Akhir 13, 1432 H/March 18, 2011, SPA -- Fire trucks sprayed water at an overheating nuclear reactor in north-eastern Japan Friday, as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) described the situation at the stricken power plant as serious but stabilizing, dpa reported. Military and police trucks sprayed tons of water on the overheated fuel storage pool at reactor 3 of Fukushima I nuclear power plant, which was damaged by the earthquake and tsunami that devastated the region a week ago. The water "almost certainly reached" the fuel storage pool, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters. Cooling systems at the reactors failed after the electricity system was knocked out in the disaster. "I would characterize it as moving to a stable situation," senior IAEA official Graham Andrew told reporters at the agency's seat in Vienna. He cited ongoing work to bring electricity back to reactor unit 2, stabilization of pressure inside the core of reactor 3 and the even temperature level at the spent-fuel pond at reactor 6 as positive signs. Workers were trying to recover power at reactors 1 and 2 by late Friday and at reactors 3 and 4 by Sunday, to pump cooling water to the reactors. However, Andrew warned that the state of the plant remained "very serious." Edano said the level of water in the fuel storage pool at reactor 1 was thought to be falling. Elevated temperatures in fuel ponds at reactors 5 and 6 did not pose an immediate danger, he said. If necessary, they would also be doused with water. Japan raised the rating of the nuclear accident up one step to level 5 on the 7-step INES scale, labelling it as an "accident with wider consequences," because reactor cores have been damaged. The new rating on the so-called INES scale puts the accident on the same level as the 1979 accident at Three Mile Island in the United States, where the core was severely damaged. Radiation levels around reactor 3 fell slightly on Thursday after it was sprayed by military firefighters, Japan's nuclear safety commission said Friday. Officials of the World Health Organization and the IAEA said separately that there was no general health risk for Japan's population, despite temporary elevated radiation levels over the past days. Earlier Friday, IAEA chief Yukiya Amano arrived in Japan and met Prime Minister Naoto Kan and other officials to discuss the nuclear crisis.
