Radiation has been detected in seawater around the Southern discharge canal of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station which was damaged by the 2011 Tohoku-Taiheiyou-Oki Ocean Earthquake.
TEPCO has undertaken a full sampling survey of the area surrounding Fukushima Daiich Nuclear Power Station since problems with the cooling systems at the plant led to a series of explosion and concerns over temperature and pressure at the plant.
TEPCO has informed the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) and Fukushima prefecture of the sample results. Further testing will take place as well as continued blackouts as staff at the power station battle to contain failures and bring the plant back on line.
In This Story: Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia located in the northwest Pacific Ocean. Part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, Japan comprises an archipelago of 6,852 islands covering 377,975 square kilometers (145,937 sq mi); the country’s five main islands, from north to south, are Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu, and Okinawa. Tokyo is Japan’s capital and largest city.
Japan is divided into 47 administrative prefectures and eight traditional regions. The Greater Tokyo Area is the most populous metropolitan area in the world, with more than 37.4 million residents.
Japan is a great power and a member of numerous international organizations, including the United Nations (since 1956), the OECD, and the G7. Japan is a leader in the automotive and electronics industries.
Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions that release nuclear energy to generate heat, which most frequently is then used in steam turbines to produce electricity in a nuclear power plant. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions.
