Fukushima Nuclear Crisis Update for August 20th to August 22nd, 2013

Here’s the latest of our news bulletins from the ongoing crisis at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.State of the Fukushima ReactorsIn its most serious move since the March 2011 triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) has declared TEPCO’s radioactive water crisis a level 3 (“serious incident”) on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES). The rating is contingent upon review by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The NRA made its decision after TEPCO announced on August 19 that 300 tons of highly radioactive water was leaking from a storage tank near reactor #4, and that the water had probably flowed directly into the Pacific Ocean, located 500 meters away. Even utility officials admitted that the debacle has become a “crisis situation.” Zengo Aizawa, one of TEPCO’s executive vice presidents, acknowledged, “The problem of contaminated water is the largest crisis facing the management, and we will place priority on dealing with the issue.”Initially, TEPCO officials said that 120 liters had leaked, and the NRA determined that the incident measured 1 on the INES scale.



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