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Agency: Japanese nuclear crisis on par with 3 Mile Island

By the CNN Wire Staff
March 18, 2011 -- Updated 1046 GMT (1846 HKT)
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Spraying will continue at power plant
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • NEW: Japan's nuclear agency has raised the level of the crisis from 4 to 5
  • Pressed by the IAEA, Japan's PM vows to improve communication efforts
  • A local official says lack of immediate information leaving people "anxious"
  • Tokyo Electric says radiation at the Fukushima Daiichi plant have been stable

Get up-to-the-minute developments at CNN's live blog on the disaster in Japan.

Tokyo (CNN) -- Japan's nuclear and industrial safety agency on Friday raised the level for the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant from a 4 to 5 -- putting it on par with the 1979 incident at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island.

According to the International Nuclear Events Scale, a level 5 equates to the likelihood of a release of radioactive material, several deaths from radiation and severe damage to a reactor core.

Chernobyl, for example, rated a 7 on the scale, while Japan's other nuclear crisis -- a 1999 accident at Tokaimura in which workers died after being exposed to radiation -- was a 4.

In Pennsylvania, a partial meltdown of a reactor core was deemed the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history.

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This development came as Japanese authorities under fire Friday from within and abroad over the lack of timely information on the unfolding nuclear situation as they battled for a second week to contain the crisis.

People near the embattled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant are increasingly frustrated, not just with the prolonged fight to curb radioactive emissions, but also the lack of immediate information from authorities, a local government official said.

"Evacuees, and that can be said of myself as well, are feeling anxious since we are not getting the needed information from the government in a timely manner," said Seiji Sato, a spokesman for the government of Tamura City, about 20 kilometers from the nuclear facility.

The head of the U.N. atomic agency, Yukiya Amano, pressed the Japanese prime minister to open up lines of communication about the crisis during a meeting in Tokyo.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan vowed to do as much, according to Japan's Kyodo News, saying he'd push to make more information available to the international community and release more detailed data about the nuclear situation.

"The Japanese government and IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) should work doubly hard to pacify the great angst among the international community over this issue," Amano told reporters.

The comments came as the effort to prevent further crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi plant entered its second week Friday.

Friday afternoon's mission was the fourth, by air and ground, to douse the fuel pool of the facility's No. 3 reactor over two days. It comes after primary and then back-up generators that powered this and other reactors' cooling systems had failed.

The aim is to cool down the reactor's spent fuel pool. Experts believe that vapors rising from that pool, which has at least partially exposed fuel rods, may be releasing radiation into the atmosphere.

It has not been determined how effective the first four missions to douse the reactor's pools from the ground and the air have been, said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano.

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But, Edano added, "We observed vapor after the water was (shot in), so we believe that water did reach the pool, for sure."

Earlier, on Thursday, one of the atomic agency head's top aides Graham Andrew said there appeared to be "no significant worsening" at the plant, located about 240 kilometers (150 miles) north of Tokyo.

Still, no one is close to claiming victory. The nuclear plant's six reactors are in various states of disrepair and concerns are mounting over a potentially cataclysmic release of radioactive material.

Significant amounts of radiation have been released after the 9.0-magnitude earthquake hit on March 11, followed by a tsunami that swept away cars and houses along its path. The disasters spurred several explosions at the nuclear plant on the northeastern coast of Honshu.

Relatively high, but officially non-hazardous amounts of radiation have been detected in the air and water of Fukushima city, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the plant.

Wind patterns pushing radiation from the plant out to sea appear to be minimal for now.

But conditions at the Fukushima Daiichi plant itself remain very dangerous.

Radiation levels Thursday hit 20 millisieverts per hour at an annex building where workers have been trying to re-establish electrical power, "the highest registered (at that building) so far," a Tokyo Electric official told reporters.

By comparison, the typical resident of a developed country is naturally exposed to 3 millisieverts per year.

The company said Friday afternoon, though, that radiation levels at the plant's west gate, at .26 to .27 millisieverts, have been fairly stable over a recent 12-hour span

In part of the effort to prevent greater radiation emissions, Edano has said addressing issues at the nuclear facility's No. 3 reactor -- the sole damaged unit that contains plutonium along with the uranium in its fuel rods -- remains the top priority.

Members of Tokyo's fire department, Japanese self-defense forces and the Tokyo Electric Power Company are part of the team that has been, and will be, working to cool down the spent fuel pools at this reactor, he said late Friday afternoon.

Tokyo Electric workers will man a special fire truck brought in from the United States, Edano noted.

Authorities are assessing whether to also spray in and around the plant's No. 1 unit, where seawater is being injected in even after a March 12 hydrogen explosion, Edano said.

But, he said, the situation there was not as serious as in the No. 3 reactor.

Units 1, 2 and 3 are "relatively stable," despite the fact their "cores have suffered damage," said Andrew, a top aide to International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Yukiya Amano.

