20110523

Beijing, Seoul offer support to Japan at summit

AFP

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Sunday said Beijing would ease some bans imposed on Japanese food imports over a nuclear crisis as leaders of Japan, China and South Korea held a trilateral summit. For Japan the three-way meeting was an opportunity to address the concerns of its neighbours over its handling of world's worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl 25 years ago, triggered by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Tokyo's neighbours have been concerned by the leak of radiation from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant and its impact on food safety across the region. For Japan, the summit was an opportunity to secure the easing of import restrictions. (AFP)

Erratic information fuels mistrust of TEPCO

AFP

Tokyo Electric Power's belated admission that damage to crippled reactors at its nuclear plant is worse than it first thought has fuelled suspicion it withheld bad news in the first days of Japan's crisis. A series of revisions to earlier assessments about damage to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant have emerged since the utility began sending workers into reactor buildings for the first time. More than two months after the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl was triggered, TEPCO last week admitted fuel rods inside reactor cores melted down in the first few hours after the March 11 tsunami disabled cooling systems. (AFP)