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Japan Floods Nuclear Reactor Crippled by

Quake in Effort to Avert Meltdown


TOKYO Japanese officials took the extraordinary step on Saturday of flooding a crippled
nuclear reactor with seawater in a last-ditch effort to avoid a nuclear meltdown, as the nation
grappled simultaneously with its worst nuclear accident and the aftermath of its largest recorded
earthquake.

A radiation leak and explosion at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station on
Saturday prompted the government to expand an evacuation order to affect 170,000 people
in the plants vicinity. And the plants operator issued an emergency notice early Sunday
morning that a second reactor at the same aging plant had also experienced a critical failure
of its cooling system, and that a way to inject water into the reactor to cool it was urgently
being sought.
The plant was also preparing to release vapor to ease pressure from the reactor and allow
water to be injected, said Naoki Tsunoda, a spokesman for the operator, Tokyo Electric
Power. The vapor could contain trace amounts of radiation, the Japanese Nuclear and
Industrial Safety Agency has warned. Electricity shortages in the region have hampered
efforts to pump water to keep the reactors from overheating.
Cooling systems at three other reactors at the nearby Fukushima Daini power plant also
failed, but officials hoped that backup systems might be revived, Mr. Tsunoda said. But if
they cannot, those three reactors could also require emergency cooling.
At a press conference, Yukio Edano, Japans chief cabinet secretary, called for calm.
If these measures can be taken, we will be able to ensure the safety of the reactor, he said.
The government said that radiation emanating from the first reactor appeared to be
decreasing after the blast on Saturday afternoon destroyed part of the facility, and they said
that they had filled it with seawater to prevent full meltdown of the nuclear fuel. That step
would be taken only in extreme circumstances because ocean water is likely to permanently
disable the reactor.
The Japanese Nuclear and Industrial safety agency said as many as 160 people may have
been exposed to radiation around the plant, and Japanese news media said three workers at
the facility were suffering from full-on radiation sickness.

The handling of the crisis and the vulnerability of Japans extensive nuclear facilities to
earthquakes and tsunamis will also add to long-simmering grass-roots resistance against
nuclear power within Japan, where people have learned to doubt the industrys reliability as
well as anodyne official statements about safety.
Michael Wines reported from Tokyo, and Matthew L. Wald from Washington. Martin
Fackler contributed reporting from Nakaminato, Japan, Hiroko Tabuchi from Tokyo and
David E. Sanger from Washington.
Article taken from THE NEW YORK TIMES
TOPIC
INTENDED READER
SOURCE
PURPOSE
TYPE OF DISCOURSE

Earthquake in Japan
General Public, Readers
Newspaper
To describe the effect in nuclear plants of earthquake in Japan
Expositive

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