Fukushima: Radioactive Tellurium Detected in Seawater at Water Intake

#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Radioactive Tellurium Detected in Seawater at Water Intake (EX-SKF, June 29, 2011):

Radioactive tellurium was detected for the first time in the seawater at the water intake canal for the Reactor 1, but TEPCO thinks it’s just a mix-up for some unknown reason, according to Yomiuri Shinbun (6/29/2011).

So I went to look for the original data at TEPCO.

It turns out that tellurium-129m (half-life 34 days) was found near the water intake canal for the Reactor 1, AND tellurium-129 (half-life 70 minutes) was found near the water intake canal for the Reactor 4. Tellurium-129 was also found in deep-sea water 8 kilometers off the coast of Fukushima.

Some kind of a mix-up.

TEPCO dumped 143 pages of “confirmed” data (no English yet) on types of nuclides and density found at and around Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant in air and water on June 29. The company releases many of the data everyday or at a regular interval but the nuclides announced daily are iodine-131, cesium-134 and -137 only. For other nuclides, after being excoriated by NISA in early days of the crisis, they’ve stopped releasing the data until “confirmed”.

It was on page 74, as part of the “confirmed” results of the seawater samples taken on June 4:

Te-129m (half-life 34 days): 720 becquerels/liter, outside the silt fence in front of the Reactor 1 water intake canal.

The legal safety limit for the exhaust water from a nuclear power plant is 300 becquerels/liter.

Then, on page 99 for the test results for the samples taken on June 12:

Te-129 (half-life 70 minutes): 230 becquerels/liter, outside the silt fence in front of the Reactor 4 water intake canal.

Te-129 was also found in the deep seawater 8 kilometers off the coast of Minami-Soma City and Onahama on June 7 (pages 27, 28) and June 9 (page 39) separately.

No data on this file on radioactive strontium (89 and 90), which is reported separately. No word ever on plutonium in any water or ocean soil.

1 thought on “Fukushima: Radioactive Tellurium Detected in Seawater at Water Intake”

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.