HTH -- Haiti Earthquake

April 21, 2011. Japan declares disaster law around evacuation zone as reports surface of radioactive water leak in early April

SOURCE: Altegrity Risk International

Japan has made it illegal to enter a 20km (approximately 12 mile) evacuation zone around the stricken Fukushima nuclear reactor. People were urged to leave the area shortly after the March 11th earthquake and tsunami crippled the plant, but the order was not backed by law. Police suspect that at least 60 families were still living in the area. Now that the disaster law has been declared, those who entered illegally would face fines of up to JPY100,000 (approximately US$1,200) or possible detention of up to 30 days. The area will likely remain an evacuation zone for some time, as officials are hoping to bring the reactors to a cold shutdown within nine months, as which point the evacuation zone will be reassessed.

The owner and operator of the stricken nuclear facility said that 520 tons of radioactive water are 20,000 times above the annual permissible level for the plant leaked into the Pacific Ocean in early April. The company said that between April 1st and April 6th, highly contaminated water containing around 5,000 terabecquerels of radioactive substances leaked from its No. 1 nuclear power plant in Fukushima into the sea. The pace and volume of the contaminated flow from the plant to the sea was considerable. The company is now working on an effort to shift more radioactive water from the No. 2 reactor turbine building to a toxic waste disposal unit at the site, with the move likely to lessen the risk of more contaminated water leaking into the ocean.