Antinuclear

Deadly radiation estimated inside reactor vessel

The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant says its latest estimation of the radiation level inside one of the reactors was extremely high and had the potential to be lethal to a human within a short period of time.

Tokyo Electric Power Company conducted an inspection inside the containment vessel of the plant’s No.2 reactor last month using a remote-controlled camera, as part of a survey to scrap the reactor.

An analysis of the images found that the radiation was up to 530 sieverts per hour at a concrete cylinder supporting the reactor.

The level is enough to be lethal to a human within a short period of time, despite a possible error margin of up to 30 percent.

A survey conducted 1 year after the nuclear accident at a different part inside the same containment vessel logged 73 sieverts per hour.