IAEA experts in Japan to help in Fukushima clean-up

Radiation experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) began a week-long mission on Monday to assist in efforts to clean-up the areas around the radiation-leaking Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The UN nuclear watchdog team, led by director of the IAEA's nuclear fuel cycle and waste technology division, will remain in the country until next Monday and submit a set of proposals to the Japanese government at the end of its mission. It is the second time that the 16-member team visited Japan at the request of the Japanese government since October 2011, seven months after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami damaged the Fukushima plant and caused meltdowns. "The international community and the agency in particular are very interested in following the recovery activities in Japan," Lentijo told Japan's Senior Vice Environment Minister Shinji Inoue during their talks. Inoue told him the government hopes to receive significant advice from international and professional standpoints. The plant operator has struggled to contain contaminated water that has leaked from the crippled plant, admitting some radiation-tainted water may have flowed into the Pacific Ocean. The magnitude-9.0 quake and subsequent tsunami in March 2011 hit the Fukushima plant, located 230 km north of Tokyo, knocking out its vital cooling systems of three reactors. It resulted in explosions, fires and the worst radiation crisis since the 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe.