The disaster that keeps on ticking ...
WRAPUP 3 - Disaster-hit Japan faces protracted nuclear crisis
Sun Mar 27, 2011 7:06pm EDT
* Battle to control Fukushima plant seen far from over
* Japan crisis helps tip Germany poll against Merkel
* More than 27,000 dead or missing from quake and tsunami
* Magnitude 6.5 quake in north Japan triggers small tsunami
* Low-level radiation found in Massachusetts rainwater
(Adds Massachusetts rainwater contaminated)By Kiyoshi Takenaka and Yoko Kubota
TOKYO, March 28 (Reuters) - Japan appeared resigned on
Monday to a long fight to contain the world's most dangerous
atomic crisis in 25 years after high radiation levels
complicated work at its crippled nuclear plant.Engineers have been battling to control the six-reactor
Fukushima complex since it was damaged by a March 11 earthquake
and tsunami that also left more than 27,000 people dead or
missing across Japan's devastated northeast.A magnitude 6.5 earthquake rocked the region on Monday, the
latest in a series of aftershocks, and officials warned it would
trigger a 50-cm (two feet) tsunami wave.Radiation at the nuclear plant has soared in recent days.
Latest readings on Sunday showed contamination 100,000 times
normal in water at reactor No. 2 and 1,850 times normal in the
nearby sea.Those were the most alarming levels since the crisis began.
"I think maybe the situation is much more serious than we
were led to believe," said one expert, Najmedin Meshkati, of the
University of Southern California, adding it may take weeks to
stabilise the situation and the United Nations should step in."This is far beyond what one nation can handle - it needs to
be bumped up to the U.N. Security Council. In my humble opinion,
this is more important than the Libya no fly zone."
Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. has
conceded it faces a protracted and uncertain operation to
contain overheating fuel rods and avert a meltdown."Regrettably, we don't have a concrete schedule at the
moment to enable us to say in how many months or years (the
crisis will be over)," TEPCO vice-president Sakae Muto said in
the latest of round-the-clock briefings the company holds.
TOKYO, March 28 (Reuters) - Japan appeared resigned on
Monday to a long fight to contain the world's most dangerous
atomic crisis in 25 years after high radiation levels
complicated work at its crippled nuclear plant.Engineers have been battling to control the six-reactor
Fukushima complex since it was damaged by a March 11 earthquake
and tsunami that also left more than 27,000 people dead or
missing across Japan's devastated northeast.A magnitude 6.5 earthquake rocked the region on Monday, the
latest in a series of aftershocks, and officials warned it would
trigger a 50-cm (two feet) tsunami wave.Radiation at the nuclear plant has soared in recent days.
Latest readings on Sunday showed contamination 100,000 times
normal in water at reactor No. 2 and 1,850 times normal in the
nearby sea.Those were the most alarming levels since the crisis began.
"I think maybe the situation is much more serious than we
were led to believe," said one expert, Najmedin Meshkati, of the
University of Southern California, adding it may take weeks to
stabilise the situation and the United Nations should step in.
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