Bahrain to reinstate education ministry staff (AP)

MANAMA, Bahrain ? Bahrain's official news agency says 79 education ministry employees who were dismissed from their jobs during months of protests will get their jobs back.

The Bahrain News Agency said Thursday the employees would be back on the job by January 1.

The move comes two days after the Gulf kingdom said it would reinstate 180 other civil servants in the new year.

More than 1,600 suspected opposition supporters have been pushed out of their jobs since March, when Bahrain's Sunni rulers started cracking down on Shiite-led protesters campaigning for more rights.

Bahraini labor groups say up to 2,500 people were purged from public and private sector jobs during the unrest. The government puts the number at 1,623.

The tiny island kingdom is home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111222/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_bahrain

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UNLV men's basketball vs. California -- 12/23/11 at The Thomas & Mack Center

Sam Morris

The Rebels Basketball team will take on the California Golden Bears at the Thomas & Mack.

When: Friday, Dec. 23, 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Where: The Thomas & Mack Center, 4505 S. Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas

Cost: $18 - $80

Age limit: All ages

Categories: Sports, UNLV, Sports-UNLV

Tools:

Tickets:

Get tickets here

Event posted Nov. 7, 2011
Last updated Nov. 7, 2011

Source: http://www.lasvegassun.com/events/2011/dec/23/22351/

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Kim Jong Il Death: North Korea Talks With U.S. On Hold -- For Now

WASHINGTON -- On the day after North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's death was announced to the world, top American diplomats were due to meet at the State Department to discuss their latest talks with the departed leader's regime.

It had been a busy weekend of negotiations with the North Koreans. Meeting in Beijing, envoys for the State Department had all but reached a deal to resume delivery of food aid, the Associated Press reported late Sunday -- just hours before Kim's death was made public.

The deal for food aid, reported to be 240,000 tons of high-protein biscuits and vitamins over the course of a year, would be just the first tangible step in a delicate dance of engagement that dates back many months and numerous meetings in Beijing, Geneva and the United Nations. U.S. officials hoped it would culminate in talks about, and possibly suspension of, North Korea's advanced nuclear weapons program.

Kim Jong Il had reportedly agreed to suspend the enrichment of uranium while talks proceeded, something the Americans had insisted upon as a precondition for any advanced negotiations.

Now, with Kim dead, and the enigmatic nation in the hands of his mysterious youngest son, Kim Jong Un, American officials are struggling to figure out what might become of those late-stage talks.

"We obviously will keep looking at this issue internally, and we, as I said, did have good conversations last week," said State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland on Monday, signaling that the talks at the very least were on hold while the North Koreans entered into a period of "national mourning."

"We need to see where they are and where they go as they move through their transition period," she said. "Meetings that might have happened today with our travelers who just got back instead were focused on maintaining close contact with our other partners in the Six-Party Talks, and on ensuring calm and regional stability on the peninsula. We have yet to have the internal review of these issues that we need to have."

Several former State Department negotiators told The Huffington Post that, given the circumstances, a certain amount of confusion and halting steps were to be expected.

"People are obviously in a state of some puzzlement and that's probably driving this," said Evans Revere, a former negotiator and now a senior director of the Albright Stonebridge Group. "We'll see. This is, obviously, early days."

But while some reports have indicated that the negotiations may be largely thwarted by Kim Jong Il's death, a senior State Department official told The Huffington Post that the talks are expected to proceed apace, after the mourning period.

"No one is talking about delaying," the official said, adding that it's simply "not likely we'll see additional movement any time soon." The official also denied that any final decisions had been made about food aid at the discussions last week.

It's next to impossible to know what the new North Korean leader might have in mind for his nation's relationship with the West; even basic facts about him, like his exact age -- he is said to be either 27 or 28 -- are still unknown to much of the world.

Several analysts have speculated that Kim Jong Un might attempt a radical move -- perhaps a military strike or more aggressive missile tests, like the one carried out early Monday morning in the Yellow Sea -- in an effort to burnish his legitimacy as a powerful leader.

Victor Cha, a Bush administration official who worked on North Korea issues, wrote in an essay in the Financial Times that the new leader is so unknown and unestablished that engaging with him right away "is not advisable."

Other experts and former negotiators argue that, barring signs of a radical shift in policy from the North Koreans, the Americans' best option for the moment would be to patiently hold course.

