Nuclear rods likely melted: TEPCO
Tokyo Electric Power Co. said the rods may have melted after being fully exposed because of a low level of cooling water, Kyodo News reported.
Workers have been inside the No. 1 reactor building for about two weeks, attempting to restore its cooling system, which was knocked in the country's March 11 earthquake-tsunami disaster, the report said.
New data showed the water level in the pressure vessel needed to keep the rods cool is lower than earlier thought.
Efforts to restore normal cooling in the reactor have been progressing, the utility has said.
Separately, Kyodo quoted government sources as saying a planned investigation into the Fukushima nuclear crisis will take about a year.
An independent panel to investigate the crisis will have about 10 members, including scholars, legal experts and people from Fukushima prefecture where the plant is located.
As the recovery effort entered a third month, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Japan will abandon plans to build new nuclear reactors and will "start from scratch" to come up with a new energy policy. Last year, the government announced plans to build 14 more nuclear reactors by 2030 to increase the share of nuclear power in Japan's electricity supply to 50 percent.
The government was working on a plan to help Tokyo Electric Power meet its payments to compensate those affected by the crisis. The cost could run into the billions of dollars.
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Parisians vote to ban rental e-scooters from French capital by huge margin
PARIS - Parisians have voted to rid the streets of the French capital of rental electric scooters, with an overwhelming 90% of votes cast supporting a ban, official results show.
Paris was a pioneer when it introduced e-scooters, or trottinettes, in 2018 as the city’s authorities sought to promote non-polluting forms of urban transport.
But as the two-wheeled vehicles grew in popularity, especially among young people, so did the number of accidents: in 2022, three people died and 459 were injured in e-scooter accidents in Paris.
In what was billed as a “public consultation” voters were asked: “For or against self-service scooters?”
Twenty-one polling…
