The Art of Understatement

A couple of days ago it was reported that standing water in one of the turbine rooms at Tokyo Electric's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant was measuring more than (TEPCO did not know the exact amount) 1,000 milli sieverts of radiation/ hour (To put that in perspective, 50% of those exposed to 3,000 milli sieverts die within 30 days; and, the amount is at least 4 times the maximum legal limit for plant employees, meaning they could work for no more than 15 mins. and not again at the site for 12 mos.)  Furthermore, it was stated that the 6,000 cubic meter room was full of this water. A TEPCO official was asked to confirm that the room contained 6,000 cubic meters of water measuring at least 1,000 milli sieverts. His reply: "The chance that such is true is not zero."