nuclear-news

Anxiety and fear, as Japanese realise the radiation fallout effects of Fukushima

VIDEO  http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/06/08/6815027-japans-radiation-fallout-a-monster-you-cant-see?chromedomain=dailynightly  Japan’s radiation fallout ‘a monster you can’t see   World Blog Robert Bazell 8 June  “….as one gets closer to the reactor site, it’s easy to see how much human damage a radiation leak can cause.  As one engineer told me, “When nuclear reactors fail, they REALLY fail.”….. Levels in the air are two to 50 times the normal level. Radiation levels are high even in populous cities of 400,000 or more people – such as Koriyama and Fukushima City – each about 35 miles from the reactors. Most of the radiation escaped in the first few days of the accident and was deposited on the ground –in school yards, on people’s homes and in massive amounts in the farmlands that make up most of the area.  The government monitors the levels in the air at seven sites in Fukushima Prefecture, but radiation falls in particles, and a very high levels can remain in one place, while just a few feet away there’s very little.

No one knows what the long-term effects of the radiation will be. The health dangers of elevated but relatively low levels of radiation remains one of the biggest disputes in medicine. Residents worry about the effects on themselves, and on their children especially.  Farmers fear the crops they are planting this spring will never come to market after the fall harvest.  And everyone knows there is no end in sight to the crisis.  As Hideo Hanai, a cattle farmer, told me “It’s like being chased by a monster that you can’t see.” http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/06/08/6815027-japans-radiation-fallout-a-monster-you-cant-see?chromedomain=dailynightly

June 9, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment, Japan