– Contamination levels skyrocket at Fukushima plant, up nearly 2,000% — NHK: Quadrillions of becquerels already released; “Gov’t needs to take charge entirely” (VIDEO) (ENENews, Aug 31, 2013):
Kyodo News, September 1, 2013: Very high radiation levels were observed Saturday at three tanks and one of the pipes connecting them at the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, pointing to the possibility that radioactive water may have newly leaked, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said. The radiation readings were from 70 to 1,800 millisieverts per hour […]
JIJI PRESS, Aug. 31, 2013: Saturday’s highest reading [of 1,800 millisieverts per hour] was measured at one of the two tanks, with the radiation level jumping from 100 millisieverts.
CBS News, Aug. 28, 2013 (Emphasis Added): “What’s important is not the number itself but to give a basic idea about the extent of the problem,” authority chairman Shunichi Tanaka said […] Tanaka said there is a much larger ongoing problem at the plant: massive amounts of contaminated ground water reaching the sea. But that problem cannot even be rated under the IAEA’s International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale because it is unknown exactly how much ground water is escaping, how contaminated it is and what effect it is having on the sea and marine products. […] “I’m baffled,” he said.
WSJ, Aug. 28, 2013: “It could be much more or much less,” [Shunichi Tanaka, chairman of the Nuclear Regulation Authority] added, saying that Tepco calculated the amount based on the assumption that the tank had been full. […] A Tepco spokeswoman said “it’s true that we calculated 300 tons. We cannot say whether we will or we won’t change it later.”
NHK, Aug. 30, 2013: Major leak […] releasing several quadrillion becquerels of radioactive particles […] the government needs to take charge entirely.
See also:
– Fukushima radiation levels 18 times higher than previously thought (Guardian, Sep 1, 2013):
“We think that contaminated water management by your company has completely fallen apart,” Hiroshi Kishi, chairman of the Japan Fisheries Co-operative, told Tepco’s president, Naomi Hirose, during a meeting in Tokyo last week.
“This has dealt an immeasurable blow to the future of Japan’s fishing industry, and we are extremely concerned.”
H/t reader M.G.:
“Radiation levels at 18X more than estimated.
From the UK Guardian, Sunday
The article says it ruins the fishing industry for Japan…..
WTF?? What about the rest of the world?
This is what happens when corporations are allowed to operate in a monopoly (TEPCO controls 96% of Japan’s power grid) and have no oversight.”
If the Pacific Ocean could be radioactive in six years, what does that mean for all life? Answer, nobody knows because such a disaster has never happened before.
Letting TEPCO control the oversight and repair was doubly foolish, and ought to teach the world (again) why monopolies are bad for the world. Giving them oversight of any repairs was suicidal…..now, millions will die, if not all of humanity.
Nothing is static, nothing remains the same. The planet spins, the ocean waters move………how long until it affects other oceans and coastal living? Man cannot live without the oceans, over 80% of our oxygen comes from them. We have a dead sea off the coast of Mississippi thanks to the greedy oil companies, now a dying ocean in the Pacific thanks to greedy power corporations…….anyone else see a pattern here?
This is the story, not Syria, that ought to be on every headline in the world. Yet, were it not for the Guardian, Enenews, this site and a couple of others, nobody would hear a word…………..now, it may be too late.