"The North Koreans are on a certain trajectory which is not so bad compared to where they were a year and a half ago," said Joel Wit, another former diplomat and one of the founders of the Korean Peninsular Energy Development Organization. "I would argue that we need to continue on this trajectory and wait to see what the North Koreans say, and we need to see if there's continuity in their policy. The pause button is fine, we should wait for the North Koreans to see what they should do. But for us to back away is a mistake."

"We're in a new world," Revere said. "The era of Kim Jong Il is over and a new era is about to begin, the shape of which is not very clear."

"One of the things that to keep in mind is that while the death may have been sudden, it was not unexpected," Revere added. "The North Koreans have been preparing for this day for years, if not months. So I think the first thing everybody needs to do is take a deep breath and realize, yeah, we are in a kind of new era because we've got a new person in charge, but we are in a place they've been preparing to be in for quite a bit of time."

Leon Sigal, the director of the Northeast Asia Cooperative Security Project and an expert on North Korean diplomacy, said that in 1994, when Kim Jong Il's father passed away, the Clinton administration was similarly in an advanced stage of negotiations with the regime, something it managed to continue for some time with the new leadership. That situation seems to have replicated itself today.

"Kim Jong Il did this, he put himself on the line to say that he was ready to suspend enrichment," Sigal said. "The question is, can Kim Jong Un put himself in those footsteps? Nobody knows what this guy is going to be for."

Several analysts said Monday that the course for future negotiations -- and the intentions of Kim Jong Un -- should be revealed as soon as the coming days. If it takes longer than that for negotiations to restart, it could be a sign of trouble.

"If we get into next year, given the discussions that have already taken place on this, one might begin to think that the period of likely opportunity was beginning to pass," said Scott Snyder, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, during a briefing for reporters Monday.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/19/kim-jong-il-death-negotiations_n_1159192.html

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House GOP leaders want new payroll tax cut bill

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Top House Republicans rebelled Sunday against a bipartisan, Senate-approved bill extending payroll tax cuts and jobless benefits for two months, reigniting a politically fueled holiday-season clash that had seemed all but doused.

?????The House GOP defiance cast uncertainty over how quickly Congress would forestall a tax increase otherwise heading straight at 160 million workers beginning New Year's Day. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said it could be finished within two weeks, which suggested that lawmakers might have to spend much of their usual holiday break battling each other in the Capitol.

?????A day after rank-and-file House GOP lawmakers used a conference call to spew venom against the Senate-passed bill, Boehner said he opposed the legislation and wanted congressional bargainers to craft a new, year-long version.

?????"The president said we shouldn't be going anywhere without getting our work done," Boehner said on NBC's "Meet the Press," referring to President Barack Obama's oft-repeated promise to postpone his Christmastime trip to Hawaii if the legislation was not finished. "Let's get our work done, let's do this for a year."

?????A spokeswoman for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said the House would vote Monday to either request formal bargaining with the Senate or to make the legislation "responsible and in line with the needs of hard-working taxpayers and middle-class families."

?????Cantor spokeswoman Laena Fallon did not specify what those changes might be, beyond a longer-lasting bill. Boehner, though, expressed support for "reasonable reductions in spending" in a House-approved payroll tax bill and for provisions that blocked some Obama administration anti-pollution rules.

?????Democrats leaped at what they saw as a chance to champion lower- and middle-income Americans by accusing Republicans of threatening a wide tax increase unless their demands are met. If Congress doesn't act, workers would see their take-home checks cut by 2 percentage points beginning Jan. 1, when this year's 4.2 percent payroll tax reverts to its normal 6.2 percent.

"They should pass the two month extension now to avoid a devastating tax hike from hitting the middle class in just 13 days," said Dan Pfeiffer, the White House communications director. "It's time House Republicans stop playing politics and get the job done for the American people.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said by opposing the Senate bill, "Tea party House Republicans are walking away once again, showing their extremism and clearly demonstrating that they never intended to give the middle class a tax cut," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

?????Adam Jentleson, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, said the Nevada Democrat would be "happy to continue negotiating a yearlong extension as soon as the House passes the Senate's short-term, bipartisan compromise to make sure middle-class families will not be hit by a thousand-dollar tax hike on January 1."

