300 Fukushima Storage Tanks Checked for Radioactive Water Leaks


300 Fukushima Storage Tanks Checked for Radioactive Water Leaks

TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Fukushima nuclear plant employees are checking 300 tanks storing highly radioactive water after one container leaked, raising fears that more contaminated liquid has made its way into the Pacific Ocean.

Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), the company operating the plant, said on Wednesday that one of the tanks holding water used to cool the broken reactors sprang a leak of some 300 tons of toxic liquid.

“We are hurriedly checking if some 300 tanks of the same type holding contaminated water have the same leak problem,” TEPCO spokesman Tsuyoshi told AFP.

The contaminated water that leaked on Wednesday contains an unprecedented 80 million Becquerels of radiation per liter, according to the company. The norm is a mere 150 Bq.

The puddle that formed around the damaged tank is emitting radiation of 100 Millisieverts per hour, as a probe has been taken about half a meter from the water, reported Kyodo News. The traces of radioactivity were detected in a drainage stream.

Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) commissioners raised the severity of the latest Fukushima leak to Level Three, which is considered a ‘serious radiation incident’ on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES) for radiological releases. The alert was raised from Level One, which indicates an ‘anomaly’.  Level Seven is the most dangerous radiation status.

 

 

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