Japan reactor shut down due to high radiation

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

Japan reactor shut down due to high radiation

TOKYO, May 29 (Reuters) - Japan's largest utility firm, Tokyo 
Electric Power Co (TEPCO), shut down a 1,356 megawatt nuclear reactor 
on Monday after detecting high levels of radiation in the cooling 
water, a spokesman said. 

No radiation leak into the environment had been detected from the 
incident at the No. 6 Kashiwazaki-Kariwa power plant in Niigata 
prefecture on the Sea of Japan coast, he said. 

The electric company said it began closing down the reactor on Sunday 
evening, about nine hours after an alarm was set off and after 
finding high levels of iodine -- about 300 times above normal -- in 
the cooling water. 

It said the level did not pose a danger. 

Japan's ambitious nuclear programme has come under increasing 
criticism after a series of accidents in recent months. 

In the worst incident last September, more than 400 people were 
exposed to radiation and two died after workers put nearly eight 
times the proper amount of uranium into a mixing tank at a processing 
plant in eastern Japan. 

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