Japan Reassures Others Flee
Friday, March 18, 2011
Japan Reassures, Others Flee
By: Nathan Hodge, Jonathan Weisman and Andrew Morse, Wall
Street Journal
The U.S. government, signaling distrust of reports from Japan
about the nuclear crisis there, moved Thursday to evacuate U.S.
citizens and set up its own channels of information-a step echoed
by some American companies that laid plans to trim their operations
in the stricken country.
In the latest sign of international skepticism about progress at
Japan's crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility, the U.S.
embassy in Tokyo said Thursday that the government would arrange to
fly U.S. citizens out of Japan to safe havens elsewhere in Asia,
using military aircraft if necessary. The U.S. also moved
aggressively to assert control over information about the scope of
the nuclear disaster by flying a military drone aircraft and a U2
spy plane over the plant to get a first-hand assessment of the
damage.
As dawn broke Friday, a week after a massive earthquake and
tsunami devastated Japan, live television showed white steam
billowing from several of the severely damaged nuclear reactors at
the crippled nuclear plant, suggesting water continues to evaporate
from a dangerously overheating pool used to store spent nuclear
fuel.
Cooling operations resumed at the nuclear plant midmorning
Friday, with water cannons and fire truck hoses trained on Reactor
No. 3, which is thought to present the greatest immediate risk.
The Defense Ministry said no water would be dropped from
helicopters Friday.
Earlier in the day, reconnecting power to the reactors was the
main focus of work to stabilize the situation. Restoring
electricity to the reactor's cooling systems could represent the
major breakthrough needed for bringing the crisis at the plant
under control. But a nuclear safety agency official said Reactors
No. 1 and No. 2 would be reconnected first, within the day, while
Reactor No. 3 would not get power until as late as Sunday.
Japan's top government official reiterated that cooling Reactor
No. 3 remained the main priority, since it is believed that spent
fuel in a tank at the reactor is exposed, presenting a high
radiation risk.
One possible problem with work to restore power to the reactors
is the danger of contact with water while handling power
equipment.
On Thursday, Walt Disney Co. said it had "temporarily suspended
all its administrative and store operations in Tokyo" to allow its
employees to deal with the effects of the earthquake and tsunami.
"Our top priority is the wellbeing of our employees and their
families," Disney said in a written statement.
Medical-device maker Medtronic Inc. of Minneapolis said it is
paying for air transportation for foreign nationals hired locally
in Japan, as well as their families, to return to their home
countries.
And in a sign of the spreading global economic impact, General
Motors on Thursday became the first U.S. auto maker to close a U.S.
factory because of the crisis in Japan. GM said it plans next week
to idle a Shreveport, La., plant that builds small pickup trucks,
citing short supplies for an unspecified component that comes from
Japan.
New U.S. government statements on Thursday reflected the
delicate diplomatic dance required in dealing with an important
ally like Japan. "This is something that will likely take some time
to work through, possibly weeks," said Nuclear Regulatory
Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko.
Mr. Jaczko on Thursday stood by his statement the previous day
that the risks of radiation exposure call for evacuating U.S.
citizens from within 50 miles of the stricken plant.
Japanese and French officials had challenged certain details of
Mr. Jaczko's Wednesday assertions-in particular his statement that
one of the pools used to store spent nuclear fuel had run dry of
the water necessary to cool and protect the fuel rods from catching
fire.
"The bottom line is that there clearly appears to be a challenge
keeping that spent fuel filled with sufficient water," Mr. Jaczko
said.
An executive at Tokyo Electric Power Co., or Tepco, said that
operations Thursday to douse the Fukushima Daiichi plant with some
100 tons of seawater "were a good first step" in the effort to
bring reactors under control. Another company executive said the
operations "produced some results."
Much of the water missed its target, however, and the effort was
hampered by high radiation levels and technical difficulties. Site
personnel also failed to reconnect the plant to the electric grid
as they had hoped, an effort that would have allowed workers to
restart the cooling pumps within the crippled nuclear reactors-a
critical factor in preventing full-scale disaster. The difficulties
suggested that bringing down the temperatures of the damaged
reactors and the spent-fuel pools could be a long and difficult
task.
