Japanese Local Authority to Inspect Quake-Hit Nuclear Plant

Text of report in English by Japanese news agency Kyodo

Kashiwazaki, Japan, July 21 Kyodo – The Niigata prefectural government inspected Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant Saturday to check sites of leakages of radioactive water and other reported problems caused by a powerful earthquake on Monday.

The inspection is based on a safety agreement signed by the utility with the prefecture and the city of Kashiwazaki and the village of Kariwa.

According to a report earlier this week by Tokyo Electric Power, the company has found a leakage of water containing low-level radioactive material at the plant’s No 6 reactor, with 1.2 cubic meters of contaminated water flowing out into the nearby sea.

The water is believed to have leaked from a pool for storing spent fuel rods. But the company claims it has not had an environmental impact as the radiation level is below the government’s safety standard.

At the No 7 reactor which shut down automatically due to the magnitude-6.8 quake, radioactive iodine, cobalt and chromium were detected in a filter of the main ventilation system although such materials are normally not detected in filters, the company reported, saying that it posed no problem of outside contamination.

The quake hit Niigata and its vicinity, leaving 10 people dead and more than 1,000 people injured.

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