Beattie Reports on Japan Nuclear

Q&A Kingston & Beattie / Japan Nuclear / There has been another setback in the long struggle to shut down the crippled Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant in northeast Japan. The plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company, (TEPCO) has reported high levels of radioactive strontium-90, a by-product of nuclear fission, found in the plant's groundwater which the operator wants to dump into the Pacific Ocean. The latest revelation comes as the country's Nuclear Regulation Authority approved new safety requirements to clear the way to bring the rest of the country's approximately 50 idled nuclear plants back on line. Jeff Kingston, a professor of Asia Studies at Temple University in Tokyo, tells VOA's Victor Beattie TEPCO's handling of clean-up operations have been "bungled," despite offers of outside assistance from the likes of the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA.