Nuclear Radiation At Highest Level Since 2011 Meltdown At Japan's Fukushima Reactor

Radiation levels inside a damaged reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station are at their highest since the plant suffered a triple meltdown almost six years ago. According to a report in The Guardian, the situation is getting worse.

AFP

According to the facility¡¯s operator, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), atmospheric readings as high as 530 sieverts an hour had been recorded inside the containment vessel of reactor No 2, one of three reactors that experienced a meltdown when the plant was crippled by a huge tsunami that struck the north-east coast of Japan in March 2011.

These readings highlight the scale of the task confronting thousands of workers, as pressure builds on Tepco to begin decommissioning the plant ¨C a process that is expected to take about four decades.

AFP

The recent reading, described by some experts as ¡°unimaginable¡±, is far higher than the previous record of 73 sieverts an hour in that part of the reactor.

A single dose of one sievert is enough to cause radiation sickness and nausea; 5 sieverts would kill half those exposed to it within a month, and a single dose of 10 sieverts would prove fatal within weeks.

AFP

¡°It may have been caused by nuclear fuel that would have melted and made a hole in the vessel, but it is only a hypothesis at this stage,¡± Tepco¡¯s spokesman Tatsuhiro Yamagishi told AFP.