nuclear-news

Steam rising from Fukushima No 3 nuclear reactor

Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan seen leaking steam but operator TEPCO says it’s no emergency Date SMH July 19, 2013  Steam has been spotted in a reactor building at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan, its operator says, stressing there is no sign yet of increased radiation.

The incident, which Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said was not “an emergency situation”, is the latest underlining the plant’s continuing precariousness more than two years after it was wrecked by a tsunami.

TEPCO is struggling to manage the clean-up, which scientists say could take up to four decades to complete.

Steam has been seen around the fifth floor of the Reactor 3 building, a TEPCO spokesman said on Thursday, adding it was “drifting thinly” and was not a large column of vapour.

“We do not believe an emergency situation is breaking out, although we are still investigating what caused this,” he said.,,,,he steam is the latest in a growing catalogue of mishaps that have cast doubt on the utility’s ability to fix the world’s worst atomic disaster in a generation.

A series of leaks of water contaminated with radiation have shaken confidence, as did a blackout caused by a gnawing rat that left cooling pools without power for more than a day.  http://www.smh.com.au/world/fukushima-nuclear-plant-in-japan-seen-leaking-steam-but-operator-tepco-says-its-no-emergency-20130718-2q73e.html#ixzz2ZWRAaHGM

July 19, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Fukushima 2013