By Jason Clenfield
Aug. 22 (Bloomberg) -- A nuclear plant in northern Japan, the world's biggest, that leaked radiation after being damaged by an earthquake last month is unsafe and should be shut down permanently, a group of scientists said ...
``It will be impossible to prove empirically that all of the plant's damage has been repaired,'' the group, headed by Kobe University Professor of Seismology Katsuhiko Ishibashi and Hiromitsu Ino, an emeritus professor of metallurgy at Tokyo University, said in a statement yesterday ...
``There's no way to determine how much the materials have been weakened,'' Ino the professor of metallurgy said, explaining that the cramped confines of nuclear power plants make complete visual and ultrasonic checks impossible. ``They'll have to rely on calculations and modeling.''
The group said hidden cracks and damage to the molecular structure of the plant's components increase the chance of an accident caused by part failure. Weakened metal also makes the plant vulnerable to earthquakes smaller than the one last month, they said ...
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=andHPiVjEIUA&refer=japanhttp://www.rttnews.com/FOREX/Currency_mkt.asp?date=08/22/2007&item=155... The group of experts issued a statement in Tokyo Tuesday saying the possibility of another huge earthquake in the area was too great to consider re-opening the plant.
The group noted that the region is the middle of an area of particularly high crustal activity in the Japan Sea East region and has many faults.
The group said a detailed investigation of the plant, including an examination of the Number 1 reactor's pressure vessel and a review of the ground of the site should be carried out, but should not be done with the assumption that the plant would be re-started ...
http://www.rttnews.com/FOREX/Currency_mkt.asp?date=08/22/2007&item=155
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