NY Times: Workers Strain to Retake Control After Blast and Fire at Japan Plant

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/16/world/asia/16nuclear.html

Workers Strain to Retake Control After Blast and Fire at Japan Plant

By KEITH BRADSHER and HIROKO TABUCHI
Published: March 15, 2011

TOKYO — A small crew of technicians braved radiation and fire through the day on Tuesday as they fought to prevent three nuclear reactors in northeastern Japan from melting down and stop storage ponds loaded with spent uranium fuel pods from bursting into flames.

Tokyo Electric Power Company officials announced on Tuesday evening that they would consider using helicopters in an attempt to douse with cold water a boiling rooftop storage pond for spent uranium fuel rods. The rods are still radioactive and potentially as hot and dangerous as the fuel rods inside the reactors if not kept submerged in water.

“The only ideas we have right now are using a helicopter to spray water from above, or inject water from below,” a power company official said at a news conference. “We believe action must be taken by tomorrow or the day after.”

Hydrogen gas bubbling up from chemical reactions set off by the hot fuel rods produced a powerful explosion on Tuesday morning that blew a 26-foot-wide hole in the side of reactor No. 4 at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. A fire there may have been caused by machine oil in a nearby facility, inspectors from the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission said, according to an American official.

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