The Nuclear Disaster At Fukushima Continues

Here is some unsettling news. The radiation levels at the damaged Fukushima reactors in Japan have risen to their highest levels since the disaster occurred in 2011. Radiation levels seemingly are increasing rather than decreasing. According to Tepco, the owners of the reactors, no radiation is leaking outside the containment vessel of the reactor that is showing what experts are describing as “unimaginable” radiation levels inside the reactor. The radiation levels recorded inside are 530 sieverts an hour. A single dose of 10 Sieverts would kill a human within weeks. The levels are so high that robots working inside the reactor would only last two hours before breaking down. In addition, experts have identified a hole in the metal grid at the bottom of the reactor which has apparently been caused by nuclear fuel that melted and then penetrated the bottom of the containment vessel – a mini “China Syndrome”. At this point, Tepco engineers have yet to determine the exact location of the melted fuel rods in all three of the Fukushima damaged reactors. Finding them and removing them safely “represents a challenge unprecedented in the history of nuclear power”, according to the Guardian.