Fukushima Radioactivity 100,000 Times Normal

Above, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The news this morning on the status of the radioactivity problem in Japan isn't good.

The Washington Post is reporting:

TOKYO — As radiation levels at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant reached a new high Sunday, workers contended with dark, steamy conditions in their efforts to repair the facility’s cooling system and stave off a full-blown nuclear meltdown. Wearing respirators, face masks and bulky suits, they fought to reconnect cables and restore power to motor pumps the size of automobiles.

Leaked water sampled from one unit Sunday had 100,000 times the radioactivity of normal background levels, although the Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the plant, first calculated an even higher, erroneous, figure it didn’t correct for hours.

Tepco apologized Sunday night when it realized the mistake; it had initially reported radiation levels in the leaked water from the unit 2 reactor as being 10 million times the norm, which prompted an evacuation of the building.

After the levels were correctly measured, airborne radioactivity in the unit 2 turbine building still remained so high — 1,000 milli­sieverts per hour — that a worker there would reach his yearly occupational exposure limit in 15 minutes. A dose of 4,000 to 5,000 millisieverts absorbed fairly rapidly will eventually kill about half of those exposed.

There is a leak of radioactive water that is draining into the ground and into the ocean off Fukushima. The leak into the ground makes its way into the underground water table and it eventually makes its way into peoples' tap water faucets and crops. If the water table is badly contaminated, this would be the worst possible scenario for the Japanese people.

Also, it has been reported that traces of radioactivity has been detected in rainwater in Massachusetts.

Obviously, this has world-wide implications.

To read the full Washington Post article, go here.