Michele Kearney's Nuclear Wire

Major Energy and Environmental News and Commentary affecting the Nuclear Industry.

Monday, March 28, 2011

Radiation in reactor puddle was 1,000 millisieverts

Radiation in reactor puddle was 1,000 millisieverts

Highly radioactive water found in a turbine building at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant probably leaked from a reactor containment vessel where it had been in contact with melted nuclear fuel, the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan said Monday.
The commission said the water, which on Saturday recorded more than 1,000 millisieverts per hour of radiation near its surface, most likely flowed into the turbine building from the containment vessel.
The measurement, the highest level so far recorded in leaked material at the facility, was taken near the surface of a puddle in the basement of the No. 2 reactor's turbine building, according to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency and Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO). TEPCO said Monday afternoon that water in a trench outside the building also registered more than 1,000 millisieverts of radiation per hour. Just 15 minutes exposure would reach the limit of 250 millisieverts for workers at the stricken plant.
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