[ RadSafe ] Japan's quake-hit nuclear plant closed for year

[Sandy Perle]

Japan's quake-hit nuclear plant closed for year 

 

TOKYO (AFP) - Japan plans to keep its largest nuclear plant closed for at
least a year amid a nationwide scare after it leaked radioactive water
following an earthquake, a newspaper said Thursday. 

 

Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the sprawling Kashiwazaki-Kariwa
plant northwest of the Japanese capital, has already asked other companies
to pitch in to meet the metropolis's electricity needs in peak summer
months.

The Nikkei business daily said the government planned to keep the nuclear
plant -- the largest in the world -- closed for at least a year pending a
company review of earthquake safety.

 

If the study concludes that the facility needs reinforcement, the plant
"could be offline for substantially more than a year," said the newspaper,
which did not specify its sources.

 

Both the industry ministry and the mayor of the quake-hit city of
Kashiwazaki have ordered the nuclear facility to stay shut indefinitely.

Tokyo Electric has insisted that Monday's 6.8 Richter-scale earthquake --
which killed 10 people, injured more than 1,000 more and destroyed hundreds
of homes -- did not cause any dangerous nuclear leaks.

 

But it has faced a storm of criticism over its reporting of the incident. It
admitted underreporting both the radioactivity of a small amount of leaked
water and the number of barrels of contaminated clothing that tipped over
inside the facility.

 

The best-selling Yomiuri Shimbun in an editorial Thursday supported nuclear
power but said that reactors needed to be reinforced to withstand stronger
earthquakes.

If no action is taken, "it would only allow anxiety over the safety over
nuclear power stations to prevail among the public," the daily said.

Japan experiences 20 percent of the planet's major earthquakes but has
increasingly turned to nuclear power as it has virtually no natural energy
resources on its own to run the world's second largest economy.

 

Senior industry ministry official Akira Fukushima acknowledged Wednesday
that Japan, which relies on nuclear energy for a third of its needs, would
not shut the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant forever.

 

----------------------------------------------------------------

Sander C. Perle 
President
Global Dosimetry Solutions, Inc. 
2652 McGaw Avenue
Irvine, CA 92614

 

Tel: (949) 296-2306 / (888) 437-1714 Extension 2306 

Fax:(949) 296-1144

 

E-Mail: sperle at dosimetry.com

E-Mail: sandyfl at cox.net 

 

Global Dosimetry Website:  <http://www.dosimetry.com/>
http://www.dosimetry.com/