24 May 2012, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCo) is now estimating that 900,000 terabecquerels of radioactive iodine-131 and cesium-137 have spewed from Reactor 1 and Reactor 3, from March to September, 2011!
That’s an estimate that’s as much as 80% higher than official Japanese government (Nuclear Safety Commission, and the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency) estimates!
TEPCo based its estimate on samples taken near the GE designed nuclear disaster reactors. However, the results from air samples were only from March 12 to 31, 2011! The water samples were from March 26 to September 30, 2011! In other words it’s not up to date!
1 terabecquerel = 1.0 × 10+12 becquerels
Becquerel is an internationally accepted measurement for a unit of radioactivity, equal to one nuclear decay or other nuclear transformation per second. Named after Antoine Henri Becquerel.
1 terabecquerel = 27 curies
Curie is a non-internationally accepted way to measure radiation, named after Marie and Pierre Curie. 1000 Curies of a radioisotope can produce serious health effects after only a few minutes of exposure.