TOKYO — Japan’s nuclear-safety agency says workers entered the reactor building of Unit 1 at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant today for the first time since right after the March 11 earthquake.
The plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., said crews were installing six ventilation machines in an attempt to absorb radiation from the air inside the building.
The work is expected to take about four or five days.
The utility must lower radiation levels inside the reactor before it can proceed with installing cooling systems, which were knocked out by the huge earthquake and the tsunami that followed.
The natural disaster left 26,000 people dead or missing, and sent 130,000 people to evacuation centers.
Workers have not gone inside the reactor building since it was damaged by a hydrogen explosion March 12.
The Associated Press
