Japanese workers successfully connect power cable to crippled reactor

Japanese engineers have been able to lay an external grid power line cable to the No. 2 unit at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant in northeastern Japan, according to The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog.

“They plan to reconnect power to unit 2 once the spraying of water on the unit 3 reactor building is completed,” IAEA said in a statement. “The spraying of water on the unit 3 reactor building was temporarily stopped at [20:09 local time].”

The IAEA said it continues to liaise with Japanese officials and is monitoring the situation as it evolves.

Emergency workers at the plant have frantically been attempting to connect a 1-kilometer long power cable from the main grid to restart the water pumps in order to cool down reactor No. 2.

Ever since last Friday’s earthquake, nuclear plant workers have scrambled to prevent fuel in the reactors from overheating.

If the restoration work is completed, we will be able to activate various electric pumps and pour water into reactors and pools for spent nuclear fuel, a spokesman for the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), told Agence France Presse.