An earthquake, tsunami, nuclear crisis, and more than 400 aftershock quakes over 5.0 magnitude – now Japan, and the world, face yet another danger: radiation.
Radioactive material, in greater levels than previously thought, has leaked from the stricken Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant every day since April 5, said data released from the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan on Saturday, April 23.
Reactor unit 1 has released 154 terabecquerels per day nearly every day of April, the data said. One terabecquerel is one trillion becquerels.
The Fukushima crisis has been rated a maximum level 7 in severity on the international nuclear event scale, the same rating as the 1986 Chernobyl event.
The nuclear complex, containing six reactors units, was dealt several blows over March. For more information on how the crisis happened, visit www.mcccagora.com/features/crisis-evolved/.
Reactor units 1, 3, and 4 suffered hydrogen explosions early in the crisis that tore through parts of the roof. Reactor unit 2 suffered an explosion that ripped through the inner containment vessel.
About 67,500 tons of radioactive water have accumulated at the plant, the utility firm estimates. Some of the water has leaked into the Pacific Ocean.
Radiation spread
The company that owns the nuclear complex, Tokyo Electric Power Co., known as TEPCO, said on Thursday that the radioactive water that leaked for six days into the ocean contained 20,000 times the annual allowable limit for the plant, amounting to 520 tons.
On April 4, TEPCO began dumping 11,500 tons of water with low levels of radioactive iodine into the Pacific Ocean to free space in storage tanks for more toxic water.
The water released had up to 500 times the legal limit for radiation, while the water then stored had about 10,000 times the limit.
In the beginning of the crisis, radioactive materials were first detected in eastern Russia on March 14 and the west coast of the U.S. on March 16.
According to several experts, the levels were magnitudes lower than anything hazardous, the Associated Press reported.
Traces of radiation have even reached the southern hemisphere, according to the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization.
The risk associated with idiodine-131 contamination in Europe is no longer "negligible," said CRIIRAD, a French research body on radioactivity. Pregnant women and infants in France and Europe have been advised to avoid "risky behavior," like consuming fresh milk or vegetables with large leaves.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission estimated an acceptable level of radiation at 100 millirem a year. The Environmental Protection Agency set a standard of no more than 15 millirem per single site or source.
A chest x-ray gives about 1 to 2 millrem to the whole body. Physical symptoms don't usually appear until the body has reached 100 rem, or 100,000 millirem, in a single dose.
Levels over 100 microsieverts, or 10 millirem, per hour have been measured at four locations less than two miles from the plant, according to Kyodo News.
The Japan health ministry released a list of 99 different kinds of food found with radiation, including milk, leafy vegetables and fish.
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