Image via WikipediaA March 19, 2011 press release prepared by the Department of Foreign Affairs
The Philippine Permanent Mission to the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Vienna reported to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Friday that in a briefing for the diplomatic missions in Vienna, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) stated that the current situation at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant units 1, 2 and 3, whose cores have suffered damage, appears to be relatively stable.
Sea water is being injected into all three units using fire extinguishing hoses. Containment pressures are fluctuating. Military helicopters carried out four water drops over Unit 3.The IAEA said that the situation at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant remains “very serious”, but there has been no significant worsening since Thursday.
Unit 4 remains a major safety concern. No information is available on the level of water in the spent fuel pool, and no roof is in place, thus resulting into the upward emission of radiation. The water levels in the reactor pressure vessels of Units 5 and 6 have also been declining. However, the water at the common spent fuel pool remains at a level that is sufficient to cool the facility.
IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano met with Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan, Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto, as well as other senior Japanese Government officials and the Vice president of Tokyo Electric Power Co. (the plant operator) and relayed the request of IAEA Member States for more detailed information.
The Prime Minister said that all Government agencies are exerting all possible efforts to address the emergency, and stressed that it is the policy of Japan to release all confirmed information to the public as promptly as possible.
Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) Provisional Technical Secretariat Executive Secretary Tibor Toth said that three international monitoring stations have sampled the radionuclides that were detected beginning March 12 from radioactive emissions from the Fukushima Daiichi plant, and certified that they consist of fissionable (radioactive) products.
However, as to the scope and direction of the dispersion of the fissionable products, as well as their concentration along the way, Executive Secretary Toth said that the data would have to be analyzed along with information from the World Meteorological Organization on wind trajectory and speed for the coming days. As the data will be provided to the IAEA, a more comprehensive analysis, particularly with regard the movement of the radionuclides within and outside Japanese territory, can be made shortly.
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