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RT – “Outdoor radiation levels have reached their highest at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant, warns the operator company. Radiation found in an area near a steel pipe that connects reactor buildings could kill an exposed person in 20 minutes, local media reported.

The plant’s operator and the utility responsible for the clean-up Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) detected record radiation levels on a duct which connects reactor buildings and the 120 meter tall ventilation pipe located outside on Friday. TEPCO measured radiation at eight locations around the pipe with the highest estimated at two locations – 25 Sieverts per hour and about 15 Sieverts per hour, the company said.

This is the highest level ever detected outside the reactor buildings, according to local broadcaster NHK. Earlier TEPCO said radiation levels of at least 10 Sieverts per hour were found on the pipe.

The ventilation pipe used to conduct radioactive gasses after the nuclear disaster may still contain radioactive substances, TEPCO added.

The earthquake in March 2011 triggered a tsunami that hit Japan’s coast, damaging the Fukushima Daiichi plant and causing the meltdown of three nuclear reactors. The crippled reactors burnt through the concrete basement while the water used to cool them has been leaking into the soil and contaminating the ground water on the premises of the nuclear facility. The radioactive water stored at the site has been seeping into the Pacific Ocean.

The water leakage has raised health concerns among Japan’s neighbors. For instance, South Korea has been testing fish caught off the country’s coast, according to the country’s fisheries ministry.” Read more.

Flashback: Yale Professor: Fukushima Is ‘A World-Wide Disaster Of The Most Epic Proportions Just Waiting To Happen’ – “A Yale Professor is compelling the world to wake up from its nuclear slumber and face some cold-hard facts, ‘All of humanity will be threatened for thousands of years’ if the Fukushima Unit 4 pool can’t be kept cool. Your worries about eating cesium-contaminated fish from the Pacific Ocean are grounded in fact, but this is a world-wide disaster of the most epic proportions just waiting to happen.” Read more.

Flashback: Worst Nuclear Storm The World Has Seen Is Just An Earthquake Away, Health Consequences ‘Are Beyond Where Science Has Ever Gone Before’ – “More than a year after a devastating earthquake and tsunami triggered a massive nuclear disaster, experts are warning that Japan isn’t out of the woods yet and the worst nuclear storm the world has ever seen could be just one earthquake away from reality. The troubled Reactor 4 at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is at the centre of this potential catastrophe… A magnitude 7 or 7.5 earthquake would likely fracture that pool, and disaster would ensue …” Read more.

Flashback: From Horrible To Horrendous: You Won’t Believe What’s Going On At Fukushima Right Now – “Tepco Has No Idea How to Stabilize the Reactors You’ve heard bad news about Fukushima recently. But it’s worse than you know. The Wall Street Journal notes that radiation levels outside the plant are likely higher than inside the reactor … The reactors have lost containment, and experts have no idea where the nuclear cores are. And the problems which have been detected at ground-level are only the tip of the iceberg.” Read more.

Flashback: Expert: Fukushima Disaster 1,000 Times Worse Than IAEA Estimate – “Arnie Gundersen, chief engineer at Fairwinds Associates, has called the new estimate that the Japanese nuclear tragedy released 20-30 times the amount of cesium that has been reported. Calling this a ‘game changer,’ he has estimated 100,000 deaths more than widely released Fukushima data. ‘When there’s no liquid inside the containment, there’s no capture of the cesium. So whatever cesium was inside that containment was leaking out of the containment.” Read more.