Japanese workers entered the No.1 reactor building at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant Thursday for the first time since a hydrogen explosion ripped off its roof a day after a devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami. High radiation levels inside the building have prevented staff from entering to start installing a new cooling system to finally bring the plant under control, a process plant operator Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) has said may take all year.
The magnitude 9.0 quake and massive tsunami killed about 14,800 people, left some 11,000 missing and destroyed tens of thousands of homes.
It also knocked out the cooling systems at the Fukushima plant, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, leading to the greatest leak of radiation since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
Two TEPCO staff and 11 contractors with protective suits, masks and air tanks worked for 1- hours, moving in and out in small groups to connect duct pipes to ventilators that will filter out 95 percent of the radioactive material in the air, a company spokesman said. (read more)
