Experts Say Radioactive Releases From Japanese Plants Could Last Weeks or Months

 

Breaking News Alert
The New York Times
Sun, March 13, 2011 -- 9:36 PM ET
-----

Experts Say Radioactive Releases From Japanese Plants Could Last Weeks or Months

As the scale of Japan's nuclear crisis begins to come to
light, experts in Japan and the United States say the country
is now facing a cascade of accumulating problems that suggest
that radioactive releases of steam from the crippled plants
could go on for weeks or even months.

The emergency flooding of two stricken reactors with seawater
and the resulting steam releases are a desperate step
intended to avoid a much bigger problem: a full meltdown of
the nuclear cores in two reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi
Nuclear Power Station. So far, Japanese officials have said
the melting of the nuclear cores in the two plants is assumed
to be "partial," and the amount of radioactivity measured
outside the plants, though twice the level Japan considers
safe, has been relatively modest.

Read More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/14/world/asia/japan-fukushima-nuclear-reactor.html?emc=na



NYTimes.com
620 Eighth Ave.
New York, NY 10018

Copyright 2011 The New York Times Company