Anti-radiation resin to coat Japan plant grounds

[1]

Workers at Japan's stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant plan to spray its grounds with a special resin to prevent further radioactivity being released, a nuclear safety agency official said on Wednesday.

Faced with an unprecedented crisis, authorities are grappling to control four crippled reactors that have been leaking dangerous radiation after a March 11 earthquake and tsunami knocked out their cooling systems.

Officials are considering a variety of tactics after efforts to cool the reactors with massive amounts of water led to dangerous side-effects, as the run-off has flooded areas outside and may seep into the ocean and soil.

In the latest attempt to bring the disaster under control, workers will on Thursday begin to carpet two-thirds of the plant's 1.2 hectares (three acres) of grounds with resin, the official said.

"The aim is to block radioactive materials from spreading into the air and running off into the ocean," he said.

"It will be experimental so we're unsure of how much effect it will have."

He declined to provide details about the resin, but according to local media it is a watery solution normally used to spray roads to allow dust to settle.

Officials are also mulling covering three badly damaged outer reactor buildings with special-fabric caps and fitting air filters to limit radiation, the Asahi Shimbun reported earlier on Wednesday.

Another plan was to anchor an empty tanker off reactor two, so that workers can pump several Olympic swimming pools' worth of highly-radioactive water into its hull, the daily said, citing unnamed government officials.

"We are in an unprecedented situation, so we need to think about different strategies, beyond what we normally think about," another nuclear safety official told AFP separately, without detailing specific plans.

The United States has lent Japan robots of a model battle-tested in Iraq and Afghanistan that can navigate, film and clear rubble in the blast-hit reactor buildings, which humans cannot enter because of very high radiation levels.

France, which relies on nuclear power for three-quarters of its energy needs, was sending an expert team from Areva, its state-run reactor maker, to assist embattled operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO).