Japan Finds Radiation in Water, Milk, Spinach

Worker fled before taking second reading

(AP) - That big spike in radiation levels 10 million times normal that Fukushima Dai-ichi reported earlier? Inaccurate, red-faced officials at Tokyo Electric Power Co now say. "The number is not credible," says a spokesman. "We are very sorry." The apology came after employees fled the complex's Unit 2 reactor when a reading showed radiation levels had reached 10 million times higher than normal in the reactor's cooling system. Officials said they were so high that the worker taking the measurements had withdrawn before taking a second reading. More»

Heath officials blowing things way out of proportion in Japan: researcher

(NEWSER) - Japan is finding elevated radiation levels in milk, spinach, and water —scary, right? Richard Knox at NPR sits down with RPI health physicist Peter Caracappa to crunch some numbers about what those levels mean. The gist:

• The max radiation a US nuclear worker is allowed to be exposed to in a year is 50 millisieverts; one sievert of radiation will raise your lifetime cancer risk by 4%.

Residents barred from returning amidst radiation fears

(NEWSER) - The 12.5 miles surrounding the foundering Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant are now officially off limits, the Japanese government announced yesterday. Until now, the government had merely advised people that entering the evacuation zone was a bad idea, but many residents ignored that advice, venturing in to retrieve their possessions or even refusing to leave altogether, the Wall Street Journal reports. More»

It sounds really, really bad. Is it?

(NEWSER) - Japan has made the decision to raise the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear disaster severity level from 5 to 7. That obviously means "worse." But what else does it mean?

• Japan finally has an estimate on how much radiation has been released: The level is an indication of the total radioactive materials emitted. Data has revealed that the cumulative amount of radioactive particles released into the atmosphere had reached levels that apply to a Level 7 incident, reports the AP .

Will likely take decades to decommission nuke plant

(NEWSER) - The day when radiation stops spilling out of Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi is still unknown, but it'll be at least a decade and millions of dollars beyond that by the time the nuclear plant is decommissioned, reports the AP. That's the timeline from Toshiba, which built four of the six reactors, and says it needs 10 years to remove fuel rods and reactors, while containing radioactivity at the site. Other experts say it'll take decades: "The best solution is to entomb the site for 40, 50, 60 years," says one expert, to allow the radiation to decay. More»