Radiation readings at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant grounds were unchanged Monday after workers opened the doors to reactor unit 2.
The doors were opened gradually between Sunday night and Monday morning, Japan time, to minimize airborne dust. Readings on plant grounds afterward did not show a rise in radiation, the Asahi Shimbun reported.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. undertook the operation to reduce high humidity levels complicating work in the unit. The utility reported humidity has dropped from nearly 100 percent to below 70 percent. Four workers took readings inside the unit after the doors opened. The next step will be to adjust gauges in the building as part of efforts to control reactors that lost safety systems following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
TEPCO told regulators it expected opening the doors to unit 2 would release 1.6 billion becquerels of radioactive contaminants, with radiation levels on plant grounds increasing by a maximum of 0.0014 microsieverts per hour. Earlier, TEPCO has opened the external doors to the unit 1 reactor building, which was expected to release less radiation into the environment than unit 2.