D*****r
发帖数: 6791 | 1 http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/15/us-japan-quake-idUSTR
By Taiga Uranaka and Ki Joon Kwon
FUKUSHIMA, Japan | Tue Mar 15, 2011 4:01am EDT
(Reuters) - Japan faced potential catastrophe on Tuesday after a quake-
crippled nuclear power plant exploded and sent low levels of radiation
floating toward Tokyo, prompting some people to flee the capital and others
to stock up on essential supplies.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan urged people within 30 km (18 miles) of the
facility north of Tokyo to remain indoors and conserve power amid the world'
s most serious nuclear disaster since the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine in
1986.
As concern about the crippling economic impact of the nuclear and earthquake
disasters mounted, Japanese stocks fell as much as 14 percent before ending
down 9.5 percent, compounding a slide of 7.6 percent the day before. The
two-day fall has wiped some $620 billion off the market.
The French Embassy in Tokyo warned in an 0100 GMT advisory that a low level
of radioactive wind could reach the capital -- 240 km (150 miles) south of
the plant -- in about 10 hours.
Radiation levels in the city of Maebashi, 100 km (60 miles) north of Tokyo
were up to 10 times normal levels, Kyodo news agency said. Only minute
levels were found in the capital itself, which so far were "not a problem",
city officials said.
"The possibility of further radioactive leakage is heightening," a grim-
faced Kan said in an address to the nation. "We are making every effort to
prevent the leak from spreading. I know that people are very worried but I
would like to ask you to act calmly."
There were two explosions on Tuesday at two of the reactors at the nuclear
facility after days of frantic efforts to cool them. Japan told the U.N.
nuclear watchdog a spent fuel storage "pond" was on fire and radioactivity
was being released "directly" into the atmosphere.
Levels of 400 millisieverts per hour had been recorded at the plant, the
government said. Exposure to over 100 millisieverts a year is a level which
can lead to cancer, according to the World Nuclear Association.
Japan announced a 30-km no-fly zone around the reactors.
Despite pleas for calm, residents rushed to shops in Tokyo to stock up on
supplies. Don Quixote, a multi-storey, 24-hour general store in Roppongi
district, sold out of radios, flashlights, candles and sleeping bags.
In a sign of regional fears about the risk of radiation, China said it was
strengthening monitoring of the area and Air China said it had canceled
flights to Tokyo.
Several embassies advised staff and citizens to leave affected areas.
Tourists cut short vacations and multinational companies either urged staff
to leave or said they were considering plans to move outside Tokyo.
"I'm scared. I'm so scared I would rather be in the eye of a tornado," said
10-year-old Lucy Niver of Egan, Minnesota, who was on holiday in Japan. "I
want to leave."
Winds over the nuclear facility were blowing slowly in a southwesterly
direction that includes Tokyo but will shift westerly later on Tuesday, a
weather official said.
Japanese media have became more critical of Kan's handling of the disaster
and criticized the government and nuclear plant operator TEPCO for their
failure to provide enough information on the incident.
Residents want information on the health risks.
"Very acute radiation, like that which happened in Chernobyl and to the
Japanese workers at the nuclear power station, is unlikely for the
population," said Lam Ching-wan, a chemical pathologist at the University of
Hong Kong.
But the blasts could expose the population to longer-term exposure to
radiation, which can raise the risk of thyroid and bone cancers and leukemia
, he said. Children and fetuses are especially vulnerable.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, talking of levels of radiation at the
Fukushima Daiichi plant's No. 4 reactor, said: "There is definitely a
possibility that this could affect people's bodies."
Many of the worrying milestones mapped out by experts have been passed, with
some workers having left the complex and people living within 30 km told to
stay indoors.
There have been a total of four explosions at the plant since it was damaged
in last Friday's massive quake and tsunami. The most recent were blasts at
reactors No. 2 and No. 4.
There was a real possibility of a leak in the No.4 reactor container, which
houses the nuclear fuel rods, according to Murray Jennex, a professor at San
Diego State University in California.
