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Japanese parents fight government over changed radiation limits

Parents and lobbyists are scheduled to meet bureaucrats today to hand over a petition demanding the withdrawal of the new radiation standard

Parents fight back over raised radiation limits, Independent, 2 May 11, By David McNeill in Fukushima City, Thousands of parents living near Japan’s stricken Fukushima Daiichi power plant have condemned a government decision to lift radiation limits for schools in the area by 20 times, saying the move is based on incomplete science and could put children in danger.

The decision, which has also prompted the resignation of a government adviser, has been condemned as political expediency. Toshiso Kosako, the adviser who resigned on Friday, denounced the Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, for his “whack-a-mole” policies on the crisis. A tearful Mr Kosako said: “The government has belittled laws and taken decisions only for the present moment.”

He said new guidelines raising the acceptable annual radiation exposure in Fukushima Prefecture’s elementary schools from one to 20 millisieverts “are inconsistent with internationally commonsensical figures” and were “determined by the administration to serve its interests”.

But it is the voices of local parents that are likely to prove hardest for the government to ignore. Takayuki Sasaki, a baker and father of two, barely knew what radiation was two months ago. Today, he thinks about little else. “I’ve sent my kids to my wife’s family in Tokyo,” he says. “I told her to stay there till it’s safe but who knows when that will be? We’ve all been left in the dark.

……. Parents and lobbyists are scheduled to meet bureaucrats today to hand over a petition demanding the withdrawal of the new radiation standard. Activists say the country’s Nuclear Safety Commission rubber-stamped the school radiation limit after just two hours of closed-doors discussion, without consulting anyone outside the government.

Mr Kosako also criticised the government for stalling the release of simulations showing the spread of radiation from the Fukushima plant……. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/parents-fight-back-over-raised-radiation-limits-2277713.html

May 2, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | - Fukushima 2011, Japan, politics