nuclear-news

Radiation monitoring of Japan’s forest monkeys

Monkeys to Track Fallout at Japan’s Fukushima Nuclear Plant, ABC News, 12 Dec 11 Wild monkeys have been enlisted by Japanese researchers to obtain detailed readings of radiation levels in forests near the troubled Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Plant.
Professor Takayuki Takahashi and his team of scientists at Fukushima University are fitting nearly 1000 animals with radiation meters and GPS transmitters in order to track the spread of radiation leaked from
March’s nuclear accident, the worst in Japan’s history…. Researchers also hope to monitor the amount of radiation exposure in wild animals. The project is being launched in partnership with Minamisoma, one of the cities hardest hit by the nuclear disaster. Radiation fears
prompted more than half of its 67,000 residents to evacuate, in Fukushima’s aftermath. A third of the city sits inside the 12 mile government mandated exclusion zone, deemed too dangerous for people to live in. In the larger Fukushima prefecture, more than 80,000
residents have been displaced by the nuclear disaster.
With 14 monkey colonies in Minamisoma’s forests alone, Takahashi is hopeful his researchers will get a broad spectrum of readings, from the ground level to the highest trees.  The collars equipped with radiation meters and GPS transmitters will be detachable by remote
control, but the plan is to keep the devices on the animals, for decades. Takahashi says his team will begin monitoring levels next spring.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2011/12/monkeys-to-track-fallout-at-japans-fukushima-nuclear-plant/

December 14, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment, Japan