Smoke rising over Fukushima nuclear plant prompts worker evacuation

A storage pool for spent fuel rods remains one of many great concerns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in northeastern Japan. On Monday workers were forced to evacuate the facility after smoke was seen rising over the Unit 3 reactor sparking more fears of a radiation surge.

The Unit 3 reactor has been a particular area of concern since the nuclear crisis began. Operators fear the smoke over the unit is a sign of low water levels in the pool that keeps spent fuel rods cool. If those rods aren’t covered they’ll overheat and emit dangerous levels of radiation.

Late last week military helicopters started dumping water on the reactor and ground crews sprayed the unit in an effort to fill the pool.

Officials still aren’t sure what’s causing the smoke and there’s been no evidence of an explosion. Workers were evacuated around 4 p.m. (Japanese time). Plant owner Tokyo Electric Power Company said earlier Monday it was considering venting out gas to release pressure inside the containment vessel.

Despite some progress over the weekend to stabilize the plant damaged by the March 11 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami, an unexpected pressure surge in the reactor core also raised alarms. 

And in yet another setback Monday, Tokyo Electric said some key pumps in Unit 2’s cooling system aren’t functional and replacement parts will have to be brought in. It’s not known exactly how long it will take for those components to arrive.

It should only take a day to stabilize temperatures at the damaged plant once electricity is fully restored, replacement pumps start operating and spent fuel pools are replenished, according to Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.

If those things don’t happen, crews will continue to do what they’ve been doing for days — dousing the plant with water and hoping for the best.

Japan’s nuclear safety agency claims Tokyo Electric repeatedly failed to conduct crucial inspections of equipment in the weeks before the quake and tsunami.

The plant operator failed to inspect 33 pieces of equipment, according to a report released nine days before the twin disasters.

The company didn’t check its back-up generators, pumps and other parts of the plant’s cooling systems swamped by the tsunami.

Japanese authorities now estimate more than 18,400 people have died since the twin disasters struck — the majority of the deaths have been reported in the hard-hit Miyagi prefecture. The World Bank estimates it will cost the nation approximately $235 billion to rebuild.

More than 400,000 people remain homeless.

Food and water contaminated by radiation are also now of great concern in Japan. The government stopped shipments of spinach in one area and raw milk in another. Both products contained iodine levels above safety limits. Canola and chrysanthemum greens have also been contaminated in some prefectures.

And iodine and cesium have been detected in tap water in Tokyo. Rain and dust are also contaminated. Residents in Iitate, a village about 30 kilometres northwest of the damaged nuclear plant, have been told not to drink the tap water after iodine levels three times the standard were detected — that’s about one twenty-sixth of the level of a chest X-ray in one litre of water, according to The Associated Press.

The Japanese government insists the levels detected in tap water don’t pose an immediate health threat.

With files from The Associated Press.