SENDAI, Japan (AFP) – Japan said Tuesday it was on "maximum alert" over a crippled nuclear plant where radioactive water has halted repair work and plutonium has been found in the soil. [...]
The water out of reactor two has measured 1,000 millisieverts per hour -- four times the recently-hiked total exposure limit for emergency staff, and a level that can cause radiation sickness with nausea and vomiting in an hour.
Adding to the nuclear fears, embattled operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said plutonium had been detected in soil samples that were taken a week ago at five spots in the plant.
Nuclear safety agency spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama said the plutonium data suggested "certain damage to fuel rods", Kyodo News reported.
This is like a nuclear BP situation. They simply can't control this thing, and it just seems to get increasingly more tragic.
Meanwhile, trace amounts of iodine-131 from Fukushima has reached Hawaii. That'd be part of America. A state, specifically.