AFP: Scientist warns of new flood of radioactive particles around Fukushima — Those who escaped initial fallout could now be exposed — People in coastal areas at particular risk
ENENews.com
November 29th, 2013
AFP, Nov. 28, 2013: Typhoons that hit Japan each year are helping spread radioactive material from the Fukushima nuclear disaster into the country’s waterways, researchers say. […] “There is a definite dispersal towards the ocean,” LSCE researcher Olivier Evrard said Wednesday. […] Local populations who escaped the initial fallout two-and-a-half years ago could now find their food or water contaminated by the cesium particles as they penetrate agricultural land and coastal plains, researchers warned. […] more frequent and fierce storms in 2013 have brought a new flood of cesium particles. This is, said Evrard, “proof that the source of the radioactivity has not diminished upstream”. […] Scientists “concentrated mostly on the direct fallout from Fukushima yet this is another source of radioactive deposits” that must be taken into account, Evrard warned. Coastal areas home to fishermen or where people bathe in particular face a potential risk. […]
Evolution of radioactive dose rates in fresh sediment deposits along coastal rivers draining Fukushima contamination plume, Oct. 29, 2013: We show that coastal rivers of Eastern Fukushima Prefecture were rapidly supplied with sediment contaminated by radionuclides originating from inland mountain ranges […] [The study authors] suggest that storage of contaminated sediment in reservoirs and in coastal sections of the river channels now represents the most crucial issue. […] Significant wet and dry radiocaesium deposits occurred on 15-16 March 2011, leading to the formation of a strong contamination plume over a distance of 70 km to the northwest of FDNPP. The area where soil contamination exceeds 100 kBq m−2 of 137Cs was estimated to cover ca. 3000 km2 […]
