nuclear-news

Fukushima radiation will be continuing and a chronic problem

Fukushima contamination is ‘chronic’, IOL News, February 29 2012  By Laurent Banguet, Paris – Radioactive contamination levels from Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant have fallen sharply since the accident but will be “chronic and lasting” for many years, a French watchdog said on Tuesday.

“The initial contamination linked to the accident has greatly declined,” Didier Champion, crisis manager at the Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN), told reporters almost a year after the disaster.

“That doesn’t mean that there won’t be any more, far from it. Today, and for many years to come, we will have a situation of chronic and lasting contamination of the environment.”

It was essential for Japan to maintain vigilant monitoring of fruit, milk, mushrooms, game and fish, Champion said.

“There are risks of chronic exposure at low dosage, and without care this can build up over time,” he warned.

February 29, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general