Japan can avoid turning the affected Fukushima Prefecture into a dead zone by immediately applying chemicals and planting radiation-absorbing plants at the contaminated soil, scientists said.
Radioactive soil in pockets of areas near Japan's crippled nuclear plant have reached the same level as Chernobyl, a report from the Nuclear Waste Management Organisation of Japan said in a research report published on May 24 and submitted to the government.
According to a related Bloomberg report, this should bring the Fukushima's area closer to the dead zone created at Soviet Union's Chernobyl incident 25 years ago. Nevertheless, early soil decontamination can be done to avoid this scenario, scientists with the nuclear wastes management office in Japan said.
"Soil samples in areas outside the 20-kilometer (12 miles) exclusion zone around the Fukushima plant measured more than 1.48 million becquerels a square meter, the standard used for evacuating residents after the Chernobyl accident, Tomio Kawata, a fellow at the Nuclear Wastes Management office in Japan said in the report.
Radiation from the plant has spread over 600 square kilometres (230 square miles), according to the report. The extent of contamination shows the government must move fast to avoid the same future for the area around Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Dai-Ichi plant as Chernobyl, scientists said.
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Radioactive soil in pockets of areas near Japan's crippled nuclear plant have reached the same level as Chernobyl, a report from the Nuclear Waste Management Organisation of Japan said in a research report published on May 24 and submitted to the government.
According to a related Bloomberg report, this should bring the Fukushima's area closer to the dead zone created at Soviet Union's Chernobyl incident 25 years ago. Nevertheless, early soil decontamination can be done to avoid this scenario, scientists with the nuclear wastes management office in Japan said.
"Soil samples in areas outside the 20-kilometer (12 miles) exclusion zone around the Fukushima plant measured more than 1.48 million becquerels a square meter, the standard used for evacuating residents after the Chernobyl accident, Tomio Kawata, a fellow at the Nuclear Wastes Management office in Japan said in the report.
Radiation from the plant has spread over 600 square kilometres (230 square miles), according to the report. The extent of contamination shows the government must move fast to avoid the same future for the area around Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Dai-Ichi plant as Chernobyl, scientists said.
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