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Incorrect radioactivity readings given by Fukushima officials were ‘absolutely unforgivable’, says government High levels of radioactivity in water leaking from a reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant resulted from a partial meltdown of fuel rods, Japanese officials have said. Contamination in a pool of water in the turbine building of the No 2 reactor was found to be 100,000 times normal levels, the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power [Tepco], said. On Sunday, the firm had said the figure was 10m times higher , a mistake the government’s chief spokesman, Yukio Edano, said was “absolutely unforgivable”. “On one hand, I do think the workers at the site are getting quite tired,” Edano told reporters. “But these radiation tests are being used for making various decisions on safety … they are absolutely unforgivable.” Edano said partial meltdown had probably occurred when the plant was hit by the tsunami on the 11 March, adding that there was no evidence of subsequent meltdown. Four of the facility’s six reactors have yet to be made safe, while efforts are continuing to pump in fresh water to prevent a far more dangerous full meltdown. “The radiation seems to have come from fuel rods that were partially melted down and came into contact with the water used to cool the reactor,” Edano said. “Steam may have condensed … carrying water from within the containment vessel.” He said priority had been given to ensuring that the contaminated water does not seep into the soil or out to sea. But the government’s nuclear and industrial safety agency [Nisa] said that radioactive iodine-131 of 1,150 times the maximum allowable level had been detected in seawater about 1.5km (1 mile) north of drainage outlets serving four of Fukushima’s reactors. Airborne radiation has been confined to the reactor buildings, and work to remove contaminated water from the structures continued on Monday. Recent setbacks to attempts to cool the reactors, and the realisation that the crisis is far from over, has added to the plight of tens of thousands of people living near the power station. Sakae Muto, Tepco’s vice-president, said: “Regrettably, we don’t have a concrete schedule at the moment to enable us to say how many months, or years it will take [to make the plant safe].” About 70,000 people within a 20km radius of the Fukushima plant were evacuated soon after the disaster, while a further 130,000 people living in a 20-30km radius have been told the stay indoors. The government said it had no plans to widen the evacuation zone. Fukushima prefecture authorities do not have any exact figures on how many people remain in the 20-30km radius. Many have left voluntarily after days of living without essential supplies and services. Media reports say that many truck drivers are refusing to enter the zone, fearing radiation exposure. The government created confusion last week when it advised people in the latter group to consider leaving the area. It insisted the advice was given due to concern for their quality of life, not exposure to harmful levels of radiation. According to public broadcaster NHK, self-defence force personnel in the evacuation zone said that 30 people had yet to leave the 20km evacuation zone, and that 10 had indicated they wanted to remain in their homes. Evacuees have been urged not to return to the area to collect belongings while the plant remains unstable. Residents who return, even temporarily, would expose themselves to “great risk of radiation contamination”, Edano said. “It is very likely that the 20km area is contaminated and there is a significant risk to health,” he said. Local authorities reported, however, that some people had already returned. Others forced out of their homes are coming to terms with the possibility that they may never be able to return. Even if they do, the many residents who depended on Tepco for employment accept that with the plant ruined, their chances of finding work in the area are close to nil. A large number of evacuees have already moved twice since the nuclear crisis began, and could be forced to move on again if the situation worsens and the evacuation zone is expanded. “We’re assuming that in a worse case scenario we might also be subject to evacuation,” Norio Hattori, a disaster official in Nihonmatsu, said, adding that he had sent his own daughter to Tokyo. Some of the refugees are already beginning to accept an early return home is impossible, and that a vast area surrounding the Fukushima plant could be condemned as a nuclear wasteland. “If it had been an earthquake or a tsunami, we could have gone home again, but because it’s radiation, we can’t,” said Tokuko Sujimoto. Her home, in the village of Namie, was so close to the plant she heard the first reactor explosion on 12 March. She said her husband had watched from the roof of their house as a cloud of smoke rose from the reactor, before the couple decided to flee. Yoshimoto Nogi, who had a job at the Fukushima plant until he retired last summer, said he had no hopes of going home this year. “It’s going to take a year or two. It is not a question of months,” said Nogi. “Even if the nuclear plant is stabilised tomorrow, I don’t think the government is going to tell us it is safe to go back any time soon.” Japan disaster Japan Nuclear power Energy Justin McCurry Suzanne Goldenberg guardian.co.uk