Japan radiation reaches record highs
JAPAN: The nuclear crisis at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi power plant is
expected to worsen as radiation levels reach record highs in seawater
near the nuclear site.
Authorities say radioactive iodine has soared to its highest level
yet, nearly 4,400 times higher than the safe level.
They also say radioactivity nearly 10,000 times above the normal
limit has been detected in groundwater beneath Fukushima’s No. 2
reactor, Reuters reported.
The Government has ordered the evacuation of about 200,000 people
living in a 20-kilometer (12-mile) radius around the plant.
The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) now says that
unsafe levels of radiation have appeared 40km away from the site in the
village of Iitate.
An abnormally high level of radioactive caesium has now appeared in
beef from the area.
Police sources say radiation fears have prevented officials from
collecting about one thousand bodies of victims of the March 11 mega
quake and tsunami.
The bodies are scattered within the 20km evacuation zone around the
troubled Fukushima nuclear plant on Japan’s northeast coastline. Names
of over 150,000 missing people in Japan have been recorded on a website
launched by Google.
The official figure of those missing after the quake stands at
28,000.
Reports from Japan say the President of the Tokyo Electric Power
Company that operates Fukushima nuclear power plant, has been
hospitalized for blood pressure, dizziness and fatigue.
A Chemical Biological Incident Response Force, consisting of 140 US
military radiation safety experts, is now heading to Japan.
The US and Germany are also sending robots into the nuclear plant to
explore and help repair damages. The damage caused by the catastrophe is
likely to exceed $300 billion.
Presstv |