Fukushima Updates Aug 1

NHK: TEPCO installs new decontamination unit

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/01_02.html

Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, installed new decontamination equipment at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on Sunday.

The new equipment, called SARRY, is made by Japanese manufacturers. It consists of 14 cylindrical tanks. Each tank is about 3.5 meters high and 1.4 meter in diameter.

The equipment is designed to reduce radioactive substances in water, such as cesium and strontium, to about one millionth of the starting level.

TEPCO plans to use the new equipment, along with the existing system, for dealing with radioactive substances. After carefully going over pipe connections and conducting a test run, the utility aims to put the new system into operation around early August.

MAJIA HERE: I think the next headline deserves recognition for utter ambiguity. Where is the water flowing from? What is the source of this highly radioactive water?

NHK: Highly radioactive water flows into another place

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/01_32.html

Highly radioactive water has been found in the basement of a building at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant near the storage facility for contaminated water.

Tokyo Electric Power Company said on Monday that it discovered about 700 tons of contaminated water on Saturday in the basement of an on-site building.

The utility said the water contained 19,000 becquerels of radioactive cesium 134 per cubic centimeter, and 22,000 becquerels of cesium 137 --- both very high levels....

MAJIA HERE: According to NHK Tepco is reporting that levels of cesium are "leveling out" around unit #3 reactor http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/01_01.html

However, this headline could be at odds with the previous headline, "Highly Radioactive Water Flows Into Another Place." Maybe the radioactive water from unit #3 are flowing "into another place" and that is why the cesium measurement is not rising (as fast).

Furthermore, ENews is reporting that a pipe between units 1 and 2 is highly radioactive at more than 10 sieverts and hour. No one can tolerate that level.

http://enenews.com/highest-radiation-level-since-the-start-of-the-nuclear-crisis-10-sieverts-per-hour-measured-outside-between-reactors-no-1-and-2

Finally, the radiation levels we are seeing in the US are very high and signal that Fukushima is still emitting alot of radiation (even if some of our high levels are also from national problems like Calhoun)