Japan's Nuclear Efforts Hit A Setback

An unexpected spike in pressure inside a troubled reactor set back efforts to bring Japan's overheating, leaking nuclear complex under control Sunday as concerns grew that so far minor contamination of food and water is spreading.

The pressure increase raised the possibility that plant operators may need to deliberately release radioactive gas, erasing some progress in a nuclear crisis as the government continued its halting response to a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami that savaged northeast Japan on March 11.

A teenage boy's cries for help led police to rescue an 80-year-old woman from a wrecked house in a rare rescue after so many days.

Troubles at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex threatened to spread more radiation. While all six reactors saw trouble after the disasters knocked out cooling systems, officials reported progress in reconnecting two units to the electric grid and pumping seawater to cool overheating reactors and replenish bubbling and depleted pools for spent nuclear fuel.

But pressure inside the vessel holding the reactor of Unit 3 rose again Sunday, forcing officials to consider the dangerous venting. The tactic produced explosions during the early days of the crisis. Nuclear safety officials said one of the options could release a cloud dense with iodine as well as the radioactive elements krypton and xenon.

The plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., temporarily suspended the plans Sunday after it said the pressure inside the reactor stopped climbing, though at a high level.

"It has stabilized," Tokyo Electric manager Hikaru Kuroda told reporters. Kuroda said temperatures inside the reactor reached 572 Fahrenheit (300 degrees Centrigrade), and the company wants to minimize radiation releases. The option to release the highly radioactive gas inside is still under consideration if pressure rises, he said.

The higher reactor pressure may have been caused by a tactic meant to reduce temperatures — the pumping of seawater into the vessel, Kuroda said.

Using seawater to douse Unit 3 and the plant's other reactors or storage pools — Unit 4 was sprayed again Sunday — was a desperate measure. Seawater is corrosive, and so is damaging the finely milled machine parts of the plant, rendering it ultimately unusable.

The government acknowledged Sunday that the entire complex would be scrapped once the emergency is resolved. "It is obviously clear that Fukushima Dai-ichi in no way will be in a condition to be restarted," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters.

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