An experts team of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Friday that Japan's Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture suffered no significant damage in a massive earthquake last July.
Concluding a five-day follow-up check of the complex, Philippe Jamet, director of the IAEA's Nuclear Installation Safety Division and head of the team, told reporters here earlier in the day that they did not see so far any significant damage on the safety-related parts.
The 12 experts revisited the power plant on Thursday and held talks with officials of Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency and the power company. They also checked underground geological conditions at the site and the insides of the reactor pressure vessels using a camera.
The nuke plant, the largest in the world in terms of output capacity, leaked low-level radioactive materials and has been closed since a magnitude 6.8 quake rocked the area on July 16,2007. The quake killed over 10 people and injured more than 2,000others.
Last August, a six-member IAEA team checked the quake-hit plant at the Japanese government's invitation. They concluded then that the quake "significantly exceeded the level of seismic activity for which the plant was designed," though the radioactive leak was "well below the authorized limits for public health and environmental safety."
Source: Xinhua
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