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Desperate attempts to reconnect reactor pumps

Shane McLeod reported this story on Friday, March 18, 2011 08:00:00

TONY EASTLEY: It's a faint hope but one that Japanese nuclear authorities are holding to grimly. They trust that cooling the stricken reactors at the Fukushima plant yesterday using aerial water bombing and fire hoses may have given them the extra time they need to restore electricity supplies and so get cooling pumps working again.

But it is only a glimmer and experts suggest that the aerial water bombing is a sign of the desperation felt by authorities.

Correspondent Shane McLeod is in Tokyo.

Shane McLeod good morning. What are authorities saying about the success or otherwise of these latest attempts to cool the reactors?

SHANE MCLEOD: Well Tony late last night they held a press briefing and have said that they are confident they've had a little bit of success with this.

So yesterday we had helicopters dropping water on the number three reactor building but we also had five military fire trucks were on the ground spraying water into the wreckage of the building.

Now they did that for about half an hour. It seems that that has had some success; at least this is what TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) is saying. They say that it appears to have reduced radiation just a little outside at the area where they are measuring radiation from the site.

So they are going to continue this. They are going to do more water bombing and water spraying today until they hope they can get some of the cooling systems working at the centre again.

TONY EASTLEY: The water bombing and the playing of fire hoses onto the stricken reactor buildings, is that all they are doing to try and bring the core temperature down Shane?

SHANE MCLEOD: They are trying to do that so they can get closer to do more work. But the thing they would really like to do and they are working on at the moment is to reconnect high voltage power supplies to the plant which they hope means they can get some of the pumps working again to get coolant circulating in the systems there.

Now they're saying they hope they can do that today and that in combination with the water bombing, the water spraying, that if they can get that in place that they should be able to get some substantial work done in actually restoring the cooling systems.

TONY EASTLEY: Shane do we know how much radiation is coming out of the stricken reactors?

SHANE MCLEOD: Well the measurement is being taken apparently just at the boundary of the facility.

And they are saying that as of last night there were 289 microsieverts per hour coming out of there. That had fallen from about three hours earlier when they were measuring 292 per hour.

So they are saying that they think this is because of the water bombing, the water spraying. They think it's reducing radiation which they hope means they can then get more people closer to the facility so they can do more work to restore these cooling systems.

TONY EASTLEY: Are Japanese people getting the information that they require on this? Are they being told how dangerous or otherwise it is to their health to be within sort of certain limits of the plant?

SHANE MCLEOD: There's certainly plenty of focus in the media here and people are talking about you know what's involved in the exclusion zones and the like.

But it's interesting that you know in Japan the exclusion zones are 20 kilometres from the facility whereas for other countries, the United States for example is telling its citizens they shouldn't get within 80 kilometres of this facility.

And I think that is being highlighted and reported in Japanese media. People are perhaps asking questions about that.

There was reporting yesterday from inside Fukushima prefecture, inside some of the evacuation centres and hospitals there. People are paying attention because there is a lot of people still in that zone that could be affected by any problems at the reactor.

TONY EASTLEY: When you talk about people there is that in the tens of thousands?

SHANE MCLEOD: That's not necessarily inside the zone Tony but there are still people nearby. There are hospitals and the like where people are being treated for their injuries after the earthquake and the tsunami.

There's been reporting from them. The mayor of one of the towns in the region as well has been talking as well, just concerned that they've been forgotten by rescue authorities in the rush I guess to deal with the nuclear situation.

TONY EASTLEY: And that's correspondent Shane McLeod in Tokyo.

The US president Barack Obama says he's been told that no harmful radiation from Japan's nuclear crisis will reach the United States or any of its territories.

The prevailing winds are currently blowing fallout from the plant in Fukushima across the Pacific towards America's west coast.


  • Click an image to enlarge
  • Japan resorts to water-bombing reactors
  • Smoke rises from Fukushima nuclear plant
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