Japan Cabinet Move Postponed After Nuclear Accident

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

Latest Update:

Thursday September 30 9:01 AM ET 

Japan Cabinet Move Postponed After Nuclear Accident

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi Thursday 
postponed a cabinet reshuffle planned for Friday due to a nuclear 
accident that injured three people, Asahi Television reported.  

Domestic media had reported earlier that Chief Cabinet Secretary 
Hiromu Nonaka would hold an emergency news conference
and might announce the cabinet reshuffle would be delayed.

``How can we reshuffle the cabinet at the time of the Tokaimura 
accident,'' Nonaka told reporters ahead of his news conference, Kyodo 
news agency reported.  

The accident at the uranium processing plant in Tokaimura in Ibaraki 
Prefecture, about 87 miles northeast of Tokyo, Thursday morning 
exposed three workers to radiation and prompted authorities to 
evacuate the vicinity, raising fresh concerns about the nation's 
nuclear safety.  

Government officials said there may have been a ''criticality 
incident'' at plant. Criticality is the point at which a nuclear 
chain reaction becomes self-sustaining, similar to what occurs inside 
a nuclear reactor. Toshio Okazaki, vice minister at the Science and 
Technology Agency, told a news conference the accident temporarily 
caused radiation levels to race up 4,000 times higher  
than normal.

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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