The operator of Japan’s crippled, leaking nuclear plant says two of the six reactor units are now safely under control after their fuel storage pools cooled down.
Tokyo Electric Power Company declared Units 5 and 6 safe on Sunday night after days of pumping water into the reactors pool brought temperatures down.
Bringing the two units under control marks a minor advance in the efforts to stop the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex from leaking radiation. The two units are the least problematic of the six reactor units at the plant, which began overheating after the earthquake-triggered tsunami disrupted the plant’s cooling systems.
Radiation fears prompt Swiss to move embassy
Switzerland is moving its embassy in Japan to Osaka because of fears that radiation levels in the capital Tokyo could increase.
The Foreign Ministry says Swiss experts judge developments at the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant to be “very uncertain.”
The ministry said Sunday that an imminent change in wind direction is also forecast and could increase radiation levels in Tokyo.
The Swiss government had offered to fly its citizens home for free after the earthquake and subsequent tsunami that hit northeast Japan on March 11. It says a charter flight Sunday was canceled due to lack of demand.
