Radiation error at Fukushima plant
Tokyo Electric Power says initial reports of levels 10m times higher than normal in parts of No 2 reactor were inaccurate
Fresh doubt was cast on a Japanese firm's handling of the Fukushima nuclear crisis after officials admitted overstating high levels of radiation that prompted an evacuation.
Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) said initial reports of levels 10m times higher than normal in parts of the No 2 reactor were inaccurate, although it was unable to say by how much. The initial report said the worker who made the measurement, in a pool of water in the reactor's basement turbine building, had fled before taking a second reading.
The worker's discovery prompted another evacuation at the site, halting work to pump and store radioactive water that has built up in the turbine buildings of three of the plant's six reactors.
Tepco said later that the pool of water had been contaminated with radiation but the extremely high reading was a mistake. "The number is not credible," said a spokesman, Takashi Kurita. "We are very sorry." Kurita said officials were taking another sample to get accurate levels, but did not know when the results would be announced.
Evidence of dangerous contamination in the No 2 reactor emerged days after three workers were exposed to high levels of radioactivity while repairing the cooling system at the No 3 reactor. Two of the men received suspected beta ray burns after stepping into water with radiation levels 10,000 times higher than normal. Reports said the workers were due to be discharged from hospital on Monday.
Modest progress was made over the weekend to remove contaminated water and step up work to cool the reactors with fresh water, rather than corrosive sea water. But Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, warned that the emergency could continue for weeks, and possibly months. "This is a very serious accident by all standards," Amano told the New York Times. "And it is not yet over."
One pump is being used to extract radioactive water, and two more will be taken to the site. The US military is sending barges loaded with 500,000 gallons of fresh water to nearby Onahama Bay.
Two of Fukushima's six reactors are considered safe, having achieved "cool shutdown", but the remaining four have yet to be brought under control. Japan's nuclear safety agency Nisa said temperature and pressure inside all six reactors had stabilised.
Yukio Edano, the chief government spokesman, said the myriad problems at the power plant were no closer to being resolved. "We are preventing the situation from worsening," he said. "We have restored power and pumped in fresh water, and we are making basic steps towards improvement. But there is still no room for complacency."
Growing concern over food safety spread to the fishing industry over the weekend when officials said sea water samples taken 20 miles off the coast of the Fukushima plant contained 1,850 times the normal level of radioactivity. Nisa said the tainted seawater posed no risk to health. "Ocean currents will disperse radiation particles and so it will be very diluted by the time it is consumed by fish and seaweed, and even more by the time they are consumed by humans," a spokesman said. "There is no need to worry about health risks."
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