ENORMOUS amounts' of Cobalt 60 and other radioactive materials were discovered in the seabed near the Tsuruga nuclear power plant, western Japan, last month.
Lesser amounts, but Bien times the normal, :e detected in seaweed cvita ucaroy Japan Atomic Company •4 C I LIC . alUl of the plant, :e: admitted that not onwere they responsible : Jumping over 40 tons :adioactive waste, and : aJating So workers in process, but that they • talca to report ine iValve On 8 March an open ive had gushed highly ::cioactive primary coolfor over three hours -= wre being discovered A cording to the amichi Daily News, one Japan's Englishinguage dailies, the liquid :aked out of the plant, er a one foot high hedge SUUof issuing an alert Car vIne OuL operation, Hallayc -an: at the plant mounted - ush-up operation.
Ministry I: did not inform the - nistry of - ade and industry MITI, :: was obliged to do by Perhaps the bosses ere t00 embarrassed — - ; incident was the 32nd - chap at Tsuruga in ten • .÷.> Worse was to come. - xious lo clean up ine - eis in the storage facility a quickly as possible, they in workers equipped buckets. Apthese "imped the contaminated into the nearest Because it was inside -e waste treatment and :rage area, they expected be part of the special, .eşed drainage system for e aclve Maiellals. . ..
Due to a design fault, it ec directiy to the Hall grainage system which :charges into the bay.
The workers involved :he clean-up were all exe.ed to higher levels of adiation than normal.
their permissible :te' is already ten times ener than that eereral public.
Scandal Irradiation of workers recoming a national Japan, wnere everal years labourers = been travelling trom nuclear plant to the search of :-paid repair and sera work. the halare they collect :al times their permitearly dosage in a few Thousands are eumarea to oe sutform of • ONCeC ness.
=:: alist Challenge Even the so-called 'safe levels' ot exposure suspect, since they are set as a compromise between the need to protect trom harmful effects radiation, and the need to expose them to it, in order to operate the plants.
iviosl eviucuce suggest that there is no ultimate safe level, and that any exposure radiation potentially harmful. Cancer and leukemia deaths in some of the towns near nuclear plants alc alcauy severar umes higher than Japan's natonal average. Private Nuclear power Japan is being developed by nine private companies each competing with the others and trying to get the best results from its reactors. The close links between private capital and the conservative ment are anther reason for the health hazards.
Commenting on this incident, zove licill minister r fave the game other nuclear avay. power plants nau a simlial accident, prospects for the nauoR s nuclear Dowe development would be endangered, said the head of MITI.
What he meant is that people might • wake up to the fact that these 'accidents' al c an unavoidable part of the nuclear industry, and that the price is too high too pay.
that price means playing Russian Roulette the wiln whole community, and the lives of future generations.
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* FINGE GLC leader Ken Livingstone (left), Tessa van Gelderen from Socialist Challenge, and Ernest Mandel