The other five reactors, too, are in various states of disrepair -- all subject to intense efforts to avert full or partial meltdowns and the release of radioactive material.The plant's No. 3 reactor has been a special varsity jacketsconcern, with a nuclear safety official estimating 1,170 tons of water between sprayed between roughly 9 p.m. Sunday to 4 a.m. Monday alone.Those efforts include a move to possibly encase one or more of the reactors in concrete, a last-ditch effort similar to what was done after the 1986 meltdown at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in the former Soviet Union -- considered the worst nuclear disaster at a plant. On Monday, an official with Japan's nuclear and industrial safety agency told reporters that tests are expected to be conducted in the afternoon on how to use what he called a "concrete pump engine."The engine would pump a mix of mortar and water into the reactor's spent nuclear fuel pool and containment vessel, the official said. The pool contains nuclear fuel rods that could give off radioactive material, if exposed and overheated, while the containment vessel is a steel and concrete shell that insulates radioactive material inside.While he did not prada bagsindicate when or even if the concrete pump would be used, the official did say the target would be the plant's No. 4 reactor. In just over two hours on Monday morning alone, 13 fire engines sprayed about 90 tons toward that reactor in an attempt to cool it down.A Tokyo electric official told CNN that six workers trying to restore electricity to that reactor have been exposed to more than 100 millisieverts of radiation. For reference, an individual in a developed country naturally is exposed to 3 millisieverts of radiation a year -- though Japan's health industry has set a 250 millisievert limit for those trying to combat the crisis at the Fukushima plant.Officials were training workers Monday to spray the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant's stricken reactors with concrete -- one of several efforts underway to curb the release of more radioactive material.A 9.0-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami on March 11 has devastated northeast Japan, with more than 8,600 dead and 13,000 missing. But most of the concern, and uncertainty, since then has centered on the Daiichi plant, some 240 kilometers (150 miles) north of Tokyo, as authorities rush to stave off a nuclear crisis over an 11-day span marked by shop online 2011 explosions and fears of meltdowns.
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