nuclear-news

High radiation levels remain in parts of Fukushima’s evacuated areas

Greenpeace critical of Japan radiation Sky News, 10 Oct 13 Japan’s efforts to scour areas around Fukushima have been insufficient, pressure group Greenpeace said Thursday, as the government considers letting some residents return to homes near the crippled nuclear plant.

The environmental group said tests it had carried out inside the original 20-kilometre no-go zone around the plant showed that high levels of radiation remain.

Local and national officials are mulling lifting the exclusion order in parts of Tamura city, allowing people to return to homes they abandoned more than two and a half years ago. They cite lowered pollution levels in the wake of large cleaning operations.

A recent Greenpeace survey found that decontamination programmes have been effective for houses and many parts of major routes in the city.

But some lesser-used public roads, large areas of farmland and mountain areas still have high contamination levels, said Jan Vande Putte, Greenpeace radiation protection adviser.

He said the cleaned houses and roads were like ‘islands’ and ‘corridors’ in an otherwise polluted region.

It would be ‘unrealistic’ to ask residents to stay off contaminated roads and farmland, he said.

‘They can be exposed to high levels of radiation’ if they returned home, he said.

Decontamination ‘is a sticky problem. It is very difficult’, he told a press briefing……. http://www.skynews.com.au/world/article.aspx?id=913978

October 11, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment, Fukushima 2013, Japan