More bad news from Fukushima.

Plutonium was found leaking from the nuclear plant.

Here is what Reuters reported.

Quote Originally Posted by Reuters
In a briefing around midnight in Tokyo, the vice-president of under-pressure TEPCO apologized for making people even more worried with the announcement -- but stressed the traces of plutonium 238, 239 and 240 were not dangerous.

"Plutonium found this time is at a similar level seen in soil in a regular environment and it's not at the level that's harmful to human health," Sakae Muto told reporters.
More lies and deceptions. How can plutonium 238, 239 and 240 be present in soil in a regular environment since they are all man-made elements. Only plutonium-244 exists naturally on Earth, but at such infinitesimal levels that there is no way it can compare with what was found at Fukushima-Daiichi. Do they really take people for idiots ?

And on top of that they claim that the level of plutonium detected was not harmful to health. What newsworthy, nuclear-incident-related level of plutonium is not harmful to health ? Plutonium is about the most harmful radioactive element there is. Contrarily to iodine, which "only" causes thyroid cancer (one of the most treatable cancer), plutonium is absorbed by the bones and liver, causing two of the most deadly and painful kinds of cancer. If that wasn't bas enough, plutonium-239 has a half life of 24,000 years, which means, as anyone who has been to secondary school knows, that its present level of radioactivity will only have halved in 24,000 years. In comparison, iodine has a half-life raging from a few hours to two months, depending on the isotope. Put differently, if only iodine had contaminated the region, it would be safe to live there fairly quickly. If plutonium has been released in the environment, the area is pretty much condemned forever. I am flabbergasted at how Tepco can downplay the gravity of the situation like this. What credibility have they got left ?