U.S. urges Americans within 50 miles of Japanese nuclear plant to evacuate

Nuclear Regulatory Commission chief outlines dangerous situation

By Brian Vastag, Rick Maese and David A. Fahrenthold,
WashPost
Wednesday, March 16, 5:47 PM

The United States on Wednesday urged Americans who live within 50 miles of Japan’s earthquake-damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to evacuate, and the top U.S. nuclear regulatory official indicated that Japan faces an increasingly dangerous situation at one of the plant’s reactors.

Gregory Jaczko, chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said Wednesday that no water remains in a deep pool used to cool spent fuel at the plant and that radiation levels there are thought to be “extremely high.”

Japanese officials denied that the water is gone from the spent-fuel pool, the Associated Press reported.

Jaczko, testifying before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on what his agency has been told about the crisis, said the plant’s unit 4 reactor appeared to have suffered a hydrogen explosion.

(More here.)