JAPAN: Authorities put all the nuclear reactors of the archipelago under surveillance

AFP - The Japanese government on Wednesday ordered an urgent check of all the country's nuclear reactors to ensure they do not meet one day the same damage as those endured by the power plant in Fukushima damaged by the earthquake of March 11 .

A letter to that effect, made public, was addressed by Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Banri Kaieda, CEOs of the nine regional electricity companies in Japan and two other operators nuclear power plants.

Japan has more than 50 reactors, all located on the seafront, on an archipelago that is integrally threat of earthquakes.

The central Fukushima Daiichi (1 Fukushima, north-east) faces an extreme situation, power was cut off by the earthquake and tsunami, embedded generators and cooling devices turned off, all leading to overheating fuel, explosions and radiation leaks.
;
As for facilities that are currently under arrest or under construction, they can not be used without having been vetted, "said Minister of Industry, Banri Kaieda, at a press conference partially televised.

The Department also requests that the exercises are conducted to train the teams to deal with such emergencies.

Measures will also be implemented to secure sources of emergency power and a means to cool the fuel, especially in cooling ponds.

The minister stressed that Japan could hardly do without nuclear power, given their needs and lack of resources.

"The nuclear electricity makes up 30% of production in Japan," he said.

The arrest of more than a dozen reactors after the earthquake of March 11 requires the company Tokyo Electric Power, which manages Fukushima Daiichi and supplies the capital, to schedule outages and forcing users to limit their consumption.