High radiation detected in water at plant

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High radiation detected in water at plant

Tokyo Electric Power Company says it has detected high levels of radioactive substances in water that 3 workers were exposed to at the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The company says 3.9 million becquerels of radioactive substances per cubic centimeter were detected in the water that the workers were standing in. That is 10,000 times higher than levels of the water inside a nuclear reactor in operation.

The level of radioactive cerium-144 was 2.2 million becquerels. Also, 1.2 million becquerels of iodine-131 was measured. These substances are generated during nuclear fission inside a reactor.

Tokyo Electric says damage to the No.3 reactor and spent nuclear fuel rods in a storage pool may have produced the highly radioactive water.

On Thursday, 2 of the 3 workers were taken to hospital after being exposed to 173 to 180 millisieverts of radiation while standing in 15-centimeters of water in the turbine building adjacent to the reactor. A third worker was also exposed to the higher-level radiation but did not require treatment.
Friday, March 25, 2011 08:22 +0900 (JST)
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/25_10.html

"Tokyo Electric says damage to the No.3 reactor and spent nuclear fuel rods in a storage pool may have produced the highly radioactive water."

In other words, these radioactive waste products were produced after the reactors were shutdown.
In other words, there is criticality in the #3 pool or reactor.

[flamingdem]

1. How does radioactivity get transferred to the water generally? nt