FUKUSHIMA, Japan — Workers at a leaking nuclear plant hooked up power lines to all six of the crippled complex’s reactor units Tuesday, but other repercussions from the massive earthquake and tsunami were still rippling across the nation as economic losses mounted at three of Japan’s flagship companies.
The progress on the electrical lines at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was a welcome and significant advance after days of setbacks. With the power lines connected, officials hope to start up the overheated plant’s crucial cooling system that was knocked out during the March 11 tsunami and quake that devastated Japan’s northeast coast.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. warned that workers still need to check all equipment for damage first before switching the cooling system on to all the reactor units — a process that could take days or even weeks.
Late Tuesday night, Tokyo Electric said lights went on in the central control room of Unit 3, but that doesn’t mean power had been restored to the cooling system. Officials will wait until sometime today to try to power up the water pumps to the unit.
Emergency crews also dumped 18 tons of seawater into a nearly boiling storage pool holding spent nuclear fuel, cooling it to 105 degrees Fahrenheit, Japan’s nuclear-safety agency said. Steam, possibly carrying radioactive elements, had been rising for two days from the reactor building, and the move lessens the chances that more radiation will seep into the air.
The Fukushima complex has leaked radiation that has found its way into vegetables, raw milk, the water supply and even seawater. Early today, the government added broccoli to the list of tainted vegetables, which also include spinach and chrysanthemum greens. Government officials and health experts say the doses are low and not a threat to humans unless the tainted products are consumed in abnormally excessive quantities.
The Health Ministry ordered officials in the area of the stricken plant to increase monitoring of seawater and seafood after elevated levels of radioactive iodine and cesium were found in ocean water near the complex. Education Ministry official Shigeharu Kato said a research vessel had been dispatched to collect and analyze samples.
As morning broke today, two moderately strong quakes struck Fukushima prefecture, but there were no reports of damage or injury.
The crisis was continuing to batter Japan’s once-robust economy.
Three of the country’s biggest brands — Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co. and Sony Corp. — put off a return to normal production due to shortages of parts and raw materials because of earthquake damage to factories in affected areas. Toyota and Honda said they would extend a shutdown of auto production in Japan that already is in its second week, while Sony said it was suspending some manufacturing of popular consumer electronics such as digital cameras and TVs.
The National Police Agency said the number of bodies collected so far stood at 9,099, and 13,786 people have been listed as missing.
“We must overcome this crisis that we have never experienced in the past, and it’s time to make a nationwide effort,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, the government’s public point man, said Tuesday in his latest attempt to soothe public anxieties.
Still, tensions were running high. Officials in the town of Kawamata, about 30 miles away from the reactors, brought in a radiation specialist from Nagasaki — site of an atomic bombing during World War II — to calm fears. “I want to tell you that you are safe. You don’t need to worry,” Dr. Noboru Takamura told hundreds of residents at a community meeting.
While many of the region’s schools, gymnasiums and other community buildings are packed with the newly homeless, the number of people staying in shelters has been halved to 268,510 since the first several days after the disaster, presumably as many move in with relatives.
There have been few reports of looting since the devastation struck. But someone did take advantage of a bank’s crippled security system that left a vault wide open: At least one person walked off with 40 million yen ($500,000), police said Tuesday.
