Woes deepen over radioactive waters at nuke plant, sea contamination
TOKYO, March 27, Kyodo
Highly radioactive pools of water found inside buildings near some troubled nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant highlighted the deepening seriousness of the nuclear crisis in Japan on Sunday, with the radiation level of the surface of the water in the basement of the No. 2 reactor's turbine building found to be over 1,000 millisieverts per hour.
Hidehiko Nishiyama, spokesman for the government's nuclear safety agency, said, ''This is quite a high figure...and it is likely to be coming from the reactor.''
Adding to woes is the increasing level of contamination in the sea near the plant. Radioactive iodine-131 at a concentration 1,850 times the legal limit was detected from water extracted Saturday, compared with the 1,250.8 times the limit found Friday, the agency said.
The pools of water containing radioactive substances have drawn attention after three workers who were engaging in work to restore the No. 3 reactor at its turbine building on Friday were exposed to radiation amounting to 173 to 180 millisieverts. Two of them had their feet in water without noticing then that it was highly contaminated.
According to the latest data released Sunday, from the water at the No. 2 reactor's turbine building, radioactive iodine-134, a substance which sees its radiation release reduced to about half in some 53 minutes, existed in an extremely high concentration of 2.9 billion becquerels per 1 cubic centimeter.
An agency official said the water may have come through pipes that connect the reactor vessel and turbines, where steam from the reactor would usually be directed to for electricity generation.
The pool of water at the No. 4 reactor's turbine building also contained radioactive substances, but the level was not as high as the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 buildings, the data showed.
Plant operator Tokyo Electric Co. is continuing efforts to restore power and enhance cooling efficiency at the crisis-hit nuclear power plant, but the highly radioactive pool of waters are slowing the progress of the restoration work.
Workers there are planning to turn on the lights in the control room for the No. 4 reactor.
They are also trying to inject fresh water into tanks storing spent nuclear fuels at the plant's No. 1, 2, 3 and 4 reactors to prevent crystallized salt from seawater already injected from hampering the smooth circulation of water and thus diminishing the cooling effect.
The company will also try to inject fresh water into the No. 1, 2 and 3 reactors using electrical pumps instead of fire pumps currently used.
Electrical pumps enable workers to spend less time and energy operating the machines at the site, thus reducing the risk of exposure to radioactivity. The fire pumps require workers to supply fuel at the site of operation.
Following the March 11 massive quake and tsunami, cooling functions failed at the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 reactors, and their reactor cores partially melted at the plant on the Pacific coast, prompting seawater to be pumped in to prevent the fuel from being exposed.
The cooling functions of the pools storing spent nuclear fuel at the three units as well as at the No. 4 unit were also lost. The No. 4 reactor, halted for maintenance before the quake, has had all of its fuel rods stored in the pool for the maintenance work.
==Kyodo
Where are all those "paper theorists" who were talking around two weeks ago that an overall situation in Fukushima Daiichi is rather comparable to 3 Mile Island incident than to Chernobyl disaster?
