The radioactivity in water in one unit of a hobbled nuclear power plant in northeastern Japan has tested 10 million times higher than normal, the plant’s operator said Sunday.
Leaked water in Unit 2 of the Fukushima Daiichii plant measured at 1,000 millisieverts per hour, Tokyo Electric Power Co. spokesman Takashi Kurita told reporters in Tokyo.
That amount is 10 million times higher than the radioactivity level when the reactor is operating normally, and four times the safety limit set by the government.
Workers have been grappling with how to remove and store highly radioactive water pooling in four troubled units at the plant.
The discovery of puddles with radiation levels 10,000 times the norm sparked a temporary evacuation of the plant on Thursday. Two workers who stepped into the water were hospitalized with possible burns.
The development set back feverish efforts to start up a crucial cooling system knocked out in a massive March 11 earthquake and tsunami, but has helped experts get closer to determining the source of the dangerous leak.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, speaking Sunday on TV talk shows, said the radioactive water is “almost certainly” seeping from a reactor core.
