Radioactive fallout in Japan far worse than expected
"I was more than shocked," said Nakamura, 74, who, like other tea farmers in Kanagawa has been forced to throw away an early harvest because of radiation being released by the Fukushima Daiichi plant 300 kilometers (180 miles) away."
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"Data so far shows the most heavily contaminated area is to the northwest of Fukushima, where experts believe radioactive debris was carried by winds in March and then deposited as snow and rain.
In the city of Date, for example, some 50 km (30 miles) to the northwest of Fukushima, ground radiation was near 24 millisieverts per year as of early June. That is above the international standard for annual exposure by nuclear workers"
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"One of the high-profile casualties from the hotspot phenomenon has been the tea crop in Kanagawa and neighbouring Shizuoka, where cesium was found at a level that exceeded the government's legal limit by as much as 35 percent.
"We never thought that that the nuclear accident would affect our products," said Susumu Yamaguchi, 58, who heads a farmers' cooperative in the village of Kiyokawa.
Yamaguchi has lost a crop worth over $20,000. Another farmer he knows has simply given up his field.
Others want answers: How did radioactive cesium from the reactors at Fukushima end up here?
Tetsuo Iguchi, a specialist on radiation monitoring at Nagoya University, says experts don't know."
http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/06/14/idINIndia-57686420110614
(..)
"Data so far shows the most heavily contaminated area is to the northwest of Fukushima, where experts believe radioactive debris was carried by winds in March and then deposited as snow and rain.
In the city of Date, for example, some 50 km (30 miles) to the northwest of Fukushima, ground radiation was near 24 millisieverts per year as of early June. That is above the international standard for annual exposure by nuclear workers"
(..)
"One of the high-profile casualties from the hotspot phenomenon has been the tea crop in Kanagawa and neighbouring Shizuoka, where cesium was found at a level that exceeded the government's legal limit by as much as 35 percent.
"We never thought that that the nuclear accident would affect our products," said Susumu Yamaguchi, 58, who heads a farmers' cooperative in the village of Kiyokawa.
Yamaguchi has lost a crop worth over $20,000. Another farmer he knows has simply given up his field.
Others want answers: How did radioactive cesium from the reactors at Fukushima end up here?
Tetsuo Iguchi, a specialist on radiation monitoring at Nagoya University, says experts don't know."
http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/06/14/idINIndia-57686420110614