大 傻 瓜 ,

Your so called prediction is already invalid since the day you sprout nonsense like Buy mid Feb2011 and sell end March.(" ,)

LOL I am glad that you are showing more evidence of your foolishness. We need more disclaimers like that  (," )

Published: Wednesday, 16 Mar 2011 | 3:56 PM ET

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The operator of Japan's tsunami-crippled nuclear plant says it has almost completed a new power line that could restore electricity to the complex and solve the crisis that has threatened a meltdown.

Yomiuri Shimbun | AFP | Getty Images A doctor checks uses a giger counter to check the level of radiation on a woman.

Tokyo Electric Power spokesman Naoki Tsunoda said early Thursday local time that the power line to Fukushima Dai-ichi is almost complete. Officials plan to try it " as soon as possible" but he could not say when.

The new line would revive electric-powered pumps, allowing the company to maintain a steady water supply to troubled reactors and spent fuel storage ponds, keeping them cool.

U.S. stocks, which earlier plunged after U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said he believed a " partial meltdown" had occured at the plant, pared some losses following TEPCO's statement.

The nuclear crisis has triggered international alarm and partly overshadowed the human tragedy caused by Friday's earthquake and tsunami that pulverized Japan's northeastern coastline.

Earlier Wednesday, the crisis appeared to be spinning out of control after workers at the plant withdrew briefly because of surging radiation levels and a helicopter failed to drop water on the most troubled reactor.

Meanwhile, the chief of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said all the water is gone from one of the spent fuel pools at Japan's most troubled plant. This means there's nothing to stop the fuel rods from getting hotter and ultimately melting down.

The outer shell of the rods could also ignite with enough force to propel the radioactive fuel inside over a wide area.

Gregory Jaczko did not say Wednesday how the information was obtained, but the NRC and U.S. Department of Energy both have experts on site at the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex of six reactors.

He said officials believe radiation levels are extremely high, and that could affect workers' ability to stop temperatures from escalating.

In testimony before the House Energy & Commerce subcommittee Wednesday, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu called the situation at the Fukushima plant more serious than Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island nuclear accident, the worst in U.S. history.

" We think there is a partial meltdown," Chu said. He noted, however, that it " doesn't mean the containment sector will fail."

U.S. stocks, already whipsawed this week by the spiraling crisis in Japan and worries over violence in the Mideast, fell to their lowest levels of the year following Chu's remarks.

The U.S. embassy in Tokyo earlier issued a statement recommending, as " a precaution," that any U.S. citizens who " live within 50 miles (80 kilometers) of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant evacuate the area or to take shelter indoors if safe evacuation is not practical."

Early in the day, another fire broke out at the earthquake-crippled facility, which has sent low levels of radiation wafting into Tokyo in the past 24 hours, triggering fear in the capital and international alarm.

Japan's government said radiation levels outside the plant's gates were stable but, in a sign of being overwhelmed, appealed to private companies to help deliver supplies to tens of thousands of people evacuated from around the complex.

" People would not be in immediate danger if they went outside with these levels. I want people to understand this," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told a televised news conference, referring to people living outside a 30-km (18-mile) exclusion zone. Some 140,000 people inside the zone have been told to stay indoors.

EU Energy Chief Says Reactor 'Out of Control'

Stocks earlier plunged and Treasurys rallied after the Europe's energy chief warned that there could be further catastrophe at the nuclear site. However, his spokeswoman said he had no specific or priviledged information on the site, and the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency also refuted the minister's characterization of the situation.

Scroll ahead to see summaries of the key events at each reactor.

" We will not call the Fukushima situation out of control," said an IAEA spokesperson, directly refuting EU minister Guenther Oettinger's description of events as " effectively out of control" in remarks to the European Parliament.

High radiation levels prevented a helicopter from flying to the site to drop water into the No. 3 reactor to try to cool its fuel rods. The unit's roof was damaged by an earlier explosion and steam was seen rising there earlier in the day.

Plutonium is very toxic to humans and, once absorbed in the bloodstream, can linger for years in bone marrow or liver and can lead to cancer.

Japanese Emperor Akihito, delivering a rare video message to his people, said he was deeply worried by the country's nuclear crisis which was " unprecedented in scale."

" I hope from the bottom of my heart that the people will, hand in hand, treat each other with compassion and overcome these difficult times," the emperor said.

Panic over the economic impact of last Friday's massive earthquake and tsunami knocked $620 billion off Japan's stock market over the first two days of this week, but the Nikkei index rebounded on Wednesday to end up 5.68 percent.

Nevertheless, estimates of losses to Japanese output from damage to buildings, production and consumer activity ranged from between 10 and 16 trillion yen ($125-$200 billion), up to one-and-a-half times the economic losses from the devastating 1995 Kobe earthquake.

Damage to Japan's manufacturing base and infrastructure is also threatening significant disruption to the global supply chain, particularly in the technology and auto sectors.

