By Steve Hynd
Three whole weeks after the initial disaster that caused them to go wild, Japan's Tepco nuclear power company has said it will decommission four out of six reactors at its stricken Fukishima facillity. The other two reactors had shut down safely at the time.
Japanese experts are considering whether to cover the reactor buildings at the Fukushima Daiichi plant with a special material, to stop the spread of radioactive substances, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano says.
Highly radioactive liquid and plutonium particles have been found outside the plant, pointing to at least a partial meltdown. Radiation levels in the sea by the reactors, measured 300 meters from shore, are at 3,355 times the legal limit. And radiation readings at one village 20 km outside the 20km evacuation zone are "about two times higher" than levels at which the International Atomic Energy Agency recommends evacuations, according to one agency official.
Tepco has been accused throughout this crisis of not being communicative and of spinning the extent of the disaster. Now it looks as if they should have began decommissioning and sealing the reactors as soon as they lost control. It also looks like they knew for years that a tsunami could cause this kind of disaster and did nothing to increase safety precautions. Did Tepco make the disaster worse by putting profits before safety? It certainly seems like it.
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