Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Still uncertain, the end of the nuclear crisis

The maximum global nuclear inspector said yesterday that Japan was "still far from the end of the accident" at his compound in Fukushima, the paper "The New York Times." Yukiya Amano, Director General of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA, for its acronym in English) warned that the emergency could last for weeks or even months.

Amano said authorities still are not sure if the cores of the reactors and spent fuel would have been covered with water for cooling. The director said he saw a few "positive signals" to the restoration of electrical power to the plant. But, he added, "should be made more efforts to complete the accident", but stressed he was not criticizing the response of Japan.

Radiation levels have risen in the seawater near the damaged nuclear plant in Fukushima Daiichi, Japanese officials said, while engineers struggle to stabilize the power station two weeks after being struck by an earthquake and a tsunami. The experts were trying to pump out the water plant radioactive, then was detected in the buildings that house three of the six reactors.

In this regard, Japan announced it had detected in the sea near the troubled nuclear power plant in Fukushima (North East), levels of radioactive iodine 250 thousand times higher than permitted, emphasizing the fear that has cracked the armor of one or more reactors . This high concentration of radioactive iodine increases the risk of food contamination of marine products highly appreciated by the Japanese.

However, was not considered a threat to marine life or food safety, Safety Agency said Japan's Nuclear and Industrial. Hours earlier, Japan's Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, acknowledged that the developments in central Fukushima Daiichi 1 remained "unpredictable." Under such conditions, Japanese engineers struggle to remove the radioactive water from the damaged nuclear power plant after the radiation levels rose seawater near the plant.

Importantly, from the Japanese emergency, the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, said it is time to reassess the global nuclear safety regime. Between 50 and 70 engineers remain inside the plant Fukushima I following the departure of the rest of its 800 co. The group has the essential task of cooling the reactor affected by the earthquake by pumping sea water.

Cesar Molins, PhD in Nuclear Engineering, explains that the workers "not only are likely to survive", but "not going to die of radiation." In his view, "there will be no one died and not a single cancer following the accident, except for workers affected by the explosions of hydrogen. The work of 50 of Fukushima, as already known, inevitably reminiscent of the Chernobyl liquidators.

In 1986, some 600 thousand people, firefighters, soldiers, officials and volunteers, worked on building a concrete sarcophagus covering the damaged reactor. They had no special clothing or protective systems, and many died or suffered serious illness. There are no precise figures: the World Health Organization estimated the death toll at nine thousand, while Greenpeace raises the dead to 93 thousand.

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