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Title: Japanese PM Signals 'Maximum Alert' Over Fukushima Nuke Crisis
Source:
RTTNews
URL Source: http://www.rttnews.com/ArticleView.aspx?Id=1585607
Published: Mar 29, 2011
Author: RTT Staff Writer
Post Date: 2011-03-29 18:02:58 by Hondo68
Keywords: traces of highly toxic plutoni, high-level radiation leaked, a state of maximum alert
Views: 7054
Comments: 14
(RTTNews) - Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan has said his government is in a state of maximum alert over high-level radiation leaked from the quake-wrecked nuclear power plant in the country's northeast. Speaking at the House of Councilors Budget Committee on Tuesday, Kan said the situation at the plant "continues to be unpredictable" and that the government "will tackle the problem while in a state of maximum alert." He gave the assurance to the parliamentary committee after traces of radioactive water as well as highly toxic plutonium were detected outside the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Kan told the House that he planned to present a quake-relief budget by the end of April, and proposed a possible tax hike as the government struggled to secure funds. Kan said he would be seeking advice from nuclear experts if it was necessary to extend the evacuation zone around the plant. Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) said they had detected seepage of radioactive water in the tunnel linked to the plant's reactor number 2 on Monday. Although the tunnel is only about 55 meters from the shore, TEPCO insisted that there was no evidence that the contaminated water had reached the sea. It later admitted that traces of highly toxic plutonium, a byproduct of atomic reactions and also used in making nuclear bombs, have also been found in soil at five locations at the plant. Claiming that the traces of plutonium found outside the reactor buildings were too small to threaten human health, the company stressed that the discovery would not suspend the ongoing efforts at the plant to avert a nuclear meltdown. Experts suspect that leakage of plutonium may have been from the spent fuel rod storage at the plant or from reactor number 3, the only one among the plant's six reactors to use plutonium as fuel. Meanwhile, the government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said radioactive water that had been filling up underground trenches of the plant had not been confirmed to have overflowed into the Pacific Ocean. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters that the situation at Fukushima was very serious, and said that the government was doing its best to control the damage. Engineers are battling to restore power and restart the cooling systems at the power station, which was shut down following radiation leak caused by explosions and fires triggered by the 8.9-magnitude earthquake and tsunami. Several countries, including the United States, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, China and Australia, have banned food imports from radiation-hit areas of Japan. Japan has already suspended exports of milk, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and turnips after the nuclear plant, located 250 kilometers northeast of Tokyo, released radioactive materials. Japanese government estimates that it would cost up to 25 trillion yen ($309 billion) to reconstruct the country ravaged by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that left more than 27,000 people dead or missing across a swath of northern Japan.
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#1. To: mcgowanjm (#0)
traces of plutonium found outside the reactor buildings were too small to threaten human health The PM of Japan thinks there's a problem. Seems to still be a lot of nasty stuff oozing out of that place.
#7. To: hondo68 (#1)
He has no idea. "Seems to still be a lot of nasty stuff oozing out of that place." "Guardian Reports Core At Reactor 2 May Have Melted To Concrete Floor, Radioactive Lava Next? Suggest Pin Quote [+] Your Ad Here And another update from Fukushima on its route to the concrete dome, irradiated ground water, and a 100 km "no live zone" from the Guardian: The radioactive core in a reactor at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant appears to have melted through the bottom of its containment vessel and on to a concrete floor, experts say, raising fears of a major release of radiation at the site." Notice we've never seen vids of Reactor 4 exploding? Or heard from Onagawa and their reactors? OR #5 and #6 doing great after seawater? Amazing that rule. there is something to numerology. But oil will be gone by 2013. MENA and the Reactors. Catton wrote:In precisely Mills's sense, the conversion of a marvelous carrying capacity surplus into a competition-aggravating and crash-inflicting deficit was a matter of fate. No compact group of leaders ever decided knowingly to take incautious advantage of enlargment of the scope of applicability of Liebig's law, or subsequently to reduce that scope and leave a swollen load inadequately supported. No one decided deliberately to terminate the Age of Exuberance. No group of leaders conspired knowingly to turn us into detritovores. Using the ecological paradigm to think about human history, we can see instead that the end of exuberance was the summary result of all our separate and innocent decisions to have a baby, to trade a horse for a tractor, to avoid illness by getting vaccinated, to move from a farm to a city, to live in a heated home, to buy a family automobile and not depend on public transit, to specialize, exchange, and thereby prosper. Are we yeast? Are we no different than any other part of the Planet. How do you know where a fault line is? There's a Reactor there. * Top * Delete post * Report this post * Reply with quote * Edit post
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/LatestTEPCO insisted that there was no evidence that the contaminated water had reached the sea
Replies to Comment # 1. The PM of Japan thinks there's a problem.
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