Truth emerging in Japan's nuclear disaster

3 nuclear reactors melted down after quake, Japan confirms
By the CNN Wire Staff

Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant experienced full meltdowns at three reactors in the wake of an earthquake and tsunami in March, the country's Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters said Monday. The nuclear group's new evaluation, released Monday, goes further than previous statements in describing the extent of the damage caused by events on March 11. Reactors 1, 2 and 3 experienced a full meltdown, it said. The plant's owner, Tokyo Electric Power Co., admitted last month that nuclear fuel rods in reactors 2 and 3 probably melted during the first week of the nuclear crisis.

Japan doubles radiation leak estimate
By North Asia correspondent Mark Willacy

Japan's nuclear safety agency has more than doubled its estimate of the amount of radiation released into the atmosphere from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.


Tepco Plant Radiation Level Estimate Doubled by Safety Agency
By Tsuyoshi Inajima

Japan’s nuclear safety agency doubled its estimate of radiation released by Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant, which was crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

The station released about 770,000 tera becquerels of radioactive material into the air between March 11 and March 16, Hidehiko Nishiyama, deputy director-general at Japan’s nuclear safety agency, said at a briefing in Tokyo today.

The agency previously estimated that about 370,000 tera becquerels of radioactive material were released during the period.


Decontamination Tech Vetted at Japanese Nuclear Plant
Personnel on Sunday started vetting equipment intended to remove radioactive contaminants from massive quantities of water pooling in Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, Kyodo News reported (see GSN, June 2).

Toyko Electric Power has battled to prevent radioactive contaminants from escaping the six-reactor Fukushima facility following a March 11 earthquake and tsunami that left more than 20,000 people dead or missing in Japan. The plant operator on Friday said potential delays in installing a new water decontamination system could result in more radiation-tainted liquid escaping the site. Radiation-tainted water has flowed into the Pacific Ocean from the facility on multiple occasions since the March 11 events.

Workers were deploying the cleaning mechanism at a site storing contaminated water moved from the plant's No. 2 and reactors No. 3 reactors. The apparatus is expected to remove at least 99.9 percent of radioactive materials from roughly 1,200 tons of fluid each day, and includes components for capturing cesium and strontium (Kyodo News I/Japan Times, June 6).