Posted by Alexander Higgins - April 28, 2011 at 6:44 am - Permalink - Source via Alexander Higgins Blog
Radiation levels detected at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan rise to the highest levels yet hitting 1.2 sieverts per hour as TEPCO announced that it may not be able to follow through with the 9 month plan to stop the radiation leaking from the Fukushima nuclear reactor in Japan. A nuclear engineering professor from Kyoto adds that depending on the source of the high levels the plan to entomb the reactor to permanently end the radiation leak may not work at all. That statement echoes similar sentiments from nuclear expert Arnie Gunderson.
For conversion purposes, 1.2 seiverts per hour = 1,120 millsieverts pert hour = 1,120,000 microsieverts per hour.
More simply 1 sievert= 1000 millisievert = 1,000,000 microseiverts
Bloomberg reports in an article originally titled “Tokyo Water Radiation Falls To Zero For Firs Time Since-Crisis”.
Radiation Readings in Fukushima Reactor Rise to Highest Since Crisis Began
By Tsuyoshi Inajima and Michio Nakayama – Apr 27, 2011 5:14 AM ET
Radiation readings at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi station rose to the highest since an earthquake and tsunami knocked out cooling systems, impeding efforts to contain the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.
Two robots sent into the reactor No. 1 building at the plant yesterday took readings as high as 1,120 millisierverts of radiation per hour, Junichi Matsumoto, a general manager at Tokyo Electric Power Co., said today. That’s more than four times the annual dose permitted to nuclear workers at the stricken plant.
[...] A plan to flood the containment vessel of reactor No. 1 with more water to speed up emergency cooling efforts announced yesterday by the utility known as Tepco may not be possible now.
“Tepco must figure out the source of high radiation,” said Hironobu Unesaki, a nuclear engineering professor at Kyoto University. “If it’s from contaminated water leaking from inside the reactor, Tepco’s so-called water tomb may be jeopardized because flooding the containment vessel will result in more radiation in the building.”
[...]Tepco started moving the radioactive water, which leaked to the basements and trenches, to a waste storage facility on April 19. Tepco transferred 1.89 million liters of the water from the trenches near reactor No. 2 as of 7 a.m. today, Iwamoto said. The utility plans to install a second pump after transferring 2.5 million liters.
Less Damage
Tepco shares fell 3.3 percent to 412 yen today in Tokyo. The shares are down about 80 percent since the quake and tsunami struck on March 11, leaving almost 26,000 people dead or missing.
[...]Radiation in Tokyo’s water supply fell to undetectable levels for the first time since March 18, the capital’s public health institute said today.
The level of iodine-131 in tap water fell to zero yesterday, and cesium-134 and cesium-137 also weren’t detected, the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Public Health said today.
[...]
Source: Bloomberg
Source: Bloomberg
It is almost ironic that the original headline, which can still be seen in the link to the source article, was the radiation levels in Tokyo water fell to zero according to statements from the Government of Japan, while the fact is merely a footnote in the article itself. The real story is the spike in radiation to the highest levels yet from the nuclear power plant and that the spike indicates TEPCO may need to come up with a new plan to finally entomb the reactor, a plan which may or may not work depending on the source of the radiation leak.
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