Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant Prepares for Typhoon Ma-On

Tokyo Electric Power Co. is rushing to install a cover over a building at its crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant to shield it from wind and rain as Typhoon Ma-on approached Japan's coast from the south.

The cover will be placed over the turbine building of the No. 3 reactor "momentarily," Hajime Motojuku, a Tepco spokesman, said yesterday. The utility also detached a hose from a barge docked near the plant that stores contaminated water, he said, without elaborating.

Tepco is struggling to contain radioactive emissions after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami knocked out cooling systems and explosions damaged containment structures. The eye of Ma-on was about 600 kilometers (370 miles) east-southeast of the city of Kagoshima at 8 a.m. today, about 1,300 kilometers from the Fukushima plant, according to Japan's Meteorological Agency.