Emergency at second Japanese nuclear plant: IAEA

Excessive levels of radiation at a second Japanese nuclear facility after Friday’s earthquake have led authorities to report a state of emergency there, the UN nuclear agency said. “Japanese authorities have informed the IAEA that the first or lowest state of emergency at the Onagawa nuclear power plant has been reported by Tohoku Electric Power Company,” the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Sunday.

The alert was declared “as a consequence of radioactivity readings exceeding allowed levels in the area surrounding the plant. Japanese authorities are investigating the source of radiation,” the watchdog said in a statement. It insisted however that, according to the authorities, the three reactor units at the Onagawa nuclear power plant “are under control”.

In the first incident, part of a reactor at Japan’s ageing Fukushima No. 1 atomic plant blew up on Saturday, a day after the biggest quake ever recorded in Japan unleashed a 10-metre (33-foot) tsunami. The IAEA said that venting of the damaged Onagawa reactor unit had started at 9:20 am in Japan “through a controlled release of vapour”.

The China Syndrome

“The China Syndrome” was released in 1979 and it scared me to death!

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