Members of Japan Ground Self-Defense Force supply with water for victims of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated the country, at the city office of Ofunato, Iwate prefecture, Japan, on March 17, 2011. UPI/Keizo Mori |
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TOKYO, March 20 (UPI) -- Power was restored to a building at the Fukushima nuclear plant and all crippled reactors are cooling, the Japanese government said Sunday.
Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa told Kyodo News the spent-fuel pools at all six reactor units were now below boiling point (212 degrees Fahrenheit), a major gain in averting a full meltdown.
A temporary pressure spike in the reactor No. 3 containment vessel caused concern, but the less damaged No. 5 and No. 6 units achieved a ''cold shutdown."
Tokyo Electric Power Co said external power reached the gravely damaged No. 2 unit in the afternoon. The utility now will work to restore radiation monitoring systems, light the control room and cool the reactor and its spent-fuel pool.
The military and firefighters kept pouring thousands of tons of water into the No. 3 and 4 reactor buildings.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano voiced cautious optimism Sunday but indicated the whole plant, beset by explosions and fires since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, will have to be scrapped. Sea water pumped into the plant was corroding the metal.
In an ominous sign, spinach with radioactive iodine 27 times more than the safe limit was found in Hitachi, more than 60 miles south of the plant, local authorities said Sunday.
In one sample of spinach grown in the open air, 54,000 becquerels of iodine was detected. The official limit is 2,000 becquerels. The cesium level was 1,931 becquerels, while the limit is 500 becquerels.
Officials in several regions called for voluntary halts to spinach and milk shipments.
More than 200,000 people within a 12-mile radius of the plant have been evacuated. Several leaks of radioactive steam have occurred from the facility and federal officials acknowledged Saturday food supplies such as milk and spinach were testing positive for radiation.
The national police agency said 8,277 people were confirmed dead and almost 13,000 were unaccounted for, most of them from coastal areas where the tsunami wiped away entire towns.
CNN quoted regional officials in the prefecture, or province, of Miyagi as saying as many as 15,000 people in that region alone were missing.