Scores of flights to Japan have been halted or rerouted and air travelers are avoiding Tokyo for fear of radiation. On Wednesday, both France and Australia urged their nationals in Japan to leave the country as authorities grappled with the world's most serious nuclear accident since the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine in 1986.

In a demonstration of the qualms about nuclear power that the crisis has triggered around the globe, China announced that it was suspending approvals for planned plants and would launch a comprehensive safety check of facilities.

China has about two dozen reactors under construction and plans to increase nuclear electricity generation about seven-fold over the next 10 years.

In Japan, the plight of hundreds of thousands left homeless by the earthquake and devastating tsunami that followed worsened overnight following a cold snap that brought snow to some of the worst-affected areas.

Supplies of water and heating oil are low at evacuation centres, where many survivors wait bundled in blankets.

" It's cold today so many people have fallen ill, getting diarrhea and other symptoms," said Takanori Watanabe, a Red Cross doctor in Otsuchi, a low-lying town where more than half the 17,000 residents are still missing.

While the official death toll stands at around 4,000, thousands are listed as missing and the number of dead is expected to rise.

At the Fukushima plant, authorities have spent days desperately trying to prevent water designed to cool the radioactive cores of the reactors from evaporating, which would lead to overheating and possibly a dangerous meltdown.

Until the heightened alarm about No.3 reactor, concern had centred on damage to a part of the No.4 reactor building, where spent rods were being stored in pools of water, and also to part of the No.2 reactor that helps to cool and trap the majority of cesium, iodine and strontium in its water.

Several experts said the Japanese authorities were underplaying the severity of the incident, particularly on a scale called INES used to rank nuclear incidents. The Japanese have so far rated the accident a four on a one-to-seven scale, but that rating was issued on Saturday and since then the situation has worsened dramatically.

France's nuclear safety authority ASN said on Tuesday it should be classed as a level-six incident.

At its worst, radiation in Tokyo reached 0.809 microsieverts per hour on Tuesday—10 times below what a person would receive if exposed to a dental x-ray. For Wednesday, radiation levels were barely above average.

But many Tokyo residents stayed indoors. Usually busy streets were nearly deserted. Many shops and offices were closed.

Winds over the plant blew out towards the Pacific Ocean on on Wednesday.

Japanese media have became more critical of Kan's handling of the disaster and have criticised the government and plant operator Tokyo Electric Power for their failure to provide enough information on the incident.

Nuclear radiation is an especially sensitive issue for Japanese following the country's worst human catastrophe—the U.S. atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

The full extent of the destruction was slowly becoming clear as rescuers combed through the tsunami-torn region north of Tokyo where officials say at least 10,000 people were killed.

There have been hundreds of aftershocks and more than two dozen were greater than magnitude 6, the size of the earthquake that severely damaged Christchurch, New Zealand, last month—powerful enough to sway buildings in Tokyo.

About 850,000 households in the north were still without electricity in near-freezing weather, Tohuku Electric Power said, and the government said at least 1.5 million households lack running water. Tens of thousands of people were missing.

Japan Nuclear Crisis Deepens on Suspected Reactor Breach

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This aerial view shows the quake-damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant in the Japanese town of Futaba, Fukushima prefecture on March 12, 2011. Source: JIJI PRESS/AFP/Getty Images

 

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March 16 (Bloomberg) -- Gordon Woo, a catastrophist at Risk Management Solutions, discusses the need for nuclear power-plant operators to reevaluate tsunami risk in the wake of Japan's 9-magnitude earthquake that struck last week. Woo speaks from London with Erik Schatzker on Bloomberg Television's " InsideTrack." (Source: Bloomberg)

 

Play Video

March 16 (Bloomberg) -- Bloomberg New Energy Finance's Chris Gadomski talks about the need for U.S. officials to re-examine safety measures of the country's nuclear facilities following radiation fears in Japan. Gadomski, speaking with Lisa Murphy on Bloomberg Television's " InsideTrack," also discusses the effort of Japanese crews to stabilize nuclear plants damaged by the March 11 earthquake. (Source: Bloomberg)

 

Play Video

March 16 (Bloomberg) -- Jason Gammel, an analyst at Macquarie Capital, discusses the outlook for the liquefied natural gas market amid nuclear power concerns in Japan. Gammel speaks with Erik Schatzker on Bloomberg Television's " InsideTrack." (Source: Bloomberg)

 

Play Video

March 16 (Bloomberg) -- Bloomberg's Stuart Biggs speaks from the airport in Sendai, Japan, about the impact of the March 11 tsunami and resulting nuclear crisis on the region. Japan was hit by a 5.7-magnitude aftershock and a second fire at the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant as the government struggled to overcome the aftermath of the nation’s strongest earthquake on record. Linzie Janis also speaks. (Source: Bloomberg)

 

