NEW YORK - Tokyo Electric known as Tepco has finally managed to stop a leak at its crippled No. 2 reactor. Workers stopped the leak by pouring 6,000 liters of water glass which is a sodium silicate compound into the reactor. The reactor was emitting 1000 millisieverts an hour, which is a measure of the absorption of radiation by the human body. The average person gets 2.4 millisieverts of radiation exposure a year.
The reactor has encountered a large amount of problems following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the largest ever recorded in the history of Japan. The disaster knocked out the plant's generators which are used to provide water to cool the nuclear reactors. As the reactors overheated the uncontrolled energy caused explosions throughout the plant. This heat has already partially melted down at least three of the six of the plant's reactors.
The government has recently set radiation limit for fish as the radiation in the nearby sea has risen to several million times the legal limit. Tepco said it will give towns in the area $240,000 each of apology money and this would be on top of any amount the company needs to legally pay.
The company's stock has lost over 85% of its value since that date. The stock has dropped to its lowest level in 80 years to ¥ 293. The stock is endanger of being halted once again. In Japan if a stocks drops too much in a given day the Tokyo Stock Exchange puts it on a limit down, meaning trading is halted for the rest of the day. The stock has already limit downed 6 times during the last month, it has also had 1 limit up.
The stock is down a further 20% in early Tokyo trade.
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