[NukeNet] Japan Nuke Plant Still Leaking Radiation

[Bill Smirnow]

    Is anyone really surprised? "Everything's safe, don't worry, just go
back to sleep" [NRC, Japanese NRC, all NRCs].





http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Japan-Quake.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
    Japan Nuke Plant Still Leaking Radiation
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By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: July 19, 2007
Filed at 2:19 p.m. ET

KASHIWAZAKI, Japan (AP) -- Radioactive material leaked undetected for days
at an earthquake-battered nuclear power plant even as the utility was
assuring the public that the damage posed no danger to those outside the
site, company executives admitted Thursday.

The revelation cast more doubt on the plant's emergency measures and the
response by Japan's largest power company, while the indefinite shutdown of
the world's most powerful electricity generating facility raised serious
fears of a summer power shortage.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. confirmed reports that radioactive material was
leaking as late as Wednesday night, nearly three days after the plant
suffered a near-direct hit from a quake that killed 10 people and injured
more than 1,000 in Kashiwazaki on Japan's northern coast.

It was government inspectors who found radioactive iodine venting from an
exhaust pipe at the plant's No. 7 nuclear reactor, said Hisanori Nei, an
official with the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency. It escaped between
Tuesday and Wednesday night, Nei said.

Tokyo Electric previously announced other radioactive materials had escaped
from the pipe, but not iodine. An exhaust fan inside the building may not
have been turned off as instructed in the operations manual, company
spokesman Manabu Takeyama said.

Government inspectors concluded the iodine leak was too small to harm the
environment or public health, Nei said.

The utility also stressed the amount was extremely low and said it posed no
threat to the environment or local people.

But the revelation reinforced concerns about the plant's safety, coming a
day after Tokyo Electric issued a list of previously unreported damage from
the quake -- including a fire, burst pipes and waste spillage.

The seven reactors at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant shut down automatically
when the quake hit, and authorities have ordered the plant closed
indefinitely while inspections and repairs are carried out to assure it can
be restarted safely.

Tokyo Electric has warned that the closure could cause a power shortage in
Japan as demand rises from summer use of air conditioners.

Six other power companies have said they will cooperate in providing
emergency electricity and Tokyo Electric is considering restarting
generating plants fueled by oil and natural gas, the utility said late
Thursday.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki urged the operators of Japan's 55
nuclear reactors -- suppliers of one-third of Japan's energy -- to speed up
safety checks for earthquake resistance, a top concern in the temblor-prone
nation.

''Since there was such a huge earthquake that surpassed our expectations, we
need to consider future measures for quake resistance,'' Shiozaki said. ''I
asked them to speed up the assessment and checkups wherever possible.''

Officials at the plant conceded earlier that they had not foreseen the
possibility of an earthquake as powerful as the magnitude-6.8 temblor that
hit Monday. They also said the utility hadn't known about the nearby
offshore fault line in which the quake occurred.

The utility announced Thursday that the force of the quake exceeded its
resistance guidelines at all seven reactors, sometimes by more than double.
Public broadcaster NHK said the reading at the No. 1 reactor was the
strongest quake ever measured at a Japanese reactor.

Tokyo Electric has repeatedly underreported the quake's impact. After
initially saying it had caused a fire in an electrical transformer and the
spill of radioactive water into the Sea of Japan, the company reported 50
incidents of damage or leaks. Then it upped the number to 63.

Its stock tumbled again Thursday, sliding 5.6 percent to 3,400 yen a share,
or $27.88, bringing its losses since the quake to 10.3 percent.

Members of the Nuclear Safety Commission toured the sprawling plant Thursday
and criticized Tokyo Electric for missteps in its response to the
earthquake.

Even so, they concluded none of the errors had threatened public health.

The safety of the ''plant was fundamentally maintained and we avoided the
serious consequences of a nuclear accident,'' commission Chairman Atsuyuki
Suzuki said in a statement. ''The list of problems announced by TEPCO have
no serious effect on the safety of the reactor.''

Tokyo Electric has been punished for failing to accurately inform the public
of problems in the past.

Four years ago, the utility was forced to halt all of its 17 nuclear
reactors after admitting it misreported safety problems in the late 1980s
and early 1990s. The halt caused a power shortage in the summer of 2003, and
other utilities stepped in with emergency electricity production.

In that scandal, a trade ministry report revealed 29 cases of cracks or
minor structural damage in eight of Tokyo Electric's reactors, including two
reactors at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa. The company's top three executives resigned,
but the utility insisted the cracks never posed a serious danger. The last
of the shuttered reactors wasn't cleared to reopen until July 2005.

The impact of Monday's quake has spread far beyond the region. Japan's auto
companies had to suspend production because a key parts maker sustained
damage during the temblor. Officials at the damaged factory said they
expected to restart production early next week.

People in the Kashiwazaki region struggled to put their lives back together
but basic services such as water had not been restored to some areas.

''We're just getting by day by day,'' said Masatoshi Ogawa, sitting in front
of his closed pinball parlor. ''Our houses were OK so we didn't have to go
to evacuation centers, but life without water is really inconvenient.''

------

Associated Press writers Kozo Mizoguchi and Chisaki Watanabe in Tokyo
contributed to this report.
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