Post date: May 12, 2013 1:9:33 PM
Japanese police, coast guard and Tokyo Electric team up for anti-nuclear attack exercises.
FUKUSHIMA PREFECTURE, JAPAN (MAY 11, 2013) (TV TOKYO) - Japan conducted its first ant-nuclear terrorism exercise on Saturday (May 11) for the benefit of the defence forces, government and media.
A team comprising 150 members of the police, coast guard and Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) teamed up for the drill in Fukushima prefecture.
The drill location works on the assumption that TEPCO's nuclear power plant in Fukushima could be the target of an attack.Japan's National Public Safety Commission Chairman, Keiji Furuya, said it was also intended to reassure the public that nuclear power is safe following the earthquake two years ago that devastated the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, spewed radiation and forced hundreds of thousand of people to flee.
"At a time when the Japanese citizens are wondering is nuclear power really safe, without being able to ease this concern, well that is why it is exceedingly significant to demonstrate a flawless system in place that can handle it," national public safety commission chairman Keiji Furuya.
Two years after the worst nuclear disaster in a quarter of a century, Tepco is struggling with breakdowns and glitches in its jerry-rigged cooling system to keep reactors and spent fuel pools in a safe state known as cold shutdown.
About 120,000 litres (32,000 gallons) of water contaminated with radiation leaked from two giant pits over the weekend. The cooling system has broken down twice over the past three weeks.