Concerns center on damage to a part of the reactor core known as the
suppression pool, which helps cool and trap the majority of cesium, iodine,
strontium in its water. The nature of the damage was unclear, as was its
impact on the containment structure, a thick steel vessel that surrounds the
core.
Jennex said the crisis in Japan, the only nation to have suffered a nuclear
attack, was worse that the Three Mile Island disaster of 1979.
"But you're nowhere near a Chernobyl ... Chernobyl there was no impediment
to release, it just blew everything out into the atmosphere," he said. "You'
ve still got a big chunk of the containment there holding most of it in."
Authorities had previously been trying to prevent meltdowns in the complex's
nuclear reactors by flooding the chambers with sea water to cool the
reactors down.
A sudden drop in cooling water levels when a pump ran out of fuel had fully
exposed the fuel rods for a time, an official said. TEPCO had resumed
pumping sea water into the reactor early on Tuesday.
U.S. warships and planes helping with relief efforts moved away from the
coast temporarily because of low-level radiation. The U.S. Seventh Fleet
described the move as precautionary.
South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and the Philippines said they would test
Japanese food imports for radiation.
"SCENE FROM HELL"
The full extent of the destruction from last Friday's massive quake and
tsunami that followed it was still becoming clear, as rescuers combed
through the region north of Tokyo where officials say at least 10,000 people
were killed.
"It's a scene from hell, absolutely nightmarish," said Patrick Fuller of the
International Red Cross Federation from the northeastern coastal town of
Otsuchi.
Kan has said Japan is facing its worst crisis since World War Two and, with
the financial costs estimated at up to $180 billion, analysts said it could
tip the world's third-biggest economy back into recession.
The U.S. Geological Survey upgraded the quake to magnitude 9.0, from 8.9,
making it the world's fourth most powerful since 1900.
Car makers, shipbuilders and technology companies worldwide scrambled for
supplies after the disaster shut factories in Japan and disrupted the global
manufacturing chain.
About 850,000 households in the north were still without electricity in near
-freezing weather, Tohuku Electric Power Co. said, and the government said
at least 1.5 million households lack running water. Tens of thousands of
people were missing.
"The situation here is just beyond belief, almost everything has been
flattened," said the Red Cross's Fuller in Otsuchi, a town all-but
obliterated. "The government is saying that 9,500 people, more than half of
the population, could have died and I do fear the worst."
Whole villages and towns have been wiped off the map by Friday's wall of
water, triggering an international humanitarian effort of epic proportions.
Estimates of the economic impact are now starting to emerge.
Hiromichi Shirakawa, chief economist for Japan at Credit Suisse, said in a
note to clients that the economic loss will likely be around 14-15 trillion
yen ($171-183 billion) just to the region hit by the quake and tsunami.
Even that would put it above the commonly accepted cost of the 1995 Kobe
quake which killed 6,000 people.
The earthquake has forced many firms to suspend production and global
companies -- from semiconductor makers to shipbuilders -- face disruptions
to operations after the quake and tsunami destroyed vital infrastructure,
damaged ports and knocked out factories.
"The earthquake could have great implications on the global economic front,"
said Andre Bakhos, director of market analytics at Lec Securities in New
York. "If you shut down Japan, there could be a global recession."
(Additional reporting by Nathan Layne, Linda Sieg, Chisa Fujioka, Risa Maeda
, Shinichi Saoshiri and Leika Kihara in Tokyo, Chris Meyers and Kim Kyung-
hoon in Sendai, Noel Randewich in San Francisco, Tan Ee-lyn in Hong Kong and
Miyoung Kim in Seoul; Writing by Nick Macfie; Editing by John Chalmers and
Dean Yates) | h******k
发帖数: 13418 | | D*****r
发帖数: 6791 | 3 嗯，希望是这样。
但是我怀疑2号的泄露引发了4号的废料库着火，这个稍微有点大。
现在消息说泄露会逐渐减小，但是现在已经泄露的就已经不少了。
往4号废料储存池里灌海水，消除这些影响也得一段时间吧。
如果冷却还是个问题的话，仍然危险。
【在 h******k 的大作中提到】
: 危机就快结束了.
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