Radiation in No. 1 reactor building at highest level yet

[robdogbucky]

Check out the picture from yesterday that accompanies this article:


Sunday, June 5, 2011

Lethal four-sievert reading taken by robot; suppression chamber suspect
Radiation in No. 1 reactor building at highest level yet

Kyodo, AP


Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Saturday it has detected radiation of up to 4,000 millisieverts per hour in the building housing the No. 1 reactor at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant. Where there's smoke: A video image from the Fukushima No. 1 power plant shows steam rising from an opening in the floor of the No. 1 reactor building Friday.

The radiation reading, which was taken when Tepco sent a robot into the No. 1 reactor building on Friday, is believed to be the highest detected in the air at the plant so far.

On Friday, Tepco found steam spewing from the basement into the building's first floor. Nationally televised news Saturday showed blurry video of a steady stream of smoky gas curling up from an opening where a pipe rises through the floor.

The radiation is so high now that any worker exposed to it would absorb the maximum permissible dose of 250 millisieverts in only about four minutes. Tepco said there is no plan to place workers in that area of the plant and said it will carefully monitor any developments...

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110605a3.html




Ombudsman slams secrecy over Fukushima contamination

Published 31 May 2011 - Updated 03 June 2011

Following complaints from citizens, the European Ombudsman has opened an investigation into the EU's permitted levels of food contamination following the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan and their communication to the wider public. Similar complaints are also being heard in France. "Based on complaints submitted to me, it appears that a number of Union citizens perceive a lack of precise and reliable information as regards the changes made to the maximum permitted levels in the aftermath of the Fukushima accident," wrote EU Ombudsman P. Nikiforos Diamandouros in a letter addressed to European Commission President José Manuel Barroso on 19 May...

...The Ombudsman's request for more transparency in communicating data to the public was not isolated. Last week (25 May), a French NGO specialised in measuring radioactivity, CRIIRAD, asked the French government to investigate what it described as "serious failures" in measuring the impact of the Fukushima nuclear accident in France and communicating the results to the public.

According to the NGO, the radioactive cloud from the stricken reactors at Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant reached France two days earlier than officially announced. In addition, the levels of radioactive iodine-131 were 20 times higher on 22 March than announced on 24 March, according to the NGO's findings...

...More than two months after the nuclear accident, Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) admitted last week that three out of six reactors at the nuclear plant suffered meltdowns within days of the 11 March earthquake and tsunami, raising worrying questions about why the scale of the disaster was not disclosed sooner...

http://www.euractiv.com/en/consumers/ombudsman-slams-secrecy-fukushima-contamination-news-505245?utm_source=EurActiv+Newsletter&utm_campaign=a34d741340-my_google_analytics_key&utm_medium=email

[SpoonFed]

1. Wow, only took 3 months...

for TEPCO to admit to levels that almost anyone with any common sense would assume would be present around critically damaged nuclear reactors.

I'm sure the happy bunny nuclear talking crowd will suggest that this is a new development and new readings and not just them finally admitting what we've all guessed has been the case for months. Feel free to try that tact, but the rest of us know it's BS.

The 250mSv in 4 minutes is clearly them referencing the new raised limit of 250mSv for workers, up from 100mSv (or like 20mSv for Germany).
Cool, you'd get Germany's yearly dose limit in 18 seconds. Good thing nobody is actually around these things.
Bad thing is that no work on stabilizing the situation seems to be going on either.

Let's build more!

[SpoonFed]

2. Anyone have updates on these massive readings? n/t