JAPAN’S NUCLEAR CRISIS CONTINUES

Abstract

IT WILL TAKE UP TO nine months before the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in Japan is stabilized, facility owner Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said last week. Radiation has been leaking from the complex since a massive earthquake-triggered tsunami inundated Japan’s Pacific coast and knocked out cooling systems at the plant’s six reactors just over a month ago. At an April 17 news conference, TEPCO officials unveiled a phased “road map” to bring the crisis under control. In the first three months of the plan, the company hopes to cool the reactors and gradually reduce the level of leaking radiation. Three to six months after that, the utility expects all of the reactors to achieve “cold shutdowns,” a stable condition in which temperatures drop and radiation leaks substantially decline. “It is a sign of the extraordinary seriousness of the Fukushima nuclear disaster that TEPCO anticipates it may take nine more months ...