He said No. 4 is a "major safety concern," with the agency noting that no water-temperature data have been collected since Monday from its spent fuel pool.

Still, a Tokyo Electric spokesman said Friday that video of the No. 4 reactor's pool appeared to show it still contained water -- rebutting a claim Wednesday by U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Gregory Jaczko that it had run dry.

On Friday morning, Edano said temperatures in and around the Nos. 5 and 6 reactors have risen, though not enough to pose immediate danger, according to a report by Japan's Kyodo News agency.

Water is being injected in and an emergency diesel generator has been connected to those two units to cool their spent fuel pools, a spokesman for Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said.

A Tokyo Electric official said an external power source, using what amounts to 1.5 kilometers of cable, should be set up Friday to power cooling systems for the Nos. 1 and 2 reactors.

Still, the official admitted this effort -- which had been scheduled to be completed Thursday -- "has so far not progressed as fast as we had hoped." Late Friday afternoon, Edano said that process was still ongoing.

This has been a common theme the past week, as plans to resolve various crises floundering even as new issues emerge daily. The lack of an apparent major setback Thursday hardly means that more problems might not arise, with one expert saying that the efforts to cool the spent fuel pools alone will be a long, dangerous process.

"It's a 15-round fight, we're probably in round three," said Arnold Gundersen, a nuclear safety advocate with 39 years of nuclear engineering experience.

"With this nuclear fire, if you will, when pour water on it one day, you have to go back and do it the same the next and the same the next ... It's a real long slog."

CNN's Brian Walker, Stan Grant and Steven Jiang contributed to this report.

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  • TigerBlood69
    Sometimes these officials have to lie for their jobs and/or their economy.
  • dwightsdw
    My WW Two dad says :=)
  • JCBossman
    They are on drugs if they think this Catastrophe is on par with Three Mile Island
  • MattKnows
    Crazy to say this is anything like Three mile island as that accident resulted in no explosions, no harm to ANY life, and no high dosage radiation release. The grading system is not right if it says TMI was a '5'. Yes TMI was a partial core melt, it was contained and had 1 small venting of gasses to... more
  • LeifErikson
    They will look back on this thirty years from now and wish that it had been a mere repetition of Three Mile Island.
  • TigerBlood69
    When they have a lot of babies with birth defects, they would know it is equal or worse than the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
  • candes
    RSOE EDIS posted this on March 15th...

    Japan's nuclear crisis is equivalent to number six on the INES scale of nuclear accidents from one to seven, Kyodo news agency quoted the French Nuclear Agency as saying. The 1986 Chernobyl disaster was a seven and Three Mile Island a five.
  • bozotron
    Don't let them raise the level of "safe". there is no safe level of radiation. don't let them lie to you.
  • thecomedian
    I dont overly trust any government, but in this I'd trust the US a lot more than the Japanese govt
  • Brad151
    Just as there is no safe level of stupidity, huh Bozo?
  • bozotron
    I called Dupont about radiation suits and nobody answers the phone.
  • GoRemoteKC1
    On par with 3 Mile Island seems strange. I don't believe 3 Mile released anywhere near as much radiation as has already been release here...........
  • aroth
    The amount of radiation being released in this incident has generally been overstated. Reporters seem to like to compare the radiation against the "typical yearly exposure rate", which is not useful. Put simply, even though the typical annual exposure rate is around 3 millisieverts, it takes a dos... more
  • JSHny
    This is far worse than three mile island. Hope they get it under control. My prayers are with the people of Japan.
  • chessdad
    Like the black knight said in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, "It's merely a flesh wound".

    Somehow I don't believe anything coming from the Japanese nuclear agency.
  • thecomedian
    Saw an interview today, saying that the Japanese govt was being paternalistic as opposed to deceptive with their own people....hmmmm. no wonder this is all
    f***** up
  • gadi706
    Dear Japan,
    WE LOVE YOU. DONT GIVE UP, THE SUN SHALL RISE AGAIN.

    from,
    rest of the world.
  • devonshire11
    It absolutely amazes me that the International community is focused on these plants and demanding information from a country that has been devastated by an earthquake, and a Tsunami leaving thousands dead. My heart goes out to the Japanese people. These Nuclear engineers and Technicians at the plant... more
  • Puzzled77
    Its the idiots at CNN that are pizzed over lack of information. The stoic Japanese know that workers at the plant are doing everything they can, including risking their lives, in order to bring things under complete control.
  • thecomedian
    god......if you christians read there own bible they'd realise their god is like Jeffrey Dahmer
  • Brad151
    ...and some day you may learn to use proper english....thanks for stopping in....
  • LeifErikson
    I don't like emoticons, so:

    smile.
  • thecomedian
    thats true
  • LeifErikson
    Wisdom can be hidden where you least expect it.
  • LeifErikson
    If you have to talk to yourself in order to find some support...
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