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Environment
TEPCO Sees No Comparison Between A-Bomb and Fukushima
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Tokyo- (PanOrient News) Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said Saturday it is difficult to comment on a government estimate that the amount of cesium-137 spewed in the nuclear crisis is 168 times that of U.S. atomic bombing in Hiroshima, western Japan, in 1945.
Senior TEPCO official Junichi Matsumoto was quoted by Jiji press as saying it is difficult to comment on the estimate as the accident of a nuclear plant is compared with a weapon.
He noted at a news conference that an atomic bomb is a weapon that is designed to kill people and damage structures by releasing radiation, heat and blast in a short time, he said, adding that it is different in nature from the release of radioactive substances in the Fukushima accident over one week.
Meanwhile, the Environment Ministry said Saturday that incinerator dust and ash with too much radioactive cesium to allow it to be buried has been found at 42 facilities in Tokyo, Chiba, Iwate and three other prefectures as well as Fukushima.
Japanese media said the result of a survey of 469 facilities in 16 prefectures in northeastern and eastern Japan since late June was reported as a panel of experts at the ministry considers how to allow dust and ash containing over 8,000 becquerels of cesium per kilogram to be buried.
The government has already decided to allow dust and ash containing 8,000 becquerels or less of cesium to be buried in waste disposal sites only if residential houses are not built there in the future.
A worker exposed to such a level every day would still not exceed the annual limit of 1 millisievert for ordinary people, according to the ministry.
PanOrient News
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