[ RadSafe ] NY Times article today on Fukashima

[Egidi, Phil]

Radsters,

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/02/world/asia/02japan.html?_r=1&hp

Radiation levels of 10 Sv/h and the workers are protected by their anti-C's?
Surface activity levels, (Bq/cm^2) I could understand being protected by clothing, but readings in Sv/h?.  It's not just the folks in India who need to clarify their units...
I want a pair of whatever those guys are wearing if they are protected at 10 Sv/h...

<snip>
Tokyo Electric Power, said that workers on Monday afternoon had found an area near Reactors No. 1 and 2, where radiation levels exceeded their measuring device's maximum reading of 10 sieverts per hour - a fatal dose for humans.
<snip>
The company said the workers who found the reading were safely protected by antiradiation clothing. Tokyo Electric said it has closed off an area of several yards around where the lethal radiation level was found. The company said this would not hamper efforts to build a new cooling system and remove contaminated water.

The plant has continued to spew radiation since the disaster, though levels have been dropping. The operator is working to install a new makeshift cooling system by early next year that will allow it to finally shut down the plant's three damaged reactors.

That effort includes removing thousands of tons of highly contaminated water from the reactor buildings. On Monday, Tokyo Electric also said it will begin constructing a new wall that will extend some 60 feet underground to prevent radioactive groundwater from seeping into the nearby Pacific Ocean.


Phil Egidi
CDPHE
Don't shoot, I just pass 'em on...