Japan Nuke Plant Leak Said Serious

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

Thursday July 15 6:56 AM ET 

Japan Nuke Plant Leak Said Serious

TOKYO (AP) - An accident at a Japanese nuclear reactor this week 
caused a radiation leak 11,500 times above the safety limit, the 
company operating the facility said today.  

The Japan Atomic Power Co. insists that no radiation escaped into the 
environment during Monday's accident, caused by a cracked pipe in the 
building that houses the reactor.  

But the leak's magnitude was significantly higher than the company's 
original estimate of levels 250 times higher than safety standards, 
the company said in a statement.  

Measuring the radiation that leaked throughout the plant took about 
two days, during which officials discovered higher levels than they 
had expected, company spokesman Atsushi Naruse told The Associated 
Press.  

He said the company was investigating the cause of the leak.

About 89 tons of water used for cooling the No. 2 reactor had leaked 
within the reactor building before the valve of the cracked pipe 
could be turned off Monday in Tsuruga, 200 miles west of Tokyo.  

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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