U.S. urges Americans within 50 miles of Japanese nuclear plant… (NRC chair says “no water” in pool) [View All]

U.S. urges Americans within 50 miles of Japanese nuclear plant to evacuate; NRC chief outlines dangerous situation

By Brian Vastag, Rick Maese and Debbi Wilgoren, Wednesday, March 16, 4:25 PM

The United States on Wednesday urged Americans who live within 50 miles of Japan’s earthquake-damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to evacuate, and the top U.S. nuclear regulatory official indicated that Japan faces an increasingly dangerous situation at one of the plant’s reactors.

Gregory Jaczko, chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Wednesday that no water remains in a pool used to cool spent fuel at the plant and that radiation levels there are thought to be “extremely high.”

Japanese officials denied that the water is gone from the spent-fuel pool, the Associated Press reported.

Jaczko, testifying before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, detailed what his agency has been told about the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. He said the pool of spent fuel rods at the unit 4 reactor are cause for serious concern. Typically, spent fuel rods are kept covered by water, to carry away the heat that the rods exude for years after their use.

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