Japan Officials Report Progress at Troubled Nuclear Plant

Confusion and panic levels are rising across Japan following another blast and fire in Fukushima. WSJ's Mariko Sanchanta and Yumiko Ono separate fact from fiction in the latest nuclear reports.

TOKYO—Japanese officials appeared to have regained some control of northeast Japan's troubled nuclear power plant Tuesday afternoon, at least for now, after spikes in radiation levels that followed a new explosion at one reactor and a fire at another earlier in the day put the nation on high alert.

 

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Officials stressed it was too early to say the worst has been averted at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which has suffered serious problems in four of its six reactors since Friday's massive earthquake and tsunami. Determining the cause of the earlier radiation leaks and checking what's happening inside the overheating reactors was difficult.

Authorities also signaled a new area of potential worry: temperature at the remaining two reactors, both not operating at the time of the earthquake and so far not the subject of concern, has risen slightly, prompting the need for close monitoring. Officials were also probing a report that boiling water had been spotted near where the fire broke out Tuesday morning, another potential worrying sign.

But the conditions at the plant appeared to have stabilized in some aspects Tuesday afternoon. While radiation levels at the plant remain elevated, they have dropped significantly from earlier in the day, ruling out the continuation of unstoppable large-scale leaks.

Radiation levels in downtown Tokyo—which had also risen earlier Tuesday, though they remained well below levels that could damage human health—also fell sharply later in the day.

Earlier Tuesday, Prime Minister Naoto Kan warned of the possibility of further increase in radiation levels, as he called on the Japanese people to "act calmly." Officials said radiation levels at the plant had surged to levels that would have impact on the human body.

A fire that had broken out at one of the reactors earlier in the day—known as reactor No. 4—has been extinguished, while the conditions at two of the three overheating units—known as the No. 1 and No. 3 reactors—have been stabilized since regaining their cooling capabilities.

Authorities also continued to pour water in the No. 2 reactor, where an explosion early Tuesday appeared to have damaged its all-important containment structure, which keeps radiation inside from leaking out. "I think we need to see how things will go at the No. 2 units for a little bit longer before we can call it stable," Mr. Edano said.

Mr. Edano also said temperatures at No. 5 and No. 6 reactors, both not operating at the time of the earthquake, have risen slightly, prompting the need for close monitoring. The No. 4 reactor was also out of operation, but officials said its spent fuel storage pond had caught fire, ignited by a hydrogen gas explosion.

Sending the nation into a near panic, the government said earlier Tuesday radiation levels on the plant ground soared, attributing it to the possibility that radioactivity was released directly into the atmosphere from the plant on fire, No.4 reactor.

Speaking at a press conference late in the afternoon, chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano said officials now suspect that those extremely high readings may have come from the debris from Monday's explosion coming to rest by the gauge.

"We don't have a situation where high-level radiation is permanently leaking out," Mr. Edano said. He cautioned it's too early for officials to lower their guard as the cause of the earlier spikes hadn't been determined for sure. Key information about the conditions inside the No. 2 reactor, with likely damage to its containment structure, also remains unavailable.

The radiation level at the plant's gate had shot up to over 11,000 microsievert per hour Monday morning, equivalent to the amount a person is exposed to in 11 years. That level has dropped to below 600—roughly equivalent to a medical X-ray—by mid-afternoon.

Earlier Tuesday, Japan's nuclear crisis showed signs of spinning out of control after officials reported a third explosion and warned of possible damage to critical container housing the No. 2 reactor. Tuesday's explosion at the No. 2 reactor for the first time raised the possibility that the key containment structure of the unit, which protects the reactor vessel and keeps dangerous radioactive materials from leaking out, had been damaged.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan then gave a brief address to the nation, saying, "The level [of radiation] seems very high, and there is still a very high risk of more radiation coming out."

"We will do our utmost to prevent further spreading of radiation leaks," he said. "I sincerely urge everyone in the nation to act calmly."

He said that anyone within 18 miles of the plant should stay indoors. Previously the government had said people living within 12 miles should evacuate.

As the fear of a disaster mounted, Tokyo shares plummeted Tuesday, pushing down the Nikkei Stock Average 11%.

Mr. Edano said the radiation levels at the nuclear plant have surged to levels that will "clearly have impact on the human body." The levels monitored at the plant as of early Tuesday morning ranged between 30 to 400 millisieverts per hour.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government and other local authorities surrounding Japan's capital city said Tuesday they have detected higher-than-normal radiation levels, but the amounts aren't enough to cause immediate harm to the human body.

Tokyo said it measured a radiation level of 0.809 microsievert per hour in the Shinjuku district in the western part of the city center at around 10 a.m. local time, about 23 times higher than normal. By late in the day it had fallen to 0.0682 microsevert an hour. The usual daily average is around 0.035 microsevert an hour.

In Yokosuka, south of Tokyo, the radiation level hit as high as 0.212 microsievert per hour around 7 a.m., according to the Kanagawa Prefectural Government. But the level had fallen to around 0.1 microsievert per hour at around noon.

An official at the prefectural government said the recorded level is a fraction of the 600 microsieverts that a human body receives from one x-ray.

Exposure at the upper end of the range, at 400 millisievert, is equivalent to 40 rem. A single dose of 25 rem can cause temporary sterility in men. One hundred rems can cause radiation sickness and 500 rems likely will cause death. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission limits the exposure of U.S. nuclear workers to no more than five rem per year.

—Rebecca Smith, Phred Dvorak and Hiroyuki Kachi contributed to this article., which

Write to Yuka Hayashi at yuka.hayashi@wsj.com and Phred Dvorak at phred.dvorak@wsj.com

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