Antinuclear

Japanese nuclear accident has become critical

With radiation levels around the facility up, TEPCO suspects the core of the No.2 reactor has partially melted, a critical nuclear safety situation

Stay indoors: Japanese PM’s order to residents beyond nuclear reactor evacuation zone after blast Sydney Morning Herald, Glenda Kwek March 15, 2011 Radiation levels near a quake-stricken nuclear plant are now harmful to human health, Japan’s government says after explosions and a fire at the facility.

”There is no doubt that unlike in the past, the figures are the level at which human health can be affected,” said chief government spokesman Yukio Edano.

Tens of thousands have already been evacuated from a zone within a radius of 20km from the Fukushima No.1 plant, 250 kilometres northeast of Tokyo.

In a live address on national broadcaster NHK, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan also said that people beyond 20 kilometres but up to a 30-kilometre radius from the plant should stay indoors…..In a press conference following Mr Kan’s, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said radiation levels around the No.1, No.2 and No.3 reactors were a threat to human health.

The rise in radiation levels – which were recorded at up to 400 millisieverts an hour and were thousands of times higher than the levels recorded before the explosion at No.2 – may have also been caused by the fire at No.4, Mr Edano said.

The French embassy in Tokyo said this afternoon that low-level radiation wind from the reactors could reach the capital city, about 240 kilometres south of Fukushima, in 10 hours, Reuters reported.

With radiation levels around the facility up, TEPCO suspects the core of the No.2 reactor has partially melted, a critical nuclear safety situation……http://www.smh.com.au/environment/stay-indoors-japanese-pms-order-to-residents-beyond-nuclear-reactor–evacuation-zone-after-blast-20110315-1busf.html

March 15, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized