Radioactivity levels soar in Fukushima Daiichi groundwater, flowing into ocean

A water pump draws groundwater from a well in front of Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant's unit 4 reactor building, in Okuma town, Fukushima prefecture, on June 12, 2013.As reported by Common Dreams, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has admitted that strontium-90 levels exceed legal limits by 33 times, and tritium levels by 8 times, in groundwater less than a hundred feet from the Pacific Ocean. "That is very high," a TEPCO official told a press conference.

Carcinogenic Sr-90 seeks human bone. Tritium (H-3) can lodge anywhere in the human body where hydrogen goes (which is everywhere), and is a clinically proven cause of cancer, birth defects, and genetic damage.

As reported by Agence France Presse, "Subsoil water usually flows out to sea, meaning these two substances could normally make their way into the ocean, possibly affecting marine life and ultimately impacting humans who eat sea creatures."

In fact, bio-concentration of radioactive contaminants means that those at the top of the food chain -- humans -- are most at risk.

Reuters reports that "Testing of groundwater outside the turbine building of reactor No. 2 had shown the level of strontium-90 had increased by more than 100 times between December 2012 and May this year, Toshihiko Fukuda, a general manager at TEPCO, told a news conference...Testing of groundwater showed the reading for strontium-90 increased from 8,6 becquerels to 1 000 becquerels per litre between Dec. 8, 2012 and May 24, Fukuda said. The elevated reading of strontium is more than 30 times the legal limit of 30 becquerels per litre...

About 400 tonnes of groundwater flow daily into the reactor buildings only to be mixed with highly contaminated water that comes from cooling the melted fuel.

It has been trying to convince sceptical local fisherman that it is safe to dump 100 tonnes of the groundwater a day into the ocean to take some of the strain off its storage facilities.

Earlier this month the company reversed a claim that the groundwater flowing into the damaged basements of reactor buildings was not contaminated."