Action stations: Technicians in the control room of Unit 2 reactor at the stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okumamachi, Fukushima prefecture, Japan.
NewsCore
March 27, 2011
JAPANESE emergency teams are using fresh water instead of seawater to try to cool reactors at Japan's tsunami-damaged nuclear plant.
They had switched to using fresh water at the Fukushima nuclear power facility because it was less corrosive than seawater, the UN atomic watchdog said in a statement.
"The IAEA has been informed by Japanese authorities that fresh water is now being used in place of seawater to cool the reactor pressure vessels at units 1, 2 and 3 at the Fukushima nuclear plant," it said.
"The switch to fresh water is preferable as it leaves fewer deposits in components and is less corrosive than seawater."
Two weeks after the 9.0-magnitude March 11 quake and subsequent tsunami seriously damaged the aging nuclear plant in northeastern Japan, rescue work is still underway to avoid a major nuclear disaster.
Radiation levels have surged in the seawater in the area and there are concerns that fuel rod vessels or their valves and pipes are leaking.
More than 27,000 people are dead or missing after the quake and tsunami.
March 27, 2011
JAPANESE emergency teams are using fresh water instead of seawater to try to cool reactors at Japan's tsunami-damaged nuclear plant.
They had switched to using fresh water at the Fukushima nuclear power facility because it was less corrosive than seawater, the UN atomic watchdog said in a statement.
"The IAEA has been informed by Japanese authorities that fresh water is now being used in place of seawater to cool the reactor pressure vessels at units 1, 2 and 3 at the Fukushima nuclear plant," it said.
"The switch to fresh water is preferable as it leaves fewer deposits in components and is less corrosive than seawater."
Two weeks after the 9.0-magnitude March 11 quake and subsequent tsunami seriously damaged the aging nuclear plant in northeastern Japan, rescue work is still underway to avoid a major nuclear disaster.
Radiation levels have surged in the seawater in the area and there are concerns that fuel rod vessels or their valves and pipes are leaking.
More than 27,000 people are dead or missing after the quake and tsunami.
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