nuclear-news

IRSN News Magazine – Fukushima special report (pdf): “The Fukushima disaster far exceeded any crisis previously encountered”

Fukushima Accident — Contamination of People and the Environment, IRSN (emphasis added):

• 6:45 in — Didier Champion, IRSN: “Japanese authorities… measured… 15 million Bq/m2 for Cs-137 for example. This isquite comparable to that we see in the most contaminated areas around the Chernobyl accident.”
• 7:00 in — Researchers have mapped the contamination of soil… It goes far beyond the evacuation zone, and extends to more than 80 miles away — agricultural and urban areas inhabited by hundreds of thousands of people.
• Watch video here

Jacques Repussard, IRSN Director General (at 5:15 in): “These are such serious accidents covering so many aspects of life in a country… The ability of associations, of local elected officials, to act in an intelligent and in an efficient manner, is a great resource. And also a factor in social cohesion in a disuniting situation, wherethere is a risk of destruction of the society.” >> Watch video here

Fukushima Accident — Response of the Japanese Society, IRSN (at 1:30 in): 60 kilometers from the power plant, farmers organized themselves collectively [and] turned to a researcher in bioscience from Dokkyu Medical University [Dr. Shingo Kimura]… They travel the region to measure contamination on roadsides, in fields, and even within homes… Along this road the dosimeter shows a gamma wave radiation level at more than 50 microsieverts per hour — a tremendous level akin to the highest contamination from Chernobyl. [0.03 microsieverts per hourbefore 3/11] >> Watch video here