Here's the whole update from NIRS, August 1, which ordinarily I'd link to but it seems important enough to paste the whole damning thing:

UPDATE, August 1, 2011. Tepco reported today the highest radiation levels yet measured at Fukushima Daiichi—1,000 Rems/hour (10 Sieverts/hour)—a lethal dose. The measurements were taken at the base of the ventilation stack for Units 1 and 2 (the stack that did not work during the accident). The actual levels may have been more than measured, since the monitoring equipment could not measure more than 10 Sieverts/hour. Workers sent to the area to confirm the measurements, which were first picked up by a gamma measuring camera, received doses of about 400 millirems in just a few minutes.

All of this brings up a lot of questions Tepco and the Japanese government must be held to account for. It has been more than four months since the accident began. The belief is that these readings are a result of the failed attempt at ventilation in the early hours of the accident. How is it possible that Tepco is noticing this extraordinarily high reading only now? How many workers have walked by this area in the past four and a half months without realizing the kind of dose they were getting? What does this say about Tepco's, and the government's, overall radiation measurements both onsite and offsite?

Indeed, even while Tepco last week said the continuing releases from Fukushima are only a fraction of what they were in April (one billion becquerels/hour versus one trillion becquerels/hour in April) and far lower than mid-March, Tepco also had to admit that it doesn't actually know how much radiation is being emitted. The utility said it planned to begin tests at Unit 1 over the past weekend to try to find out what is actually being emitted from there, and will begin similar tests at Unit 2 during August. But it doesn't even plan to try tests at Unit 3 because the radiation levels are so high in that reactor.

Given Tepco's and the government's inability to detect lethal levels of radiation onsite—where there are presumably many radiation monitors available—what confidence can anyone have about offsite measurements in Japan? The role of citizen radiation monitoring has never been more crucial. The New York Times today has an article demonstrating this fact. It is the citizen monitors who are finding radioactive hotspots throughout north central Japan, who are demanding evacuations, who are documenting this contamination without end.

Charley Noble