Crack in Pipe at Japan Nuke Plant

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

Tuesday July 13 5:04 AM ET 

Crack in Pipe at Japan Nuke Plant

TOKYO (AP) - An investigation into a massive leak of radioactive 
water at a nuclear power plant in western Japan has found an 3.2-inch 
crack in a pipe, officials said today.  

No radiation leaked into the environment. The reactor was immediately 
shut down Monday morning when a sensor inside detected radiation 
levels that were twice the normal level.  

But about 89 tons of water used for cooling the No. 2 reactor had 
leaked before the valve of the cracked pipe could be turned off 
Monday evening, according to Japan Atomic Power Co., which runs the 
plant.  

Workers in protective gear had to wait nearly 14 hours for the 
temperature inside to cool down before they could enter the building 
that houses the reactor, said company spokesman Yoshikazu Murabe. 
None of the plant workers were exposed to radioactivity, he said.  

In an initial investigation, the crack was found in the curved 
portion of a stainless steel pipe in the regenerative heat exchanger, 
a device used to eliminate impurities from the water and adjust its 
temperature.  

Murabe said plant officials, joined by several government inspectors, 
were using sound waves on the pipe to determine the cause of the 
crack.  

The reactor involved in Monday's breakdown started operating in 1987. 
It had leaked water before, in December 1996. No leak of
radioactivity into the environment was reported in that accident.

In the latest accident, the No. 2 plant had been running at a full 
1.16 million kilowatts, when plant engineers noticed the alarm.

Trust in Japan's nuclear industry has fallen in recent years 
following a series of accidents and cover-ups by plant operators. A 
fire in March 1997 exposed 37 workers to low-level radiation in a 
fuel processing facility in northern Japan.  

Japan, a nation poor in natural resources, relies on nuclear power 
for about one-third of its electricity. 

Sandy Perle
E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net 
Personal Website: http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/1205

"The object of opening the mind, as of opening 
the mouth, is to close it again on something solid"
              - G. K. Chesterton -
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