US warns citizens near Japan nuclear plant to leave

Evacuees receive radiation scans in Nihonmatsu city in Fukushima prefecture © AFP Go Takayama

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US officials Wednesday warned citizens living within 50 miles (80 kilometers) of a crippled Japanese nuclear plant to evacuate or seek shelter, amid mounting concern of a catastrophic meltdown.

The evacuation order came as the chair of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) warned there was no water left in the spent fuel pool of reactor 4 at the Fukushima nuclear plant, resulting in “extremely high” radiation levels.

The US designated a much wider no-go zone than the 20-kilometer radius perimeter set up by the Japanese, after US officials reviewed scientific and technical data about the nuclear crisis following Friday’s quake and tsunami.

“We are recommending, as a precaution, that American citizens who live within 50 miles (80 kilometers) of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant evacuate the area or to take shelter indoors if safe evacuation is not practical,” the US embassy in Tokyo said in a statement.

NRC chairman Gregory Jaczko told lawmakers that a fourth reactor unit at the nuclear complex was giving cause for concern following a hydrogen explosion there a few days ago.

“We believe that secondary containment has been destroyed and there is no water in the spent fuel pool and we believe that radiation levels are extremely high which could possibly impact the ability to take corrective measures.”

The White House admitted the advice it was giving to its citizens went beyond the advice Japan had given, but declined to evaluate the Japanese data.

“This crisis is happening in Japan. Obviously, the Japanese government has the lead here with regards to dealing with the crisis and advising its people,” said White House spokesman Jay Carney.

“There are a lot of Americans in Japan. When the data that we receive is analyzed independently, we are going to give advice based on our analysis.”

At a hearing Wednesday, Jaczko told lawmakers that the NRC had recommended the wider evacuation zone.

“Based on the available information that we have that for a comparable situation in the United States, we would recommend an evacuation for a much larger radius than has currently been provided in Japan,” he said.

Carney told reporters that the United States had informed Japan of its more conservative evacuation recommendation before it was released.

Two damaged reactors at the Fukushima No.1 power plant © AFP/JIJI Press

The embassy stressed, however, that “there are numerous factors in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami, including weather, wind direction and speed, and the nature of the reactor problem” which would affect the risk of any radioactive contamination within the zone.

The operator of the plant in Japan said it was “concentrating its efforts” on restoring the power supply to reactivate its crippled cooling systems.

“We cannot tell when but we want to restore the power source as soon as possible,” Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) spokesman Naohiro Omura told AFP.

Omura said TEPCO was preparing to utilize power lines from Tohoku Electric Power Co. and trying to repair its damaged electric transmission system to connect with unaffected lines.

US troops and pilots are also barred from venturing into the potentially radioactive area around the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant without specific orders, Pentagon spokesman Colonel Dave Lapan told reporters.

The Fukushima No.1 power plant has been hit by a series of explosions since the quake and tsunami knocked out reactor cooling systems.

The US military has delivered high-pressure water pumps and fire trucks for use at Fukushima, but has not been asked to join directly in the effort to contain the damage at the crippled atomic plant, Lapan said.

The military had also decided to give out anti-radiation pills as a precaution to some US air crews who were scheduled to fly within the “vicinity” of the crippled Fukushima plant, Lapan said.

Testing earlier showed 17 US helicopter crew members from the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier had been contaminated with low levels of radiation. Out of those exposed, two were given potassium iodide pills, he said.

Meanwhile, the main US manufacturer of potassium iodide tablets said it has run out of stock after a massive demand generated by the crisis.

Anbex has been flooded with thousands of orders for its Iosat drug since Friday’s earthquake and tsunami.

“The spike is enormous … we were out of stock by Friday night,” said Alan Morris. “The demand mostly is coming from the west coast of the US, but there are a significant number of inquiries, requests, orders coming from Japan, Korea, all over the Far East.”

© AFP — Published at Activist Post with license