Expert: Radioactive materials reached Kanto (Tokyo region) via 2 routes

[kristopher]

Expert: Radioactive materials reached Kanto via 2 routes
October 24, 2011

Radioactive materials from the damaged Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant reached the Kanto region mainly via two routes, but they largely skirted the heavily populated areas of Tokyo and Kanagawa Prefecture, an expert said.

Relatively high levels of radioactive cesium were detected in soil in northern Gunma and Tochigi prefectures and southern Ibaraki Prefecture after the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant was damaged by the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami. But contamination was limited in Tokyo and Kanagawa Prefecture, where 22 million people live.

Hiromi Yamazawa, a professor of environmental radiology at Nagoya University, said the first radioactive plume moved through Ibaraki Prefecture and turned northward to Gunma Prefecture between late March 14 and the afternoon of March 15.

Large amounts of radioactive materials were released during that period partly because the core of the No. 2 reactor at the Fukushima No. 1 plant was exposed.

"The soil was likely contaminated...
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ2011102415591



For comparison with the map below, New Jersey, with the highest population density in the US (13X national average) has 1030 people per square mile with 90% of them living in "urban" areas.