Play Video

March 15 (Bloomberg) -- Joseph Plumeri, chief executive officer of insurance broker Willis Group Holdings Plc, discusses the potential impact of Japan's earthquake and tsunami on the insurance industry. Plumeri, speaking with Erik Schatzker on Bloomberg Television's " InsideTrack," also talks about the country's damaged nuclear reactors. (Source: Bloomberg)

 

Play Video

March 15 (Bloomberg) -- Olli Heinonen, senior fellow at Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, discusses the impact of a potential nuclear disaster in Japan. Radiation levels rose amid a series of explosions at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant after the March 11 earthquake and resulting tsunami. Heinonen speaks with Tom Keene on Bloomberg Television's " Surveillance Midday." (Source: Bloomberg)

A handout photograph taken on Tuesday, March 15, shows the building housing the No. 4 reactor, center, at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima prefecture. Source: Tokyo Electric Power Co. via Bloomberg

A file photograph shows channel boxes containing plutonium-uranium mixed oxide, known as MOX, fuel rods in a pool inside the building which houses the No. 3 reactor at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power station in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, taken Aug. 21, 2010. Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said a reactor containment vessel may have been breached at the crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi power plant, deepening Japan’s nuclear crisis and increasing the risks of radioactive leaks.

Pressure in the containment chamber of Dai-Ichi’s No. 2 reactor fell “substantially” today, said Masahisa Otsuku, a Tepco nuclear maintenance official. The company suspected damage following an explosion in the reactor building yesterday. About 70 percent of the fuel rods at the plant’s No. 1 reactor and a third of the No. 2 reactor’s fuel may have been damaged, and temperatures at spent-fuel-rod-cooling pools were rising, Tepco said.

Clouds of steam rose from the reactor buildings following a fire at Dai-Ichi’s No. 4 reactor this morning. Radiation levels at the No. 4 reactor hampered efforts to confirm whether the fire had been extinguished, a day after a similar blaze at the same structure.

“If you get enough cold water inside you may stop the generation of steam and then life will get easier. Until then it is a bitch,” said Robert Kelley, a nuclear engineer based in Vienna. “As long as there is steam coming out it will carry radioactive particles and gases with it.”

Prime Minister Naoto Kan, facing a nation reeling from its strongest earthquake on record five days ago, said yesterday the danger of further radiation leaks has increased at the nuclear complex, 135 miles north of Tokyo, which has six reactors.

Spent Fuel Rods

Temperatures in the spent-fuel rod cooling pools of the shuttered No. 5 and No. 6 reactors were rising to as high as 63 degrees Celsius (145 degrees Fahrenheit) at 2 p.m. from 60 degrees Celsius at 7 a.m., said Tsuyoshi Makigami, head of nuclear maintenance at Tepco. The building that houses the No. 4 reactor at the nuclear plant has two holes in it and water in the spent fuel pool may be boiling, Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said yesterday. Tepco is uncertain about the water levels in the three inactive reactors, Nos. 4, 5 and 6, Makigami said.

Exposed to air, the fuel bundles could chemically react with moisture, catch fire and spread radiation into the atmosphere, said Edwin Lyman, a physicist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Contamination

“Spent fuel is pretty hot and so it is stored under water to keep it cool,” said Kelley, who worked for 30 years at the U.S. Energy Department. “If the water leaks or boils away, then the fuel is exposed,” then after burning, the uranium corrodes and releases cesium, contaminating the area, he said.

A Tokyo Electric worker at the Fukushima nuclear plant is being treated for radiation exposure, the nuclear safety agency said. Tokyo Electric said it hadn’t decided whether to bring workers back after the utility evacuated 750 of its 800 employees following yesterday morning’s blast.

A core group of 50 workers remain at the plant to manage the reactors, Tepco said. Those engineers were temporarily evacuated this morning when dangerous radiation levels were detected, but have now returned, chief government spokesman Yukio Edano said.

Tepco is building a power cable to supply electricity to the plant’s cooling systems, spokesman Daisuke Hirose said. The systems were knocked out by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. The Yomiuri newspaper reported earlier today that if the plan succeeds, the company may be able to stabilize its reactors. Hirose said there is no timetable for completion.

Explosions

The latest incidents follow a blast at the No. 3 reactor March 14 after a buildup of hydrogen gas, and a similar explosion at the No. 1 reactor on March 12.

About 140,000 people within a radius of 20 to 30 kilometers from the plant were ordered to stay indoors. The magnitude-9 temblor and tsunami have led to what Kan has called Japan’s worst crisis since World War II. More than 450 aftershocks have followed. The death toll reached 3,771 with 7,843 missing as of 2 p.m. today, the National Police Agency said. The number of dead and missing exceeds the more than 6,400 who died in the 1995 Kobe earthquake.

In a national address today, Emperor Akihito expressed his condolences to victims of the earthquake and tsunami, and told the people of Japan not to give up.

Japan has distributed 230,000 units of potassium iodide to evacuation centers surrounding nuclear plants, according to officials. The ingestion of iodide can help to prevent the accumulation of radioactive iodine in the thyroid.