TOKYO, Japan -- The operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant says it has detected record radiation levels at the facility.
Lethal levels of radiation were measured Monday at the bottom of a ventilation tower on the grounds between reactors No. 1 and 2, Tokyo Electric Power Company spokesman Naoki Tsunoda.
The radiation levels are more than double the previous record high that was reached in early June after the devastating quake and tsunami.
The radiation levels measured at 10 sieverts are high enough that a single 60-minute dose would be fatal within weeks.
Lethal levels of radiation were measured Monday at the bottom of a ventilation tower on the grounds between reactors No. 1 and 2, Tokyo Electric Power Company spokesman Naoki Tsunoda.
The radiation levels are more than double the previous record high that was reached in early June after the devastating quake and tsunami.
The radiation levels measured at 10 sieverts are high enough that a single 60-minute dose would be fatal within weeks.
The Fukushima Daiichi disaster occurred when a 15-meter (48-foot) tsunami inundated the coastal plant after northern Japan's historic March 11 earthquake.
The flooding knocked out the cooling systems for the three operating reactors and their associated spent fuel pools, causing the reactors to overheat and hydrogen gas explosions that blew apart the building housing reactors No. 1 and 3.
Another hydrogen blast is believed to have damaged the inside of the No. 2 reactor, while engineers are struggling to manage an estimated 100,000 tons of highly contaminated water that was used to cool the reactors during the emergency.
Tokyo Electric Power Company projects the situation won't be fully over until sometime between October and January. The disaster has caused Japan to rethink its commitment to nuclear energy, and Germany has since announced plans to abandon atomic power entirely by 2022.
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