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"As many people (know, it) has a history of not being forthcoming about nuclear safety issues, particularly those surrounding earthquake-related dangers."
In 2003, its 17 nuclear plants were temporarily shut for falsifying safety inspection reports. In 2006, it was learned that its coolant-water data at two plants were falsified in the 1980s. Critics have long expressed deep concern about safety at many of Japan's nuclear facilities," some dating from the 1970s and 1980s.
Fukushima especially "has long been on critics' radar, but so has the Hamaoka plant," 100 miles southwest of Toyko on an active fault line. In fact, Kobe University Professor Emeritus Katsuhiko Ishibashi said:
"I have been warning about Japan's possibility of a genpatsu shinsai - a nuclear disaster," explaining that many nuclear facilities are hazardously located in seismically unsafe locations. No one listened.
On March 13, Kyodo News said another cooling system failed at Tokai's No. 2 facility, 120 km from Tokyo. Emergency measures were taken. Unreliable reports say a backup pump and cooling system are operating. Fukushima's No. 1 and 3 reactors experienced meltdowns. Kyodo called its No. 2 "troubled," raising fears of the worst there, besides what's happening at Tokai No. 2 and perhaps other quake/tsunami affected reactors.
Third Reactor Explosion Rocks Japan
On March 14, New York Times writers Hiroko Tabuchi, David Sanger and Keith Bradsher headlined, "Japan Faces Potential Nuclear Disaster as Radiation Levels Rise," saying:
"Japan's nuclear crisis verged toward catastrophe" after a third explosion rocked another Fukushima reactor, "damag(ing) the vessel containing the nuclear core (spewing) large amounts of radioactive material into the air, according to the statements of Japanese government and industry officials."
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