The curse of Fukushima, the Japanese nuclear power plant knocked out in 2011 by an earthquake and a tsunami, does not stop. The structure continues to regurgitate radioactive material and causes Tepco, the energy giant that manages it, to sink into the Stock Exchange.
While the Nikkei index gains +0,21 percent, the Tepco stock loses more than 9 percent on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The thud comes after the news that the Japanese atomic authority has rated the leak of 3 tons of highly radioactive water which occurred in recent days from the Fukushima. Initially, the accident had been classified as level 300, i.e. an "anomaly", then the change of course, "taking into account the quantity and density of radiation", reads the official note. According to reports from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the increase of a single step in the scale corresponds to a multiplication by 1 of the severity of the event.
Tepco itself has admitted that the water that continues to leak is contaminated to the point that a person standing 50 centimeters away receives in one hour an amount of radiation exceeding the maximum annual threshold tolerated in Japan for employees in the sector nuclear.
This is only the latest in a series of accidents that have occurred since the disaster of March 11, 2011, the largest nuclear catastrophe after Chernobyl. In that case, there was talk of a level 7 event. And the Japanese Nuclear Authority has made it known that it is concerned about the possibility of new leaks.
