This is a bit of good news: The Tokyo Electric Power Company has managed to connect power lines to all the reactors at their Fukushima nuclear power plant. This doesn’t mean that power has been reestablished in its entirety, however.
In fact, only limited power functions – such as the lighting in reactor 3 – have been activated again. As of 3pm JST, the company is still working in bringing power to the important bits, crucial to solve this crisis: The refrigeration systems. This can prove difficult, as damage to the electrical wiring inside the reactor buildings is very likely.
The situation is still critical, according to the Japanese authorities. The IAEA is worried, however, that the Japanese government and TEPCO are not giving enough information now about the status of the plants.
Radioactive particles believed to come from Japan have already been detected in Washington states and in places as far as Iceland. Andreas Stohl – a scientist from the Norwegian Institute for Air Research – says that “it’s only a matter of days before it disperses in the entire northern hemisphere”, but it will not be affecting our health.
The number of dead and missing people has officially passed the 22,000 mark. [Kyodo and Reuters]