The operators of the Fukushima nuclear plant in a reports released on May 24, 2012 said, that the radiation released in the first days of the nuclear disaster was almost 2-1/2 times the amount that was first estimated by the Japanese safety regulators. According to the Tokyo Electric Power, its own analysis conducted in the past year put the amount of radiation in the first three weeks of the accident at one sixth the radiation released during the Chernobyl disaster in the year 1986.
Junichi Matsumoto, the TEPCO spokesperson said in a press conference, “If this information had been available at the time, we could have used it in planning evacuations”. AS the radiation sensors closest to the plant were knocked out by the earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, the utility based its estimate on other monitoring posts as well as the data collected by the Japanese government agencies.
The TEPCO estimated the meltdowns at the three reactors of the Fukishima, released about 900,000 terabecquerels of radioactive substances in to the air during the month of March. Surprisingly this was 2-1/2 times the amount the first estimate by Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial, Safety Agency in April revealed last year. It was also about 17 percent more than the highest estimate provided by the government safety agency.
