A nuclear power station in Japan is leaking, this time the Takahama plant, about 380km west of Tokyo. The radioactive water leak comes amid a nationwide push to restart reactors after the catastrophic meltdown at Fukushima five years ago.The reactor would have been the fourth to come on after the shutdown. The push by the government and utility companies came amid protests across Japan against the continued reliance on nuclear energy, prompted by failures to get the Fukushima crisis under control.
Now Kansai Electric Power says about 34 liters of radioactive water have escaped the plant’s reactor No. 4. An investigation is underway.
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An eight-liter pool was discovered, but traces of the contaminated water across the floor indicate a total of 34 liters had managed to spill. This amounts to about 64,000 becquerels of radioactive waste.
The 30-year-old Reactor No. 4 has been idle since the 2011 shutdown, as part of post-Fukishima regulations that involved taking reactors offline for scheduled backups. Takahama Reactor No. 3 was activated earlier in January, while No’s 1 and 2 at the Kyushu Electric Power Co.’s Sendai plant were restarted last year.
Read more at Nuclear reactor in Japan leaking radioactive water amid nationwide restart
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