Tokyo Electric Co. came under further fire Friday after it was revealed that many of its employees at the damaged Fukushima No. 1 power plant have been working without the protection of dosimeters. It also said radioactivity in groundwater under the compound spiked.
Tepco said the groundwater sample, which contains 10,000 times the legal limit of radioactive iodine-131, was taken from one of 15 water tanks buried 15 meters below the compound near the No. 1 reactor. The tanks are designed to collect much of the runoff from rainwater and other sources that sinks into the ground.
The water is usually pumped from the tanks into the sea, but the pumps have been halted to prevent seawater pollution, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said.