The radioactivity from the Fukushima "probably twice what was estimated"

New assessment of Tepco

H fusion reactor of the Fukushima left uninhabitable an area 130 square kilometers
The radioisotope leakage from the Fukushima nuclear power station was likely to double than estimated so far by the Japanese government, and reached the sixth of leakage from Chernobyl, said Tepco, the company that manages the damaged plant.


In parallel, reassuring way, two UN agencies publish preliminary reports indicate that the health effects of the Japanese population were not significant.

New estimate

A year after the tsunami that caused the nuclear accident on March 11, 2011, the Tepco estimates that the total emission of radioactivity from the Fukushima probably reached 900.000 terabecquerel, in the form of radioactive isotope iodine-131 and cesium-137.

This amount is double compared with 480.000 terabecquerel who appreciated the service in February the Japanese Nuclear and Industrial Safety.

By comparison, the total emission of radioactivity from the Chernobyl accident in 1986 is estimated at 5.2 million terabequerel. In each case, however, the numbers are not comparable between the two nuclear accidents, and the proportions of different isotopes were different.

 
Reports of the UN

Of the two new, preliminary reports from the UN, published by the UN Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR), which was undertaken to assess the spill and Chernobyl.

The report shows that only 167 factory workers received radiation doses that are believed to slightly increase the risk of cancer. But none of the six workers who died after the accident has not killed by radiation.

The final report is expected to be completed by May 2013 and will calculate the doses received nearly two million residents in the region of Fukushima.

The second preliminary report from the World Health Organization and is equally reassuring. He concludes that most of the population of Fukushima and Japan generally accepted total doses less than 10 millisievert, which are not considered dangerous.

The Japanese government has set a safety limit of 20 mSv per year, while according to the WHO report the exposure limit for nuclear plant workers is 50 mSV per year.

Most alarming was the information on towns and Nami Itate, which are not evacuated despite several months after the accident. Infants in the region received doses of 10 έως 100 mSV, mainly in the form of iodine-131, and may face a slightly increased risk of thyroid cancer.

Both reports estimate that, even though no increase in cancer cases due to the accident, this increase is so small that it probably would not be statistically measurable.

Even though the cancer risk is negligible, the impact of the second worst nuclear accident in history is significant: about 160,000 people were forced to flee their homes in an area of ​​132 square kilometers.

Much of this area will remain uninhabitable for decades.