SDF finishes spraying water on No.3 reactor

Japan's Self-Defense Forces have sprayed water on the overheated No.3 reactor of the quake-damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The forces finished the 30-minute operation on Thursday evening. Five fire engines loaded with a total of 30 tons of water were used.

But the Defense Ministry says it has not confirmed whether the water reached the storage pool housing spent fuel rods, though it reached the inside of the building that houses it.

The forces are preparing to repeat the exercise on Friday if requested by the government.

Temperatures are rising in the spent fuel rod pools of the plant's No.3 and No.4 reactors, where a massive radiation leakage is feared.

Earlier in the day, police also used high-pressure water canons to douse the No.3 reactor from the ground. But the water failed to reach the target, and the operation was suspended due to high radiation levels.

Thursday, March 17, 2011 22:14 +0900 (JST)