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Fukushima Radiation Nears Chernobyl Spiking To 261,000,000 uSv/hr – Indicates Ongoing Nuclear Meltdown
Fukushima reactor 1 radiation levels spike to 261,000,000 microsieverts per hour, so high it is 100% lethal in less than 2 minutes, and just short of Chernobyl reactor levels.
Lucas Whitefield Hixson tips us off to the latest radiation reading from the Fukushima nuclear reactor #1 hitting 261 sieverts per hour. For conversion purposes, that is 261,000 millisieverts per hour or 261,000,000 microsieverts per hour.
Radiation Levels In Reactor One Spike At 261 Sv Per Hour – Indications of Ongoing Criticality
The radiation levels in Reactor 1 Drywell has spiked to a new record high 261 Sv/hr. This is a sign of pretty consistent criticality in the reactor. The corium has breached the core containment, and is releasing radiation without TEPCO acknowledging the implications of this constant criticality. The pressure level in Reactor 1 has dropped to atmospheric levels, indicating the breach in containment.
The rising levels of radiation in the drywell also indicate that the efforts to control the fuel inside the reactor from going critical is becoming unmanageable. The radiation is emanating from the reactor, and levels around the Number 1 Building are rising instead of gradually decreasing, another indicator of ongoing criticality.
Clearly this is a sign that nuclear meltdown is an ongoing event at the reactor. In fact 3 months into the disaster we are seeing levels of radiation coming from the reactor core just shy of why was measured in the vicinity of the Chernobyl reactor core. And this is just from one of the reactors at Fukushima. Japan has confirmed meltdown and melt through in 3 reactors.
We repeatedly have heard Chernobyl radiation levels were 50 sieverts in 10 minutes to downplay the Fukushima. However, the latest spike at Fukushima puts the level at 43.5 sieverts in 10 minutes. And you can even argue over the other difference in because a total dosage of 6 sieverts is 100% lethal.
For comparison here are the radiations levels from the 10 day Chernobyl incident.
| Location | Radiation (Roentgens per hour) | Sieverts per hour (SI Unit) |
|---|---|---|
| Vicinity of the reactor core | 30,000 | 300 |
| Fuel fragments | 15,000–20,000 | 150-200 |
| Debris heap at the place of circulation pumps | 10,000 | 100 |
| Debris near the electrolyzers | 5,000–15,000 | 50-150 |
| Water in the Level +25 feedwater room | 5,000 | 50 |
| Level 0 of the turbine hall | 500–15,000 | 5-150 |
| Area of the affected unit | 1,000–1,500 | 10-15 |
| Water in Room 712 | 1,000 | 10 |
| Control room, shortly after explosion | 3–5 | .03-.05 |
| Gidroelektromontazh depot | 30 | .3 |
| Nearby concrete mixing unit | 10–15 | .10-.15 |
7 Comments on "Fukushima Radiation Nears Chernobyl Spiking To 261,000,000 uSv/hr – Indicates Ongoing Nuclear Meltdown"
diemos on Wed, 15th Jun 2011 12:03 am
Interesting graph. My guess would be that the periods in which the radiation drops are just after they’ve added cooling water and the water that’s there has stopped boiling and releasing cesium into the building.
Stays low for a while until the water starts boiling again and then the level go back up.
DC on Wed, 15th Jun 2011 6:55 am
This whole story is not being very well covered at all. the LSM has either forgotten about it, or been told not to report on it. I dont know which would be worse if true. Maybe its getting a lot more attention in Japan, but in the rest of world, its like the incident been swept under the rug. And what reports do get out are usually not very comprehensive.
Kenz300 on Wed, 15th Jun 2011 8:10 am
TEPCO will be bankrupted by this disaster and ultimately propped up by the Japanese government and the taxpayers. THe cost of this disaster includes the poisoning of the food, water, air, and land. It should also include the loss to the Japanese economy. THe country would bounce back a lot sooner from the earthquake if it were not for this nuclear disaster. Much of the lost wages and GDP can be attributed to this nuclear disaster.
The price for nuclear energy is too high a price to pay.
Kathy on Wed, 15th Jun 2011 11:47 am
I was reading that there is a 35% increase in infant mortality since this inciden in Portland Oregon and other west coast cities. When is the US government going to start evacuating Pregnant woment and babies? If there had been a terrorist attack or Japan was a Muslim country that would have been hell to pay by now, the wrath of the United States would have descended upon any terrorist group’s attack that led to a 35% increase in infant deaths, Where are the right to lifers when you need them? Lets help Japan fix this, nothing else matters IMO, not Pakistan, not Israel, nothing.
john on Wed, 15th Jun 2011 12:04 pm
To the last person who claims a 35 percent increase in infant mortality because of the radation that is a really serious asserition and you don’t even offer a link to prove it?
It’s interesting if it’s true but doubtful that you didn’t just make it up because then you start to polotcize this horrible disaster. I know I’m ranting now, but why is that people like you pretend to care about human suffering when in the end the only thing you care is how it will meet your political goals?
Thousands have people have died and an entire nation turned upside down and you just take the event and start talking about how evil america is. Please save it for another time.
Mike Thurgood on Wed, 15th Jun 2011 6:40 pm
The explanation given by Diemos would appear to me to be a reasonable one. The frightening viewpoint of intermittent criticality of the core remnants occurring is an un-necessary scare tactic.
The partially melted fuel will be a morass of pieces interspersed with partly melted control rods containing neutron absorbing materials.Imagine this morass being in a neat configuration for criticality to occur.
It will most certainly not be known for a long time how much of this morass might have fallen through a melt hole in the primary reactor vessel. However, it remains to be seen why unit 1 seems to be behaving differently to units 2 and 3.
Unfortunately, if a lot of the radiation dose is indeed coming from Cs-137, it’s half life of about 30 years is far too long for any opinion to be expressed about the variations and repeat peaking over a matter of days or weeks. But if the graph matches the times when water is injected into the core region this should provide reasonable evidence that it’s being caused by the release of further Cs-137 when the water boils. With such high dose rates being measured, it should be possible to deduce information about the gamma energy of the gamma emission energy from Cs-137 of 0.66 MeV, if there’s any spectrometry equipment available to measure it.
That would soon demonstrate if any criticality events were occurring.
Kathy on Thu, 16th Jun 2011 1:11 am
John,
I dont need to provide a link, just google it yourself or check out Helen Caldicott because she is talking about it too. Where oh where did I talk about how evil America is? I reread my post and I dont see it. The right to lifers should be up in arms about this and our government should be evacuating women and children and they wont until the people start demanding they do. That is where the right to lifers come in, they are a very effective political force and should be engaged in demanding that pregnant women be evacuated as well as babies. And yes these are my political goals. Another of my policitical goals is that we disengage from every other thing around the world and tend to this world wide disaster which is affecting us very dearly. I live in the Pacific Northwest and I have read that I am breathing in 5 hot particles a day. I am making a decision to send my beloved daughter to an eastern state far from me so that I can have peace of mind knowing that she will be safe if reactor 4 goes and we start breathing in 10 hot particles a day here in the Pacific Northwest. From what you shared I am wondering what your agenda is to get folks like me to shut up? Just asking.