Radiation Levels Spike at Fukushima

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Radiation Levels Spike at Fukushima

Tanks of radiation-contaminated water are seen at the Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO)'s tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima prefecture, (File photo).

VOA News

September 01, 2013

Japanese nuclear officials say the radiation level of a tank holding highly contaminated water at Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant has jumped in just one week to a potentially dangerous level.
Tokyo Electric Power Company, or Tepco, said the reading of 1,800 millisieverts at the tank Saturday is enough to kill an exposed person in four hours. On August 22, the same tank measured 100 millisieverts per hour - just a fraction of Saturday's reading.
Tepco also revealed that a pipe connecting two other tanks is leaking. However, the energy company said the water levels of the tanks had not changed. The French news agency says the leak has been patched with plastic tape.
Last month, a tank was found to have leaked 300 tons of highly toxic water.

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Japan Raises Safety Alert Level of Fukushima Nuclear Leak

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Fukushima radiation levels 18 times higher than previously thought

TOKYO, JAPAN (BNO NEWS) -- Radiation levels at Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant are 18 times higher than previously thought, the plant's operator said on Sunday, blaming previous readings on inadequate equipment that was not capable of detecting high radiation levels.
The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) said it detected radiation of 1,800 millisieverts per hour near the bottom of a storage tank at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power, where authorities declared a serious incident last month after highly contaminated water was found leaking from a tank.
"We deeply apologize for the great anxiety and inconvenience caused by the recent contaminated water issues at the Fukushima Daiichi NPS, which affects the residents near the power station and the broader society," a Tepco spokesperson said, emphasizing that not the whole area is engulfed in high levels of radiation.
The company reported radiation of 100 millisieverts per hour on August 22, but experts are now known to have used inadequate equipment that was not capable of detecting higher radiation levels. The new instruments that were used on Saturday were capable of detecting radiation up to 10,000 millisieverts.
Tepco rejected media reports that claimed the higher levels of radiation could kill a person after four hours of exposure. "We believe that simply comparing the 1,800 mSv with those standard levels is not proper, since the standard levels are accumulation of effective dose (not equivalent dose) that express effects for the whole body," the spokesperson said.

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