low-level radiation leaked ....

[Rahim Ghanooni <rahimg@earthlink.net>]

TOKYO (Reuter) - A radioactive waste storage facility at a state-run
nuclear reprocessing plant northeast of Tokyo leaked low-level radiation
over a period of about 30 years, a nuclear official said on Tuesday.

The radiation leaked from about 2,000 drums each containing 53 gallons of
low-level radioactive waste produced by uranium processing at a facility
operated by the Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corp (PNC), a
spokesman for the firm said.

``We believe that the leaked material was extremely low-level in terms of
radiation and not dangerous, but it was in fact radioactive,'' said the PNC
spokesman.

The leaking storage facility, located at Tokaimura on the Pacific coast
about 65 miles northeast of Tokyo, is near the site of a nuclear waste
reprocessing plant where an explosion took place in March, exposing 35
workers to minor levels of radiation in Japan's worst nuclear accident.

He said the PNC since 1982 had been working under orders from its overseer,
the Science and Technology Agency, to fortify the swimming pool-like pit in
which the steel drums were stored to prevent rainwater seeping in or
leakage of radioactive material.

``The fact that the waste had built up means that the measures were not
sufficient,'' he said.

The government's Science and Technology Agency said it would launch an
immediate investigation. The PNC, accused of attempting a cover-up of the
March explosion and of an accident in 1995, made the latest revelation of
problems with Japan's ambitious nuclear reprocessing programme after the
Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan's largest daily, uncovered the leakage.

The newspaper ran a detailed account of the problem as the top story in its
evening edition on Tuesday.

A string of revelations of sloppy safety procedures and a lack of
transparency about its problems had angered local governments near the
plants and prompted the national government to carry out a complete
overhaul of the PNC.
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Rahim Ghanooni
HPCI Consulting
Sr. Health Physicist 
Certified Hazardous Material Manager (CHMM)	
Tel 319-393-2610
rahimg@earthlink.net