Tepco dumps toxic water into sea

[rpannier]

Tokyo Electric Power Co. on Monday began releasing 10,000 tons of low-level radioactive water from the Fukushima No. 1 power plant into the Pacific Ocean on Monday evening to help accelerate the process of bringing the crippled complex under control.

The radical step was taken to make room for the more radioactive water that is being pumped out of the No. 2 reactor's turbine building.

The utility also said it plans to release 1,500 tons of radioactive water being stored under the No. 5 and No. 6 reactors, which have been safely shut down

The government said dumping the water will pose "no major health risk" and is inevitable in order to rescue the plant

link:
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110405a1.html

I realize the story is a few days old. I was just in Japan and learned of it and I hadn't seen anything on DU about it

[Thunderstruck]

1. "inevitable..." Yep, that about sums up the dangers of nuclear energy.

[rpannier]

3. One thing that struck me about the article was this

According to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, even if one eats 200 grams of fish caught within a 1-km radius of the Fukushima plant each day, the cumulative radiation exposure over a year would amount to 0.6 millisieverts, which is below the 1.0 millisieverts recommended in one year.

Is the one eating the fish exposed to other forms of radiation?
If they were already exposed to 0.53 millisierverts wouldn't that put them over?
And how does one know how many millisieverts they've been exposed to?

[Shagbark Hickory]

2. They're saying there could well be a problem with tuna.

American fisherman worried about the tuna caught in the north pacific.