?????Keeping this year's 2 percentage point payroll tax cut in effect through 2012 would produce $1,000 in savings for a family earning $50,000 a year. The two-month version would be worth about $170 for the same household.

?????On Saturday, the Senate voted 89-10 for its legislation, which was negotiated by Senate Republican and Democratic leaders and backed by solid majorities of senators from both parties. It would provide a two-month extension of the payroll tax cuts and jobless benefits and prevent scheduled 27 percent cuts to doctors' Medicare reimbursements during that period, reductions that could convince physicians to stop treating elderly patients covered by the program.

?????That measure was praised by Obama, and even Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., expressed optimism that the measure would become law. Initial bills produced by both sides lasted for a year, but negotiators working on the final product could not agree to savings that would finance such a measure, likely to cost roughly $200 billion.

?????Reid and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., the No. 3 Senate leader, said Boehner had asked McConnell and Reid to negotiate a compromise, seemingly suggesting that Boehner had walked away from a deal. Republicans said that is untrue and said the House GOP played no role in last week's bargaining between the Senate leaders.

Boehner won support Sunday from McConnell. His spokesman, Donald Stewart, said the best way to craft a new bill "and provide certainty for job creators, employees and the long-term unemployed is through regular order" ? a term used to describe the normal process of negotiations between the House and Senate.

?????The Senate bill included language cherished by Republicans giving Obama 60 days to approve an oil pipeline stretching from western Canada's tar sands to Texas Gulf Coast refineries, unless he declared the project hurt the national interest. GOP leaders had thought that provision would assure enough votes to pass the overall legislation.

?????Obama had previously said he was delaying a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline until 2013, allowing him to wait until after next November's elections to choose between unions favoring the project's thousands of jobs and environmentalists opposed to its potential pollution and massive energy use. Obama initially threatened to kill the payroll tax bill if it included the pipeline language but eventually retreated.

?????Despite the Keystone provision, House Republicans used a Saturday conference call to express anger about the Senate bill and frustration that their leaders seemed willing to agree to the compromise, participants said. Many demanded a return to some of the House bill's spending cuts, including reductions in Obama's health care overhaul law of last year, and several expressed a willingness to work through the holidays to revamp the legislation, Republicans said.

?????Though GOP leaders support extending the payroll tax and jobless benefits, some House Republicans question doing that, arguing it won't produce jobs and could weaken Social Security. The payroll tax, subtracted from workers' paychecks, is used to finance Social Security.

The Senate adjourned Saturday and is not scheduled to conduct legislative work until late January. That could potentially complicate quick work on a revised payroll tax bill because all 100 senators would have to agree to let the Senate hold any votes before then.

?????

The Evening Sun

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2011-12-18-US-Congress-Rdp/id-e127756853ba4321b5b969d08982f367

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MMA posters from Japan: Fedor fight card competes with UFC Japan

MMA posters from Japan: Fedor fight card competes with UFC Japan

MMA posters from Japan: Fedor fight card competes with UFC Japan

In 2011, is proper anymore to ask which card you're more excited to see?

Is it only hardcore UFC haters who'll say DREAM's 2011 card is better than UFC 144?

Above are the competing posters. Below is DREAM's attempt at getting people fired up for its card headlined by the Fedor Emelianenko fight against Satoshi Ishii.

Personally, I'm stoked to see the fight. What does Fedor have left and is Ishii ready to compete against the top level of MMA just six fights into his MMA career?

Tip via Bloody Elbow

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/MMA-posters-from-Japan-Fedor-fight-card-compete?urn=mma-wp10820

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Murrieta firefighters donate nearly $9K to cancer support network

Murrieta firefighter paramedic Landon Hill said it has been difficult watching fellow firefighter paramedic Dean Hale fight his stage four non-small cell lung cancer this year.

Murrieta3 Murrieta firefighters donate nearly $9K to cancer support network

The Murrieta Fire Department's Ironman Triathlon team, as well as Dean Hale and City Council members Rick Gibbs and Randon Lane. (Courtesy photo, Erica Corelli)

?It?s been rough,? Hill said. ?He?s such a fighter.?

A month after Hale was diagnosed on March 28, Landon and 12 other Murrieta firefighters formed a triathlon team ? in support of Hale?s cancer fight ? to compete in the March 31 California Ironman 70.3 competition in Oceanside.

Since then, the group has been able to raise nearly $9,000 for the Firefighter Cancer Support Network, which also has supported Hale through his cancer battle.

?We wanted to give back to (the cancer support network), especially after hearing all that they did (for Hale),? Hill said. ?This is our fire family. We?re very close.?

The triathlon firefighters presented a check for $8,623.07 ? raised with corporate sponsorships, a car wash, community donations via the ?Fill the Boot? campaign and personal donations, Murrieta Fire Department Fire Chief Matt Shobert said.

Dan Crow, the California coordinator for the network, accepted the check Saturday. City Council members Rick Gibbs and Randon Lane were on hand for the presentation.

?And this is why our community is always so proud of our department,? Lane said.

Hale said he has been blessed in his successful fight against his aggressive cancer. Thanks to a new pill called Crizotanib that he takes twice a day, Hale will be able to live out the rest of his life even with cancer cells present in his body.

He said his family, his fire family and the Firefighter Cancer Support Network have been pivotal in his fight against the disease.

?We talk about a fire family,? Hale said ?There is no comparison to what the family has done for me.?

Hale said the support network delivered a cancer-fighting informational kit and received two separate phone calls from firefighters around the country who were fighting the same type of cancer.

He said the network helped him through the ?what-do-you-do-now stage.?

?It?s been amazing what they?ve done,? he said.

The California Ironman competition includes a back-to-back 1.2-mile ocean swim, a 56-mile bike ride through Camp Pendleton and a 13.1-mile run by the pier.

Over 25 percent of the Murrieta Fire Department suppression personnel registered to compete.

Members of the Ironman Team MFD 2012 include Richard Curran, Forest Hansen, David Perez, Shad Chanley, Dan Grassmeier, Andy Schmader, Sean DeGrave, Ryan Roufs, Jeff Asbury, Landon Hill, Travis Anderson, Jake Wright and Matt Shobert.

Email Rachael.recker@swrnn.com or follow her on Twitter

Source: http://www.swrnn.com/2011/12/17/murrieta-firefighters-donate-nearly-9k-to-cancer-support-network/

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A touch of mob-business, anyone?

This idea just came to me. It's nothing particularly new, but eh, whatever. It involves a character of mine that I dearly love and have been meaning to bring back into play.

My character, Tristan, had something of a strange upbringing. Not bad, in his eyes, just...different than American culture. As he got older, his luck turned a bit and he found himself wanting to get away from his home nation, Reidan (an extremely small country that few people but those who are particularly interested in geography have really heard of) and decided to try his luck in the states. He had nothing, so he quickly found himself desperate. The man was picked up by some sort of crime group (mob, cartel, whatever) and they learned he had some military background. They discovered he was a good shot and hired him on as an assassin. Tristan started to get used to his new job, began to shield himself from others and never get attached to anyone, but soon he found he couldn't take the pressures and strains of his job. He hated it. But the mob won't let him go--why let such a smooth operator slip away? Tristan believes he's forever caught in their web until he meets someone (of a non specific gender--doesn't matter, nor does it matter who they are (perhaps they're a citizen, or maybe they're involved too?)) and, almost on accident, befriends them. He starts to trust them and finally reveals what he does for a living. The friend recognizes Tristan's desire to get out and encourages him to break free. The mob won't have it.

You must be an advanced writer for this roleplay. Straight up. Know your grammar, own your character and make it real. Give them some depth and contribute to the plot. And give me some substance in your writing. One paragraph just doesn't cut it.

I don't care what gender you play. I'm thinking this will be either a 1x1 or a three way thread (only if someone feels like they want to play the mob boss or something, otherwise let's keep it to just a 1x1).

Post often please, but I don't expect a post every day. I know I'm busy with school come January and can't always post every day. Once or twice a week is perfectly acceptable.

