Meanwhile, the government has also said it will provide new details on the deliberate discharge of 10,000 tons of low-level radioactive water from the plant into the ocean, an acknowledgment of criticism at home and abroad that it should have provided more advance notice. Regarding compensating families, Japan's Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Banri Kaieda said Friday that evacuees from within a 30-kilometer radius around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant will receive preliminary compensation soon. He said that Tokyo Electric Power Co., or Tepco, has so far prepared 50 billion yen ($600 million) in cash for preliminary compensation. The ultimate cost of compensation for the disaster—to Tepco and the government—is expected to go much higher. View Full Image JNUKE Kyodo News/Associated Press Workers land tuna Thursday at Shiogama port in northeast Japan's Miyagi prefecture for the first time since tsunami waves devastated the coast. JNUKE JNUKE The dumping of radioactive water —which began April 4 and continues at what government officials say is a significantly reduced flow—was an emergency move by Tepco to make room at the site to store water with much higher radiation readings. The government approved the dumping and has been criticized by China and South Korea, as well as the local fishing industry, over the potential impact on the ocean.
Hidehiko Nishiyama, senior official and spokesman at the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, said Thursday that Japan has a responsibility to provide additional information because "there are countries that are worried about the impact of the operation on the ocean." Japan's disclosure will include its own assessment of the dumping, including the amount of water and radiation levels involved. Mr. Nishiyama said the information would be released soon but wasn't more specific. Radiation levels in the seawater near the plant have dropped significantly in recent weeks. On March 31, before the discharge began, concentrations of radioactive iodine-131 were detected at levels more than 4,000 times Japan's legal limit in seawater just beyond the plant. On April 2, the plant operator discovered a crack near the shoreline that was leaking highly radioactive water, which it plugged on April 6. In a reading taken Tuesday, certain radioactive isotopes were present in levels lower than before, at 20 to 40 times Japan's allowable limit. Radioactive isotopes are present at lower but steady levels at a monitoring station about 10 miles away, suggesting that the isotopes are dispersing slowly. Earthquake in Japan View Interactive More photos and interactive graphics Japan acknowledges that it made only a brief mention of its planned dumping operation in a briefing for foreign missions in Tokyo held three hours before the discharge began. A faxed message was sent to the foreign missions after the operation began, Japanese media reported. Water has been a persistent problem since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in northeast Japan killed power to the site's cooling systems. Tsunami waves left water on the site. More was added in spraying operations designed to prevent reactors from overheating. According to Tepco, nearly 27,000 tons of water in total was pumped into the most heavily damaged reactors, Nos. 1, 2 and 3. Each reactor facility is designed to hold about 300 tons of water. "We wanted to avoid releasing radioactive water into the ocean. But that was an unavoidable operation," Mr. Nishiyama said. "We also failed to provide proper notice to neighboring countries." His comments echoed April 6 remarks by chief government spokesman Yukio Edano, who said "we should have provided a more detailed explanation to related ministries and surrounding countries" about the release.
The dumping was part of an effort to stop highly radiated and dangerous water in a utility trench at reactor No. 2 from overflowing into the ocean. According to NISA, 660 tons of the tainted water had been pumped out of the trench by Thursday, but the level of water has fallen by only a few centimeters. NISA has previously estimated that each of the three reactors have 20,000 tons of water that needs to be safely stored. View Full Image JNUKE_photo Associated Press Japanese Emperor Akihito, left, and Empress Michiko, visit an evacuation shelter in Asahi City Thursday, during their first trip to the disaster zone since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. JNUKE_photo JNUKE_photo A new concern arose late Wednesday with the discovery that water in reactor No. 4's spent fuel pool was vastly more radioactive than normal. A water sample taken Tuesday contained 220 becquerels of iodine-131 per cubic centimeter. That compares with a level of just 0.01 becquerels or less for normal spent-fuel pools. Such pools allow used nuclear fuel to slowly cool down over a matter of years.
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