Japan's Nuclear Industry Rocked By Quake

Japan has been quite reliant on nuclear energy to provide power for its electric grid for years. Its largest nuclear power plant, Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, was near the epicenter of the earthquakes that hit Japan earlier this week, and it seems that the damage is far more serious than company officials had claimed.

The plant is offline as they continue detailing the situation. The company that runs the nuclear plant says that the situation is more serious than initial reports had claimed.

The company that operates an earthquake-ravaged nuclear plant said Wednesday that a radioactive leak was bigger than first reported but still below danger levels, escalating the showdown over a long list of problems at the facility.

The company also said about 400 barrels containing low-level radioactive waste were knocked over as a result of Monday's quake, revising an earlier figure of 100.

Also Wednesday, the mayor of nearby Kashiwazaki city ordered the facility to shut down until its safety could be confirmed.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. announced that a leak of radioactive water into the Sea of Japan was actually 50 percent bigger than initially announced Monday night after the deadly 6.8-magnitude quake.

"We made a mistake in calculating the amount that leaked into the ocean. We apologize and make correction," the statement said. Spokesman Jun Oshima said the amount was still "one-billionth of Japan's legal limit."

Another spokesman, Tsutomu Uehara, told reporters in Tokyo that inspections at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant showed 400 drums had fallen over and that lids had come off 40 of them. No radiation has been detected outside the facility, Uehara said.

It is quite troublesome that the company has not been straight with the public over what happened at the plant. If they weren't sure of the extent of the damage, they should have said it. Instead, they gave a rosy picture of the situation that turned out to underestimate the damage considerably.