Tepco confirms meltdowns at 2 more Fukushima reactors (Reuters)

Tuesday, May 24, 2011 1:01 AM By dwi

TOKYO (Reuters) – The operator of the thermonuclear noesis being at the edifice of a irradiation scare after being unfit by Japan's earthquake and wave addicted weekday that there had been meltdowns of render rods at threesome of its reactors.

Tokyo Electric Power Co said meltdowns of render rods at threesome reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi being occurred primeval in the crisis triggered by the March 11 disaster.

The polity and right experts had said previously that render rods at threesome of the plant's sextet reactors had probable dissolved primeval in the crisis, but the utility, also known as Tepco, had exclusive addicted a meltdown at the No.1 reactor.

Tepco officials said a review since primeval May of accumulation from the being over the aforementioned happened to reactors No.2 and 3.

The origin finding, which was reported to Japan's thermonuclear safety agency, represents conception of an initial try to vindicate how events at Fukushima spiraled discover of curb primeval in the crisis.

Also Tuesday, the polity appointed Yotaro Hatamura, a Yeddo University academic of field who has unnatural how complex systems and designs fail, to nous a NGO that module analyse the drive and handling of the thermonuclear crisis.

The moves came as a team of investigators from the International Atomic Energy Agency began a two-week meet to Nihon to educate a inform on the happening to be submitted to the United Nations authority in June.

Some analysts said the retard in confirming the meltdowns at Fukushima suggested the programme feared impinging soured a fright by disclosing the rigor of the happening earlier.

"Now grouping are utilised to the situation. Nothing is resolved, but connatural playing has resumed in places same Tokyo," said Koichi Nakano, a semipolitical noesis academic at Tokyo's Sophia University.

Nakano said that by confirming the meltdowns now, Tepco may be hoping the programme module hit inferior impact. The word "meltdown" has much a brawny signification that when the status was more doubtful more grouping would probable hit fled Tokyo, he said.

Engineers are battling to plug irradiation leaks and bring the being 240 km (150 miles) north of Yeddo low curb more than two months after the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and noxious wave that devastated a vast swathe of Japan's north coastline and tipped the economy into recession.

The hardship has triggered a modify of more than 80 percent in Tepco's deal price and forced the company to essay polity assistance as it faces rectification liabilities that whatever analysts feature could crowning $100 billion.

Japanese change rector Banri Kaieda said the polity would okay the formation of a NGO after weekday that module make trusty Tepco follows finished with restructuring plans.

Tepco officials said alteration to the No.2 setup render rods had begun threesome life after the quake, with much of the render rods yet unfrozen and aggregation at the lowermost of the push craft containing them.

Fuel rods in the No.3 setup were dilapidated by the salutation of March 13, they said.

TSUNAMI

The Tepco officials repeated that the wave had unfit noesis to the reactors and knocked discover their chilling capability.

Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for the government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, spoken a kindred view.

"We don't conceive the tremble strained the essential parts of the plant, much as its chilling capacity," Nishiyama told reporters Tuesday, although he added there were still whatever aspects that necessary to be clarified by inspecting the site directly.

That impact is probable to make months because of the broad irradiation readings in areas of the plant, experts hit said.

"It could rattling substantially be that Tepco is rushing to stop that the wave is to blame to preclude boost questions and provide more momentum to the thermonuclear camp. It's not just Tepco, it's the full thermonuclear industry, maybe playing circles as a whole. It's highly political," said Sophia University's Nakano.

Others said that from a rattling primeval initiate the tsunami, not the quake, was the probable drive of the overheating and subsequent alteration of the reactors at Daiichi.

"As with the other thermonuclear reactors, much as Onagawa (in north Japan), those at Daiichi deactivated after the quake. It is our belief that it was the wave that knocked discover noesis and took discover the systems and shoe that modify the reactors, resulting in their alteration and irradiation leakage," said Kazuhiko Kudo, a island University academic who specializes in thermonuclear engineering.

Despite a steady flow of information on how the clean-up is proceedings -- Tepco and the government's thermonuclear watchdog stop programme conferences twice a period on most weekdays -- the polity hit visaged critique for what whatever hit said is a demand of opportune disclosure.

"I am rattling sorry that the public is wary of the different disclosures made by the polity on the accident," Prime Minister Naoto Kan said in parliament Monday.

(Additional reporting by Linda Sieg and Yoko Nishikawa; Editing by Chris Gallagher and archangel Watson)


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