Global Security Newswire

Japan on Friday backed plans to cut by August 2013 the maximum, yearly quantity of radiation minors are allowed to receive in regions impacted by contaminants from the Fukushima Daiichi atomic facility, Kyodo News reported (see GSN, Nov. 9).

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 new standard would assign the most importance to radioactive material removal in areas frequented by young people, including schools, outdoor recreation areas and yards in private residences. The plan draws on a radioactive material removal statute slated to take effect in January (Kyodo News/Mainichi Daily News, Nov. 11).

Meanwhile, Tokyo has begun considering the potential organization of extended residency sites for use until areas restricted over radiation concerns are eventually reopened to former occupants, the Asahi Shimbun reported on Wednesday (Shinichi Sekine, Asahi Shimbun I, Nov. 9).

Tokyo Electric Power, the Fukushima facility's operator, last week informed the International Atomic Energy Agency of debris clearance, salt removal and cooling pond decontamination efforts underway at the plant, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Thursday (International Atomic Energy Agency release, Nov. 10).

A gas emission at the plant's No. 3 reactor was probably the source of a March 15 hydrogen blast at the site's No. 4 reactor, the Asahi Shimbun quoted the company as saying on Thursday (Asahi Shimbun II, Nov. 11).