Japan suffered one of the biggest nuclear disasters just 5 months ago. Now, instead of things getting better, they are getting worse, much worse.
The Fukushima nuclear power plant, the epicenter of the earthquake-tsunami disaster, according to TEPCO, the company that owns the plant, now has radiation levels six times higher than the highest level they have ever record before.
TEPCO reported that radiation levels are over 10,000 millisieverts per hour on the second floor of reactor one. The problem with that report is that Geiger counters can’t measure past 10,000 millisieverts per hour.
So, how high is the radiation level on the second floor of reactor one?
Before the disaster, the maximum amount of radiation a reactor employee was allowed to be exposed to was 100 millisieverts. After the disaster it was increased to 250 millisieverts.
http://youtu.be/8lDUkKODR4I
With radiation levels over 10,ooo millisieverts it could possibly kill a man in a matter seconds, if directly exposed to the radiation. With levels off the Geiger counter chart, TEPCO is basically unable to resolve the disaster.
This could be why they recently updated their recovery plan. They removed the idea of plugging the holes and cracks in the containment vessels of the reactors.
Some analysis claims it may take over 30 years for any progress to be made at Fukushima. Question is, do we have 30 years to wait? There seems to be no solution brought forth on how to stop the radiation or how bad it is actually affecting the earth.
It seems no one wants to address the seriousness of this global problem. Levels this high cannot be good and it is more than likely spreading farther than is being reported.
So, what’s at risk? The air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, and, most of all, our overall health.
h/t: gaia health
Photo Credit: marcos papapopolus
Thanks for the info, Reed. It is very helpful
I absolutely believe everything you have said. Information is becoming so hard to find and the disaster website RSOE EDIS out of Hungary quit updating their situation updates on August 3rd, 2011, plus all the older updates have disappeared, but I saved all of them to my email if anyone is interested in seeing them. They were updating the info on Fukushima Daiichi several times a day and now… nothing. Here is the link to that site: http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index2.php You will need to enlarge the map to be able to click on Japan and the little “hand” will let you bring up only the last three “situation updates” about the meltdowns (just click on the “radioactive symbol”).
Hi, Kevin. Zachary is right and that chart is really worth looking at. Now why do you think people were racing to buy potassium iodide in the U.S.? It’s because the radiation had reached our west coast and was detected all the way to Massachusetts. Radioactive iodine is the least of our worries as I mentioned in a comment above. This radiation spreads far and wide. Just ask the people in Belarus and other parts of Europe (wind drift) after Chernobyl. This accident in Japan has been rated a “7” by the IAEA, just like Chernobyl which is the highest rating they have. AND, Chernobyl only had a meltdown of one of their reactors wheras Japan has had 3 reactor meltdowns. I’m not trying to scare anyone, but facts are facts and the truth is being hidden from the Japanese and American citizens.
I sense that you need to educate yourself more about NPPs. Sorry, but this article is NOT the only one who has stated that the radiation levels are so high they cannot be recorded with normal equipment. I have read extensively about Chernobyl and when that sarcophagus goes then so do millions of people. The Ukraine is so broke they cannot afford the new $1.5 billion (US) it would take to build the new containment system and no other countries are stepping up to the plate to help pay for it.
I don’t believe it is possible to build NPP’s underground. They need a ready supply of water to keep them cool. I may be wrong, though, but justthought I would mention that. Thanks.
Oh, I just love the way this news has dried up. Talk about a cover-up and it happened right after all the people raced to buy the potassium iodide to block the intake of I-131 found in the U.S. air. It’s unfortunate that people don’t realize that potassium iodide doesn’t work for the other isotopes being pumped out of the Fukushima reactors such as plutonium 239, cesium 137, strontium 90, uranium, cobalt 60 and many others. This plume of radiation is seriously affecting the west coast of the U.S., but is spreading all the way tthrough Europe. I think it is highly irresponsible of our governments to hide this info from the public. One has to really search for information about this disaster and seeing how most people have such short memory spans, it is easy to see why they might want to forget something like this.
This is why nuclear power, if it is to be used at all, should be in remote areas, and more importantly, have VERY strict safety guidelines. I think this disaster will indeed be a problem for years to come. As I understand it, after Chernobyl, people were evacuated and simply could not go back to the affected area. I don’t know what the population was around the reactor before the accident, but I doubt it was as high as the area around Fukushima. Given the size and population of Japan, I doubt permanent evacuation is even possible. What then, if the problem can’t be solved? Nothing like this has ever happened, there is no precedent to draw on…