TOKYO, Mar 16 2011 – Workers battling to contain the crisis at Japan s quake- stricken Fukushima nuclear plant were briefly moved to a bunker because of a rise in radiation levels, local media have reported.
The level of radiation at the plant surged to 1,000 millisieverts early on Wednesday before coming down to 800- 600 millisieverts.
Harry Fawcett, Al Jazeera s correspondent in Japan, said the workers struggling to avert a nuclear meltdown were allowed to return to the facility later.
The 70 workers who were taken into that protective bunker were able to go back and restart operations crucial to keeping this entire plant cool, he said.
They have been pumping sea water into the reactors; the ones that were active before the earthquake and the ones which …
Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES, Sep 8 2011 (IPS) – While the tendency in the industrialised world in the wake of the Mar. 11 nuclear meltdown in Japan is to abandon plans for further nuclear energy development, in Argentina the capacity of existing plants is being strengthened, and new reactors are being built.
Germany announced that it would start its nuclear power programme; Switzerland will make a ban on nuclear reactors permanent; and more than 94 percent of voters in a referendum in Italy rejected the government s plans to restart the nuclear programme abandoned in the late 1980s.
But that is far from happening in Argentina. The government of Cristina Fernández signed contracts in late August to extend the useful life of one of the country s two nuclear plants, a…
WASHINGTON, Mar 21 2013 (IPS) – Patients, doctors and international aid groups are calling on donors and governments to support measures that would make treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis more effective and accessible.
The demands are being made amidst the recent or imminent approval of two new drugs, bedaquiline and delamanid. Advocates say the drugs present an historic opportunity to tackle the notoriously difficult-to-treat disease.
Related IPS Articles
“As we know with all infectious diseases, we need to seize this opportunity before an airborne infectious disease gets too out of control,” Dr. Jennifer Cohn, a policy advisor with Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), an aid group, told IPS.
On Monday, MSF released a , signed by TB patients and their do…
SINGAPORE, Jul 28 2021 (IPS) – After almost two decades, Golden Rice was approved last week by the Philippines authorities for use as food. This together with the approval of the bioengineered Bt eggplant represents a landmark victory of science over misinformation; it will provide consumers with improved nutrition (Golden Rice) and safer food (Bt eggplant).
Paul Teng
BIOTECHNOLOGY CROPS have been controversial in spite of overwhelming support for their safety by the scientific community. This is specially so for the class of biotechnology crops commonly called ‘GMO’ or genetically modified organism. The controversy has led to public concerns about their food safety, in …
PENANG and KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 10 2021 (IPS) – To achieve , a country needs a healthcare system that provides equitable access to high quality health care requiring sustainable financing over the long term. Publicly provided healthcare should be on the basis of need, a citizen’s entitlement for all regardless of means.
Mary Suma Cardosa
Health inequalities growing
But recent decades have seen health care trending towards a two-tier system – a perceived higher quality private sector, and lower quality public services. One typical consequence is medical doctors, especially specialists, leaving public service for much more lucrative private practice.
This ‘b…