Antinuclear

Australia’s trade hit by Japan’s nuclear crisis

“Japan’s nuclear situation and power shortages continue to weigh on international financial markets and may prolong the impact of this crisis on the global economy.”……

Japan disaster to cost Australia $2b, ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), 4 April 11, “…..Japan is Australia’s second largest trading partner, but its economy has been hit hard by the deadly tsunami and ongoing nuclear crisis……”Japan’s nuclear situation and power shortages continue to weigh on international financial markets and may prolong the impact of this crisis on the global economy.”……

Nuclear battle

No quick end was in sight for the world’s worst nuclear emergency since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, warned a government politician who has advised prime minister Naoto Kan on the crisis at the six-reactor plant.

“This is going to be a long battle,” said Goshi Hosono, adding it might take “several months” to bring the radiation leaks under control.

At the crippled plant, workers, troops and firefighters have pumped water into reactors whose cooling systems were knocked out by the March 11 tsunami, sparking partial meltdowns and chemical explosions.

A second US military barge carrying fresh water for pumping on Saturday docked off the plant, where cement boom pumps have been pouring in water, a task that was initially handled by helicopter water drops and then fire engines.

Radiation leaked into the air, soil and ocean, and the emergency water pumping itself has increased the environmental contamination.

The run-off from the plant has measured more than 1,000 millisieverts and is believed to be the source of radioactive iodine-131 readings in ocean waters of more than 4,000 times the legal limit.

TEPCO workers were using a polymer to try to close off pipes through which the water has flowed into a cracked concrete pit, from where it has run into the sea. An earlier attempt to seal the crack with cement failed to stop the leak….

Japan disaster to cost Australia $2b – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

April 4, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, business