TEPCO asked to pull workers from nuclear plant: report
Officials check a visitor at a radiation screening center in Koriyama in Fukushima prefecture on March 17, 2011 some 60 kms away from the Fukushima nuclear facilities. Japanese military helicopters dumped tonnes of water onto the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant northeast of Tokyo in a bid to douse fuel rods and prevent a disastrous radiation release. Photo courtesy AFP.
Japan rejected early US help on nuclear disaster: report
Tokyo (AFP) March 18, 2011 -
Japan turned down a US offer to provide technical support for cooling fuel rods at nuclear reactors hit by a massive earthquake and tsunami, a newspaper reported on Friday.
The United States made the offer immediately after the disaster caused damage to Fukushima No.1 nuclear plant, the Yomiuri Shimbun said, quoting a senior official of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan.
According to the unnamed senior official, US support was based on dismantling the troubled reactors run by Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) some 250 kilometres (155 miles) northeast of Tokyo, the mass-circulation daily said.
The government and TEPCO, both having first thought the cooling system could be restored by themselves, rejected the offer as they believed "it was too early to take," Yomiuri said.
Some ruling party and government officials pointed that the country could have avoided the current crisis if Prime Minister Naoto Kan's government had accepted the offer, it said.
On Thursday, the Japanese military used trucks and helicopters to dump tonnes of water onto the plant in efforts to douse fuel rods and prevent a disastrous radiation release.
The 9.0-magnitude quake, the biggest on record to strike Japan, hit the eastern coast of the Tohoku region, north of the capital, Friday last week, leaving 15,000 dead or missing.
US military sends team to help with nuclear plant
Washington (AFP) March 17, 2011 -
The US military has sent a team of experts to evaluate how American forces can assist Japan with the quake-hit Fukushima nuclear plant, the Pentagon said Thursday.
The nine-member team "will work with the Japanese military and they will provide advice to the commander to determine if any additional US forces are required for that mission," spokesman Colonel Dave Lapan told reporters.
The expert team will "evaluate" what assistance the military could provide "related to the nuclear incident, separate from the humanitarian, disaster relief mission," Lapan said.
The team was drawn from the military's Northern Command in the continental United States, he said.
The move paved the way for a more direct role for the US military in the crisis over the crippled Fukushima plant, damaged in Friday's massive earthquake and tsunami.
US forces so far have confined their efforts to providing equipment and logistical support, including the delivery of water pumps and special protective suits.
The US Navy's 7th Fleet earlier said "100 nuclear, biological, chemical (NBC) firefighting suits and masks were delivered from the USS George Washington to the government of Japan this morning for use at the Fukushima power plant."
The suits are designed to protect against radiation or other toxic materials.
US President Barack Obama has promised Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan to give Tokyo any support needed in the face of the deepening nuclear crisis.
The US Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration has reportedly sent 33 experts to Japan with 17,000 pounds (7,700 kilograms) of equipment to assist Japanese authorities.
The military earlier provided five high-pressure water pumps for use at Fukushima and had deployed aircraft, including unmanned Global Hawk drones, to survey the nuclear plant and damage from the disaster.
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by Staff Writers
Tokyo March 18, 2011
Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) asked the Japanese government earlier this week to permit a full withdrawal of its employees from the troubled nuclear plant now facing fears of a meltdown, a daily said Friday.
TEPCO had first concluded that it would be "difficult" for its workers to continue to restore the Fukushima No.1 nuclear plant, where high levels of radiation have been monitored, the Mainichi Shimbun said.
TEPCO sounded out the plan on Monday after explosions and fire hit the nuclear reactors crippled by a massive earthquake and tsunami.
But Prime Minister Naoto Kan turned down the request, telling TEPCO: "Withdrawal is impossible. It's not a matter of whether TEPCO collapses. It's a matter of whether Japan goes wrong," according to Mainichi.
An unnamed official related to TEPCO, however, was quoted by Mainichi as saying: "If withdrawal is unacceptable, it's as if (Kan) said 'Do it until you are exposed to radiation and die."
Up to 5,000 people used to work at the plant. TEPCO has not announced the number of employees still working inside the facility. Some news reports say around 70 people are working now.
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Japan choppers, trucks douse stricken atomic plant
Tokyo (AFP) March 18, 2011
The Japanese military Thursday used trucks and helicopters to dump tonnes of water onto the quake-hit Fukushima nuclear plant in efforts to douse fuel rods and prevent a disastrous radiation release.
Four twin-rotor CH-47 Chinooks ran the first mission to empty large buckets that hold more than seven tonnes of water each onto the facility damaged by last Friday's massive earthquake and tsuna ... read more
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