Japanese officials said Thursday they have no immediate plans to widen the evacuation area around a stricken nuclear plant but will intensify monitoring and consider a wider evacuation if high radiation levels persist.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano was responding to a report Wednesday by the International Atomic Energy Agency saying radiation levels were detected at one village outside the evacuation zone at levels twice as high as are considered safe for human habitation.
Japan’s nuclear safety agency meanwhile reported that radiation in the seawater close to the earthquake-damaged Fukushima nuclear plant is increasing. Officials said Thursday that the latest reading showed levels of radioactive iodine at 4,385 times the legal limit. That compares to the previous reading showing levels at 3,355 times the legal limit.
The IAEA advised Japan Wednesday to carefully assess the situation after finding dangerously high radiation levels in the village of IItate, about 40 kilometers northwest of the plant. Officials stressed that the reading was sporadic and found at only one collection point.
At a news conference Thursday, Edano said the spike in radiation will not immediately affect human health. He said Japan will intensify its monitoring of radiation levels, and if high radiation levels continue over a period of time, then “evacuation must be considered.”
Japan’s evacuation zone currently extends for 20 kilometers from the plant, while residents living between 20 and 30 kilometers away have been urged to remain indoors.
Japan has been struggling for almost three weeks to bring its radiation-leaking Fukushima nuclear reactor under control after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami knocked out the plants critical cooling systems.
Several countries have now banned some food imports from Japan, causing Tokyo to call on the world not to impose unjustifiable curbs on its products.
On Wednesday, Japan’s government ordered the immediate implementation of new safety measures at nuclear power plants across the country as officials acknowledge they are still far from bringing the earthquake-damaged Fukushima nuclear complex under control.
Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko on Wednesday visited an evacuation center in Tokyo, comforting families stranded by the March 11 magnitude-9 earthquake powerful tsunami that erased entire towns in northeast Japan.
Pictures of the affected areas on Japanese TV show vast swathes of land still under water. The official death toll is over 11,000, with the final toll expected to top 18,000. Thousands are still living in makeshift shelters.
The safety standards announced Wednesday follow criticism that the Fukushima plant was not designed to withstand the March 11th onslaught, which left more than 27,500 people dead or missing. They call for immediate checks at all 55 nuclear plants in Japan, preparedness training for staff at the plants and improved provisions to deal with power failures, among other measures.
Tsunehisa Katsumata, chairman of the Tokyo Electric Power Company which operates the plant, bowed in apology for the nuclear disaster and admitted at a press conference that four of the plant’s six reactors can never be used again. He said he was taking over the crisis response from the company’s president, Masataka Shimizu, who was hospitalized Tuesday evening suffering from dizziness and high blood pressure.
TEPCO is considering spraying a special resin over dust and debris strewn around the plant to prevent the spread of radioactive material. Some 100 demonstrators gathered outside TEPCO’s office in Tokyo on Wednesday to protest its use of nuclear energy.
Foreign governments have been rallying to Japan’s assistance, with French President Nicolas Sarkozy due in Tokyo Thursday along with French nuclear experts who are advising on how to halt radiation leaks and repair cooling systems for the plant’s six nuclear reactors.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan also received a phone call Wednesday from U.S. President Barack Obama offering any help. A naval task force with more than 18,000 personnel is already assisting in relief efforts along Japan’s northeast coast.
Japanese nuclear officials said they are working urgently to determine the exact cause of the spike in radioactive iodine in the seawater sample collected Tuesday, which registered 3,355 times the legal limit. They said the finding was a cause for concern but not an immediate threat to human health.
Nuclear experts believe the plant suffered partial meltdowns of the nuclear fuel rods in the cores of three of the six reactors after the earthquake and tsunami disabled the primary and back-up cooling systems that keep the rods from overheating.
