Informe : Japan Claims Modest Gains in Bid to Cool Nuclear Plant

TOKYO
Japanese authorities claimed modest gains Thursday in their efforts to tame a heavily damaged nuclear-power plant that has caused worries around the world,but increasing international skepticism and troublesome levels of radiation on the ground underscored the ongoing difficulties. Authorities attempted to douse the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear-power complex with some 100 tons of seawater on Thursday using helicopters and fire trucks, an urgent effort to combat rising temperatures in two storage pools for spent nuclear fuel.
Radiation levels at the site fell slightly.
A Tepco executive, who asked not to be named, said the operations to drench the facility "were a good first step" in the efforts 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 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 them to restart cooling pumps.
The ongoing difficulties suggested that bringing down the temperatures of the damaged reactors and the spent-fuel pools could be a long and difficult task.
U.S. officials Thursday called the situation in Japan complex and confusing, and cautioned that the crisis won't be resolved quickly. "This is something that will likely take some time to work through, possibly weeks," said Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko.
"It's something that will be ongoing for some time."
Mr. Jaczko and Deputy Energy Secretary Daniel Poneman said the U.S. is still expanding its effort to gather information independently about the nuclear plant and radiation levels. The Energy Department has delivered to Japan "pods" containing radiation measurement devices that are being fixed to helicopters and planes. Separately, the Pentagon said Thursday it has deployed a Global Hawk drone aircraft to monitor the situation.
Mr. Jaczko Thursday stood by his statement Wednesday that the risks of radiation exposure call for evacuating U.S. citizens from within 50 miles of the stricken plant. Japanese and French officials Thursday challenged certain details of the analysis of the situation that Mr. Jaczko provided to lawmakers and the White House on Wednesday, particularly Mr. Jaczko's statement that a spent fuel pond at reactor No. 4 in the complex had run dry.
"There's a lot of conflicting information around this," Mr. Jaczko said.
"But the bottom line is is that there clearly appears to be a challenge keeping that spent fuel filled with sufficient water. So it is a very dynamic situation."
The State Department said Wednesday U.S. citizens in Japan should consider leaving, and asked them to defer travel there. The U.S. has also established a 50-mile "no-go" zone around the site, much wider than Japan's roughly 12-mile zone.
In a notice issued Thursday, the U.S. embassy in Tokyo said that the government would fly U.S. citizens out of Japan to havens in Asia, with repayment expected later. In addition, dependents of U.S. military personnel stationed in Japan may leave the country on a voluntary basis.
U.S. and Japanese officials Thursday played down the perception that the two countries are in disagreement, saying they are talking regularly and that the U.S. continues to help Japan with its unfolding crisis.
The battle to bring the plant under control came as Japan continues to grapple with the effects of last week's massive earthquake and ensuing tsunami. Japanese police said Thursday the death toll reached 5,692 people, with nearly 10,000 missing and many parts of the country still difficult to reach.
The Japanese yen hit a new record high against the U.S. dollar, which was at 78.85 yen in midday U.S. trading in New York, reflecting its deep creditor status and belief that Japanese investors will sell foreign assets to bring home money needed for rebuilding.
Tokyo Electric, known as Tepco, warned that Tokyo could face broad blackouts as its wrestles with an electricity supply gap of as much as 25%.
But the utility eased back on its warnings after power consumption apparently dropped.
The capital city slipped past midnight without trouble.
Japan's nuclear crisis deepened as a fresh fire broke out in a quake-ravaged nuclear complex and expats fled Tokyo over warnings of radiation leaks. 
The American Embassy, which stressed the evacuations were voluntary, flew in two planes to evacuate citizens to Seoul.
Additionally, the British Embassy and Hong Kong immigration authorities set up tables at Haneda to answer questions from concerned nationals. 
Authorities haven't yet determined how much of the water dumped Thursday reached the reactors, particularly the severely troubled storage pool at the No. 3 reactor, which has emerged as a priority.
Reactor No. 3 automatically shut down at the time of the earthquake but was damaged in an explosion. The blast exposed the spent fuel rods stored there.
"The spent fuel storage pools at Nos. 3 and 4 are not being cooled, and if this condition continues we are concerned radioactive material could leak outside," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said at a press conference Thursday.
"We are emphasizing the state of the pools and prioritizing No. 3 for cooling."
Getting water into the pool that houses the fuel rods could cool the radioactive material, giving officials more time to restore power to the plant.
Officials at Tepco said a small plume of steam generated by the dump suggested that at least some of the water made it into the storage pool.
A Tepco spokesman said radiation levels fell to 3,750 microsieverts per hour from 3,786 microsieverts per hour.
“ I wouldn't bet against the Japanese, folks. They are human and flawed like the rest of us but if I had to pick a group to tackle a knotty problem like this one, it would be them. They will stabilize that plant. ”
The operation was delayed by elevated radiation levels and ended shortly after 8 p.m.
Five fire trucks from the Self Defense Forces, the name for Japan's military, were used in the procedure. Those trucks were equipped with high-pressure water cannons.
However, high radiation prevented a police fire truck from getting close enough to the power station to be effective.
Much of the 40 tons it sprayed fell without hitting the facility, according to the Metropolitan Police Department. Radiation levels again fell slightly after the fire truck mission, dropping to 3,586 microsieverts per hour from 3,690 microsieverts per hour, according to a spokesman for the nuclear agency.
Authorities also said they hadn't reconnected the stricken plant to the main electricity grid via power cables, as they had hoped to do by Thursday. Such a connection could possibly allow them to restart pumps used in the cooling system. The state of the pumps used in those systems hasn't been confirmed yet. At a late-night press conference, a Tepco official said the company "wanted to make as much progress as possible" toward connecting the facility to the electrical grid on Friday. He remained vague about the utility's prospects.