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JAPAN-SKOREA-DIPLOMACY
Japan lists Fukushima radiation levels on S. Korea embassy site
TOKYO, Sept 30, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Japan’s embassy in South Korea has begun
posting the daily radiation levels of Fukushima and Seoul after new questions
about the lingering effects of the 2011 nuclear disaster.
The embassy website said the information reflects that “interest in
radiation levels in Japan has recently been increasing, particularly in South
Korea”.
The move comes amid worsening ties between Japan and South Korea over a
long-running disagreement about Japanese use of forced labour in South Korea
during World War II.
The two countries have taken retaliatory trade measures against each
other, and South Korea has tightened radiation checks on Japanese food
imports.
The readings show levels in three Japanese cities are almost the same as
in major cities outside of Japan, including Seoul, the embassy says.
“The Japanese government hopes the South Korean people’s understanding
about Japan’s radiation levels will deepen as we continue to provide accurate
information based on scientific evidence and explain it fully with clarity,”
it says in Japanese and Korean on the site.
Questions have also been raised about the safety of the Olympics being
held in Tokyo next year, with some South Korean lawmakers pushing for a
boycott and travel ban over what they portray as radiation risks from
Fukushima.
A 9.0-magnitude earthquake in March 2011 triggered a massive tsunami that
knocked out cooling systems at the Fukushima Daiichi atomic power plant on
the Pacific coast in the nation’s northeast.
The plant spewed radioactive materials into the air, soil and water in the
worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986.
Fukushima City, some 70 kilometres (43 miles) away from the stricken
nuclear power plant, will host baseball and softball games during the
Olympics.
And food from the Fukushima region is expected to be served to Olympic
athletes as part of government efforts to tout the safety of produce from the
area and its strict safety controls.
The Japanese embassy in Seoul began posting the radiation levels last
week, showing figures for two cities in Fukushima prefecture along with
levels in Tokyo and Seoul.
The latest post shows the level in Fukushima City was 0.135 microsieverts
per hour, a similar reading to 0.120 in Seoul.
The level in Fukushima prefecture’s Iwaki City, 30 kilometres away from
the plant, was 0.060, while in Tokyo, more than 200 kilometres away, it was
0.036.
Iwaki was chosen because it is the most populated city close to the
Daiichi plant, according to the foreign ministry.
The posts use data taken by radiation monitoring authorities in both
countries as well as by local offices in Fukushima.
One microsievert is a thousandth of a millisievert, and the observed
levels translate into a yearly dose of a maximum 1.182 millisieverts in
Fukushima City and 1.051 millisieverts in Seoul.
The worldwide average annual dose from natural background radiation is
about 2.4 millisieverts, according to a UN report.
For the general public, the International Commission on Radiological
Protection recommends a yearly limit of 1 millisievert above exposure from
natural background radiation.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1408 hrs