HTH -- Haiti Earthquake

March 31, 2011. IAEA advises Japan to double evacuation radius, radiation increases in seawater near plant

SOURCE: Altegrity Risk International

United Nations (UN) International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) monitors advised Japan to consider expanding the 20km (12 miles) evacuation zone around the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, claiming that safe radiation limits had exceeded some 40km (25 miles) from the plant. Officials said that IAEA operational criteria for evacuation were exceeded in Itate village, beyond the immediate evacuation zone. The United States, United Kingdom, and a number of other countries advised their nationals to keep at least 80km (50 miles) from the plant.

Meanwhile, Japanese officials also said on March 31st that radioactive iodine levels in seawater near the plant reached a new record, 4,385 times the legal limit. On March 30th, the readings had been 3,355 times the legal limit. Radioactive iodine is fingered for the high incidence of thyroid cancer among children exposed to fallout from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the then Ukraine SSR of the Soviet Union. The Japanese Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) said the increasing radiation may indicate that radioactive material is leaking continuously from the plant. A French nuclear-reactor maker was consulted with efforts to contain contaminated water.

In related news, the death toll from the March 11th 9.0-magnitude earthquake and accompanying tsunami reached 11,417, with 16,273 people still reported missing by the police.