Nine months ending pour you cry nuclear Japan, owners of the plant estimate
It will take three months to reduce the levels of radioactivity in the plant and restore the normal operation of cooling systems for reactors and spent fuel pools, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, said. Another three to six months will be needed before the motors are completely closed and the construction of new deposits around their damaged homes, the company said.
Meanwhile, the Japanese government to try to clean said "the widest possible area" in this period before deciding whether the tens of thousands of people were forced to flee their homes were allowed to return, said goshi Hosono, adviser Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan
"We must go step by step to solve the problems one by one," says Hosono.
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The calendar was released five days after Tokyo Electric Kan asked to see a Japanese way to end the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986. A day earlier, the company would not comment on an industry group estimated that restoration of normal cooling would have two or three months - a period comparable to the first stage of the plan Sunday.
Tokyo Electric spokesman Hiro Hasegawa acknowledged that public pressure has helped to accelerate the company's decision to publish a plan and warned that the provision is temporary - "but we will do our best to" stick with it, at he said.
Because of the unknown quantities of highly contaminated water from flooding basements units 1-3, where the normal cooling equipment for homes, the utility is building a separate cooling system . This system would remove heat from water pumped through the reactor and clean it before posting it back through them.
At the moment, engineers have been improvised by pumping about 170 tonnes (45,000 gallons) of water per day for each reactor, the unknown part that loses out. Water leaks out, laden with particles such as radioactive iodine and cesium, as reactor byproducts.
On the ground on Sunday, workers used remote-controlled robots to record the radiation, and data on water temperature in the building that houses the reactor No. 3. Photos published by the utility showed the devices provided by the American company iRobot, opening the door inside the reactor and enter the dark building.
"Everything is a high radiation inside the reactor building," Hasegawa told reporters at a news conference for the international channels - another first for a company that has been heavily criticized for his handling of the crisis.
Meanwhile, Tokyo Electric President Tsunehisa Katsumata rejected questions dozen Japanese reporters about whether he or other executives planned to resign in the wake of the disaster.
"Right now we have no discussions or decisions to resign, as all our efforts to resolve the situation," Katsumata said. "We do not know if this resignation is the best way to take charge or remain in a position to resolve the situation." Any decision can be expected general meeting of shareholders of the company in June, he said.
The crisis age five weeks of March began at 11, when the plant was submerged by the tsunami following the earthquake in the history of northern Japan. The 14 - to 15 meters (45-48 feet) wave eliminated the cooling system of the plant, causing the three reactors in operation at the time of overheating.
The results included two spectacular explosions that blew apart homes in No. 1 and No. 3 reactor and the release of massive amounts of radioactivity which has significantly decreased, but continued Sunday.
plan can be useful wildcard reactor No. 2, in which a suspect is believed to accumulation of hydrogen in the suppression pool break - a donut-shaped reservoir at the foot of reactor. This may make it difficult to carry out one of the first phases of the proposed cooling, filling the concrete is to contain the shell around the reactor with water, said Hasegawa.
Unless the damage is repaired or otherwise, that part of the plan has succeeded, "he said.
The Japanese government said senior Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster last week, warning residents of several cities outside the current 30 km (19 mile) danger zone around the plant to evacuate or prepare to leave their homes. Chief Cabinet Secretary visited Yukio Edan the disaster zone Sunday, including a brief stay in the range of 20 km of which all residents were ordered out.
Dressed in a white protective suit and mask, Edano obtained in about 15 km from the plant during his meeting with the police is still searching the area for victims of the disaster on Mars.
"Ensuring people's lives and security is our priority," Edan said after a meeting with the governor of Fukushima Prefecture, Yuhei Sato.
Radiation levels in the region is not high enough to cause immediate health effects, but prolonged exposure can lead to increased risk of cancer, according to government data and reports to external researchers. In one village visited Iitate Edano Sunday, government figures released Sunday shows the cumulative doses of radiation from the accident is already more than half the limit of 20 mSv, the government said the long-term disposal.
Iitate is about 40 km northwest of the plant, without danger zones delineated in the early days of the crisis. Hosono said the government still does not know how much of the contaminated areas can be cleaned, but added: "We will try to clean as much area as possible."
The workers stopped a serious leakage of contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean, April 6, but high levels of transience of iodine-131 from nuclear waste has been this weekend could indicate a new problem, a Japanese security officer said on Saturday. iodine concentrations of the sample Saturday around the hydrant No. 2 was 6,000 times the legal standards of Japan, an increase of 1,100 times on Thursday and a slight decrease in sales on Friday than 6,500 times.
This number is well below the level recorded during the previous flight had been spitting radioactive iodine in the sea of 7.5 million times the limit. The authorities have built a mud and steel plates placed around the fence for admission to the pollution of close since April 6.
Iodine-131 has a radioactive half-life of eight days, and this increase can be either from a fresh or leakage of the sediment stirred while placing steel panels around the plug, "said Hidehiko Nishiyama, the chief spokesman for Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.
"We will continue to monitor the situation closely," Nishiyama said. "At this stage, are not visually of all the water leaking into the sea, and is difficult to verify the conditions of about No. 2, because of the level of radiation."
