Japan's government has ordered the immediate implementation of new safety measures at nuclear power plants across the country as officials acknowledge they are still far from bringing the earthquake-damaged Fukushima nuclear complex under control.
In the latest setback, Japan's nuclear safety agency reported that radioactive iodine has been detected at more than 3,000 times the allowable level in the ocean about 300 meters from the plant. It is the highest level recorded since the plant's cooling systems were knocked out by a massive earthquake and tsunami.
The safety standards announced Wednesday follow criticism that the Fukushima plant was not designed to withstand the March 11th onslaught, which left more than 27,500 people dead or missing. They call for immediate checks at all 55 nuclear plants in Japan, preparedness training for staff at the plants and improved provisions to deal with power failures, among other measures.
Tsunehisa Katsumata, chairman of the Tokyo Electric Power Company which operates the plant, admitted at a press conference that four of the plant's six reactors can never be used again. He said he was taking over the crisis response from the company's president, Masataka Shimizu, who was hospitalized Tuesday evening suffering from dizziness and high blood pressure.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, meanwhile, admitted that authorities are not yet in a position where they can say when the situation will be brought under control.
Foreign governments have been rallying to Japan's assistance, with French President Nicolas Sarkozy due in Tokyo Thursday along with French nuclear experts who are advising on how to halt radiation leaks and repair cooling systems for the plant's six nuclear reactors.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan also received a phone call Wednesday from U.S. President Barack Obama offering any help. A naval task force with more than 18,000 personnel is already assisting in relief efforts along Japan's northeast coast.
Japanese nuclear officials said they are working urgently to determine the exact cause of the spike in radioactive iodine in the seawater sample collected Tuesday, which registered 3,355 times the legal limit. They said the finding was a cause for concern but not an immediate threat to human health.
Nuclear experts believe the plant suffered partial meltdowns of the nuclear fuel rods in the cores of three of the six reactors after the earthquake and tsunami disabled the primary and back-up cooling systems that keep the rods from overheating.
There are also fears that the containment chambers used to prevent radiation from escaping from the cores may have been damaged in at least two of the reactors. The latest evidence of that came Tuesday when technicians discovered low levels of plutonium matching that used in the number-three unit's fuel rods in soil samples outside the plant.
Plant workers meanwhile are laboring under primitive conditions and with inadequate food and sleep to remove water from the basements and adjoining service tunnels at three of the reactors. The water, which is at 1,000 times the normal radiation level at the number 2 unit, was at one point threatening to spill into the nearby ocean but it was reported Wednesday to be coming down in the basement of one of the buildings.
Workers need to keep pumping water into the reactors to prevent the fuel rods from overheating, even as they need to remove the contaminated water so they can replace and repair pumps needed for normal cooling. In a worst-case scenario, the fuel rods could catch fire, spewing radiation, or melt through the floor of the reactors allowing their radiation to be widely distributed through the ground water system.
Radiation from the plant has already been detected in milk and vegetables from farms in the surrounding prefecture and at low levels in tap water in Tokyo and other cities. Very low levels have been detected in countries across Asia, Europe and North America. Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from homes within 20 kilometers of the stricken plant.