"TOKYO — The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant stood ready Thursday to inject boric acid into one of its most heavily damaged reactors after it found steam emanating from the reactor building. The preventive measure would stave off sustained nuclear reactions in the reactor’s damaged core, though officials stressed that such reactions were a remote possibility."
"The Tokyo Electric Power Company, or Tepco, stressed that it continued to safely cool the reactor core and that vital temperature and radiation readings were stable. It said that it had not detected any signs of criticality, or sustained nuclear reactions. But Tepco said that it had halted all work to remove debris from the top floors of the reactor building, also as a precaution.
The incident has brought the Fukushima plant’s vulnerable state into sharp relief, more than two years after its reactors suffered multiple meltdowns when its cooling systems were overwhelmed by a powerful earthquake and tsunami. A recent jump in levels of radioactive cesium and tritium in the groundwater at the coastal plant, along with suggestions that the groundwater is leaking into the Pacific, has also raised alarms over the continued environmental threat posed by the plant."
Hiroko Tabuchi reports for the New York Times July 18, 2013.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/19/world/asia/steam-detected-at-damaged-f...
SEE ALSO:
"Shinzo Abe: Japan’s Nuclear Salesman-In-Chief" (The Diplomat)
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