Radioactive fallout forces evacuation of babies and pregnant women from Iitate village

[Barrett808]

FUKUSHIMA, Japan, April 6 (Kyodo) – The village of Iitate near a crippled nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture plans to evacuate pregnant women, toddlers and babies amid a growing doubt among villagers about the government's radiation safety instructions, village officials said Wednesday. ...

Radioactive fallout forces evacuation of babies and pregnant women from Iitate village


Background:

26 March 2011 (Asahi Shimbun) -- Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, crippled by the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, has discharged more radiation than the infamous Three Mile Island nuclear plant in the United States, according to calculations by the central government. ...

Calculations made by experts place the level of soil contamination in some locations at levels comparable to those found after the Chernobyl accident in 1986. ...

Cesium-137 levels of 163,000 becquerels per kilogram of soil was detected in Iitate, Fukushima Prefecture, about 40 kilometers northwest of the Fukushima plant, on March 20. That was the highest figure in the prefecture.

According to Tetsuji Imanaka, an associate professor of nuclear engineering at the Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute, if the Iitate figure was converted to one square meter, the figure would be 3.26 million becquerels.

After the Chernobyl accident, residents who lived in regions with cesium levels of 550,000 becquerels ore more per square meter were forcibly moved elsewhere.

"Iitate has reached a contamination level in which evacuation is necessary," Imanaka said. "Radiation is still being released from the Fukushima plant. The areas of high contamination can be considered to be on par with Chernobyl." ...

Radioactive fallout from Fukushima is comparable to Chernobyl

[Botany]

1. Iitate is 25 miles upwind from Fukushima daiichi

It is also only a few miles the city of Fukushima which has 250,000 people.