attempts to quell the overheating plant with waterbombs from helicopters yesterday failed and despite

the army pelting the site with water cannon, radiation levels rose higher.



Engineers are also working to restore power to the coolant pumping system knocked out by the

tsunami.



Dangerous work: officials wearing protective clothing and respirators head towards the Fukushima

nuclear plant



Enlarge



Getting worse: The Inernational Atomic Energy Agency has upgraded the disaster to a level five. But

French officials have previously claimed it is a six



Staging point: Fiire engines gather in Iwaki today as they prepare to douse overheating reactors and

spent fuel at the plant

Unlike the other reactors which use uranium, Reactor 3 uses a mixture of uranium and plutonium.

Plutonium, best known as an ingredient in nuclear weapons, is particularly dangerous if released into

the environment.

In the worst case scenario, exposed fuel will melt, triggering a chemical explosion that will send

radioactive dust hundreds of yards into the air.

Chinook helicopters flying at less than 300 feet dropped four loads of water over the wrecked building inthe hope that some water would seep into the dried-out pool and cool the fuel.



Fearful residents: Officials scan people for radiation, 60 km west of the nuclear power plant in Koriyama

on March 18



Growing criticism: The Japanese government is the target of growing criticism over the nuclear crisis. A

businessman are pictured receiving a radiation scan at a screening centre in Koriyama after being

evacuated form their homes



International alarm: Passengers arriving from Japan are scanned at Kuala Lumpur airport in Malaysia,

left, and Japanese passengersdisembraking from a ferry walk through a scanner in Busan, South KoreaHowever, footage suggested much of the 2,000 gallons of water missed its target.

Later, six fire engines and a water cannon tried to spray the building with 9,000 gallons of water from

high pressure hoses. However, radiation levels within the plant rose from 3,700 millisieverts to 4,000

millisieverts an hour immediately afterwards.

People exposed to such doses will suffer radiation sickness and many will die. Today Tokyo Electric

Power, which owns the plant, will try to restart the reactor's cooling systems after workers connected a

half mile long power cable from the national grid to Reactor 2.



Spokesman Teruaki Kobayashi said: 'This is the first step towards recovery.'

He added: 'We are doing all we can as we pray for the situation to improve.'

Last night 14,000 were confirmed dead or missing in Japan and 492,000 are homeless. There are

850,000 households in the north of the main island without electricity in freezing temperatures.

Fleeing: Passengers queue at the ticket counter to buy tickets for the earliest possible flight as they

attempt to evacuate from Japan at Narita International Airport near Tokyo



Exhausted: Children sleep on the floor of Narita International Airport as their parents try to get on a

flight out the country

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1367684/Nuclear-plant-chief-weeps-Japanese-

finally-admit-radiation-leak-kill-people.html#ixzz1GzWUNngo

BREAKING NEWS - JAPANESE ADMIT RADIATION LEAKS SERIOUS ENOUGH TO KILL -THE PLANTS HAVE TO BE BURIED...

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