JAPAN IS facing the prospect of a major nuclear disaster as it struggles to recover from the impact of last Friday’s massive earthquake and tsunami.
Government officials admitted yesterday that desperate attempts to prevent a reactor from going into meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear complex, about 350km northeast of Tokyo, are in danger of failing.
Cabinet spokesman Yukio Edano said that sea water being pumped into the plant’s number three reactor to cool it was not working. “At the moment, we don’t know what to make of this,” he said.
More than 120,000 people have been evacuated from a 20km perimeter around the stricken plant, which partially exploded on Saturday, releasing radioactive material into the surrounding area. The government said that 160 people may have been exposed to the leak.
A state of emergency has also been declared at another nuclear plant further north in Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture. Some families are leaving the area around the plants and moving south to safety. “I don’t trust the government ministers when they say that it’s safe,” said Yoshi Watanabe.
In a nationally televised speech yesterday, prime minister Naoto Kan appealed to the country to unite during what he said was Japan’s worst crisis since the second World War. “Overcoming this crisis depends on each and every one of us Japanese,” he said.
Mr Kan also said he had approved a series of rolling power cuts in Tokyo and its surrounding prefectures, to cope with shortages caused by the nuclear crisis. Factories and businesses have been ordered to cut down on electricity use and operate shorter working days.
Along much of the Pacific coast, towns and cities are struggling to recover from Friday’s earthquake, which this weekend was upgraded to nine on the Richter scale, one of the largest in recorded history, said Japan’s Meteorological Agency. Aftershocks and tsunamis have continued to plague coastal districts.
A convoy of fire engines, medical workers and self-defence force troops is making its way on the nation’s buckled highways to the stricken areas, particularly the devastated northeast and hard-hit Iwate Prefecture.
The government said yesterday that it expected the death toll from the disaster to top 10,000 but many experts say it could be much higher.
More than 600 bodies have been recovered along the Pacific coast alone. The tsunami wiped out an entire town in Miyagi Prefecture, leaving a reported 10,000 people missing.
Prefectural government offices across the worst-hit areas have been converted into shelters, housing thousands of people cut off from families and friends. “Most people are trying to find their families,” said Moto Otsuki, spokesman for Miyagi’s local government.
About half the country’s entire troop force has been mobilised to help the stranded or stricken. At the Red Cross hospital in Ishinomaku, Miyagi, hundreds of injured people spilled out into the corridors and reception halls. An army helicopter ferried more to the hospital emergency landing area. Old people rescued from across the prefecture were laid on the floor as overwhelmed staff struggled to treat them. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” said one nurse. “It’s like the end of the world.”
But it is the prospect of nuclear meltdown at the two damaged plants that is most concentrating minds. If the government fails to cool the overheating core at Fukushima’s number three reactor, experts warned on Japanese TV that it could go into meltdown, showering the region with deadly radioactive dust.
Mr Edano admitted the reactor could already have been warped by the intense heat inside and said that another explosion, similar to the one that occurred at another reactor on Saturday, was possible.