# 5415
We’ve a fresh IAEA briefing on the status of the damaged and overheating nuclear reactors in Japan this evening.
Along with that we have a brief update on the progress that TEPCO is making towards bringing a high voltage power line to the plant, to (hopefully) run the coolant pumps.
The money quote from all of it seems to be:
The situation at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants remains very serious, but there has been no significant worsening since yesterday.
First, notes on an IAEA Briefing that was posted just around 2030hrs EDT.
IAEA Briefing on Fukushima Nuclear Emergency (17 March 2011, 14:00 UTC)
by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Thursday, March 17, 2011 at 8:31pm
At the IAEA headquarters in Vienna, Graham Andrew, Special Adviser to the IAEA Director General on Scientific and Technical Affairs, briefed both Member States and the media on the current status of nuclear safety in Japan.
Current Situation
The situation at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants remains very serious, but there has been no significant worsening since yesterday.
The current situation at Units 1, 2 and 3, whose cores have suffered damage, appears to be relatively stable. Sea water is being injected into all three units using fire extinguishing hoses. Containment pressures are fluctuating.
Military helicopters carried out four water drops over Unit 3.
Unit 4 remains a major safety concern. No information is available on the level of water in the spent fuel pool. No water temperature indication from the Unit 4 spent fuel pool has been received since 14 March, when the temperature was 84 °C. No roof is in place.
The water levels in the reactor pressure vessels of Units 5 and 6 have been declining.
Radiation Monitoring
We are now receiving dose rate information from 47 Japanese cities regularly. This is a positive development. In Tokyo, there has been no significant change in radiation levels since yesterday. They remain well below levels which are dangerous to human health.
As far as on-site radiation levels at the Fukushima Daiichi and Daini nuclear power plants are concerned, we have received no new information since the last report.
In some locations at around 30 km from the Fukushima plant, the dose rates rose significantly in the last 24 hours (in one location from 80 to 170 microsievert per hour and in another from 26 to 95 microsievert per hour). But this was not the case at all locations at this distance from the plants.
Dose rates to the north-west of the nuclear power plants, were observed in the range 3 to 170 microsievert per hour, with the higher levels observed around 30 km from the plant.
Dose rates in other directions are in the 1 to 5 microsievert per hour range.
Next, the update on work to the bring external power to the Fukushima nuclear plant.
Japan Earthquake Update (17 March 2011, 16:55 UTC) - CLARIFIED
by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Thursday, March 17, 2011 at 8:33pm
Japanese authorities have informed the IAEA that engineers have begun to lay an external grid power line cable to Unit 2. The operation was continuing as of 20:30 UTC, Tokyo Electric Power Company officials told the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.
They plan to reconnect power to Unit 2 once the spraying of water on the Unit 3 reactor building is completed.
The spraying of water on the Unit 3 reactor building was temporarily stopped at 11:09 UTC (20:09 local time) of 17 March.
The IAEA continues to liaise with the Japanese authorities and is monitoring the situation as it evolves.
These reports, while helpful, leave an awful lot of important questions unanswered.
Of particular concern: radiation readings at or near the plant don’t seem to be available, nor are the water level and temperature readings on reactor #4.
It may be that sensors are inoperable, and this data just isn’t available.
But there is a a growing frustration among reporters, outside agencies, and governments around the world over the tepid flow of information from Japanese officials on this ongoing crisis.
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