The operator of a damaged nuclear plant in Japan said he found water with a radioactivity level of five million times the legal limit in a reactor, while trying for a fourth consecutive week to contain the worst nuclear disaster in 25 years. Highlighting the fear of the spread of radioactivity, the Japanese government said it was considering imposing restrictions on the consumption of seafood for the first time since the crisis began, after they were contaminated fish in seas south of the damaged nuclear reactor.
The plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., offered to pay money "condolences" to victims in the Fukushima region, where the plant, while local mayors in the area went to Tokyo to meet with Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who said they expect much more help. "We've loaded with risks, TEPCO coexisted and flourished for over 40 years, and all those years we have relied entirely on the myth that nuclear plants are absolutely safe," said Katsuya Endo, mayor of the city of Tomioka.
Endo is one of eight mayors in the prefecture of Fukushima who visited Khan to demand compensation and support to provide employment, housing and education to tens of thousands of people evacuated after the crisis of radiation. Engineers at the Fukushima Daiichi plant has desperately resorted to what might be considered little more than home remedies to stem the flow of contaminated water.
On Tuesday used "liquid glass" to seal cracks in a damaged concrete pit. "We try to pour supplies of sawdust, newsprint and concrete on the side of the well (which leads to tunnel out of the reactor No. 2), but the mixture does not seem to be entering into the cracks," said Hidehiko Nishiyama, deputy general manager Agency for Nuclear and Industrial Safety in Japan (NISA, its acronym in English).
"Moreover, we do not know how highly contaminated water is coming from the No. 2 reactor," Nishiyama said. TEPCO said it suspected that a layer of rock below the ditch that feeds the well of the reactor 2 can be the source of contaminated water, but added that they were still investigating the exact causes and were prepared for the possibility that they had other sources of radioactive water .
Engineers also plan to build two giant curtains of polyester into the sea to block the spread of pollution from the plant. The workers are still struggling to restart the pumps that recycle cooling-water reactors, four damaged by the magnitude 9 earthquake and subsequent tsunami last month.
Until that is fixed to be pumping water from the outside to prevent the reactor from overheating and causing a meltdown. In the process, creating ever more polluted water to be pumped and stored somewhere or released into the sea. A total of 60,000 tons of highly contaminated water at the plant after workers pumped frantically complex seawater to cool fuel rods that suffered a partial meltdown after the tsunami of 11 March.
On Monday, TEPCO had to start releasing the sea 11 000 500 tonnes of water with low levels of radioactivity, after running out of capacity to store more highly contaminated water. The discharge will continue until Friday. In the waters near the plant were recorded levels of radioactive iodine 800 four thousand times the legal limit.
Cesium was also found at levels above safe limits in small fish "kounago" in the waters off Ibaraki prefecture, south of Fukushima, local media reported. Iodine-131 in the water near the gate of the reactor 2 peaked at 7.5 million times the legal limit on 2 April. The radioactivity of water, which was not released into the ocean, fell Monday to 5 million times the legal limit.
TEPCO began to give money to local governments to assist evacuees from near the ground or were affected by radioactive crisis. The company faces a huge bill for damage to its damaged reactor, but said it must first assess the extent of the damage before paying compensation. 
The plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., offered to pay money "condolences" to victims in the Fukushima region, where the plant, while local mayors in the area went to Tokyo to meet with Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who said they expect much more help. "We've loaded with risks, TEPCO coexisted and flourished for over 40 years, and all those years we have relied entirely on the myth that nuclear plants are absolutely safe," said Katsuya Endo, mayor of the city of Tomioka.
Endo is one of eight mayors in the prefecture of Fukushima who visited Khan to demand compensation and support to provide employment, housing and education to tens of thousands of people evacuated after the crisis of radiation. Engineers at the Fukushima Daiichi plant has desperately resorted to what might be considered little more than home remedies to stem the flow of contaminated water.
On Tuesday used "liquid glass" to seal cracks in a damaged concrete pit. "We try to pour supplies of sawdust, newsprint and concrete on the side of the well (which leads to tunnel out of the reactor No. 2), but the mixture does not seem to be entering into the cracks," said Hidehiko Nishiyama, deputy general manager Agency for Nuclear and Industrial Safety in Japan (NISA, its acronym in English).
"Moreover, we do not know how highly contaminated water is coming from the No. 2 reactor," Nishiyama said. TEPCO said it suspected that a layer of rock below the ditch that feeds the well of the reactor 2 can be the source of contaminated water, but added that they were still investigating the exact causes and were prepared for the possibility that they had other sources of radioactive water .
Engineers also plan to build two giant curtains of polyester into the sea to block the spread of pollution from the plant. The workers are still struggling to restart the pumps that recycle cooling-water reactors, four damaged by the magnitude 9 earthquake and subsequent tsunami last month.
Until that is fixed to be pumping water from the outside to prevent the reactor from overheating and causing a meltdown. In the process, creating ever more polluted water to be pumped and stored somewhere or released into the sea. A total of 60,000 tons of highly contaminated water at the plant after workers pumped frantically complex seawater to cool fuel rods that suffered a partial meltdown after the tsunami of 11 March.
On Monday, TEPCO had to start releasing the sea 11 000 500 tonnes of water with low levels of radioactivity, after running out of capacity to store more highly contaminated water. The discharge will continue until Friday. In the waters near the plant were recorded levels of radioactive iodine 800 four thousand times the legal limit.
Cesium was also found at levels above safe limits in small fish "kounago" in the waters off Ibaraki prefecture, south of Fukushima, local media reported. Iodine-131 in the water near the gate of the reactor 2 peaked at 7.5 million times the legal limit on 2 April. The radioactivity of water, which was not released into the ocean, fell Monday to 5 million times the legal limit.
TEPCO began to give money to local governments to assist evacuees from near the ground or were affected by radioactive crisis. The company faces a huge bill for damage to its damaged reactor, but said it must first assess the extent of the damage before paying compensation.
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