Feature story - March 30, 2011
A group of Greenpeace radiation experts, returning from an initial assessment of contamination from the crisis-striken Fukushima nuclear plant, announced plans to expand their monitoring in the region, and called Japanese government to protect residents by widening the official evacuation zone.
Iitate, Fukushima Prefecture Japan, 27 March 2011 - A Greenpeace team member holds a Geiger counter displaying radiation levels of 8.39 micro Sievert per hour. Radiation levels found by the Greenpeace monitoring team are far above internationally recommended limits - people living here would receive the yearly maximum dose of radioactivity within a few days, yet have not yet been evacuated.
The monitoring team found radiation levels high enough to require evacuation in several locations to the northwest of the crisis-stricken Fukushima/Daiichi nuclear plant, including Iitate village, 40km from the plant and 20km beyond the official evacuation zone. [See slideshow of radiation monitoring]
“While our measurements verified the authorities’s data, those same authorities are failing to protect people, or to provide them with adequate information”, said Greenpeace radiation safety expert Jan van de Putte, at today’s press briefing in Tokyo. “It is our moral obligation to report our findings now. Anyone spending just a few days in these contaminated areas would be exposed the maximum allowable annual dose of radiation, yet most people are still living in towns like Iitate.”
“The government must act immediately to evacuate the most contaminated areas, with a priority for children and pregnant women. We will return to the Fukushima area this week to continue bearing witness and providing independent analysis to the public of the impacts caused by the nuclear crisis.”
The second leg of the Greenpeace monitoring work will see the radiation monitoring team spend until mid-April making a more detailed assessment of risks to the population outside the evacuation zone, including the testing milk and vegetables and collecting samples for analysis.
Greenpeace also responded positively to an announcement today by Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano that Japan would embrace clean energy as part of the country’s reconstruction strategy.
"Greenpeace welcomes the government’s decision to choose a clean energy future for Japan”, said Greenpeace Japan climate and energy campaigner Hisayo Takada, who also spoke during the briefing.
“However, if Japan wants to avoid another Fukushima crisis, it should also immediately drop plans to build nine reactors by 2020, and instead focus investment on energy efficiency and the harnessing safe and secure renewable energy sources, such as photovoltaic.”