Nuclear Disaster

Japanese forces used helicopters planned to water cannons-Japanese forces used helicopters on Thursday and planned to water cannons, some of their urgent efforts and reconfigured to prevent a nuclear disaster at its plant in Fukushima Daiichi damaged by the earthquake.

Government officials and plant owner Tokyo Electric Power Company said Thursday that the number of the cooling system of the reactor was 3 the highest priority.

Japanese Defense Toshimi Kitazawa, in conjunction with Prime Minister Naoto Kan, said he decided Thursday morning to resolve the crisis in the air and on land in spite of concerns about worker exposure to radiation.

"We could not delay the mission to continue, so he decided to run," he told reporters Kitazawa.

Helicopters made four runs for about 20 minutes Thursday morning span, dropping 7.5 tons of sea water each time the reactor to cool down the overheated fuel pool. Kitazawa said the 11 specific hydrants, and one of the Tokyo police department should arrive at some point on Thursday, waterjet No 3 units in the country.

Although Kitazawa said: "criteria", other officials said they were still gathering to determine what effect, if any, dumping the water was.

After the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami devastated the north-east of Japan on Friday, officials have tried to solve the problems of cooling, four of six reactors in Fukushima.

On Wednesday, Gregory Jaczko, the head of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission told Congress that the fuel rods in the reactor No. 4 was exposed because "there is water in the spent fuel pool, causing the emission of" very high " radiation levels.

But the Japanese authorities denied the request Jaczko, citing information gathered from a helicopter above the plant.

"We were able to confirm that there is water in the pool of spent nuclear fuel," said an official at Tokyo Electric Thursday. "But we do not know the amount of water."

Also Thursday, the engineers designed to begin the process to restore power to victims of the nuclear power used in power lines outside. He lost power when the earthquake.

"This is one of the priorities we have to solve," said an official with Japan Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.

When power is restored, the cooling system is driven by seawater, "he said. But he warned that the process is not instantaneous.

"It takes time to restore a task most of the premises, because the pumps were contaminated by seawater and must be corrected before use," he said, adding that the temporary pumps would be used initially.

The Japanese government spokesman Noriyuki Shikata, banish the fear of an imminent collapse, told CNN on Thursday, "We have not seen a material breach of containment" to any institution troubled nuclear reactors.

A crisis occurs when the fuel rods can be cooled and the reactor core substance. In the worst case, fuel may spill from the containment unit and the radioactivity spread through the air and water.

The public health officials, for example, can cause health problems, both immediate and long term, such as radiation and cancer.

Asked about the report of a high level of radioactivity near the plants - which can be linked to at least partial melting in some reactors - Shikata, said: "We have not seen the level that is, for example, dangerous to human body beyond the vicinity of the reactors. "

Experts and officials feared that the Japanese overheating and evaporation of water in spent fuel pools around the plant could lead to further radiation release.

International Atomic Energy Agency said the water temperature of the spent fuel pools are usually less than 25 degrees (77 degrees Fahrenheit). This requires a constant source of cooling, which requires constant power supply - is available at the facility damaged.

"Concerns about the spent fuel pools at the Fukushima Daiichi is that the sources of energy for cooling pools may be compromised," the agency whose chief Yukiya Amano is on its way to Japan, said.

On Tuesday, temperatures in the fuel tanks of 4, 5 and 6, all registered well above the recommended dose: 84 degrees, 60.4 degrees and 58.5 degrees for the UN nuclear agency said.

By the next day he found "no information" for the Unit 4 and the other two worrying trends:

Block 5 had increased to 62.7 degrees C and the 6 to 60 degrees C.

The water in the fuel pool is used both to cool the uranium fuel and to protect it. But once the uranium fuel was no longer covered by water, the zirconium coating that covers the hot fuel rods, hydrogen generation, said Robert Alvarez, a researcher at the Institute of Political Studies and a former Energy Department official.

That caught fire, causing a situation that is "very, very serious," he told CNN.

He said the next step may involve the other 180 nuclear plant workers to perform heroic acts.

"This is a situation where people can be called to sacrifice their lives," said Alvarez. "It's hard for me to note that, although it may have reached that point."

Beyond the protection against contamination, a parallel system on Thursday was to determine the amount of radiation that was already in the atmosphere.

Tests on the water in the city of Fukushima, about 80 kilometers (50 miles), which is radiation, but at levels safe for human body, and later showed no evidence of radiation in the water, government officials Japanese.

Washington, U.S. military officials said the use of the machine can detect radioactive materials in the atmosphere around Japan.

About 200,000 people live within 20 km of the plant was evacuated, living 20-30 km away from the site were told to stay. The authorities have also banned from overflying the area.