WASHINGTON — The first readings from American data-collection flights over the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in northeastern Japan show that the worst contamination has not spread beyond the 19-mile range of highest concern established by Japanese authorities.( dell inspiron 1545 battery)
1 of 5NEXTPREV The Destruction and AftermathPhotos of the unfolding disaster in Japan.
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TimesCast | Inside a Nuclear Reactor
TimesCast | Inside a Nuclear Reactor
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How a Reactor Shuts Down and What Happens in a Meltdown Slide Show
Japan Continues Efforts to Cool Nuclear FuelRelated.(inspiron 1545 battery) )
Obama’s Speech on Japan (Text) (March 17, 2011)
Easy Fixes at Reactors in Long Run Are Elusive (March 18, 2011)
Japan Offers Little Response to U.S. Assessment (March 18, 2011)
Radiation Fears and Distrust Push Thousands From Homes (March 18, 2011)
Greater Danger Lies in Spent Fuel Than in Reactors (March 18, 2011) But another day of frantic efforts to cool nuclear fuel in the troubled reactors and in the plant’s spent-fuel pools resulted in little or no progress, according to United States government officials. (dell studio 1737 battery)
Japanese officials said that they would continue those efforts — including spraying one of the reactors with water cannons on Friday afternoon — but that they were also racing to restore electric power to the site to get equipment going again, leaving open the question of why that effort did not begin days ago, at the first signs that the critical backup cooling systems for the reactors had failed.
The data was collected by the Aerial Measuring System, among the most sophisticated devices rushed to Japan by the Obama administration in an effort to help contain a nuclear crisis that a top American nuclear official said Thursday could go on for weeks. (hp pavilion dv9000 battery )
Strapped onto a plane and a helicopter that the United States flew over the site, with Japanese permission, the equipment took measurements that showed harmful radiation in the immediate vicinity of the plant — a much heavier dose than the trace levels of radioactive particles that make up the atmospheric plume covering a much wider area. (compaq 319411-001 battery)
While the findings were reassuring in the short term, the United States declined to back away from its warning to Americans there to stay at least 50 miles from the plant, setting up a far larger perimeter than the Japanese government had established. American officials did not release specific radiation readings. COMPAQ PRESARIO 1200 DC Adapter
American officials said their biggest worry was that a frenetic series of efforts by the Japanese military to get water into four of the plant’s six reactors — including using water cannons and firefighting helicopters that dropped water but appeared to largely miss their targets — showed few signs of working.
“This is something that will likely take some time to work through, possibly weeks, as eventually you remove the majority of the heat from the reactors and then the spent fuel pool,” said Gregory Jaczko, the chairman of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, briefing reporters at the White House.(compaq presario 2500 battery ) Fire trucks were spraying reactor No. 3 with water cannons Friday afternoon, live video on the public broadcaster NHK suggested. The footage showed a stream of water aimed at the damaged reactor building, which was rocked by an explosion on Monday, and occasional clouds of steam rising into the air. Japan’s Defense Ministry said soldiers of the Self-Defense Force were manning seven trucks that would approach the No.3 building one after the other, staying near the reactor for only a short period to minimize soldiers’ exposure to harmful radiation. (dell 6y270 battery )
The effort by the Japanese to hook some electric power back up to the plant did not begin until Thursday and even if they succeed, it is unclear whether the cooling systems, in reactor buildings battered by a tsunami and then torn apart by hydrogen explosions, survived the crisis in good enough shape to be useful.
“What you are seeing are desperate efforts — just throwing everything at it in hopes something will work,” said one American official with long nuclear experience who would not speak for attribution. “Right now this is more prayer than plan.” (dell vostro 1510 battery)
On Thursday, President Obama said that the crisis had convinced him to order the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to do a comprehensive review of the safety of nuclear plants in the United States.
After a day in which American and Japanese officials gave radically different assessments of the danger from the nuclear plant, the two governments tried on Thursday to join forces.
Experts met in Tokyo to compare notes.(dell inspiron 1545 ac adapter ) The United States, with Japanese permission, began to put the intelligence-collection aircraft over the site, in hopes of gaining a view for Washington as well as its allies in Tokyo that did not rely on the announcements of officials from the Tokyo Electric Power Company, which operates Fukushima Daiichi.
American officials say they suspect that the company has consistently underestimated the risk and moved too slowly to contain the damage. (Acer aspire one 10.1 battery )
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