Tritium levels sampled from a testing well near the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant storage tank that leaked 300 tons of highly radioactive water have spiked to new highs, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Sept. 12.
Tritium levels sampled from a testing well near the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant storage tank that leaked 300 tons of highly radioactive water have spiked to new highs, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Sept. 12. The samples taken from the well lying 20 meters north of the storage tank on Sept. 11 registered 97,000 becquerels of tritium per liter, well past the legal limit of 60,000 becquerels per liter. TEPCO discovered the massive 300-ton leak on Aug. 19, which is believed to have started in July at the latest. The tritium levels in the well water have risen significantly over the past several days: from 4,200 becquerels per liter on Sept. 8, to 29,000 becquerels per liter on Sept. 9 and 64,000 becquerels per liter on Sept. 10. Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen. Experts suspect the tritium content in the radioactive well water may have come from the water that leaked from the storage tank.