Tokyo : After Plugging the radioactive water leak the workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant began pumping nitrogen gas into the area surrounding the No. 1 reactor around 1:30 am (1630 GMT) on Thursday, said Makoto Watanabe, a spokesman for the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.
The nitrogen injection was the latest in a series of efforts to prevent another nuclear catastrophe
in Japan, which has already been hit by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and a devastating tsunami on March 11 that left tens of thousands dead and severely damaged the Fukushima Daiichi, causing a radioactive leak that forced the government to evacuate citizens 20 kilometers away from the plant.A March 26 internal report from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission warned of the possibility of explosions at the plant, where superheated fuel rods that the government is desperately trying to cool are pulling hydrogen from the water and causing the gas to mix with oxygen seeping in through cracks in the plant.
The large explosions that rocked the Fukushima Daiichi in the early days of the crisis were caused by the buildup of hydrogen gas around the reactors.
Radioactive particles have settled in the area around the plant, contaminating water, vegetables, dairy products and other food. More explosions could spread the poisonous material farther.
But the nitrogen injection itself carries risk, since it could disperse radioactive vapour into the environment.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters on Wednesday that the government was still trying to come up with a "clear safety standard" and might expand the evacuation zone around the plant, which lies roughly 220 kilometers northeast of Tokyo
