(RTTNews) - A 450-member team of experts equipped to deal with a nuclear emergency has been mobilized by the U.S. military for possible deployment in Japan in the event of a full-blown nuclear disaster there, reports said on Thursday.
Admiral Robert Willard told reporters in Washington that he would oversee American military assistance to Japan which has been encountering a humanitarian and nuclear crisis brought on by last week's massive earthquake and the devastating tsunami it generated.
Willard said an advance team of radiological and consequence experts had already been sent to the affected region for taking stock of the situation. The Admiral added that there was close cooperation between the U.S. and Japanese forces in dealing with the post-tsunami crisis and this was attributed to time-tested ties between Washington and Tokyo.
Efforts are still on to stabilize the quake-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant and reports say progress has been painfully slow. There is now a great urgency to restore power for restarting the pumps to spray cold water on the reactors.
On Friday, one minute's silence was observed throughout Japan at 2:46 local time, the exact hour at which the magnitude-9 quake and the resulting tsunami struck the country's northeast last Friday.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told a news conference on Friday that steam was emitting from the plant after helicopters dumped tons of sea water over the affected reactors on Thursday.
Edano, however, denied reports about a spike in radiation to levels harmful to human health. But he admitted that a few higher readings had been recorded and added that a whole lot of attention had been devoted to reactor 3 and water was being continuously sprayed.
The top Japanese official rubbished reports that Tokyo had spurned American help for dealing with the crisis. "We have repeatedly asked for specific support, and indeed, they are responding to that," he said.
Some 6,405 people have officially been declared dead in the catastrophe, but it is feared that the actual number of casualties could be much higher.
by RTT Staff Writer
For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com
No comments:
Post a Comment