Japan Update: As of 9:00, 27/March, TOKYO

News Updates shared by Seki Satoko, Tokyo, Japan

Earth Hour held all over the world and silent prayer lifted for the victims of Japan devastating earthquake

Earth Hour originally started from WWF since 2007.  This year, especially, people around the world gave silent prayer for the victims of Japan earthquake.  This wave of power saving for Earth will spread from Asia to begin with, then goes to Europe, Africa, and America, up until the evening of 27th in Japan time.

Fresh coolant injected, high-radiation water leaks in nuke crisis

TOKYO (Kyodo) — Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Friday it has begun injecting freshwater into the No. 1 and No. 3 reactor cores at the crisis-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant to enhance cooling efficiency, although highly radioactive water was found leaking possibly from both reactors as well as the No. 2 reactor.

The latest efforts to bring the troubled reactors at the plant under control are aimed at preventing crystallized salt from seawater already injected from forming a crust on the fuel rods and hampering smooth water circulation, thus diminishing the cooling effect, the plant’s operator said.

The utility known as TEPCO is also preparing to inject freshwater into the No. 2 reactor core.

But a day after three workers were exposed to water containing radioactive materials 10,000 times the normal level at the turbine building connected to the No. 3 reactor building, highly radioactive water was also found in the turbine buildings of the No. 1 and No. 2 reactors.

The latest development in Japan’s worst nuclear crisis raises the risk of more workers being exposed to radioactive substances, hindering their efforts to restore the plant’s crippled cooling functions that are key to overcoming the crisis.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan said at a press conference Friday evening that the situation at the plant involving leaks of radioactive materials and other serious problems “still does not warrant optimism.”

He failed to address what the Japanese people and the international community most want to know — whether the ongoing crisis will be brought under control soon — only saying that the government is putting all its efforts into preventing a worsening of the situation.

Early Friday, concern grew that the high-level radiation leak detected with the workers’ exposure Thursday could indicate possible damage to the No. 3 reactor vessel, but the government’s nuclear safety agency later denied the possibility, saying no data, such as on the pressure level, have suggested the reactor vessel has cracked or been damaged. The No. 3 reactor used plutonium-uranium mixed oxide fuel for so-called “pluthermal” power generation.

While the high-level radiation is suspected to have come from the reactor, where overheating fuel rods are believed to have partially melted, it remains uncertain how the leak occurred, said Hidehiko Nishiyama, spokesman for the government’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.