U.S. Plans Japan Airlift as Authorities Battle Reactor Leaks

(See EXT2 for special report on nuclear crisis.)

March 17 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. plans to airlift citizens from Japan along with military and diplomatic families, reflecting widening skepticism that the authorities can contain leaks from the quake-stricken Fukushima nuclear plant.

The U.S., U.K. and Australia raised their alert levels, telling nationals to keep at least 50 miles (80 kilometers) away from the Dai-Ichi facility. Blackstone Group LP and BNP Paribas SA were among companies that shifted operations from Tokyo, which lies about 135 miles to the south.

Efforts to cover exposed fuel rods that are spewing radiation by dousing them with water from helicopters failed, forcing the government to deploy police water cannons typically used to quell riots. Buildings in Fukushima were rattled through the night by aftershocks as snow and shortages of fuel, water and food assailed a city of 290,000 living in the shadow of an unfolding nuclear crisis.

"It’s been seven days since the earthquake, but new challenges are crashing down on us one after another," Prime Minister Naoto Kan said during a meeting today in Tokyo. "We will overcome these difficulties through extreme effort and meet the expectations of our people, who are remaining calm."

The magnitude-9 earthquake that hit March 11 sparked a 7- meter tsunami that engulfed the northeast coast. The temblor and wave knocked out cooling systems at the Dai-Ichi plant. There were 5,429 confirmed dead, with 9,594 missing as of 4 p.m. Tokyo time today, the National Police Agency said. Buildings were razed to the ground as the wave carried a wall of cars, uprooted trees and other debris through coastal towns.

‘Struggling Desperately’

“We are struggling desperately to recover,” Yoshihiro Murata, the governor of the worst-affected region of Miyagi, wrote in an e-mail today. “I am afraid it’s going to take a few years to revive. The disaster was far bigger than we prepared for.”

In Fukushima city, the capital of the prefecture that’s home to the Tokyo Electric Power Co. plant, long queues formed at gas stations, most restaurants and supermarkets were shut and there was no running water. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano called for calm and asked people to cut back power use after Tepco warned of possible blackouts in the capital.

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko yesterday told a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee that all cooling water has drained from the spent-fuel pool and “radiation levels are extremely high, which could possibly impact the ability to take corrective measures.”

Foreigners Leave

“There are still aftershocks, we have the rolling blackouts in our area and concern about the radiation,” Keith Cash, a pre-school teacher at the U.S. Atsugi air base, said as he prepared to put his wife and four children on a plane back to the U.S. “All of those things put together have really forced us to decide that we want to have them go back.”

Group of Seven nations finance chiefs will hold talks on financial markets and Japan’s economy tomorrow, after the country’s strongest earthquake on record triggered a drop in global stocks and drove the yen to a post-World War II high.

The Topix fell 0.8 percent at the market close, and is down 13 percent since the quake.

Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said there is a possibility that all the water at the fuel-cooling pond of the No. 4 reactor had gone. The rods need to be kept submerged to prevent overheating. The plant has six reactors, three of which have been damaged by explosions following the quake.

Power Line

Tepco’s Masahisa Otsuku yesterday said the company didn’t know about the water levels in the fuel pond. “We don’t have the latest water levels, temperatures, none of the latest information,” he said. Today, the company said it was planning to connect a new power line to the cooling systems, though it couldn’t say when the project would be completed.

Japan’s Edano called for calm, saying Kan and President Barack Obama had pledged close cooperation and that Japanese and U.S. nuclear experts were working together on the crippled power plant.

If you’re an American citizen within that 50-mile radius “you should, you must, for your own safety, get out,” Under Secretary of State Patrick Kennedy said at a briefing.

U.S. nationals “in Japan should consider departing,” the State Department said today in an e-mailed statement.

The U.S. said it was allowing dependents of military personnel in Japan to leave and was chartering a “couple” of aircraft. “Additional airlift resources” will be made available if needed, he said.

The U.K. government is also hiring planes to take its nationals to Hong Kong, the Foreign Office said on its website.

Hoarding in China

Canada, Australia and New Zealand all advised citizens to follow the 50-mile exclusion guide. France, Germany and China were among countries that urged nationals to leave Japan.

There were 66,876 U.S. and Canadian citizens registered with Japan’s Justice Ministry in 2009, the latest data available, 16,597 Britons and 14,179 from Australia and New Zealand. China had 680,518 residents and the Philippines 211,716.

Fear that radiation would spread through the region sparked panic-buying in China. Shoppers cleared shelves of salt, viewed as a defense against radiation exposure.

Yunnan Salt & Chemical Industry Co. shares surged by the 10 percent daily limit as consumers stocked up on the mineral.

China’s National Salt Industry Corp. asked its branches to help crack down on hoarding. People have been buying more than 10 bags of salt and exhausting supplies, said an assistant at a Lianhua Supermarket in Shanghai’s Hongkou district who declined to give her name.

--With assistance from 萩原ゆき in 東京, Takashi Hirokawa and Anna Kitanaka in Tokyo, Naoko Fujimura and Makiko Kitamura in Osaka, Michael Forsythe in Beijing, Bloomberg News in Shanghai, Bomi Lim in Seoul and Ben Richardson in Hong Kong. Editors: Bill Austin, Ben Richardson

To contact the reporters on this story: Aaron Sheldrick in Tokyo at asheldrick@bloomberg.net; Terje Langeland in Osaka at tlangeland1@bloomberg.net; Stuart Biggs in Tokyo at sbiggs3@bloomberg.net