If the Japanese authorities fail to cope with the accident at the damaged nuclear power plant

Yesterday, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan called the disaster at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant the most serious crisis in the country's post-war history. Damage at the second and third power units of the plant, where the reactor cooling system failed, was assigned level five out of seven possible on the International Nuclear Event Scale - INES (International Nuclear Event Scale). Japanese authorities admit that they underestimated the scale of the accident and hope to launch the cooling system today. In the meantime, the company operating the station does not rule out building a concrete sarcophagus around it.

Japanese authorities, unsuccessfully trying to cool down the reactors at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, yesterday adjusted their assessment of the accident at the plant damaged by the earthquake. The damage to the core of the second and third reactors, which was caused by a complete failure of the cooling systems, was assigned level five on the INES scale - “accident with risk to the environment.” For comparison: the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986 was assigned the last, seventh level.

For the Japanese government, eliminating the consequences of the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant has now come to the fore. Prime Minister Naoto Kan yesterday addressed citizens in which he called the disaster at the station the most serious crisis in post-war history. According to him, the situation there remains difficult. “The unacceptable situation still remains, but everything is being done to correct it. The situation will be brought under control,” Mr. Kan assured. “The Japanese people revived and built this country after the war. I am confident that in the face of the trials that befell Japan Today, we will not waver and will be able to revive Japan."

They are trying to cool the hot reactors with the help of firefighters and helicopters, dropping tens of tons of sea water onto the station. At the same time, the Japanese Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency compares flooding reactors with water from helicopters to “putting out an invisible fire.” “It’s like we’re operating blind,” an agency spokesman told Reuters. “The flames don’t seem to be spreading, but we don’t know if we can say we have the situation under control.” At the same time, specialists are trying to restore electricity to the cooling system, hoping to connect it this morning. However, it is not a fact that after power is restored, the cooling system pumps, which could also be damaged during an earthquake or fires at power units, will operate.

Japanese Government Secretary-General Yukio Edano said at a press conference that radiation levels at the damaged nuclear power plant did not pose a danger to people, although he acknowledged that in some places radioactivity levels were higher. At the same time, he said the government was stunned and overwhelmed by the scale of the double disaster that had befallen the country, and admitted that much of what had happened had come as a complete surprise to the authorities. “Looking back, we understand that we could have acted faster and more harmoniously,” the official admitted.

Meanwhile, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) is preparing for the worst-case scenario just in case. Its representatives have already reported on the possibility of building a concrete sarcophagus around the emergency station. "Isolating the reactors with a concrete cover is quite feasible. However, our main task is to try to cool them first," a company spokesman told reporters in Tokyo.

Russian authorities, meanwhile, declare that there is no threat to the Russian Federation. The head of Rosatom, Sergei Kiriyenko, reported this to President Dmitry Medvedev. According to him, even in the worst case scenario at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, the Russian Far East is not threatened by radiation “neither in the present nor in the future.” “We have calculated the worst possible scenario for the development of events, a completely dramatic situation. The worst scenario is a meltdown of fuel in all six reactors of the Japanese nuclear power plant with the release of radiation into the atmosphere,” said Mr. Kiriyenko, noting that even in this case there is no threat of reaching even the lower limit acceptable standards. The President responded by calling on the population not to panic. “This is not a reason to inflame passions. Panic sentiments must be extinguished,” RIA Novosti quoted Mr. Medvedev.

Simultaneously with the work at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, the Japanese authorities continue rescue operations in all areas affected by the earthquake and the tsunami caused by it. There are also 161 Russian rescuers working in Japan - according to the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, this is the largest foreign group of rescuers in the country. The Russians are working in the Sendai area: specialists have already examined 100 square meters. km of territory, 112 bodies of the dead were pulled out from under the rubble. “Long-term practice shows that within seven days after an earthquake it is still possible to save living people,” the Ministry of Emergency Situations says. “But so far, unfortunately, it has not been possible to find living victims.” Rescuers are now moving to the west of Honshu Island.

On Friday, the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry planned to carry out five flights from Japan with Russian citizens. As the head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, Sergei Shoigu, said at a meeting of the Security Council, about 6 thousand Russians want to return to their homeland. He also expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that people in the Far East began to speculate on dosimeters. “Companies have appeared that, taking advantage of the situation, began to sell dosimeters at prices five times more expensive than they actually cost,” the minister was indignant. “Stop speculating on these things, we have no shortage of anything.”

At the same time, not all Russians currently in Japan are dissatisfied with the work of the authorities. In particular, the Russian Embassy. “My wife regularly called the embassy of her native country, asking for advice on what to do, whether she and her one-year-old child should leave Japan,” biologist-researcher Oleg Gusev, who lives in the city of Tskuba, 200 km from the problem zones, told Kommersant. They answered that there was no reason to worry, leave the phone, we will keep you informed of events. And then we learn from the news that the families of the embassy employees have already been evacuated from Japan, the plane flew away half empty, and no one even called back.”

Describing the events in the country, Mr. Gusev said that now Japan is actually divided into two parts - north of Tokyo and south: “You go to the south - there is normal life, there is food and water in stores, gasoline is freely sold. But to the north, before reaching to Tokyo, there are queues at gas stations and shortages in stores." According to him, the whole country is collecting donations for the victims (yesterday it was reported that more than 6.5 thousand were killed, over 10 thousand were missing, and about 400 thousand left their homes due to the threat of a tsunami). “Now in the affected areas there is very bad telephone communication, people cannot contact their relatives. And in Japan, a special telephone line has been organized where you can call and say that you are alive or, on the contrary, that you are looking for the missing,” the source told Kommersant. “And all these lists of names and messages are constantly read out live on the radio, a lot of time is spent on this. I drive in the car and listen to these names for hours, like the whole country. I’m sure that many people found each other thanks to this.”

Vladimir Solovyov, Alexander Chernykh, Andrey Kozenko

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