They drink bottled water because the tap water exceeds safety limits and they wear gas masks outside because the air is also hazardous. ![]() Most have elected to remain and live normally while trying to cope with the radiation. Officials have said they should either evacuate or remain in the area but stay indoors. But beyond that distance, the population gets denser.Īn additional 136,000 people live in the voluntary evacuation area 10 kilometers farther out. More than 70,000 people living within the 20-kilometer mandatory evacuation zone have been moved to temporary shelters. ![]() "They wouldn't disagree with the international calculations on what the damage is, but the question is 'is that acceptable' ?"Ī boy wears a face mask at the Shimizu Elementary School in Fukushima.Barnaby notes that as Japan reels from the damage done by last month's earthquake and tsunami, it appears to be trying to limit the population displacement from the Fukushima disaster so as not to add to its multiple problems. "What are saying is that within so many kilometers in our opinion the radiation dose given to the population is acceptable to us in the circumstances," he says. But in practice, the application of these international standards can vary with different governments and different situationsĪccording to British-based nuclear physicist Frank Barnaby, Japan's setting a distance of 30 kilometers as the safety zone is a perfect example. On the scientific side, there are globally accepted baselines for radiation safety that dictate what levels of exposure are hazardous. The answer combines both science and politics and that is one reason why it seems to vary so much from country to country. So, how far from Fukushima is a safe distance? The trace levels are not harmful to health but have further raised public concerns over how far radioactive particles can travel from Fukushima. China's Health Ministry has found traces of radioactivity in spinach in three Chinese provinces and South Korean media have reported fears about contaminated rainfall.įarther away, India has banned all food imports from Japan for three months, and Russia has banned imports of Japanese fish.Īnd around the world, scientists have measured trace-level increases of radioactive iodine in the atmosphere. Neighboring South Korea and China say they are worried about radioactive fallout moving westward over their territories. They calculated that distance based on the possibility that the situation at the stricken nuclear power plant could suddenly worsen and more radiation might be released.īut if nobody seems to agree on how far the radiation threat extends around Fukushima itself, there are just as many opinions over how far the danger stretches beyond northeastern Japan.Ī worker wearing a protective suit walks near the damaged pit at the crippled Fukushima plant's No. Meanwhile, the United States, Britain, and Canada have recommended that its nationals keep a full 80 kilometers away from Fukushima. It recommended that Japan extend the hazard zone but didn't say by how much. Last week, the IAEA found radiation exceeding its safety standards in a village 40 kilometers from Fukushima. The first 20 kilometers of that is a mandatory evacuation zone, the last 10 kilometers a voluntary one.īut the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), plus several other countries say that's too short a distance. Japan has set a distance of just 30 kilometers. ![]() Four weeks into Japan's nuclear crisis, nobody seems able to agree on how far the danger of radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station extends.
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