Japan ignores UN advice on expansion of nuclear exclusion zone
April 1st, 2011 - 12:18 pm ICT by ANITokyo, Apr 1(ANI): Japan has said that there is no need to expand the 20-kilometre evacuation zone around the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, despite warnings from the United Nations nuclear watchdog and the country’s own nuclear safety agency.
Both the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency say that radiation 40 kilometres from the plant exceeds levels set for evacuation.
“At the moment, we have no reason to think that the radiation will have an effect on people’s health,” Sky News quoted Japan’s chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, as saying.
The UN body had said that radiation at Iitate village, 45kilometres from the plant, exceeded the levels set for evacuation, and Japan’s nuclear watchdog said that consistently high levels found in the sea near the complex could mean leaks are seeping out continuously.
More than 70,000 people have been evacuated from the 20-kilometre ring around the plant, and another 136,000 people who live in a 10-kilometre band beyond that have been encouraged to leave, or, if they don’t, to stay indoors.
Most foreign governments have told their citizens to go no closer than 80kilometres.
Opposition politicians have criticized Prime Minister Naoto Kan for sticking with the original exclusion area, nearly three weeks after an earthquake and tsunami sparked the world’s worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986. (ANI)
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