» Radiation in Water at Fukushima Daiichi Reactor 2: Ten Million Times Normal

Kyodo:

Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said early Monday the concentration of radioactive substances of the puddle was 100,000 times higher than that usually measured in water in a reactor core, correcting its earlier analysis of 10 million times higher.

—End Update—

Update: And Now…“The number is not credible”

Wow. Who would believe anything that these goons say at this point?

Via:AP:

Emergency workers struggling to pump contaminated water from Japan’s stricken nuclear complex fled from one of the troubled reactors Sunday after reporting a huge increase in radioactivity— a spike that officials later apologetically said was inaccurate.

The apology came after employees fled the complex’s Unit 2 reactor when a reading showed radiation levels had reached 10 million times higher than normal in the reactor’s cooling system. Officials said they were so high that the worker taking the measurements had withdrawn before taking a second reading.

On Sunday night, though, plant operators said that while the water was contaminated with radiation, the extremely high reading was a mistake.

“The number is not credible,” said Tokyo Electric Power Co. spokesman Takashi Kurita.“We are very sorry.”

He said officials were taking another sample to get accurate levels, but did not know when the results would be announced.

—End Update—

Via:Los Angeles Times / AP:

The radioactivity in water in one unit of a hobbled nuclear power plant in northeastern Japan has tested 10 million times higher than normal, the plant’s operator said Sunday.

Leaked water in Unit 2 of the Fukushima Daiichi plant measured 10 million times higher than usual radioactivity levels when the reactor is operating normally, Tokyo Electric Power Co. spokesman Takashi Kurita told reporters in Tokyo.

Radioactivity in the air in Unit 2 measured at 1,000 millisieverts per hour— four times higher than the occupational limit of 250 millisieverts set by the government, he said.

The readings came as workers grappled with how to remove and store the highly radioactive water pooling in four troubled units at the plant.

The discovery of puddles with radiation levels 10,000 times the norm sparked a temporary evacuation of the plant on Thursday. Two workers who stepped into the water were hospitalized with possible burns.

The development set back feverish efforts to start up a crucial cooling system knocked out in a massive March 11 earthquake and tsunami, but has helped experts get closer to determining the source of the dangerous leak.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, speaking Sunday on TV talk shows, said the radioactive water is“almost certainly” seeping from a reactor core.

On Saturday, the utility admitted that it had failed to adequately warn workers about dangerous radioactive water at the plant.

More:CNN:

Radiation levels in pooled water tested in the No. 2 nuclear reactor’s turbine building at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant are 10 million times above normal, utility company and government officials said Sunday.

Hidehiko Nishiyama, an official with Japan’s nuclear and industrial safety agency, said the surface water showed 1,000 millisieverts of radiation. By comparison, an individual in a developed country is naturally exposed to 3 millisieverts per year, though Japan’s health ministry has set a 250 millisievert per year cumulative limit before workers must leave the plant.

The 10-million-times normal reading applies to radioactive iodine-134 found in the No. 2 building’s pooled water, according to the nuclear safety agency. This isotope loses half its radioactive atoms every 53 minutes, compared to a half-life of every eight days for radioactive iodine-131 that has also been detected in recent days.

This exponentially dwindling amount of radiation means, according to Nishiyama, that it’s unlikely that sealife— and, several steps down the line, humans who might eat once contaminated seafood— will suffer greatly from the iodine-134 exposure.

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