Re: Japan Nuke Plant Leak Said Serious

["john hughes" <jsong123@hotmail.com>]

Information about the layout of this plant:
http://www.japc.co.jp/english/Guide/Guide_h/turuga.htm

John Hughes
jsong123@hotmail.com

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.


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