Corporate Incompetence: TEPCo announces reduction in contamination, then finds more contamination!

01 August 2011, Tokyo Electric Power Company announced a drop in cesium and iodine flooding into the Pacific Ocean, from Fukushima Daiichi.

TEPCo claims cesium 134 and 137, in water leaking from reactor 3, have remained steady since Friday.  Iodine 131, in water leaking from reactor 2, has stopped.

At the height of contaminated water emission, cesium 134 hit 20,000 becquerels per cubic centimeter, while cesium 137 was 17 times the official safe limit.

Iodine 131, from reactor 2, had hit 7.5 million times the official safe limit.

But along with TEPCo’s announcment that radioactive water was dropping, they discovered a building flooded with highly radioactive water.

A storage building was found to be flooded with 700 tons of water.  That water contains 19,000 becquerels of cesium 134 per cubic centimeter, and 22,000 becquerels of cesium 137.  And, not surprisingly, TEPCo officials say they’re trying to figure out where it came from.