Japan PM tells Fukushima nuclear plant workers to hold firm
Naoto Kan visiting tsunami zone as officials try to plug crack that may be leaking radiation into sea
Japan's prime minister, Naoto Kan, has told workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to hold firm in the belief that disaster can be averted, as highly radioactive water continued to seep into the sea.
Nuclear officials' discovery of a crack in a concrete pit at the number two core could offer an explanation for the flow of contaminated water that has jeopardised the operation to calm the reactors and raised fears about radiation finding its way into the sea and soil near the facility.
Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) said it would pour concrete into the pit, where radiation measuring 1,000 millisieverts per hour has been recorded, in an attempt to seal the eight-inch long crack.
Two feet away from the pit radiation levels dropped to 400 millisieverts. Workers have taken samples of the water in the pit and seawater and are analysing them to determine the level of contamination. Experts said that while the leakage was a cause for concern, radiation would be quickly diluted in the ocean.
"With radiation levels rising in seawater next to the plant we have been trying to confirm why that's happening, and [the crack] could be one source," Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for Japan's nuclear and industrial safety agency (Nisa), told reporters.
The plant, 240km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, will continue to leak radiation until four of its six reactors have been reconnected to cooling systems that were knocked out by the 11 March earthquake and tsunami.
An artificial "floating island" is being towed to the plant to store the contaminated seawater, samples of which have shown radiation levels 4,000 times the legal limit.
The vast tanker could store about 10,000 tonnes of water, Tepco said; an estimated 13,000 tonnes of contaminated water has built up beneath some of the reactors.
"We are trying to employ as many measures as possible to regain control of the situation," a Tepco official said, adding that he had "high hopes" for the storage vessel.
Radiation levels in the plant and its vicinity have reached such high levels that Tepco is looking to hire special workers who are prepared to enter contaminated areas to perform essential tasks before rushing out to avoid prolonged exposure. In return for their bravery the "jumpers" are reportedly being offered up to $5,000 (£3,000) a shift, Japanese media has reported.
Kan has been to visit an evacuation centre in the coastal town of Rikuzentakata, which was engulfed by the tsunami. Most of its 23,000 residents were killed or injured.
He later entered the 20km zone around the Fukushima plant from which 70,000 people have been evacuated. He told Tepco workers, troops and firefighters: ''I want you to fight with the conviction that you absolutely cannot lose this battle."
Police said more than 11,800 people had been confirmed dead in the disaster, while more than 15,540 people remained missing. More than 165,000 people are living in shelters.
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