I'm open to any ideas and suggestions as well. Let me know if you're interested.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/ALhurGAC_GM/viewtopic.php

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Video: Defining the GOP?s path to victory

Get connected at America's techiest airports

If you?ve ever found yourself at the airport hunting for an available outlet or waiting on glacial-paced Wi-Fi, help is at hand. On Thursday, PCWorld magazine released its first-ever report on the Top Airports for Tech Travelers.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/45689727#45689727

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Japan to declare nuclear plant in stable condition

FILE - In this Nov. 12, 2011 file photo, workers in protective suits and masks wait to enter the emergency operation center at the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station in Okuma, Japan, when the media were allowed to enter the tsunami-damaged plant for the first time since the March 11 disaster. Japan is poised to declare its crippled nuclear plant virtually stable nine months after a devastating tsunami, but the facility still leaks some radiation, remains vulnerable to earthquakes and shows no prospect for cleanup for decades. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder, Pool, File)

FILE - In this Nov. 12, 2011 file photo, workers in protective suits and masks wait to enter the emergency operation center at the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station in Okuma, Japan, when the media were allowed to enter the tsunami-damaged plant for the first time since the March 11 disaster. Japan is poised to declare its crippled nuclear plant virtually stable nine months after a devastating tsunami, but the facility still leaks some radiation, remains vulnerable to earthquakes and shows no prospect for cleanup for decades. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder, Pool, File)

The Unit 4 reactor building of the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station is seen through a bus window in Okuma, Japan, when the media were allowed into Japan's tsunami-damaged nuclear power plant for the first time since the March 11 disaster. Japan is poised to declare its crippled nuclear plant virtually stable nine months after a devastating tsunami, but the facility still leaks some radiation, remains vulnerable to earthquakes and shows no prospect for cleanup for decades. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder, Pool, File)

FILE - In this Nov. 12, 2011 file photo, the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station is seen through a bus window in Okuma, Japan, as the media were allowed into Japan's tsunami-damaged nuclear power plant for the first time since the March 11 disaster. Japan is poised to declare its crippled nuclear plant virtually stable nine months after a devastating tsunami, but the facility still leaks some radiation, remains vulnerable to earthquakes and shows no prospect for cleanup for decades. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder, Pool, File)

FILE - In this Nov. 12, 2011 file photo, the Unit 4 reactor building of the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station is seen through a bus window in Okuma, Japan Saturday, Nov. 12, 2011 when the media were allowed into Japan's tsunami-damaged nuclear power plant for the first time since the March 11 disaster. Japan is poised to declare its crippled nuclear plant virtually stable nine months after a devastating tsunami, but the facility still leaks some radiation, remains vulnerable to earthquakes and shows no prospect for cleanup for decades. Japan is poised to declare its crippled nuclear plant virtually stable nine months after a devastating tsunami, but the facility still leaks some radiation, remains vulnerable to earthquakes and shows no prospect for cleanup for decades. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder, Pool, File)

In this Dec. 4, 2011 file photo released by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), radioactive water is seen leaked from a building with a purification device placed inside at the tsunami-damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okuma town, Fukushima prefecture, north of Tokyo. The nuclear power plant leaked about 45 tons of highly radioactive water from the purification device over the weekend, its operator said, and some may have drained into the ocean. (AP Photo/Tokyo Electric Power Co., File) EDITORIAL USE ONLY

TOKYO (AP) ? Japan is poised to declare its crippled nuclear plant virtually stable nine months after a devastating tsunami, but the facility still leaks some radiation, remains vulnerable to earthquakes and shows no prospect for cleanup for decades.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said last week that temperatures inside the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant's three melted reactor cores are almost consistently below the boiling point and radiation leaks have significantly subsided ? two key conditions in a hoped-for "cold shutdown."

Officials say the government is expected to hold a news conference Friday to declare something close to cold shutdown, though experts caution it will be, at best, a tenuous stability. The declaration would mark a step forward for the much-maligned operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., which has struggled to control the plant after it was damaged in a huge earthquake and tsunami March 11, unleashing the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.

"Up until now, this has been the biggest goal," TEPCO spokesman Masao Yamaguchi said. "It would be a milestone."

The announcement is expected to refer to cold shutdown "conditions"? less definitive phrasing than a cold shutdown. That's partly because the operator cannot measure temperatures of melted fuel in the damaged reactors in the same way as with normally functioning ones, although the company believes they have reached a stable state.

In any case, experts caution that the progress so far at Fukushima should not be overstated, and that problems could still crop up.

"TEPCO and the government are anxious to bring a certain closure to the crisis," said Kazuhiko Kudo, a nuclear physicist at Kyushu University. "It would be a problem if the announcement gives an impression that the plant has received an official safety certificate."

The announcement would mark the end of the second phase of the government's lengthy roadmap to completely decommission the plant ? a process that could take about 30 years, authorities have said.

In the next phase, officials may start discussing whether to allow some evacuated residents who lived in areas with lesser damage from the plant to return home ? but that could still be months or years away. Many of more than 100,000 residents evacuated from around the plant remain in limbo, living with relatives or in temporary housing. And a 20-kilometer (12-mile) zone around the plant is expected to remain off limits for some time.

Food safety concerns also persist.

The Fukushima plant disaster, which spewed an estimated one-fifth the amount of radiation as the 1986 accident at Chernobyl, has caused contamination of rice, vegetables and beef from around the region. Recently, even trace amounts of cesium were found in baby formula.

The complex still faces numerous concerns, including the vulnerability of the spent fuel pools, which sit on the top floor of the damaged reactor buildings, and the vast amount of contaminated water that has collected in the reactor basements and nearby storage areas. Another severe earthquake could damage the spent fuel pools, which might cause the water to leak and allow the fuel to overheat.

Unit 4's spent fuel pool, which contains the largest number of fuel rods, is the biggest concern because of structural damage to the building beneath it, although TEPCO says it has reinforced the structure. Removal and storage of those fuel rods from pools at four of the reactor units is also part of the next step toward eventual decommissioning.

Another continuing concern is containing radiation leaks.

To cool the reactors, TEPCO has been injecting water into the reactors, which is then leaking out through cracks. The radioactive water has been collected and stored in huge rooms converted into storage tanks before being decontaminated and put back into the reactors as coolant. Officials say the overall volume of contaminated water keeps growing, forcing the operator to keep searching for additional storage space.

Other recent leaks have raised questions about whether the plant really is fully under control. Last week, the utility said that about 45 tons of highly radioactive water had leaked from the plant's water processing system, some possibly leaking into the ocean.

Officials have said those are isolated incidents that are being taken care of and do not affect the overall plant status.

Normally, a nuclear reactor is considered to be in cold shutdown when its coolant system is at atmospheric pressure and the reactor cores are at a temperature below 100 Celsius (212 Fahrenheit) so that it would be impossible for a chain reaction to take place.

But meeting that strict definition is impossible at Fukushima Dai-ichi because the damaged reactors' fuel has melted and its exact whereabouts is unknown. Authorities suspect most of the fuel has fallen to the bottom of the innermost steel pressure vessels, and some most likely dribbled through to the beaker-shaped containment vessel. That makes it virtually impossible to know the exact temperature of the fuel.

Temperature gauges inside the Fukushima reactors show that the temperature at the bottom of the pressure vessel is around 70 C (158 F). TEPCO officials and nuclear experts say that indicates the reactor is in a cold, stable state. But because of the educated guesswork involved, Japanese authorities are using the phrase "cold shutdown conditions," rather than "cold shutdown."

The government has also stressed that the amount of radiation now being released around the plant precincts is at or below 1 millisievert per year ? equivalent to an annual legal exposure limit for ordinary citizens before the crisis began. It also says the reactor cooling and water recycling apparatus is working and sustainable.

How to remove and dispose of the melted fuel is also an issue.

Recent TEPCO simulations showed that fuel in the worst-hit reactor No. 1 has mostly melted, breached the bottom of the core, dropping to an outer compartment and eating away into its concrete foundation and reaching within a foot of the crucial steel bottom of the primary containment chamber.

"It would make sense to let the people in and outside the country know that the work is steadily continuing," said Satoru Tanaka, a nuclear physicist at the University of Tokyo. "But achieving the (cold shutdown) status does not mean the problem is over. There are so many things that still need to be taken care of and clarified."

The Nuclear Safety Commission, which is comprised of government-appointed nuclear experts, on Monday approved TEPCO's operation and safety plans covering the next phase.

But safety commission chairman Haruki Madarame urged TEPCO and the Nuclear Industrial and Safety Agency to regularly review and evaluate the plans because "the reactors are broken and we hardly know what it really is like inside the reactors and it's difficult to predict what may occur."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-12-14-AS-Japan-Nuclear-Crisis/id-b3ce27a2396b488498becf75f9158458

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