Outdoor radiation in Fukushima reached a record

Tokyo Electric Power Company last week said the level of outdoor radiation at the Fukushima nuclear power plant reached its highest level ever.

According to the announcement of Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), this is the record level of outdoor radioactivity ever recorded so far. The board of directors of Fukushima and TEPCO discovered the level of radiation in a duct connecting the reactor-containing buildings and at the 120-meter-long ventilation duct outside.

Radiation levels are also recorded in 8 areas around the pipeline, of which the highest levels in two places amount to 25 Sievert / h and about 15 Sievert / h. Sievert is the unit that measures the degree of radiation exposure to the human body, named after Swedish medical physicist Rolf Sievert.

Fukushima nuclear power plant seen from above.(Photo: Presstv)

This is the record level of radiation recorded outside of reactor-containing buildings, which can kill a person exposed to radiation within 20 minutes. The radiation level previously used by TEPCO was measured at 10 Sverters per hour.

RT quoted TEPCO representative as saying that the ventilation pipes used to conduct radioactive gas after the nuclear disaster may still contain radioactive material.

About 400 tons of radioactive water leaked from the nuclear plant area. Contaminated water comes from the amount of groundwater pumped into the plant every day to cool the reactors, after the plant's cooling system has been damaged by the tsunami.

In order to resolve this situation, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) proposed to discharge radioactive contaminated water into the sea after reducing the level of radioactive material within the permitted limits.

The historic earthquake and tsunami that took place in March 11 in Japan has seriously affected the Fukushima nuclear power plant, leading to a catastrophic leak of three nuclear reactors.