Geen voorbarige paniek over Japanse kerncentrale [updates]

Japan's nuclear safety agency officials said Saturday they believe there has been no serious damage to the container of the troubled No. 1 reactor of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. The officials made the comment after examining the latest radiation data monitored around the facility after an explosion in the afternoon, they said.

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan confirms that the evacuation area around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has been increased to 20 kilometers. But no one has been harmed by radiation, he says.

The explosion at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant was not caused by the nuclear reactor but by "water vapor that was part of the cooling process," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said Saturday. He said no harmful gases had been emitted by the explosion.

De beschermende behuizing rond de kernreactor van Fukushima I is niet beschadigd geraakt door een explosie. Dat meldde de Japanse overheid op basis van informatie van de exploitant van de installatie.

Volgens de overheid is de hoeveelheid straling gedaald na de explosie. Eerder op de dag werden radioactieve stoomwolken vrijgelaten uit de centrale, om te voorkomen dat de druk in de reactor te hoog zou oplopen.

An explosion at an earthquake-damaged nuclear plant was not caused by damage to the nuclear reactor but by a pumping system that failed as crews tried to bring the reactor's temperature down, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said Saturday.

The next step for workers at the Fukushima Daiichi plant will be to flood the reactor containment structure with sea water to bring the reactor's temperature down to safe levels, he said.  The effort is expected to take two days.

Radiation levels have fallen since the explosion and there is no immediate danger, Edano said.

The walls of a concrete building surrounding the reactor container at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant collapsed in an explosion, but the reactor and its containment system were not damaged, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said.

Zelfs als er in het ergste geval een meltdown plaats heeft in een kerncentrale in het door de aardbeving getroffen gebied in Japan hoeft dat geen groot gevaar op te leveren, zegt wetenschapsredacteur Karel Knip van NRC Handelsblad.