By Sam Yeh | AFP -- Sat, 28 May, 2011

Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is not fully prepared to deal
with violent storms, officials admitted Saturday, as the country braced
for Typhoon Songda to hit.

The storm system was located about 30 kilometres (20 miles) southwest of
Miyako-jima island, near Taiwan, as of 3:00 pm (0600 GMT), the Japan
Meteorological Agency said.

The typhoon, packing gusts up to 216 kilometres (134 miles) per hour
near its centre, is moving northeast and could hit Tokyo as early as
Monday, the agency said.

It is not yet clear whether it will move towards the Fukushima Daiichi
plant, more than 200 kilometres northeast of the capital.

But the typhoon has already brought heavy rain to the Fukushima region,
prompting worries that runoff water may wash away radioactive materials
from land into the Pacific Ocean.

Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) has been pouring
synthetic resins over the complex to prevent radioactive deposits from
being swept away by winds or rain.

A TEPCO spokesman said workers were mulling ways to continue their work
even in storms.

"We are using a pump truck to pour water to (cool overheating) reactors.
It is not yet clear how exactly we would conduct the work if strong
typhoons hit the plant directly," he said.

Goshi Hosono, an aide of Prime Minister Naoto Kan, told a news
conference Friday that more work had to be done to ensure that the
approaching and future typhoons would not spread radioactive materials
into the environment.

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