Record radiation levels detected at Fukushima reactor
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TOKYO -
TEPCO, the operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, said Wednesday record amounts of radiation had been detected in the basement of reactor number one, further hampering clean-up operations after last year's earthquake and tsunami.
TEPCO took samples from the basement after lowering a camera and surveying instruments through a drain hole in the basement ceiling.
Radiation levels above radioactive water in the basement reached up to 10,300 millisievert an hour, a dose that will kill humans within a short time after making them sick within minutes.
The annual allowed dose for workers at the stricken site would be reached in only 20 seconds.
"Workers cannot enter the site and we must use robots for the demolition," said TEPCO.
The Fukushima operator said that radiation levels were 10 times higher than those recorded at the plant's two other crippled reactors, numbers two and three.
That was due to the poor state of the nuclear fuel in the reactor compared to that in the two others.
The meltdown at the core of three of Fukushima's six reactors occurred after the March 11, 2011 earthquake and ensuing massive tsunami shut off the power supply and cooling system.
Demolition of the three reactors as well as the plant's number four unit was expected to take 40 years and will need the use of new technologies.
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Hollywood superstar Brad Pitt made a trip to the birthplace of Frank Sinatra on Wednesday night to promote his new movie, "World War Z."
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The parolee shot and killed along with a Hofstra University student by police won praise from a state parole panel in 2011 before his conditional release from prison.
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