Troops dispatched to Japan reactor site, American workers there

If the outage in the cooling system persists, eventually radiation could leak out into the environment, and, in the worst case, could cause a reactor meltdown, a nuclear safety agency official said on condition of anonymity, citing sensitivity of the issue.

Defense Ministry official Ippo Maeyama said the ministry has dispatched dozens of troops trained for chemical disasters to the Fukushima plant in case of a radiation leak, along with four vehicles designed for use in atomic, biological and chemical warfare.

Pineville, La., resident Janie Eudy said her husband, Danny, was working at Fukushima No. 1 when the earthquake struck. After a harrowing evacuation, he called her several hours later from the parking lot of his quake-ravaged hotel.

He and other American plant workers are "waiting to be rescued, and they're in bad shape," she said in a telephone interview. AP

Integrity of substandard containment design uncertain

At this point we do not know if the earthquake damaged the containment building enough to undermine its ability to contain the pressure and allow radioactivity to leak out.

According to technical documents translated by Aileen Mioko Smith of Green Action in Japan, if the coolant level dropped to the top of the active fuel rods in the core, damage to the core would begin about 40 minutes later, and damage to the reactor vessel would occur 90 minutes after that.

Concern about a serious accident is high enough that while TEPCO is trying to restore cooling the government has evacuated a 3-km (2-mile) radius area around the reactor. Union of Concerned Scientists

Japan to release radioactive vapor at nuclear reactor

Japanese authorities will release slightly radioactive vapor to ease pressure at nuclear reactor whose cooling system failed.

Japan's nuclear safety agency says pressure inside one of six boiling water reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant had risen to 1.5 times the level considered normal. AP

Beyond Nuclear monitoring Japan nuclear emergency

Beyond Nuclear has issued a press alert to notify media outlets that we are closely monitoring the unfolding nuclear power plant emergency in Japan. Beyond Nuclear staff members are available to the media to provide technical information, analysis and commentary.

Bloomberg reports "Fukushima Reactor Water Level Down, Could Leak Radiation"

Bloomberg News has reported "Fukushima Reactor Water Level Down, Could Leak Radiation."