Reactor seal intact after explosion From correspondents in Tokyo From: AFP March 15, 2011 12:03PM
THE seal around a reactor at a quake-damaged Japanese nuclear power plant does not appear to have been holed, the plant operator says, following an explosion at the plant.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said earlier today that the suppression pool of the No.2 reactor at the Fukushima No.1 plant appeared to have been damaged.
The pool forms the base of the container vessel which seals the fuel rods.
Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) "said it believes the container vessel has not sustained damage such as a hole, judging from the fact that the radiation level has not jumped", a spokesman for the country's nuclear safety said.
A huge explosion hit the building housing the number-two reactor early today, the third blast at the plant since Saturday - hydrogen explosions at Unit 1 and Unit 3.
Japan is working desperately to avert a nuclear meltdown after Friday's massive earthquake and tsunami cut power to the ageing plant and knocked out cooling systems.
Workers meanwhile have been evacuated from the number-two reactor plant.
"We have moved our staff to a safer area," the TEPCO spokesman said.
An official from Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said "that workers near the reactor No.2, excluding those who are pumping water to cool the reactor, have been evacuated".
But the official said: "The evacuation does not mean there are in a crisis."
