Monday, May 6, 2013

#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Just How High Is the Radiation Level of Reactor 3 Operating Floor?


Just how high is the radiation level on the (what used to be) operating floor of Reactor 3? TEPCO has released only one measurement of the Reactor 3 operating floor, and it was on one location only (above the reactor well). While I am still looking for that TEPCO's PDF document, there is an indirect indication of how high it could be.

Kyodo News reporters visited Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant on April 4, and wrote up a detailed article for the 2nd anniversary of the nuclear accident. The article, judging by the number of retweets, doesn't seem like it's been read widely. But in it, there is a reference to radiation levels of Reactor 4 and Reactor 3, located 100 meters apart.

From Kyodo News "Current situation at Fukushima I Nuke Plant: 2 years after the accident, uncertainty still reigns, guarding against trouble 24/7" (4/8/2013; part):

(On the operating floor of Reactor 4)

「長くとどまることはできません。もうここを離れましょう」。同行の東電社員から声をかけられた。オペフロの放射線量は毎時262マイクロシーベルト。北側で無残な姿をさらす3号機建屋の線量が極めて高く、約100メートル離れているのに影響を受ける。オペフロでは、作業員数人が全面マスクに防護服姿で黙々と働いていた。

"We can't stay here long. Let's go back down." The TEPCO employee who accompanied us called to us. The air dose level on the [Reactor 4] operating floor is 262 microsieverts/hour. The wrecked Reactor 3 building, located north of the Reactor 4 building, has extremely high radiation, and the Reactor 4 building [operating floor] is affected even though it is 100 meters away. On the Reactor 4 operating floor, several workers with full-face masks and protection gear were working quietly.


The article is accompanied by a picture indicating the locations of their reporting and radiation levels in microsievert/hour.


From the top left of the picture, clockwise:

  • ALPS: 4.5 microsieverts/hour

  • Dry cask temporary storage area: 5

  • Outside the Anti-Seismic Building: 20

  • Ocean-side of Reactor 3 (beyond the Reactor 3 turbine building): 1300

  • Plugged hole where the highly contaminated water leaked into the ocean: 250

  • At the wall to shield ground water: 130

  • Reactor 4 Operating Floor: 262

  • Control room for Reactor Cooling System (indoors): 7.4

Kyodo News also has the video news, showing the locations that they visited:



0:20 Anti-Seismic Building, the plant's headquarter for day-to-day operation of the plant "restoration" work

0:55 Construction of walls to block the flow of groundwater, at the water intake for Reactors 1-4, due for completion in April next year

1:10 ALPS (Multi-nuclide removal system) building

1:34 Control room for the reactor cooling system

2:20 Reactor 4 building

2:40 Reactor 4 Operating floor (they went up in an elevator)

3:09 Reactor 4 narrow stairway to descend from the operating floor

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great work as usual!!! Thanks.

Did you recognize the steel (tungsten/lead???) sheets on the reactor 4 operating floor towards reactor 3? You can seen it on the lower left side around the camera in the video at 2:59 min. Wonder whether this is set up to shield workers on reactor 4 operating floor against the radiation from reactor 3 operating floor?

Anonymous said...

They have had teams of workers on top of #4 for a year.

To my knowledge, no one has ever gone to the top of #3.

The fact that we now know that the #3 core was ejected in the explosion explains so many things

Thank you for bringing it to light.

Anonymous said...

Uh... who said the core was ejected?

Anonymous said...

Fuel debris was found miles away @ Anon 10:28

Anonymous said...

@Anon 7 may 8:53
Yes but this fact doesn't rule out the possibility of an ex-vessel explosion. As EX-SKF says, some technician is arguing that the fuel in the SPF has blown up.

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