TEPCO has found a record 1.9 million becquerels per liter of beta ray-emitting radioactive substances at its No.2 reactor. Also radioactive cesium was detected in deeper groundwater at No.4 unit’s well, as fears grow of a new leak into the ocean.
The level of beta ray-emitting radioactivity in groundwater
around the crippled Fukushima reactor No. 2 reactor has been
rising since November, NHK reported.
Previous the highest level – 1.8 million becquerels (bq/liter),
of beta-ray sources per liter - was registered at reactor No.1 on
December 13.
Meanwhile, TEPCO’s latest examination of deeper groundwater
beneath the #4 reactor's well has raised new concerns that there
might be another source of radioactive substances leakage into
the ocean.
For the first time, the analysis of water samples taken from a
layer 25 meters beneath the No. 4 reactor's well that is facing
the ocean has revealed radioactivity in groundwater.
TEPCO investigators detected 6.7 bq/liter of Cesium 137 and 89
bq/liter of strontium as well as other beta ray-emitting
radioactive substances.
However, the company’s officials said that it is early to talk
about a hotspot of radiation leak and more examinations are
needed to prove that. TEPCO suggested that current numbers could
be wrong because radioactive substances may have been mistakenly
mixed during the process of getting the sample.
Leakage of radiation-contaminated water has been the major threat
to Japan’s population and environment from the very beginning of
the Fukushima disaster in March 2011.
Only in late July 2013 did TEPCO acknowledge the fact that
contaminated water is escaping from basements and trenches of the
Fukushima plant into the ocean.
Since then, TEPCO reported about two major leaks of highly
radioactive water into the ocean from storage tanks – a 300-ton
leak in August and 430 liters in October.