Tokyo: Greenpeace has cautioned that towns in Fukushima prefecture, close to the disaster-hit nuclear power plant, were exposed to excessive levels of radiation almost 100 times greater than safe levels. The survey said that in the towns of Namie and Iitate, located between 10 and 40 km from the Fukushima Daiichi plant and where evacuation orders were partially lifted in March 2017, radiation levels continue to be “up to 100 times higher than the international limit for public exposure.”
“This is public land. Citizens, including children and pregnant women returning to their contaminated homes, are at risk of receiving radiation doses equivalent to one chest X-ray every week. “This is unacceptable and a clear violation of their human rights,” Jan Vande Putte with Greenpeace Belgium, and leader of a survey conducted in the area, said. The report published on Thursday warned that all areas surveyed, including those where people have been allowed to return, had levels of radiation similar to an active nuclear facility.
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Japan also noted that the government data was corroborated by the country’s medical experts and organizations such as the UN Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation. Refuting this and noting the “ineffectiveness of decontamination work” in these areas, Greenpeace said there remained a “significant risk to health and safety for any returning evacuee”. It added that Tokyo’s policy of “effectively forcing people to return by ending housing and other financial support is not working”.
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