On Thursday in the U.S., General Electric Co., which designed
the stricken plant decades ago, said it had dispatched teams of
nuclear experts to a Japanese emergency-response center where they
are working with Tepco. Never before has a single operator faced
the possibility of multiple reactor meltdowns amid a natural
disaster that has made it difficult to get emergency equipment-even
such basics as lights so workers can see what they're doing at
night-to the site.
Last Friday's tsunami devastated the emergency backup generators
at the plant, making it impossible to keep the all-important
cooling pumps operating, thus putting nuclear material at risk of
meltdown. The crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi complex now threatens
three of six nuclear reactors there, and four of seven pools in
which nuclear waste is stored.
On March 15, Tepco, requested 10 GE truck-mounted gas turbines,
which can offer temporary power. GE says three of 10 ten trucks are
ready in Florida and awaiting air transport.
President Obama Thursday afternoon warned Americans in Northern
Japan to exercise caution, even beyond the declared 50-mile danger
radius, but said harmful levels of radiation are not expected to
reach the United States. Jerry Seib has details.
The events in Washington and Japan underscored the confusion
around the Fukushima plant and efforts to keep it from spinning
into a nuclear catastrophe. As officials at Tepco have sought to
calm fears, governments in Germany and China have ordered halts to
nuclear-power production and development.
President Barack Obama Thursday put himself out front of the
U.S. response, using a short Rose Garden appearance to reassure
Americans that "we do not expect harmful levels of radiation to
reach the United States, whether it's the West Coast, Hawaii,
Alaska, or U.S. territories in the Pacific."
Mr. Obama said he has ordered a "comprehensive review" of safety
at U.S. nuclear power plants, a step urged by members of
Congress.
Concern among U.S. officials about the quality of information
coming from the Japanese government has risen dramatically,
according to administration officials. In addition to the
difficulty getting reliable information from an unfolding calamity,
there's U.S. officials are concerned they may not be getting the
full picture of what is happening on the ground.
In recent days, U.S. military installations in Japan have
detected radiation and have recommended that personnel at Yokosuka
and on other bases remain indoors.
Regarding the U.S. evacuation plans announced Thursday, Pentagon
spokesman Col. David Lapan said that the U.S. government will
charter aircraft to airlift U.S. civilians from Japan. U.S.
military bases in Korea are now being prepared to receive evacuees
from Japan.
The primary means for the current evacuation, Col. Lapan said,
would be charter aircraft. "If necessary, U.S. military assets may
be used," he added.
The State Department has authorized the voluntary departure of
family members and dependents of U.S. government employees
stationed in northeast Japan.
The U.S military presence in Japan is substantial, and U.S.
Forces Japan, which is headquartered at Yokota Air Base, has a
sizable contingent of military families and civilians. The command
has approximately 38,000 military personnel, along with 43,000
dependents and 5,000 Pentagon civilian employees.
The State Department also has authorized a voluntary evacuation
of around 600 diplomatic family members and dependents stationed in
Tokyo, Yokohama and Nagoya.
The U.S. late Thursday began flying U.S. citizens out of Japan
from Tokyo's Narita Airport aboard civilian charter aircraft. The
move follows a government travel advisory issued Wednesday
cautioning all Americans against traveling to Japan.
The U.S. Navy has positioned a sizeable fleet off both the west
and east coasts of Japan to aid in the relief efforts. Secretary of
the Navy Ray Mabus said the service had 14 ships and more than
10,000 personnel in Japan or off the Japanese coast.
"We're flying our helicopters, and we will soon have almost 70
helicopters in the region or in the area that was affected," he
said. "We're moving Japanese first responders, Japanese troops by
ship to the affected areas."
Marines of the III Marine Expeditionary Force based on Okinawa
have sent a headquarters company up with 500 Marines to close to
the earthquake-hit regions of Japan. Mr. Mabus said they would
assist in radiological testing, humanitarian assistance and other
disaster relief planning.
Ships of the U.S. Navy's Seventh Fleet, including carrier USS
Ronald Reagan, are off the east coast of Japan. On the west coast,
the Essex amphibious group is stationed with the 31st Marine
Expeditionary Unit aboard.
Capt. Caleb Eames, a spokesman for 31st Marine Expeditionary
Unit, said the amphibious force was not currently performing
civilian rescue missions.
"Of course, we remain available to assist as directed by our
higher headquarters, but at this point we are on the west coast of
Japan preparing for humanitarian aid and disaster relief
operations," he said.