Kyodo News - radiation dose rate at Fukushima No. 1 spikes to 8,217 micro sievert (per hour)

[jpak]

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110315x3.html

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The agency said the explosion at the No. 2 reactor may have damaged the "suppression chamber," a facility connected to the reactor's container which is designed to cool down radiation steam and lower the pressure in the reactor. It said a sharp decline in the pressure level of the chamber suggests damage.

Following the incident, the radiation level near the main gate of the Fukushima No. 1 plant exceeded the legal limit to reach 965.5 micro sievert per hour at 7:00 a.m. and jumped to 8,217 micro sievert at 8:31 a.m., the agency said. The latter amount is more than eight times the 1,000 micro sievert level to which people can safely be exposed in one year.

Given that the building housing the reactor has already been damaged by Monday's hydrogen blast at the neighboring No. 3 reactor, a spread of radiation outside the plant has become a serious threat, experts say.

The possibility of a meltdown, in which fuel rods melt and are destroyed, "cannot be ruled out" as the fuel rods have been damaged, the utility said.

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