Workers enter torus room, find accumulated water

20 March 2012


Workers have entered the Fukushima unit 2 and unit 3 torus rooms to try to measure radioactivity levels and to look for leaks.

TEPCO workers inside the unit 2 torus room
TEPCO workers inside the unit 2 torus room

Inside the torus rooms, radioactivity levels were relatively high, ranging from 130-160 mSv/hr, as was the radioactivity of accumulated water there. Outside the torus room in the basement, radioactivity levels were lower: 15-30 mSv/hr in the basement, and 50-75 mSv/hr in front of the torus door.

Also, TEPCO has reported that a primary containment vessel gas control system has started up at unit 3, following similar installations at unit 1 and 2, to monitor and filter out radionuclides to reduce environmental releases.

The system, which was installed on 23 February, began trial operation that day. On 14 March, parameters were judged to be stable and the system began full-scale operation. Levels of Xenon 135, a short-half-life daughter of nuclear fission, was below detection limits in unit 3, and also in unit 2.



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