– Radiation in No. 3 reactor too high for work (NHK, June 10, 2011):
The operator of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant says radiation levels in one of the reactor buildings remain too high for workers to do their jobs.
Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, sent 9 workers into the No.3 reactor building for about 20 minutes on Thursday, in a bid to start stabilizing the reactor.
The utility plans to inject nitrogen gas into the containment vessel to prevent accumulated hydrogen from causing an explosion. It also intends to install a system to cool the reactor with circulating water.
The workers withdrew after measuring radiation of 100 millisieverts per hour near the reactor’s containment vessel.
TEPCO says it intended to limit the workers’ exposure to below 5 millisieverts per hour. But as all 9 received higher doses, it has suspended work while considering a course of action.