Radiation levels down at Fukushima

Tokyo: Efforts to bring safety systems of damaged nuclear reactors back into action continued at the Fukushima nuclear park. Nuclear authorities said radiation readings at the park have consistently displayed a downward trajectory through Friday morning as compared to Thursday.

According to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, radiation measurements taken roughly one kilometre west of the plant's No. 2 reactor at 5 am Friday came to 279.4 microsievert per hour, as compared with 292.2 microsievert per hour at 8:40 pm Thursday, shortly after Japanese Self-Defense Forces discharged water from fire trucks in an attempt to cool an apparently overheating spent fuel pool.

The Japanese SDF unloaded up to 64 tons of water through helicopters and fire trucks as well as a water cannon truck of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department into the spent-fuel pool at the No 3 unit of Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima plant Thursday.

The mission will continue Friday as part of the effort to avert any massive release of radioactive materials into the air from the pool, while efforts to restore the lost cooling function by reconnecting electricity to the plant through outside power lines have picked up pace, the government said.

There may not be any helicopter-borne water spraying, however, though no reasons have been made available as to why this option may have been set aside. It would appear gusting winds, atleast, may have made such an operation ineffective. Other reasons, if any, are not known.

The spent fuel pools at the power station lost their cooling function after the quake and tsunami struck last Friday. Authorities have also failed to monitor the water level and temperature of the pools of the No 1 to 4 units.