Timeline of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster of caesium-137 by the Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics journal—an estimate about 42 percent of that released into the atmosphere in the Chernobyl explosion in 1986. Caesium-137 has a half-life of 30 years. TEPCO reports the completion of a cover for the reactor unit 1, which is 54 metres high, 47 metres wide and 42 metres deep. The cover has a built-in ventilation system that is supposed to filter radioactive material. Boric acid is injected into reactor number 2 after the discovery of xenon in its containment vessel. The presence of xenon may be an indication that a self-sustained fission reaction
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster On 13 February 2014, TEPCO reported 37 kBq (1.0 microcurie) of caesium-134 and 93 kBq (2.5 microcuries) of caesium-137 were detected per liter of groundwater sampled from a monitoring well. Dust particles gathered 4 km from the reactors in 2017 included microscopic nodules of melted core samples encased in caesium. After decades of exponential decline in ocean caesium from weapons testing fallout, radioactive isotopes of caesium in the Sea of Japan increased after Fukushima from 1.5 mBq/L to about 2.5 mBq/L and are still rising as of 2018, while those just off the western coast of Japan have declined. According