Japan Dead And Missing At 21,000

The Washington Post reports:

TOKYO — The combined toll of those dead and missing after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami surpassed 21, 000 Sunday, and new food-contamination reports surfaced as workers continued to try to tame the radiation-spewing Fukushima Daiichi power plant.

Government officials said that the nuclear emergencymay soon be under control. Tokyo Electric Power Co.(Tepco) reported incremental progress over the weekend in efforts that could restore electricity to the entire blacked-out, six-reactor complex.

Two reactors now have power from diesel generators, and two other reactors are hooked up to new electrical cables that could soon provide juice to the cooling systems. Meanwhile, fire trucks Sunday launched seawater onto a boiling pond that stores the spent nuclear fuel rods from one of the other reactors.

Officials sweated out a touch-and-go decision Sunday on whether to vent radioactive gases to the air to keep the primary containment vessel for reactor unit 3 from building up too much pressure.

A similar pressure buildup led to a March 15 explosion on a different reactor, triggering a dramatic spike in radiation near the plant. Officials decided not to vent any gas but said the move may yet be necessary.

“We consider that now we have come to a situation where we are very close to getting the situation under control,” Deputy Cabinet Secretary Tetsuro Fukuyama said.

Graham Andrew, a senior official at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), gave a more equivocal assessment Sunday. “There have been some positive developments in the last 24 hours, but overall the situation remains very serious,” he said.

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