Fukushima News

Asahi: ‘Unusually high’ radioactivity detected in Fukushima groundwater by ocean outside Reactors 1 & 2 — High-level strontium contamination ‘spreading’ underground

ENENews,

26 September, 2013

Asahi Shimbun, September 27, 2013: Highly radioactive water accumulating in underground tunnels at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant is spreading to the surrounding soil, according to new data. Radioactive substances of 400,000 becquerels per liter were found in water samples from a well [...] TEPCO said it detected radioactive materials that emit beta rays, including strontium [...] According to TEPCO, the unusually high radioactivity levels were discovered in water sampled from a well it had recently dug on the seaward side between the No. 1 and No. 2 reactor buildings. [...]

TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi NPS Prompt Report, Sept. 26, 2013: We would like to announce the measurement results of cesium and all β in the water taken from the groundwater observation hole No.1-16 (on the mountain side of No.1-3 where former observation was performed) located on the east of the Units 1-4 Turbine Buildings, sampled for the first time today on September 26. [...] Cesium-137: 2.1Bq/L [...] All-β: 400,000Bq/L [...] We will continue sampling, analyzing, and monitoring the situation.

See also:

Tepco: Trench connected to Unit No. 2 is what's contaminating groundwater at Fukushima -- Has extremely high levels of over 3 billion Bq/liter of radioactive substances -- Water is flowing in from reactor building (VIDEO)

"Ultimate, worst-case scenario" underway at Fukushima? New York Times: Experts suspect intense contamination is seeping out from under melted-down reactors and into Pacific -- Will surpass even the leaks from disaster’s early days

AP: 'Time bomb' in leaking Fukushima trenches -- If Tepco removes extremely contaminated water as planned, it will only make more flow in since reactor buildings connect to trenches

Fukushima: "May I have your
attention Please?!" 
- Cesium 137

Steven Starr is the Director of the Clinical Laboratory Science Program at the University of Missouri and is an Associate member of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and has been published by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. His writings appear on the websites of PSR, the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology Center for Arms Control, Energy and Environmental Studies, Scientists for Global Responsibility, and the International Network of Scientists Against Proliferation. Since 2007, he has worked with the governments of Switzerland, Chile, and New Zealand, in support of their efforts at the United Nations to eliminate thousands of high-alert, launch-ready nuclear weapons.

Mr. Starr is also an expert on the environmental consequences of nuclear war, and in 2011, he made an address to the U.N. General Assembly describing the dangers that nuclear weapons and nuclear war poses to all nations and peoples. He has made presentations to Ministry Officials, Parliamentarians, Universities, citizens and students from around the world, and specializes in making technical scientific information understandable to all audiences.