TOKYO, Sept 1 (Reuters) – Radiation at a tank holding highly
contaminated water at Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant
has spiked 18-fold, the plant’s operator said on Sunday.
Radiation of 1,800 millisieverts per hour – enough to kill
an exposed person in four hours – was detected near the bottom
of one storage tank on Saturday, Tokyo Electric Power Co
, also known as Tepco, said.
An Aug. 22 reading measured radiation of 100 millisieverts
per hour at the same tank. A Tepco spokesman also said a new
leak had been detected from a pipe connecting two other tanks.
The Fukushima plant was destroyed by a tsunami in March 2011
in the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl a quarter of a
century earlier.
(Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by Paul Tait)
