Special Metals Pages

Tuesday 19 April 2011

Japan needs months to end nuclear crisis


Japan will need at least two to three more months to come to an end to the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
A report by the ‘Atomic Energy Society of Japan’ concluded that thezirconium alloy sheaths that surround the reactor’s fuel rods ruptured in the three units, sending pellets of molten uranium tumbling to the bottom of the reactors.
The plant’s owner – the Tokyo Electric Power Company – has said it cannot provide a timeline for bringing the crisis to an end and would not discuss the report by the Atomic Energy Society of Japan.
‘We are trying to do our utmost at this moment,’ a company official told CNN.
Nuclear regulators declared the Fukushima accident at level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale.