Akhir 25, 1432 H/March 30, 2011, SPA-- Areva Chief Executive Anne Lauvergeon arrived in Japan on Wednesday, broadening out a French delegation that has flown out to help Tokyo Electric Power bring its crippled Fukushima nuclear plant under control, Reuters reported. The head of the French nuclear reactor maker -- one of France's most powerful female executives -- travelled to Tokyo with three French experts in radioactive water contamination. Two other Areva experts flew to Japan on Tuesday, after a request for help from Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), an Areva spokeswoman said. Separately, President Nicolas Sarkozy will make a flying visit to Tokyo on Thursday, the first foreign leader to arrive since a March 11 earthquake and tsunami killed more than 28,000 people and set off the world's worst atomic crisis in years. "At the moment the problem which worries TEPCO is water, so we are trying to see -- because they are specialists in the treatment of radioactive waste -- what they could advocate," she said. "They are looking at what aid we could bring them." While Sarkozy will offer France's support to the Japanese people, Lauvergeon's experience makes her well-placed to help with technical aspects of the crisis. "She knows Japan well, she knows the industry well, it is a way to answer the Japanese request for expertise," the Areva spokeswoman said. Hundreds of engineers have been toiling for nearly three weeks to cool the plant's reactors and avert a meltdown of fuel rods. While that scenario has receded, highly tainted water has been found in some reactors and in concrete tunnels outside. Readings have also showed radioactive iodine in the sea off the plant at record levels and radiation has been in tap water in Tokyo and in tiny traces abroad. The French experts will be based in the Tokyo area, where TEPCPO has offices, and not at the nuclear site itself. Their participation could help improve communication on the nuclear disaster, which has meant weeks of agony for Japan on top of the human losses from the tremor and tsunami. -- SPA
