Nuclear News

Water tanks at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant 

A worker walks in front of water tanks at
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant

The stricken nuclear power plant at Fukushima has probably been leaking contaminated water into the ocean for two years, ever since an earthquake and tsunami badly damaged the plant, Japan's chief nuclear regulator said on Wednesday. In unusually candid comments, Shunichi Tanaka, the head of the Nuclear Regulation Authority, also said that neither his staff nor the plant's operator knew exactly where the leaks were coming from, or how to stop them. [NY Times]

Masao Yoshida, a nuclear engineer who took charge of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant two years ago as multiple reactors spiraled out of control after a tsunami, but who ultimately failed to prevent the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, died here on Tuesday. He was 58. The cause was cancer, said the Fukushima plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power. [NY Times]

 A water pump draws groundwater from a well,
to prevent the water from getting into the reactor