Japan's nuclear plant operators admit no blueprint to solve crisis after a month

[robdogbucky]

Operators of Japan's damaged nuclear power plant admitted yesterday (WED) that they had not come up with a blueprint to end the nuclear crisis more than a month after it began.

By Danielle Demetriou in Tokyo 2:25PM BST 13 Apr 2011

"The admission coincided with workers at Fukushima Daiichi power plant beginning the painstaking task of pumping thousands of tons of highly radioactive water into nearby containers to enable the repair of crucial cooling functions.

Radiation levels in the sea surrounding the nuclear power plant in northeast Japan were reported to have doubled to 23 times above the legal limit in the latest tests off nearby Minamisoma city.

New data also revealed the first discovery of small amounts of strontium – one of the most harmful radioactive elements which has been linked with leukaemia – in the soil near the nuclear plant, although not at levels harmful to humans.

Yesterday, Masataka Shimizu, the president of Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the plant operators, said that the nuclear situation was stabilising. However, he admitted that the company had not yet finalised a master plan to end the crisis, which has now been rated at a maximum nuclear disaster level of seven, the same as the 1986 Chernobyl incident..."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/8447877/Japans-nuclear-plant-operators-admit-no-blueprint-to-solve-crisis-after-a-month.html