Japan needs 2-3 months to end nuclear crisis
April 16th, 2011 - 11:00 pm ICT by IANSTokyo, April 16 (IANS) Japan will need at least two to three more months to bring an end to the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, a nuclear industry official said Saturday.
Takashi Sawada, deputy director of the Atomic Energy Society of Japan, said it was likely to take that long to restore normal cooling systems at the damaged reactors at Fukushima, CNN reported.
The plant was damaged in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Japan has designated it as a top-scale nuclear accident.
A report by the Atomic Energy Society of Japan concluded that the zirconium alloy sheaths that surround the reactor’s fuel rods ruptured in the three units, sending pellets of molten uranium tumbling to the bottom of the reactors.
The pellets are believed to have cooled and solidified at the reactor bases, the report said.
The plant’s owner - the Tokyo Electric Power Company - has said it cannot provide a timeline for bringing the crisis to an end and would not discuss the report by the Atomic Energy Society of Japan.
“We are trying to do our utmost at this moment,” a company official told CNN.
Nuclear regulators declared the Fukushima accident at level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale.
Over 78,000 people who lived within 20 km of the plant were ordered to evacuate. Another 60,000 people living in the next 10 km were told to take shelter indoors.
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Tags: atomic energy, cnn, cooling systems, deputy director, energy society, fuel rods, nuclear accident, nuclear crisis, nuclear event, nuclear industry, nuclear power plant, nuclear regulators, pellets, reactor, reactors, sheaths, takashi, tokyo electric power company, tsunami japan, zirconium alloy