Fukushima radiation spread to residential areas hours before venting [View all]

[bananas]

Source: Mainichi

Radioactive material from the damaged Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant spread to residential areas hours before workers vented the containment vessel of the plant's No. 1 reactor on March 12, 2011, to release pressure, it has emerged.

In one area, the level of radiation had surged to more than 700 times the normal level, indicating that many local residents were exposed to high levels of radiation before they evacuated.

The Fukushima Prefectural Government operated 25 monitoring posts around the nuclear power plant before it was crippled by the March 11, 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami. Five monitoring posts were swept away by the tsunami, and 20 couldn't send data because the quake caused power cuts. Accordingly, officials were unable to put the data to use when evacuating residents.

Over the period up until September last year, the prefectural government collected and analyzed data from the 20 monitoring posts that survived the disaster. Results of its analysis were published on the prefectural government's website and the prefecture notified local bodies. However, it was not revealed that radiation had spread before the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), commenced venting operations -- and neither the Diet nor the government's nuclear accident investigation committees were aware of the fact.

<snip>

Read more: http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20130222p2a00m0na009000c.html