Nuclear Meltdown

Radiation 10,000 times normal level hits nuke plant workers

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-03-25 09:54

A handout photo from Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency shows Tokyo Electric Power Co. workers refuelling a portable power generator at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Tomioka, Fukushima Prefecture northeastern Japan March 23, 2011. [Photo/Agencies]

TOKYO - Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said Friday that the three workers were exposed to radiation 10, 000 times the normal level while dealing with an emergency at the No 3 reactor of the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The finding of the high dose of radiation indicated it was likely that part of the fuel in the reactor or the spent fuel stored in the pool in the reactor building had been damaged.

Related readings:  Japan detects radioactivity 30 km off coast  Japan disaster likely to be world's costliest  Hungary nuclear power plant gets pressure test  Japan post-quake economy 'won't collapse'

Two of them were taken to the Fukushima Medical University hospital as their feet were injured, possibly by beta rays, and contaminated by radioactive substances.

The two victims are employees of a partner of TEPCO, owner and operator of the Fukushima nuclear plants. They were laying power cables with their feet submerged in the water of the turbine room at the reactor shortly after midday when the radiation exposure occurred.

They will be transferred later Friday to the National Institute of Radiological Sciences in Chiba City for further examination.

Radioactive leaks were detected after a series of explosions and fires at four of the plant's six reactors following the failure of their cooling functions due to the damaged power supplies in the 9.0 magnitude earthquake that hit Japan on March 11.