TEPCO estimates 520-ton radioactive water into sea

[Viva_La_Revolution]

Source: NHK

Tokyo Electric Power Company says radioactive substances that leaked into the sea at the damaged Fukushima plant over six days from April 1st are estimated at 4,700 terabecquerels. This is 20,000 times more than the annual allowable limit at the complex.

At a news conference on Thursday, Tokyo Electric said it calculated the total amount of leaked water assuming that the leak began on April 1st. The leak of contaminated water from a pit of the Number 2 reactor was found on April 2nd and was stopped four days later using liquid glass.

The utility firm said that 520 tons of the high-level radioactive water is likely to have leaked into the sea during the period.

The estimated level of radiation in the water is roughly one 100th of what the government announced on Tuesday of last week as the total amount of radiation released into the air from the Daiichi complex. The figure is about 10,000 times more than that released in the Three Mile Island accident in 1979.

Read more: http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/21_35.html

[robdogbucky]

1. Agency admits 'melting' of N-fuel

The Yomiuri Shimbun

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency has reported to a Cabinet Office safety panel that nuclear fuel pellets in the Nos. 1 to 3 reactors at the quake-hit Fukushima power station are believed to have partially melted.

The report was the first time the agency, an organ of the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry, has acknowledged that nuclear fuel has melted at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant...

...The agency said it now believes the fuel pallets have melted because of the high levels of radiation detected at the Nos. 2 and 3 reactors. Melting fuel pellets also likely led to a hydrogen explosion at the No. 1 reactor, Nishiyama said. Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the crippled plant, has said the cores of the Nos. 1 to 3 reactors have been damaged by 25 percent to 70 percent. But the agency emphasized that these figures are only estimates.

"We can't say for sure about how much has melted until the rods are actually taken out," Nishiyama said.

(Apr. 20, 2011)

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110419004267.htm

[bongbong]

2. Hilarious

Wouldn't it be funny if all that radiation created a reptilian monster that stomped through Tokyo?

:sarcasm: