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发帖数: 5142 | 1 【 以下文字转载自 Military 讨论区 】
发信人: haihai (嘿呀嘿呀), 信区: Military
标 题: Japan on ’maximum alert’ over nuclear crisis
发信站: BBS 未名空间站 (Mon Mar 28 21:34:44 2011, 美东)
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/japan-on-maximum-alert-over-n
Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan says his government is in a "state of
maximum alert" over the crisis at the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant.
Jiji Press reports that Kan has told a lower house budget committee meeting
that the situation "continues to be unpredictable" and that the government "
will tackle the problem while in a state of maximum alert", Jiji reported.
Mr Kan's comments came as the operator of the stricken plant said that
plutonium has been detected in soil at the complex and that highly
contaminated water has leaked from a reactor building.
Advertisement: Story continues below Radiation worries have disrupted
efforts to restart the cooling system of the Fukushima plant, which was
battered by a huge earthquake and tsunami on March 11 that left more than 28
,000 people dead or missing.
With Japan struggling to contain its worst ever atomic crisis, France said
its nuclear groups Areva and EDF had been asked to help.
Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company [TEPCO] said plutonium was found
at five spots within the crippled facility, but stressed the levels were
not believed to be a hazard to human health.
"Of the samples from five locations, we believe that there is a high
possibility that at least two of them are directly linked with the current
reactor accident," a spokesman for TEPCO said.
But he added: "We believe the level is not serious enough to harm human
health."
The level of plutonium was similar to that detected in Japan after
neighbouring countries such as North Korea and China conducted nuclear
experiments, the spokesman said.
Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said it was unclear which
reactor the plutonium came from.
Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for the agency, said the detection of
plutonium suggested "certain damage to fuel rods", in comments carried by
Kyodo News.
According to the US environmental protection agency, external exposure to
plutonium poses "very little health risk", but internal exposure "is an
extremely serious health hazard".
Plutonium is formed from uranium in nuclear reactors and generally stays in
the body for decades, exposing organs and tissues to radiation and
increasing the risk of cancer, it said.
The massive earthquake and tsunami which crashed into northeast Japan
knocked out the cooling systems for the six reactors of the Fukushima plant,
which has been leaking radiation into the atmosphere.
The latest discovery will add to environmental concerns over contamination
which has already been detected in farm produce and tap water, although
Japan says there is no imminent health threat.
Traces of radioactivity from the Fukushima plant have been found in
rainwater in north east United States, but pose no health risk, the US
environmental protection agency said.
Earlier on Monday, TEPCO said a large amount of highly radioactive water had
escaped from the number two reactor's turbine building into an underground
tunnel and might leak into the ocean.
The water is thought to have leaked from the vessel containing the fuel rods
- which are suspected to have temporarily melted - or from the pipe system.
The radiation in the water was measured at 1000 millisieverts an hour, a
dose that can cause temporary radiation sickness with nausea and vomiting
for people who are exposed.
Seawater near the plant has been found to contain radioactive iodine more
than 1850 times the legal limit, although it is not exactly clear how the
contamination spread to the Pacific Ocean.
TEPCO was severely reprimanded by the government yesterday, a day after it
erroneously said radiation in water at the site had reached 10 million times
the normal level before it later issued a much lower - but still dangerous
- figure.
"Considering the fact that the monitoring of radioactivity is a major
condition to ensure safety, this kind of mistake is absolutely unacceptable,
" said top government spokesman Yukio Edano.
Adding to questions about the handling of the crisis, TEPCO said its
president Masataka Shimizu took several days off from a joint emergency
taskforce with the government due to sickness, but has now returned to work.
The group has also faced criticism over an incident last week in which two
plant workers braving hazardous conditions were hospitalised because they
stepped in radioactive water without proper boots.
TEPCO shares plunged nearly 18 per cent on the Tokyo Stock Exchange
yesterday, while the broader market saw a day of subdued trading as the
Nikkei 225 index slipped 0.6 per cent.
Work to restore power at reactor two has been suspended since Sunday because
of the danger posed by the radioactive water leaks.
The immediate focus is on draining the highly radioactive water from the
turbine room basements, but without releasing it into the environment.
The nuclear crisis remains a distraction from the dire plight of hundreds of
thousands made homeless in the quake-tsunami tragedy.
The disaster, Japan's deadliest since the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, has
left 10,901 dead and 17,649 missing, the National Police Agency said
yesterday.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy will make a short visit to Japan during a
scheduled trip to China this week, an official from his party told AFP
yesterday, but the precise date is unclear. |
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