The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #136314 Message #3140479
Posted By: gnu
22-Apr-11 - 02:24 PM
Thread Name: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
NHK...
The operator of the troubled Fukushima nuclear power plant says it has detected higher levels of radioactive material in sea water samples near the water intake of one of the reactors.
The Nuclear Safety and Industry Agency says, however, there are no traces of highly radioactive water leaking into the sea from the plant.
The Tokyo Electric Power Company says it detected 160 becquerels of radioactive iodine-131 per cubic centimeter in samples of sea water collected near the water intake for the Number 2 reactor on Wednesday morning. The figure is 4,000 times the national limit and higher than the level detected on Tuesday.
It's the same site where water contaminated with highly radioactive material was found to have been leaking into the sea on April 2nd. The leakage was fixed 4 days later.
TEPCO says it also detected radioactive cesium-134 at 2,300 times the limit and cesium-137 at 1,600 times the limit on Wednesday morning. These levels are also higher than those detected on Tuesday.
The Nuclear Safe and Industry Agency explains that sea water containing highly dense radioactive material is piling up due to a special fence set up in the area to keep the leakage of the contaminated water from the Number 2 reactor water intake. It says it sees no new leakage of highly radioactive water.
TEPCO says the levels of radioactive material are on the decline at the 4 monitoring points off the coast of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
The highest level in the latest checkup for cesium-134 is 5.3 times the national limit at a point about 10 kilometers south of the plant.