TEPCO's new estimate on how much radioactivity was released from Japanese plants

[thewiseguy]

TEPCO is the Japanese power company running the nuke plants and managing the disaster. They have released numbers estimating the amount of radioactive iodine in all 6 reactor buildings at the time of disaster and how much of that has been released.

Tokyo Electric Power Company estimates that about one percent of the radioactive iodine at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has been released since the March 11th earthquake and tsunami damaged the facility.

The company on Tuesday announced the estimated radioactivity levels of all substances at the plant's 6 reactors and fuel storage pools at the time of the disaster.

The estimates are classified under radioactive noble gases, iodine or other materials.

81 million tera-becquerels of iodine-131 are believed to have existed at the plant.

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/13_03.html

So do the quick math, 1 percent of 81 million tera-becquerels will be: 810,000 tera-becquerels. BUT...earlier in the day the nuclear agency safety office in Japan had said the following:

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said earlier in the day that 130,000 tera-becquerels of iodine-131 have been released so far.

Conclusion: TEPCO has a figure 8 times the number that the Nuclear safety office had released earlier in the day. This is rather interesting since TEPCO also said on Tuesday that the leak in Fukushima plants may be bigger than Chernobyl.

Either TEPCO's numbers are way off or we have an accident on par or even worse than Chernobyl on our hands.