The Japanese utility company that operates the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power complex has begun hooking up a new electric power line to reactor #2, according to government-sponsored television station NHK. The six-reactor complex located 140 miles northeast of Tokyo lost electric power after the massive earthquake and resulting tsunami struck Japan on March 11. Electricity is needed to pump water that cools reactor fuel rods as well as "spent" fuel rods kept on site.According to NHK, electric power won’t be restored at Fukushima Dai-Ichi until sometime this afternoon, U.S. time, at the earliest. (Japan is 11 hours later than EDT.)
The spent fuel pools at Units 1, 2 and 3 contain a total of 219 metric tons (or 241 "short" tons, the measure used in the United States) of fuel rods.
