Japan earmarks £300m+ for Fukushima cleanup via The Guardian

Tokyo unveils measures to decontaminate toxic water at nuclear power plant as Tepco struggles to prevent leaks into Pacific

Japan’s government is to spend almost $500m (£320m) in an attempt to contain leaks and decontaminate highly toxic water at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The measures come as the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), struggles to prevent leaks into the Pacific Ocean and to find a way to contain and treat the huge volume of water that has accumulated at the site since it was hit by a tsunami in March 2011.

Last weekend, workers recorded radiation levels of up to 1,800 millisieverts an hour near one storage tank for the contaminated water. A radiation dose of that size is big enough to kill an unprotected person nearby in about four hours. Tepco said the radiation was emitted in the form of beta rays – which travel only short distances and can be easily shut out – and that workers had not been put at risk.

Continue reading at Japan earmarks £300m+ for Fukushima cleanup

This entry was posted in *English and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply