02 October 2013 (12:01 UTC-07 Tango)/27 Dhu ‘l-Qa’da 1434/10 Mehr 1392/28 Ren-Xu (8th month) 4711

Tokyo Electric Power Company has revised leaked radiation levels, reported just yesterday.  TEPCo reported that in September at least four metric tons of highly contaminated rainwater overflowed from a storage tank, into the ocean.  They initially reported the radiation levels at 160 becquerels per liter, which is five times the government limits for discharging radioactive water into the Pacific.

Turns out that was the level of radiation outside the storage tank immediately after the rain storms hit.  TEPCo is now reporting that the storage tank itself contains 390 becquerels per liter of radiation, mostly strontium!    TEPCo officials say they don’t understand what caused the drastic increase in radiation levels.

This revelation comes after TEPCo asked Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority to approve the restart of reactors at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa in Niigata Prefecture.  NRA officials responded by implying that TEPCo was trying a Red Herring tactic to distract from the ongoing disaster at Fukushima Daiichi.

TEPCo officials claimed they had “learned hard lessons” from Fukushima Daiichi, but government NRA officials think otherwise.  NRA Chairman Tanaka Shunichi said TEPCo demonstrated insufficient knowledge of radioactive materials, and was being irresponsible in asking for restart of its other nuke reactors.