1st water sprayed at Fukushima's No. 4 reactor
TOKYO, March 20, Kyodo
Japanese authorities shot water into a spent-fuel pool of the reactor No. 4 of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant Sunday for the first time since the reactor's cooling system failed following last week's powerful earthquake.
The operator also stepped up efforts to reactivate the cooling system of the reactors No. 1 and 2 as power cables were connected to them, but the International Atomic Energy Agency chief indicated it was premature to have an optimistic view on the future of the troubled plant.
The Ground Self-Defense Force sprayed about 80 tons of water from a vehicle into the pool for nearly one hour until 9:30 a.m., according to the Defense Ministry.
The move came after the Tokyo Fire Department shot water into a spent-fuel storage pool of the No. 3 reactor in an overnight operation that lasted more than 13 hours until 3:40 a.m.
More than 2,000 tons of water is believed to have been put into the No. 3 reactor's pool, exceeding the pool's capacity of 1,400 tons. Fuel rods used at the reactor were plutonium-uranium mixed oxide fuel, known as MOX, said to be harder to control than normal fuel rods made from uranium.
The power plant which was hit hard by the March 11 magnitude 9.0 earthquake is on the Pacific coast of Fukushima Prefecture about 220 kilometers northeast of Tokyo.
IAEA chief Yukiya Amano made cautious comments on the future of the Fukushima plant. Amano said, upon his return to Vienna from a trip to Japan, ''I hope that safety, stability will be recovered as soon as possible...But I still don't think it is time to say that I think they are going in a good direction or not''
Tokyo Electric Power Co. said that the previously overheated spent-fuel storage pools of the reactors No. 5 and No. 6 were cooled down to 37.1 C and 41.0 C, respectively, as of 7 a.m. Sunday.
The company said it plans to check the system of the No. 2 reactor first as the building housing its containment was not damaged, which means it is hard to cool it down using water from outside. The fuel rods partially melted in the reactor but it is unknown how much water is left in its fuel storage pool.
The company will try to restore the systems Sunday to monitor radiation and other data, light the control room and cool down the reactor and a spent-fuel storage pool of the reactor.
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Kyodo