Workers touched water with radiation 10,000 times normal (reactor#3 breach?)

[AlaskaDenise]

Tokyo (CNN) -- The water that three men were recently exposed to while working at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant had 10,000 times the amount of radiation typical for that location, Japan's nuclear and industrial safety agency official said Friday, adding that the high levels indicated the nuclear fuel inside the No. 3 reactor "is damaged."

Still, the incident raised further questions -- not just about the integrity of the reactor's core, which earlier was suspected to have suffered significant damage after this month's 9.0-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami -- but also about the radiation control measures in place at the plant.

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The workers were hospitalized because authorities suspected beta contamination, the company said. Beta radiation can penetrate skin to the layer where new skin cells are produced and can cause skin injury. Tokyo Electric said Friday they were still waiting to confirm whether beta contamination had taken place.

(snipped)

However, Dan Polanski, an expert on weapons of mass destruction, said it was unclear how long the workers were in the water, which would determine the level of radiation to which they were exposed.

The three workers reached the highest level of millisieverts recorded so far, Tokyo Electric said. The man in his 30s was exposed to 180.7 millisieverts, and the man in his 20s tested at 179.37 millisieverts. The third man was exposed to 173 millisieverts, according to the company.

Measurements of the water's surface taken after the exposure showed it was about 400 millisieverts, the company said. The air measured about 200 millisieverts......

Read more details at:
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/24/japan.nuclear.workers/?hpt=T2

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[AlaskaDenise]

Re: Workers touched water with radiation 10,000 times normal (reactor#3 breach?)

Japan Raises Possibility of Breach in Reactor Vessel

TOKYO ? Japan?s effort to contain the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant suffered a setback, an official said on Friday, citing evidence that the reactor vessel of the No. 3 unit may have been damaged.

The development, described at a news conference by Hidehiko Nishiyama, deputy director-general of the Japan Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, raises the possibility that radiation from the mox fuel in the reactor ? a combination of uranium and plutonium ? could be released.

One sign that a breach may have occurred in the reactor vessel, Mr. Nishiyama said, took place on Thursday when three workers who were trying to connect an electrical cable to a pump in a turbine building next to the reactor were injured when they stepped into water that was found to be significantly more radioactive than normal in a reactor. The No. 3 unit, the only one of the six reactors at the site that uses the mox fuel, was damaged by a hydrogen explosion on March 14.

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Mr. Edano said the three injured workers at Reactor No. 3 had sustained radiation burns to their legs while dragging an electrical cable through contaminated water in an effort to restore the crucial pump. The workers were burned as contaminated water poured over the tops of their boots, soaking their feet and ankles.....

Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/26/world/asia/26japan.html

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[AlaskaDenise]

Re: Workers touched water with radiation 10,000 times normal (reactor#3 breach?)

Reactor Core May Be Breached at Damaged Fukushima Power Plant

March 25 (Bloomberg) -- Japan?s nuclear regulator said one reactor core at the quake-damaged Fukushima Dai-Ichi power plant may be cracked and leaking radiation.

"It?s very possible that there has been some kind of leak at the No. 3 reactor," Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman at the Japan Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said in Tokyo today. While radioactive water at the unit most likely escaped from the reactor core, it also could have originated from spent fuel pools stored atop the reactor, he said.

Repair work at the site of the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986 has been plagued by explosions, fires and leaks of toxic material. Workers have dumped almost 4,000 tons of water on the No. 3 reactor, five times more than on any of the other five units, according to the government.

Two workers were hospitalized yesterday with radiation burns after stepping in the water, which was found to have radiation levels 10,000 times higher than water used in reactor cooling, Nishiyama said earlier today.

Tokyo Electric Power Co., the plant operator, said it found eight different radioactive materials in the water of the turbine building basement, where the men were attempting to connect a power cable. The materials are made through a process of fission, and include cobalt and molybdenum-99, a spokesman for the power utility said.

