Nuclear crisis reading in Japan “not credible”
Posted March 27, 2011 4:09 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
UPDATE at 4 p.m. PST: The US Geological Survey reports a magnitude-6.5 earthquake shook eastern Japan off the quake-ravaged coast on Monday morning, prompting authorities to issue a tsunami alert.
TOKYO (NEWS1130) – Work crews say a huge spike in radiation levels at a Japanese nuclear complex was a mistake.
The water testing showed radiation readings 10 million times higher than normal. Tokyo Electric Power is now apologizing, saying the reading was “not credible.”
Reporter Tim Sullivan in Tokyo says the power company isn’t saying much about the situation. “They are saying that they are going to do another analysis, they don’t know when their results are going to come out, but this is just the latest in a long string of mistake and errors from the power company officials.”
The discovery of radioactive water over the last three days has been a major set-back in the mission to get the plant’s crucial cooling systems up and running.
Meanwhile, the Japanese government has ordered people living within 20 kilometres of the earthquake-damaged Fukushima nuclear plant to evacuate, but some warn that those living outside the evacuation zone are still unsafe.
Jan van de Putte of Greenpeace says just 25 miles from the plant, people are being exposed to far more than a safe annual dose of radiation, in just a few days. “We strongly recommend the government to help those people to relocate to another place.”
About 7,000 people have been evacuated.
