Yup!!
________________________________
From: D & N <darna...@shaw.ca>
To: "RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION"
<futurework@lists.uwaterloo.ca>
Sent: Monday, July 22, 2013 12:32:10 PM
Subject: [Futurework] TEPCO almost admits to Dai-ichi radioactive water leak
http://www.scpr.org/news/2013/07/22/38294/fukushima-nuclear-plant-leaking-radioactive-water/
Mari Yamaguchi | AP | July 22nd, 2013, 7:01am
A Japanese utility said Monday its crippled Fukushima nuclear plant
is likely leaking contaminated water into sea, acknowledging for the
first time a problem long suspected by experts.
Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the Fukushima Dai-ichi
plant, also came under fire Monday for not disclosing earlier that
the number of plant workers with thyroid radiation exposures
exceeding threshold levels for increased cancer risks was 10 times
what it said released earlier.
The delayed announcements underscored the criticisms the company has
faced over the Fukushima crisis. TEPCO has been repeatedly blamed
for overlooking early signs, and covering up or delaying the
disclosure of problems and mishaps.
Company spokesman Masayuki Ono told a regular news conference that
plant officials have come to believe that radioactive water that
leaked from the wrecked reactors is likely to have seeped into the
underground water system and escaped into sea.
Nuclear officials and experts have suspected a leak from the
Fukushima Dai-ichi since early in the crisis. Japan's nuclear
watchdog said two weeks ago a leak was highly suspected and ordered
TEPCO to examine the problem.
TEPCO had persistently denied contaminated water reached the sea,
despite spikes in radiation levels in underground and sea water
samples taken at the plant. The utility first acknowledged an
abnormal increase in radioactive cesium levels in an observation
well near the coast in May and has since monitored water samples.
Ono said plant officials believe a leak is possible because the
underground water levels in suspected areas fluctuate in accordance
with tide movements and rainfalls.
"We are very sorry for causing concerns. We have made efforts not to
cause any leak to the outside, but we might have failed to do so,"
he said.
Ono said the radioactive elements detected in water samples are
believed to largely come from initial leaks that have remained since
earlier in the crisis. He said the leak has stayed near the plant
inside the bay, and officials believe very little has spread further
into the Pacific Ocean.
Marine biologists have warned that the radioactive water may be
leaking continuously into the sea from the underground, citing high
radioactivity in fish samples taken near the plant.
Most fish and seafood from along the Fukushima coast are barred from
domestic markets and exports.
Ono said that an estimated 1,972 plant workers, or 10 percent of
those checked, had thyroid exposure doses exceeding 100
millisieverts - a threshold for increased risk of developing cancer
- instead of the 178 based on checks of 522 workers reported to the
World Health Organization last year.
Natalia
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