As stated previously there particularly seems to be a "hot spot" near the village of Tsushima (Namie Precinct, Futaba District, Fukushima Prefecture) and also even higher at Hirusone (Namie Precinct, Futaba District, Fukushima Prefecture - 8 km to the east) with levels of up to 74uG/h recorded on the 28 & 29th March. Exposure to levels of 20uG/h and above are regarded in Japan as consituting a "Medical Emergency" and requiring administration of iodine .
For such localised high levels over this area, it would seem a significant amount of radioactive material from the reactor rods had been deposited here, rather than just radioactive steam or gaseous emmisions. These levels are the same as those measured at the "West Gate"of the damaged Fukushima Daishi reactor (67uG/h) only a few hundred meters from the reactors.
There has recent concern about unacceptably high levels of radioactivity at the nearby village of Iitate (10 km to the north), according to Elena Buglova, head of the IAEA's Incident and Emergency Centre, the radiation reading in Iitate village were "about two times higher than levels" at which the agency recommends evacuations. The reported levels in Iitate of 7-10uG/h are much lower than the readings of between 48 - 82uG/h found in Tsushima and Hirusone precincts - making it very apparent that there is a very serious unresolved issue here.
Local Officials Left Without Strong National Leasdership and With Poor Advice.
One feels a strong sympathy for officials, like the mayor of Iitate village struggling to cope and do the right thing by his village with extremely little effective support.
Mayor Kanno ...
said "that he was fed up
with contradictory information about the radiation risks. ... Mr.
Kanno
said that he was not trying to ignore the dangers, and that he felt
that his
village was “not completely safe.” But he also said that without a
clear-cut
criterion for evacuation, he was reluctant to tell villagers to leave,
because
that would take them away from their farms and livelihoods, and force
them to
live in evacuation centers in distant, unfamiliar places.
Prefectures outside Fukushima
As shown below, the natural levels of background radiation for Japan are about 0.05uG/h.
The areas of Japan as indicated on the map below 0.2 uG/h, are within four times of this natural background levels and should be regarded as safe.
- This safe area as currently measured, includes all of Japan south and west of a line running approximately between Tokyo and Niigata.
- Levels of with 0.5uG/h and above would seem to be associated with levels of radiation resulting in unsafe food production. This region is located mainly in Fukushima (except for the western part of the prefecture), but also included some parts of southern Miyagi and of northern Ibaraki prefectures.
