Workers at Japan’s radiation spewing Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear reactor hope they’ve repaired a leak above one of several new radioactive “hot spot” found on the disaster scene.

Highly contaminated water was found coming from a pipe connecting two massive tanks containing water that had been used to cool the nuclear waste pools.  It was leaking at about one drop every 90 seconds.  Workers tightened 12 bolts to stop the leak and bolstered the repair using special material and plastic tape.

A small pool of water releasing radioactivity of 230 millisieverts per hour was found below it.  That was one of four hotspots found by Fukushima’s operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) just a few hours earlier.

Another one of the hotspots gave off 1,800 millisieverts per hour, enough to kill anyone exposed to it for four hours.  Less than two weeks earlier, TEPCO said the same spot tested at 100 millisieverts per hour. 

What could have accounted for the 18-fold, life-or-death difference?

TEPCO now says the first measurement was done with equipment that could only reach up to 100 millisieverts.

Japan's government is moving to take a more direct role in the clean-up of the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant, as concerns grow over TEPCO’s two and a half years of incorrect assessments and obfuscation of the actually severity of the crisis.