Utility retests reactor water after radioactivity spikes

Setback at nuclear plant?STORY HIGHLIGHTSNEW: TEPCO is retesting water after earlier results were questionedWork has been halted in the No. 2 turbine building, but continues elsewhereRadiation levels in seawater near the plant rises to 1,850 times above normalOfficial says there's "concern," but no expectation of impact on human's health Tokyo (CNN) -- The owner of the earthquake-damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is re-examining test results that showed extremely high levels of a form of radioactive iodine after Japan's nuclear safety agency questioned the figures, the utility said Sunday.

The Tokyo Electric Power Company reported earlier Sunday that water pooling in the turbine building of the plant's No. 2 reactor was 10 million times more radioactive than normal contained a sharply elevated level of iodine-134, a short-lived isotope produced in a nuclear reaction. But Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency called those figures into question, and Tokyo Electric announced Sunday night that it would retest the water.

High radiation levels persisted in the Pacific Ocean waters near the seaside power plant, however, with one monitoring post reporting levels 1,850 times normal Sunday.

NISA spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama said the surface water from the No. 2 turbine building showed 1,000 millisieverts of radiation per hour -- more than 330 times the dose an average person in a developed country receives per year, and four times the limit Japan's health ministry has set for emergency workers struggling to prevent a meltdown at the damaged plant.

There was no indication of harm done to the two people working in and around the No. 2 reactor when the initial test results became known, stopping work. And Tokyo Electric said crews continued working in other buildings in the No. 2 reactor's complex, including a control room, which got power and light for the first time in weeks Saturday afternoon.

Iodine-134 has a radioactive half-life of 53 minutes, compared to eight days for another reactor byproduct, iodine-131, that is far more common. Nishiyama said the amount of iodine-134 compared to iodine-131 was far greater than typical, calling those results into question.

"We tend to feel that the data that was made public by TEPCO today is a bit strange and a bit odd," Nishiyama said. "And I have been told TEPCO is going to re-evaluate the numbers and is going to make public the results of their re-evaluation."

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