Evacuate high radiation area North West Japan, says Caldicott

Dr Helen Caldicott says radiation many times in excess of that which led to the evacuation of Chernobyl has been reported in North-West Japan — so the area should be evacuated immediately.

Fukushima Crisis: Caldicott Says Evacuate North-West Japan, 31 August 2011,by: David Donovan, Independent Australia .………The problem is that the reliability of claims from TEPCO, NISA and the Japanese Government are – as we have reported before – highly questionable. All three bodies have a major credibility crisis, with clear evidence that they colluded to cover up evidence that they knew the nuclear reactors melted down within hours of the March 11 tsunami. The reason for this seems to be that Japan is highly dependent on nuclear energy for its power needs, such that NISA has become more or less a branch of TEPCO – with staff perenially shuffling between the two bodies – and with a Japanese Government that is primarily concerned with talking down the extent of the crisis to avoid widespread panic amongst the Japanese population and allay rumblings about the viability of nuclear power…..

Caldicott calls for North-West Japan evacuation

One of the outspoken critics of the official handling of the crisis and the way the world nuclear industry has attempted to downplay the significance of the Fukushima crisis is the Australian physician and anti-nuclear activist Dr Helen Caldicott.

Dr Caldicott said that the official response to the disaster was slow, that the evacuation was far too limited and that there has been no consistent monitoring of Japanese food and radiation levels in the wake of the Fukushima disaster — something which draws into sharp focus today’s decision on Fukushima rice.

“The number of people evacuated is nothing compared to the total number of people at risk in Fukushima, which has a population of around two million or so in the prefecture,” said Dr Caldicott.

“People left there are at grave risk of developing cancer and leukaemia,” she said.

“Though, mind you, they have already been contaminated by now, but they will continue to be further contaminated because the material has landed on the soil, is concentrated in the food and will continue to be taken in through the air as large amounts of radiation continues to leak out through the three damaged reactors and the four damaged fuel cores.”……

Dr Caldicott said that people living north-west of Fukushima may have been exposed to much more radiation than Chernobyl and should be evacuated at once.

“People are living in areas north-west of Fukushima where there is massive amounts of radiation. The levels at which the Russians evacuated Chernobyl was at 500,000 becquerels; they have measured in these areas levels of between 3.5 and 14.5 million becquerels.”

“And of course children that are living in these areas of contamination are at tremendous risk, as they are very sensitive to the harmful effects of radiation. They all should be evacuated immediately.

“You can’t tell me Japan doesn’t have the money to evacuate millions of people, they do. Unfortunately it all comes down to money. Governments should not be able to put people’s lives at risk just to save money.”

http://www.independentaustralia.net/2011/health/fukushima-crisis-caldicott-says-evacuate-north-west-japan/