TOKYO, June 6 (Reuters) – At age 72, Yasuteru Yamada
believes he has a few more good years ahead.

But not so many that the retired engineer is worried about
the consequences of working on the hazardous front line cleaning
up the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant.

TOKYO, June 1 (Reuters) – U.N. atomic safety experts said
Japan underestimated the threat from a killer wave to its
crippled Fukushima power plant and urged sweeping changes to
prevent a repeat of the crisis that triggered the word’s worst
nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

In a report presented to Prime Minister Naoto Kan on
Wednesday, an 18-member team from the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA) called for a rethink of the way nuclear
facilities are built, run and regulated.

TOKYO, June 1 (Reuters) – Japan underestimated the risk of
tsunamis and needs to closely monitor public and workers’ health
after the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, a team
of international safety inspectors said in a preliminary review
of the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

The report, from an International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) team led by Britain’s top nuclear safety official Mike
Weightman, highlighted some of the well-documented weaknesses
that contributed to the crisis at Fukushima when the plant, 240
km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, was hit by a massive earthquake
and then a tsunami in quick succession on March 11.

TOKYO, June 1 (Reuters) – Less than a week after touring the
radioactive rubble of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, a
team of international safety inspectors on Wednesday plans to
hand Japan’s government a preliminary review of what triggered
the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.

The report, from an International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA)team led by Britain’s top nuclear safety official Mike
Weightman, is expected to highlight some of the well-documented
weaknesses that contributed to the crisis at Fukushima when the
plant, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, was hit by a massive
earthquake and then a tsunami in quick succession on March 11.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Three of six reactors at a Japanese nuclear plant damaged in a March 11 earthquake and tsunami suffered metldowns within days, the plant’s operator said Tuesday, raising questions about why the extent of the disaster was not disclosed sooner.

The disclosure of the meltdowns more than two months after the quake struck came as a U.N. nuclear safety team began an investigation into the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, 25 years ago.

TOKYO (Reuters) – The magnitude 9 earthquake that struck a Japanese nuclear plant in March hit with almost 30 percent more intensity than it had been designed to withstand, raising withstand, raising the possibility that key systems were compromised even before a massive tsunami hit.

Embattled operator Tokyo Electric Power said Monday that partial data recovered from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant showed the ground acceleration during the quake exceeded its design specifications at three of the six reactors.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese officials are readying a new approach to stabilizing a reactor at a nuclear plant crippled by an earthquake and tsunami after discovering a leak from the containment vessel of enough radioactive water to fill an Olympic swimming pool.

The discovery has forced officials to abandon their original plan to bring under control the No. 1 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. That plan would have entailed cycling a more limited volume of water across uranium fuel believed to have gone into meltdown.

OMAEZAKI, Japan (Reuters) – Like many who live near Japan’s Hamaoka nuclear plant, Yoko Konishi is torn between concern for the time bomb-like danger she has been told it represents and the economic opportunity she has watched it create.

“We’ve always been told it was safe, that it had the power to resist a major quake,” said Konishi, 67. “I can’t say I’m surprised that Hamaoka could have to be shut down, but I wish they had given more thought to the future for us.”

TOKYO (Reuters) – Over the past two weeks, Japanese government officials and Tokyo Electric Power executives have repeatedly described the deadly combination of the most powerful quake in Japan’s history and the massive tsunami that followed as “soteigai,” or beyond expectations.

When Tokyo Electric President Masataka Shimizu apologised to the people of Japan for the continuing crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant he called the double disaster “marvels of nature � that we have never experienced before”.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Over the past two weeks, Japanese government officials and Tokyo Electric Power executives have repeatedly described the deadly combination of the most powerful quake in Japan’s history and the massive tsunami that followed as “soteigai,” or beyond expectations.

When Tokyo Electric President Masataka Shimizu apologized to the people of Japan for the continuing crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant he called the double disaster “marvels of nature that we have never experienced before”.