Per Cubic Centimeter

Per Cubic Centimeter

From NHK:

Radiation high at No.3 reactor pool

The operator of the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has detected high levels of radioactive materials in the spent fuel pool of the No.3 reactor at the plant.

Tokyo Electric Power Company examined a water sample from the pool on Sunday. The sample contained 140,000 becquerels of radioactive cesium-134 per cubic centimeter, 150,000 becquerels of cesium-137, and 11,000 becquerels of iodine-131.

None of these substances were detected during an inspection on March 2nd, before the accident triggered by the March 11th disaster.

TEPCO says these substances may have come from damaged fuel rods in the reactor rather than the damaged spent fuel rods in the pool, because it has detected radioactive iodine, which has a short half-life. Radioactive substances such as iodine are generated during nuclear fission inside a reactor.

The company says the radioactive substances may have become attached to debris and entered the pool together.

Footage from the pool at the No.3 reactor on Sunday showed debris, believed to have been caused by a hydrogen explosion, scattered all over the interior of the reactor building.

The levels of radiation detected are almost the same as those detected in April in water samples in the fuel pool of the No.2 reactor.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011 20:22 +0900 (JST)

Incidentally, did you know that there are 1 million cubic centimeters in a cubic meter?

Each cubic meter of water in the reactor 3 spent fuel pool contains 140 billion becquerel of Cs-134, 150 billion becquerel of Cs-137 and 11 billion becquerel of I-131.  Very high doses emanating from the water there.