Global Security Newswire

Japan on Monday started collecting readings of atmospheric radioactive material in the village of Iitate for consultation as procedures are developed to remove contaminants released by the damaged Fukushima atomic facility, Kyodo News reported (see GSN, Nov. 3).

The six-reactor power plant was damaged by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that left more than 20,000 people missing or dead in Japan. Radiation releases on a level not seen since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster forced the evacuation of about 80,000 residents from a 12-mile ring exclusion zone surrounding the site in Fukushima prefecture.

The Japanese Environment Ministry appeared set to collect data at 3,000 points throughout the prefecture this month.

The study is "the first step of decontamination work by the government," said Soichiro Seki, a high-level ministry official. "We will try hard to restore normal conditions in Fukushima, keeping in mind that Fukushima cannot be revitalized without decontamination" (Kyodo News I/Mainichi Daily News, Nov. 8).

Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power on Monday said it had switched on machinery for removing radioactive cesium from the site's No. 2 reactor spent-fuel cooling pond, the Mainichi Daily News reported (Mainichi Daily News, Nov. 7).

The Japanese Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency on Monday endorsed the company's stance that xenon traces found at the plant had not been generated by continuous fission activity, Kyodo reported (Kyodo News II/Mainichi Daily News, Nov. 8).

Meanwhile, the mayor of Seoul unveiled a comprehensive plan for measuring cesium 137 levels on city streets following the discovery of elevated levels of the isotope in areas of the South Korean capital, the Asahi Shimbun reported on Tuesday (Asahi Shimbun, Nov. 8).