Source: Agence France-Presse
OSAKA – The operator of Japan's disaster-hit Fukushima nuclear plant has detected radioactive iodine 1,250 times the legal limit in Pacific Ocean waters nearby, the nuclear safety agency said Saturday.
In a test by the Tokyo Electric Power Company, "radioactive iodine-131 at 1250.8 times the legal limit was detected several hundred meters offshore near reactor number one," the agency official told Agence France-Presse.
The readings were taken about 300 meters (yards) offshore, public broadcaster NHK said.
The reading is sharply higher than several taken last week. TEPCO said Thursday that iodine-131 levels in the ocean near the plant were 145 times the legal level, Kyodo News reported.
Fire-engines and concrete trucks have poured thousands of tons of seawater onto the reactors and into fuel rod pools at the plant after cooling systems were knocked out by the March 11 quake and tsunami.
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OSAKA – The operator of Japan's disaster-hit Fukushima nuclear plant has detected radioactive iodine 1,250 times the legal limit in Pacific Ocean waters nearby, the nuclear safety agency said Saturday.
In a test by the Tokyo Electric Power Company, "radioactive iodine-131 at 1250.8 times the legal limit was detected several hundred meters offshore near reactor number one," the agency official told Agence France-Presse.
The readings were taken about 300 meters (yards) offshore, public broadcaster NHK said.
The reading is sharply higher than several taken last week. TEPCO said Thursday that iodine-131 levels in the ocean near the plant were 145 times the legal level, Kyodo News reported.
Fire-engines and concrete trucks have poured thousands of tons of seawater onto the reactors and into fuel rod pools at the plant after cooling systems were knocked out by the March 11 quake and tsunami.
