TEPCO putting radioactive water in the sea

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Tokyo Electric Power Company has begun disposing of wastewater containing low-level radioactive substances into the sea from the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in a bid to stabilize the plant.

TEPCO began releasing a total of 10,000 tons of wastewater on Monday evening. It also started disposing of 1,500 tons of low-level contaminated groundwater near the Number 5 and Number 6 reactors later in the evening.

The utility company says the release is aimed at making room in facilities to store the more highly contaminated water from the Number 2 reactor's turbine building and a nearby tunnel, as the contaminated water is hampering restoration work.

The company says the level of iodine-131 in the wastewater is about 100 times the legal limit. But the plant operator says that if a person were to eat fish and seaweed taken from near the plant every day for a year, the radiation exposure would be 0.6 millisieverts. It adds that the annual permissible level for the general public is one millisievert.

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/04_34.html

Link to Reuters story:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/04/japan-idUSL3E7F42CD20110404