Dr. James P. Wickstrom
Asia & Pacific
Highly Radioactive Water Found Leaking From Reactors at Japan Nuke Plant
Published March 25, 2011
FoxNews.com
Highly radioactive water was found leaking from two other reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant Friday after two employees were hospitalized when they waded into water 10,000 times more radioactive than normal.
The Tokyo Electric Power Co. told Kyodo News that it has begun injecting freshwater into the Unit 1 and 3 reactors at the plant, despite radioactive water leaking from Unit 1, 2 and 3.
The National Institute of Radiological Sciences says that the two employees have likely suffered "internal exposure" in which radioactive substances have entered their bodies, according to Kyodo News.
The possible breach in Unit 3 might be a crack or a hole in the stainless steel chamber of the reactor core or in the spent fuel pool that's lined with several feet of reinforced concrete. The temperature and pressure inside the core, which holds the fuel rods, remained stable and was far lower than would further melt the core.
A Japanese government official told residents within 19 miles of the crippled plant to evacuate Friday.
