#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Reactor 1 Turbine Room's Water Also Highly Radioactive, Follow-up on Reactor 3 Workers

TEPCO announced on 11:00PM March 25 that the water in the turbine building basement in the Reactor N.1 was just as radioactive as the muddy water puddles in the Reactor No.3 which irradiated two workers from a subcontractor of a subcontractor of TEPCO.

Yomiuri Shinbun (in Japanese, 11:48PM JST 3/25/2011) reports that TEPCO said it took the water sample from the Reactor No.1 turbine building in the morning of March 24.

A day and a half till you tell the world.

I don't believe it takes that long to analyze the sample, unless they are sending it overseas (even then it may be faster than a day and a half).

Checking my own blog post, I find that the workers (probably subcontractors of subcontractors of subcontractors of ... of....of TEPCO) were in the Reactor No.1 on March 24 (JST), at least in the control room fixing the instruments.

The radiation level of the water from No.1 Reactor's turbine building (which I believe is shared by the Reactor No.2, just like the turbine building for the Reactors No.3 and 4 are shared), was 3.8 million becquerels, 10,000 times the normal amount found in cooling water during the normal operation of the reactor.

And these bloody liars at TEPCO, and all these government officials lied yet again about the condition of the two workers who were exposed to this high radiation level in the Reactor No.3. These liars had said their exposure was not severe, only on skin surface not internal, they were not showing acute, severe radiation poisoning symptoms. Now they are saying, after the doctors at the National Institute of Radiological Sciences in Chiba examined them:

• It was severe exposure, 2,000 to 6,000 milli-sieverts on the skin surface (on their legs);

• Exposure was to their feet below ankles.
  

• There was no injury (open wounds) on their feet;

• Radioactive materials were found in their urine, meaning they had inhaled the radioactive air and they were internally exposed to radiation.

TEPCO and the government had been saying that they were exposed to 180 milli-sievert radiation, not 2,000 to 6,000. If it is 6,000 milli-sievert, that's 33 times as high as they originally tried to get away with.

They still say, "Don't worry, even if the radiation level is high, it is localized, only their feet not the whole body exposure. The effect to health is far less if it is a localized exposure."

And the next paragraph in the Yomiuri article (in Japanese; 11:44PM JST 3/25/2011) says:

But if the radiation is over 3,000 milli-sievert, even if it is a localized exposure, radiation burn can occur 5 days to 2 weeks after the exposure.

And guess what the article says at the end, after telling us these workers may develop a more severe radiation poisoning soon:

The workers are expected to leave the hospital early next week.

Just surreal. It probably matters to TEPCO and the Japanese government how they determine the severity of the radiation exposure of these workers: compensation is probably determined based on that severity.

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