Radioactive Water Leak at Japan Nuke Plant

Radioactive Water Leak at Japan Nuke Plant: "Radioactive Water Leak at Japan Nuke Plant
Staff and agencies
12 April, 2006


By MARI YAMAGUCHI, Wed Apr 12, 6:26 AM ET

TOKYO - Water containing radioactive material has leaked at an experimental nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in northern Japan, but no radioactivity was released into the atmosphere and no one was exposed to radiation, the operator announced Wednesday.

'It happened inside an enclosed space and there‘s no danger outside the building,' Takahashi said. 'Today, it‘s back to business as usual.'

The Rokkasho plant, 360 miles northeast of Tokyo, will eventually produce MOX fuel, a uranium-plutonium mixture. The fuel is central to Japan‘s plans to reduce its dependence on energy imports by building so-called fast-breeder reactors, which produce plutonium that can then be reused as fuel.

The country‘s nuclear power industry, however, has been plagued by safety problems and shutdowns in recent years, including a 1999 reprocessing plant accident outside Tokyo that killed two workers and exposed hundreds to radioactivity.

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