march 18 plant update, page-2

As I reported yesterday, the situation at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants remains very serious, but there has been no significant worsening since our last briefing.

The situation at the reactors at Units 1, 2 and 3 appears to remain fairly stable.

Seawater was injected yesterday into Unit 2 and white smoke was again observed through the blown-out panels.

At Unit 3, which was the subject of helicopter water drops yesterday, water cannons have been spraying water on the spent fuel pond and seawater was injected into the reactor pressure vessel.

An important safety concern remains the spent fuel pools at Units 3 and 4. Information is lacking on water levels and temperatures at the spent fuel pools.

Efforts are being made to restore electrical power to the whole site. Another positive development is that diesel generators are providing power for cooling for both Units 5 and 6.

No problems have been reported at the common spent fuel pool. The spent fuel in the pool is fully covered by water.

The Japanese authorities today issued new ratings for the incidents on the IAEA International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale - INES.

They assess core damage at the Fukushima Daiichi 1, 2 and 3 reactor Units, caused by the loss of all cooling function, as 5 on the INES scale.

The situation at Unit 4, where cooling and water supply in the spent fuel pool have been lost, is rated 3 by the Japanese authorities.

At the Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant, the loss of cooling functions in Units 1, 2 and 4 has also been rated as 3. All reactor Units at Fukushima Daini are now in a cold shut down condition.