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Nuclear Inspectors Arrive in Japan to Probe Fukushima Accident

   VOA News  May 23, 2011

   International nuclear experts have begun arriving in Japan to probe the
   causes of the Fukushima nuclear disaster and make recommendations to
   prevent future accidents.
   Six experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency arrived in
   Japan Monday from the agency's headquarters in Vienna. They will be
   joined by another 14 experts from 12 countries for an investigation
   that will begin Tuesday and run through June 2.
   The experts, led by British chief nuclear inspector Mike Weightman,
   will spend most of their time in Tokyo but are expected to visit the
   Fukushima nuclear plant, which has been leaking radiation since a March
   11 tsunami knocked out its cooling systems and sparked the worst
   nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.
   The team will present its findings at a special ministerial meeting of
   IAEA member states in Vienna in late June.
   Japan's NHK national television reported Monday that it has obtained a
   copy of an operating manual for one of the crippled reactors at the
   Fukushima plant which shows that technicians violated their own
   procedures in the crucial hours after the tsunami.
   NHK said the technicians waited hours longer than they should have to
   begin venting steam as pressure built up in the containment vessel at
   the number one reactor. It said if the proper procedure had been
   followed, it might have been possible to avoid a hydrogen explosion
   which is the suspected cause of radiation leakage from that reactor.

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