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AP via Earthlink: Nuke Waste Drums Tipped in Japan Quake
KASHIWAZAKI, Japan – A nuclear power plant near the epicenter of a powerful earthquake suffered a slew of problems, including spilled waste drums, leaked radioactive water, fires and burst pipes, the reactor’s operator said Tuesday – more than 24 hours after the tremors struck northern Japan.
The malfunctions at the Kashiwazaki power plant and the delays in acknowledging them are likely to feed concerns about the safety of Japan’s 55 nuclear reactors, which supply 30 percent of the quake-prone country’s electricity and have suffered a long string of accidents and cover-ups.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. said a total of 50 cases of malfunctioning and trouble had been found at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant since Monday’s magnitude 6.6 quake, which killed at least nine people and left 13,000 homeless.
The company said they were still inspecting the plant, which shut down automatically after the quake, and further problems could emerge.
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Full coverage from AP via the Washington Post:
Tokyo Electric said the water leak had stopped and that there had been no “significant change” in the seawater under surveillance and no effect on the environment, but the developments at Kashiwazaki triggered fresh concern about the earthquake resistance of Japan’s nuclear power plants, which supply nearly a third of the country’s electricity.
Aileen Mioko Smith, of the environmentalist group Green Action, said the fire showed that some facilities at nuclear power plants such as electrical transformers were built to lower quake-resistance levels than other equipment such as reactor cores.
“That’s the Achilles heel of nuclear power plants,” said Mioko Smith, who said it took the plant two hours to extinguish the fire. “Today’s a good example of that… How prepared are they to put out fires when they happen?
The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant is the world’s largest nuclear power facility with an output capacity of 8.21 million kilowatts. By comparison, the largest U.S. nuclear power facility, in Palo Verde, Ariz., has an output capacity of 3.88 million kilowatts, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute.
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MSNBC Breaking News: Meteorological Agency reports another quake off Japan’s west coast
USGS: Magnitude 6.8, SEA OF JAPAN, 284 miles from Tokyo.
UPDATED & MOVED UP: Reportedly 7 killed, 600 injured and a leak of radioactive water from a nuclear power plant has caused a nuclear scare.
A strong earthquake in central Japan has damaged a large nuclear power plant causing a leak of radioactive material, officials at the plant have said.
Water containing radioactive substances leaked into the sea and a fire broke out in one of the Kashiwazaki plant’s electrical transformers.
The reactors at the plant automatically shut down during the magnitude 6.8 earthquake.
At least seven people were killed and hundreds injured in the earthquake.
See also MSNBC:
National broadcaster NHK reported that the water leaked from the plant into the Sea of Japan, but that the radioactivity level was below safely levels and posed no danger to the environment.
UPDATE: Per BBC, the Tsunami Warning has been lifted.
A strong earthquake jolted northwestern Japan on Monday morning and caused buildings in the capital Tokyo to sway. The Meteorological Agency said small tsunamis as high as 20 inches were believed to have hit coasts in the area.
Three nuclear reactors in the region automatically stopped but no irregularities were reported, public broadcaster NHK said.
The quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.6 and was centered off the coast of the prefecture (state) of Niigata, the agency said in a statement. The tidal waves were believed to have hit the Niigata coasts, the agency added.
Several bullet train services linking Tokyo to northern Japan have been suspended, NHK said.