U.S.-Japan joint survey reveals high radiation beyond evacuation zone

Asahi.com ^ | 5/8/2011 | HISAE SATO

[ransomnote]

The first map of ground surface contamination within 80 kilometers of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant shows radiation levels higher in some municipalities than those in the mandatory relocation zone around the Chernobyl plant.

The map, released May 6, was compiled from data from a joint aircraft survey undertaken by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and the U.S. Department of Energy.

It showed that a belt of contamination, with 3 million to 14.7 million becquerels of cesium-137 per square meter, spread to the northwest of the nuclear plant.

After the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, those living in areas with more than 555,000 becquerels of cesium-137 per square meter were forced to relocate. However, the latest map shows that accumulated radioactivity exceeded this level at some locations outside the official evacuation zones, including the village of Iitate and the town of Namie.

"I am surprised by the extent of the contamination and the vast area it covers," said Tetsuji Imanaka, assistant professor of nuclear engineering at the Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute. "This (map) will be useful in planning evacuation zones as well as the decontamination of roads and public facilities."

[Revel]

I never would have guessed before this incident just how heartless and corrupt the Japanese government really is.
Many people are going to die over the next decades from cancers and the likes from being exposed to very high levels of radiation. Birth defects will be in huge numbers too.

The Japanese government set out immediately to cover up the news on this issue. To suppress the factual news, and to replace it with full on propaganda. You will hardly find mention of this disaster in the Japanese news. And you can’t trust anything you do hear. And I don’t trust any of the temperature, pressure and radiation numbers released either.
Any government who can lie to their people and leave them living in a hot zone is one that you can’t trust in any way at all. And Tepco has a proven track record of corruption as well.

[ransomnote]

I agree. I also am regretting how I said in early march ‘If anyone can deal with this - it’s the Japanese’. I had this image of precision engineering/out of the box thinking etc. without factoring in the industry, the stakes, the players etc. TEPCO won’t even meet with foreign journalists or independent reporters so they have a lock on the media which appears to enjoy it’s hefty advertising fees from TEPCO.
I hope they clean up the worst of the pieces of radioactive material before typhoon season hits.

There are a few more ‘issues’ with Japanese reactors that I posted here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2717277/posts

[Moleman]

It’s not just their government, it’s how the Japanees culture is. They will never tell of bad news. I worked for a traditional Japaneese company before and will NEVER do that again.