Japan should have informed its neighbors it was releasing radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean to free up urgently needed storage space for more highly radioactive liquid, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said yesterday, after Seoul and Beijing expressed concern about the impact of the move on marine life in the Pacific.
Tests have shown elevated levels of radiation in one variety of fish caught in waters near the plant.
Although officials said they hoped to stop pumping radioactive water into the sea yesterday, “We should have given firmer explanations,” Kan said while visiting victims of the huge March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
Photo: Reuters
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said Japan accepted that it should have “given thorough explanations earlier” of its actions.
However, problems in restoring cooling systems at Japan’s crippled nuclear power plant, mean more contaminated water may eventually be pumped into the sea if the complex again runs out of storage capacity.
Japan is struggling to regain control of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant after a massive earthquake and tsunami devastated its northeast on March 11, and faces a major humanitarian and economic crisis.
“There are still numerous aftershocks and there is no room for complacency regarding the situation [at Fukushima Dai-ichi],” Japanese Deputy Cabinet Secretary Tetsuro Fukuyama said.
Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said it was continuing to inject nitrogen into reactors to prevent another hydrogen explosion which would spread highly radioactive material into the air.
China and South Korea have criticized Japan’s handling of the nuclear crisis, with Seoul calling it incompetent, reflecting growing international unease over the month-long atomic disaster and the spread of radiation.
Japanese voting in local elections yesterday were expected to vent their anger over Kan’s handling of the nuclear crisis, further weakening him and bolstering opponents who will try force his resignation once the crisis ends.
The unpopular Kan was already under pressure to step down -before the worst disaster to hit Japan since World War II, but analysts say he is unlikely to be dumped during the crisis, which is set to drag on for months.
TEPCO apologized on Saturday over the crisis.
“I would like to apologize from my heart over the worries and troubles we are causing for society due to the release of radiological materials into the atmosphere and seawater,” TEPCO vice president Sakae Muto told a news conference.
Radiation from Japan spread around the entire northern hemisphere in the first two weeks of the nuclear crisis, according to the Vienna-based Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization.
An unmanned drone helicopter is scheduled to fly over four reactors to video damage and gauge radiation in areas where workers are unable to safely enter. Remote-controlled trucks will be used to remove some of the radioactive rubble.
Efforts to regain control of six reactors hit by the 15m high tsunami, which caused partial meltdowns to some reactor cores after fuel rods were overheated, has been hindered by 60,000 tonnes of radioactive water.
Workers used seawater to cool fuel rods and the tsunami left low-level radioactive water, which has been pumped back into the sea to make room for much more contaminated water from reactors.
“Some of the highly radioactive water will be moved within the plant, but a second and third solution needs to be discovered as water is being pumped in constantly, increasing the total amount,” Fukuyama said.
Japan’s Nuclear Industry and Safety Authority said efforts to restore cooling systems were not making clear progress.
“We may be able to use [electric] systems that are currently functioning for cooling and that may speed up the cooling restoration, but there is no concrete and clear option,” said Hidehiko Nishiyama, a deputy director-general at the authority. “It is one step forward, one step backward.”
Kan was scheduled to visit Ishinomaki City yesterday, one of the areas hardest hit by the tsunami which left 28,000 people dead or missing, and the northeast a splintered wreck.
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