Japan’s Defense Ministry has released a new aerial video of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which shows the damage to the reactors more clearly than previous footage.
The 4-minute edited video released on Sunday is the second aerial footage of the plant to be shown to the public since it was damaged by the March 11th earthquake and tsunami.
Taken from a Ground Self-Defense Force helicopter earlier in the day, the video shows the ceiling of the Number One reactor building that collapsed in a hydrogen blast.
White vapor, possibly steam, is rising through several holes in the roof of the building for the Number 2 reactor.
The roof of the Number 3 reactor building was also blown off by a hydrogen explosion and steam is rising from inside.
The walls of the Number 4 reactor building have collapsed, exposing what appear to be a crane and a ball-shaped yellow structure. Steam is gushing out from the building.
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U.S. experts: significant water contamination in Japan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Groundwater, reservoirs and sea water around Japan’s earthquake damaged nuclear plant face “significant contamination” from the high levels of radiation leaking from the plant, a worrying development that heightens potential health risks in the region.
Nuclear and environmental scientists in the United States darkened their assessment of the risks markedly on Monday after operators at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant said that highly radioactive water has entered underground concrete tunnels extending beyond the reactor.
Sea water and fresh water used to cool the reactors, critically damaged by Japan’s March 11 earthquake and tsunami, and spent fuel pools at the plant have been put in storage tanks there. But reports indicate these tanks are full or over-flowing with tainted water, experts said.
“It’s just hard to see how this won’t result in significant contamination of, certainly, sea water,” said Edwin Lyman, a physicist and expert on nuclear plant design at the U.S.-based Union of Concerned Scientists.
“There will be dilution, some of that will be reconcentrated, but I don’t think this can be sugar-coated at this point.”
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