Japan Promises Fuller Disclosure On Nuclear Crisis

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Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Friday vowed fuller disclosure with transparency on the country’s quake-triggered nuclear crisis to the international community.

Kan made the promise during the meeting with visiting International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano, who urged the premier to provide more specific information about the situation at the Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant that was hit by the March 11 magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami.

“We have been receiving information but there is the opinion in the international community that more detailed information is needed,” Amano, who arrived in Tokyo earlier in the day, told reporters after his meeting with Kan.

The head of the UN atomic watchdog also said that the IAEA expert team will be dispatched to near the Fukushima plant, 230 km north of Tokyo, to monitor radiation there within a few days.

The four-member expert team on radiology measurement will first monitor radiation in Tokyo as early as Friday and then visit the vicinity of the Fukushima plant, according to Amano.

The plant lost cooling functions due to a power outage and the failure of emergency power generators after the massive earthquake and tsunami.

The Japanese government and the plant operator are struggling to prevent meltdowns at the damaged reactors amid growing fears of radioactive contamination.

Efforts to cool down the overheating reactors and spent fuels continue on Friday, as the Self-Defense Forces started in the afternoon injecting a total of 50 tons of water into the damaged No.3 reactor’s spent fuel storage pool.

KUNA

KUNA is the Kuwait News Agency

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