High radiation levels on land near Fukushima plant
The education and science ministry has identified land near the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant where radiation levels are higher than IAEA-designated emergency levels.
The ministry released a map on Monday showing the contaminated land. It conducted a survey for radioactive cesium at some 2,200 locations mainly in Fukushima Prefecture in June and July.
The map shows 29.46 million bequerels of cesium on one-square-meter land in a location in Okuma Town, several hundreds meters from the nuclear plant.
The figure exceeds the IAEA standard of 10 million bequerels per square meter under which people are required to temporarily evacuate.
Two other monitoring spots northwest of the nuclear plant were also found contaminated with radioactive cesium exceeding the IAEA level.
In the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, people in areas contaminated with 555,000 bequerels of cesium per one square meter were required to temporarily relocate.
The latest survey has identified contaminated land outside the government’s no-entry zones in Fukushima Prefecture that is similar to Chernobyl.
Monday, August 29, 2011 21:43 +0900 (JST)
