Mars 2011: Kärnkraftverket i Fukushima - utbruten och sammanfogad tråd

--Shimizu, 66, discharged from hospital last week following treatment for hypertension due to the crisis, made his second public appearance since the March 11 earthquake. he visited Tepco’s offsite center for managing the Fukushima Dai-Ichi station on his first trip to the city since an earthquake and tsunami damaged the plant one month ago.

He briefly spoke to reporters in Fukushima city, about 240 kilometers (150 miles) north of Tokyo, and apologized again for the nuclear crisis.--

--Radioactive steam and nitrogen is escaping from the containment vessel at the No. 1 reactor and the company is checking radiation levels around the reactor, spokeswoman Megumi Iwashita said by phone today.

Tepco started injecting nitrogen into the vessel to reduce the risk of a hydrogen explosion. The pressure inside the vessel is rising more slowly than expected, indicating a leak, Iwashita said. Work continues at the reactor and other parts of the Fukushima Dai-Ichi power station, she said.

Earlier today, the company said a hydrogen explosion was unlikely at the No. 1 unit.

“The situation is getting messier, especially at reactor No. 1,” Lauri Myllyvirta, a campaigner for Greenpeace told reporters in Tokyo today. “It seems likely that re-criticality or chain reactions in the fuel are taking place in there. Water isn’t going to be a solution for cooling the extra heat that generates.”--