Tokyo, April 22: Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant operator says the level of radiation in the water that leaked into the sea is 20,000 times the annual legal limit.
The leaked contaminated water contained approximately 5,000 terabecquerels of radioactive substances, which is 20,000 times the annual allowable limit for the plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said on Thursday.
TEPCO added that 520 tons of radioactive water had leaked from reactors at the Fukushima plant, which was severely damaged during the 9.0-magnitude quake and the ensuing tsunami on March 11.
The twin disasters in Japan’s northern coast set off a nuclear crisis by knocking out power to cooling systems of reactors at the plant, and caused radiation leaks.
The government ordered the evacuation of people living in a 20-kilometer (12.4-mile) radius around the plant and told people residing between 20 kilometers and 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) from the plant to remain indoors.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s special advisor Goshi Hosono said bringing the crisis-hit Fukushima power plant under control may take “several months.”
Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency has raised the severity level of the situation at Fukushima from 5 to 7 — the worst on an international scale.
According to the agency, the amount of radiation emissions at the Fukushima plant was equivalent to 10 percent of that in the Chernobyl accident in 1986.
An explosion and ensuing fire in Chernobyl nuclear power plant resulted in a severe release of radioactivity into the environment, claiming the lives of at least 4,000 people.
—–Agencies