【More・・・】

TOKYO - Japan is considering raising the severity level of its nuclear crisis to put it on a par with the Chernobyl accident 25 years ago, the worst atomic power disaster in history, Kyodo news agency reported on Tuesday.

The report came as the government expanded an evacuation zone around the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant because of the high levels of accumulated radiation since a 15-metre tsunami ripped through the complex a month ago, causing massive damage to its reactors which engineers are still struggling to control.

The Kyodo report said that the high levels of radiation that have been released by the Fukushima Daiichi plant meant it could raise the severity level from 5 to the highest 7, the same as the 1986 Chernobyl accident.

It said the government’s Nuclear Safety Commission had estimated that at one stage the amount of radioactive material released from the reactors in northern Japan had reached 10,000 terabequerels per hour of radioactive iodine 131 for several hours, which would classify the incident as a major accident according to the INES scale.

The International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES) is published by the International Atomic Energy Agency and ranks nuclear and radiological accidents and incidents by severity from 1 to a maximum of 7.

The Kyodo report did not say when the estimate related to.

Japan had previously assessed the accident at reactors operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) at level 5, the same level as the Three Mile Island accident in the United States in 1979.

The tsunami was triggered by March 11 9.0 magnitude earthquake, the largest recorded in quake-prone Japan, crippling the reactors’ cooling systems.

A spokesman for the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, Japan’s nuclear safety watchdog, said on Tuesday that the level of the Fukushima incident was still a 5 and that he was unaware of any move by the government to raise the level.

TEPCO said it had stopped the discharge of low-level radioactive water into the sea that had drawn complaints from neighbouring China and South Korea.

It has already pumped 10,400 tonnes of low-level radioactive water into the ocean to free up storage capacity for highly contaminated water from the reactors.

On Monday, shortly after Japan marked one month since the quake, a huge aftershock shook a wide swathe of eastern Japan, killing two people, and knocking out power to 220,000 homes.

It was one of more than 400 aftershocks above a 5 magnitude to have hit the area since March 11.

Because of accumulated radiation contamination, the government is encouraging people to leave certain areas beyond its 20 km (12 mile) exclusion zone around the plant. Thousands of people could be affected by the move.

“These new evacuation plans are meant to ensure safety against risks of living there for half a year or one year,” he said. There was no need to evacuate immediately, he added.

TEPCO President Masataka Shimizu visited the area on Monday for the first time the disaster. He had all but vanished from public view apart from a brief apology shortly after the crisis began and has spent some of the time since in hospital.

“I would like to deeply apologise again for causing physical and psychological hardships to people of Fukushima prefecture and near the nuclear plant,” said a grim-faced Shimizu.

Dressed in a blue work jacket, he bowed his head for a moment of silence with other TEPCO officials at 2:46 p.m. (0546 GMT), exactly a calendar month after the earthquake hit.

Engineers at the plant north of Tokyo said they were no closer to restoring the plant’s cooling system, which is critical to bring down the temperature of overheated fuel rods and to bringing the six reactors under control.

In a desperate move to cool the highly radioactive fuel rods, TEPCO has pumped water onto reactors, some of which have experienced partial meltdown.

But the strategy has hindered moves to restore the plant’s internal cooling system as engineers have had to focus on how to store 60,000 tonnes of contaminated water.

Engineers are also pumping nitrogen into reactors to counter a build-up of hydrogen and prevent another explosion sending more radiation into the air, but they say the risk of such a dramatic event has lowered significantly since March 11.

The triple disaster is the worst to hit Japan since the Second World War, leaving nearly 28,000 dead or missing and rocking the world’s third-largest economy.

Concern at the government’s struggle to handle the situation is mounting, with Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s ruling party suffering embarrassing losses in local elections on Sunday.

Voters vented their anger at the government’s handling of the nuclear and humanitarian crisis, with Mr. Kan’s ruling Democratic Party of Japan losing nearly 70 seats in local elections.

© Thomson Reuters 2011

「何しに来たんだ」－。１１日に福島県入りし、記者会見で福島第１原発事故について「大変申し訳ない気持ちでいっぱい」と謝罪を繰り返した東京電力の清水正孝社長だったが、発生から１カ月もたっての来訪に、県関係者は冷ややかな視線を浴びせた。

東電は社長訪問に当たり、県側に佐藤雄平知事ら幹部との面会を打診したが、けんもほろろに断られた。記者会見に先立ち知事室と県議会議長室を訪れた社長は、秘書に名刺を手渡すことしかできなかった。

清水社長は結局、県庁に設けられた政府の現地対策本部で職員らをねぎらい、記者会見後に東京へとんぼ返り。３時間程度の慌ただしい滞在に、県議会幹部は「何しに来たんだ。東京で事故収束に向けた指揮を執るべきだ」とあきれかえった。

福島市内のあづま総合体育館で避難生活を送る南相馬市の主婦（５４）は「県庁には行ったのに避難所に来ないのはおかしいが、ここに来たら無事では済まなかっただろう」と吐き捨てるように言った。

佐藤雄平知事は１１日午後、県災害対策本部が置かれている県自治会館で会見し、「東京電力と経産省原子力安全・保安院は『原発は何重にも安全対策がある』と言っていた。裏切られた思いで悔しい」と述べた。

佐藤知事は震災から１カ月を「地震、津波、原子力事故、風評被害の四重苦に見舞われた。県民が不安の中で毎日を過ごしているかと思うと言葉がない」と振り返った。

依然として、収束の見通しが立たない福島第１原発事故について「いくら山を越えても次々に新しい山が出てくる」と徒労感をにじませた。一方で「福島県民の粘りと辛抱で頑張っていきたい」と復興への意欲を語った。

東電の清水正孝社長が同日県庁を訪れたことについて所感を問われると、「謝罪に来たことは聞いていない」と不快感を示した。【種市房子】

今日もランキングの応援宜しくお願いします。


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• マスコミでほとんど報じられない反原発デモ (2011/04/11)
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