The Stig
09-01-2013, 11:36 PM
Original story HERE (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/10278717/Radiation-at-Fukushima-spikes-as-Japan-holds-earthquake-drill.html) at The Telegraph
Radiation at Fukushima spikes as Japan holds earthquake drill
Radiation near a tank holding highly contaminated water at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant has spiked 18-fold, as more than one million Japanese took part in an earthquake drill.
9:26AM BST 01 Sep 2013
Radiation of 1,800 millisieverts per hour – enough to kill an exposed person in four hours – was detected near the bottom of one storage tank on Saturday, Tokyo Electric Power Co, also known as Tepco, said.
An Aug. 22 readings measured radiation of 100 millisieverts per hour at the same tank. Japanese law has set an annual radiation exposure safety threshold of 50 millisieverts for nuclear plant workers during normal hours.
Last month, Tepco admitted that water from the tank was leaking. Japan's nuclear regulator later raised the severity of the leak from a level 1 "anomaly" to a level 3 "serious incident" on an international scale for radiation releases.
The Fukushima Daiichi power plant north of Tokyo was devastated by a tsunami on March 11, 2011 that resulted in fuel-rod meltdowns at three reactors, radioactive contamination of the air, sea and food and the evacuation of 160,000 people.
It sparked the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl a quarter of a century earlier.
While there were no new leaks found at the tank, a Tepco spokesman said another leak had been detected from a pipe connecting two other tanks nearby.
With no one seeming to know how to bring the crisis to an end, Tepco said last week it would invite foreign decommissioning experts to advise it on how to deal with the highly radioactive water leaking from the site.
Separately, more than one million Japanese took part in a national disaster drill on Sunday as the country assessed its emergency readiness in the wake of a massive quake and tsunami in 2011.
Timed to commemorate the anniversary of the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 which killed more than 100,000 people, the national Disaster Prevention Day has been held every year since 1960.
This year's drill saw the government simulate its response to a powerful earthquake in central to western Japan, a major natural disaster that researchers say may occur within 30 years or so.
The government estimates that a magnitude-9.1 temblor would kill over 320,000 people in the worst-case scenario.
Shinzo Abe, the prime minister, and all of his ministers gathered at the premier's residence and held a mock disaster response meeting, before inspecting a drill site near Tokyo.
A total of 1.33 million people are expected to participate in exercises during the day, Kyodo News agency said.
Edited by Chris Irvine
Radiation at Fukushima spikes as Japan holds earthquake drill
Radiation near a tank holding highly contaminated water at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant has spiked 18-fold, as more than one million Japanese took part in an earthquake drill.
9:26AM BST 01 Sep 2013
Radiation of 1,800 millisieverts per hour – enough to kill an exposed person in four hours – was detected near the bottom of one storage tank on Saturday, Tokyo Electric Power Co, also known as Tepco, said.
An Aug. 22 readings measured radiation of 100 millisieverts per hour at the same tank. Japanese law has set an annual radiation exposure safety threshold of 50 millisieverts for nuclear plant workers during normal hours.
Last month, Tepco admitted that water from the tank was leaking. Japan's nuclear regulator later raised the severity of the leak from a level 1 "anomaly" to a level 3 "serious incident" on an international scale for radiation releases.
The Fukushima Daiichi power plant north of Tokyo was devastated by a tsunami on March 11, 2011 that resulted in fuel-rod meltdowns at three reactors, radioactive contamination of the air, sea and food and the evacuation of 160,000 people.
It sparked the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl a quarter of a century earlier.
While there were no new leaks found at the tank, a Tepco spokesman said another leak had been detected from a pipe connecting two other tanks nearby.
With no one seeming to know how to bring the crisis to an end, Tepco said last week it would invite foreign decommissioning experts to advise it on how to deal with the highly radioactive water leaking from the site.
Separately, more than one million Japanese took part in a national disaster drill on Sunday as the country assessed its emergency readiness in the wake of a massive quake and tsunami in 2011.
Timed to commemorate the anniversary of the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 which killed more than 100,000 people, the national Disaster Prevention Day has been held every year since 1960.
This year's drill saw the government simulate its response to a powerful earthquake in central to western Japan, a major natural disaster that researchers say may occur within 30 years or so.
The government estimates that a magnitude-9.1 temblor would kill over 320,000 people in the worst-case scenario.
Shinzo Abe, the prime minister, and all of his ministers gathered at the premier's residence and held a mock disaster response meeting, before inspecting a drill site near Tokyo.
A total of 1.33 million people are expected to participate in exercises during the day, Kyodo News agency said.
Edited by Chris Irvine