Once-in-a-decade typhoon heads to Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant

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TYPHOON WIPHA. Typhoon Wipha as seen in this satellite image by the US Navy Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC), 15 Oct 2013. Image courtesy JTWC

A typhoon described as the “strongest in 10 years” was closing in on Japan on Tuesday, October 15, on a path that will take it towards the precarious Fukushima nuclear power plant. Typhoon Wipha, packing winds of nearly 200 kilometers (125 miles) per hour near its centre and bringing heavy rains, was in the Pacific south of Japan Tuesday evening, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. It was forecast to reach an area off the Tokyo metropolitan area by early Wednesday, October 16, and later in the day would be off the coast of Fukushima, where the crippled nuclear power plant sits. “It is the strongest typhoon in 10 years to pass the Kanto region (Tokyo and its vicinity),” Hiroyuki Uchida, the agency’s chief forecaster, told a news conference. As the weather agency issued warnings of torrential rain and strong winds, the operator of the Fukushima plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), said it was bracing for the storm after a series of leaks of radiation-polluted water. Earlier this month the company announced 430 liters (114 US gallons) of polluted water had spilt from a tank as workers tried to remove rainwater dumped at the plant by recent typhoons.


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