Radioactive Water

Tokyo Electric plans to drain radioactive water from the turbine building of the No. 3 unit where the accident occurred, spokesman Osamu Yokokura said. It has yet to determine how and when to do this, he said......

Read more at:
http://www.businessweek.com/news/20...reached-at-damaged-fukushima-power-plant.html

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[Sally Furniss]

Re: Japan - Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Crisis - Units 1 - 6 Reports, News, Graphics - March 17 +

Re: Japan - Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Crisis - Units 1 - 6 Reports, News, Graphics - March 17 +

machine translation from Vietnamese


Suspected nuclear core reactor No. 3 was punctured

Friday, 03.25.2011 | 16:45 (GMT + 7)

Japanese officials have questioned the No. 3 reactor core at the Fukushima nuclear power plant I have a hole, can cause serious radioactive pollution.

Hole most likely located in the reactor No. 3 - where hydrogen gas explosion Monday that 14.3 out of its cover was blown. Solving problems in furnace No. 3 is probably the most difficult because it contains up to 170 tons of fuel in the core.

Unrest forced Fukushima I ordered the factory workers stopped working at the complex today to check radiation levels. Earlier, dozens of workers struggling to troubleshooting to prevent leakage of dangerous radiation from the nuclear core is too hot.

Suspicion of a higher hole when two workers wade into the water radioactivity higher than 10 thousand times higher than normal. Their skin burns when water baits in protective boots, Safety Agency and the Nuclear Industry said.

Although the possibility can not exclude the hole, but the exact cause remains unknown - Hidehiko Nishiyama spokesman said.

"There can be any holes in the reactor," Mr. Nishiyama said, adding that no data show any cracks and leaks in pipes or ventilation system so it can be concluded.

This incident raises more concerns about controlling the Fukushima nuclear plant, a 220 km northeast of Tokyo, after two weeks under double disaster caused infrastructure damage and severe cooling system is important paralysis.

This plant has been released with high levels of radiation as raw milk, water and 11 types of vegetables contaminated by radiation.

Tap water in some cities, including Tokyo, were also contaminated, are considered not safe for young children because there is risk of cancer - the officials said. Fear of making bottled water in Toykyo "fire" found. City officials quickly distributed bottled water to families with children.

Japan is also grappling with a humanitarian crisis in the northeast - where hundreds of thousands of disaster survivors still have to double in the shelter.

About 660 thousand households without running water and more than 209 thousand households without electricity. Damage estimates may reach 310 billion dollars, is considered highly damaging natural disasters in the history of Japan - the government said.

http://laodong.com.vn/Tin-Tuc/Nghi-ngo-loi-hat-nhan-lo-phan-ung-so-3-bi-thung/37485

 

[Pathfinder]

Re: Workers touched water with radiation 10,000 times normal (reactor#3 breach?)

Setback at Fukushima nuclear plant as Japanese officials find radioactive water


Japan Self-Defense Force officers hold a blue sheet over patients who were exposed high levels of radiation today. (Jiji Press/Getty)

JEFF DONN, SHINO YUASA Associated Press
5:24 p.m. CDT, March 25, 2011

Excerpt:

The possible breach in the plant's Unit 3 might be a crack or a hole in the stainless steel chamber of the reactor core or in the spent fuel pool that's lined with several feet of reinforced concrete. The temperature and pressure inside the core, which holds the fuel rods, remained stable and was far lower than what would further melt the core.

Suspicions of a possible breach were raised when two workers suffered skin burns after wading into water 10,000 times more radioactive than levels normally found in water in or around a reactor, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said.

Water with equally high radiation levels was found in the Unit 1 reactor building, Tokyo Electric Power Co. officials said. Water was also discovered in Units 2 and 4, and the company said it suspects that, too, is radioactive. Officials acknowledged the water would delay work inside the plant.

Full text:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/daywatch/sns-ap-as-japan-earthquake,0,6520725.story