Radiation spikes slow work at reactor

TOKYO, March 18 (UPI) -- Work at Japan's crippled nuclear plant in Fukushima was slowed Friday by interruptions because of high radiation levels, officials said.

Engineers were trying to restore power to two of the reactors at the plant operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co., the Los Angeles Times reported. They were frequently forced to retreat when radiation levels spiked.

Workers are unsure if the cooling systems will work because of damage from last week's earthquake, the tsunami that followed and subsequent explosions at the plant. The reactors shut down properly after the quake but the systems designed to cool spent fuel rods failed.

Tokyo Electric said it hoped to restore electricity to the No. 1 and No. 2 reactors by the end of Friday and to No. 3 and No. 4 by Sunday, The Japan Times reported.

"We will concentrate on the work to set up the electricity lines from the outside," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said.

The alert level near the plant was raised from four to five on a seven-point scale, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said.

Yukiya Amano, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, warned in Tokyo that time was a concern in the battle to stabilize the facility, rocked by explosions and fires triggered by last week's 9-magnitude earthquake.

"This is a very grave and serious accident," Amano said after meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan. "So it is important that the international community, including the IAEA, handles this jointly. Especially, cooling (the reactors) is extremely important, so I think this is a race against time."

The change in the level moves the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi plant two levels below the 1986 Chernobyl disaster on the international danger scale for nuclear accidents.

Amano said he hoped new testing would help reassure the Japanese public "by having an international authority carry out its own observations, in addition to such activities by Japan," The Daily Telegraph reported.

Kan vowed to provide more information about the nuclear crisis Friday, Kyodo News reported.

"I want to promise that we will disclose as much information as possible to the IAEA, as well as to the people of the world," Kan said.

Additionally, Japan will enhance its radiation monitoring and other developments concerning the Fukushima plant, Kan said.

Amano said an IAEA team will begin monitoring radiation at the site "in a couple of days." The four-member team of nuclear experts will monitor radiation in Tokyo before going to the plant, he said.

Damage to the reactors includes loss of their roofs due to hydrogen explosions and fires, making the task of preventing radiation from escaping into the atmosphere more difficult.

Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said radiation readings at the plant had been following a downward path through Friday morning, based on measurements taken about a kilometer (0.6 mile) west of the No. 2 reactor after ground water spraying from trucks, Kyodo News reported.