International Law

Latest Government press conference

By Karl-Friedrich Lenz

of 10:58 AM today now online at the Government streaming site.

Chief cabinet secretary Edano was asked about the IAEA finding of soil radiation exceeding limits at Iitate village outside the 30 km zone (briefing of March 30th, annoyingly without permalink). He said that the Government is monitoring the situation closely but has no immediate plans to enlarge the evacuation zone. The radiation levels reported by IAEA are harmful to health only for long-term exposure.

Enlarging the zone has huge costs. See this earlier post based on this Dailykos diary about the number of people affected by a decision to enlarge. Going to 50 kilometers would raise that number from 145.000 to 726.000. Going to 80 kilometers would mean 2.4 million people affected.

The Government plans to increase their monitoring efforts.

They still don’t know how exactly the radioactive water is leaking. I wonder if they are able to measure more than 1000 Millisievert now.

There is also no plan yet on how to dispose of the leaked water.

Full post as published by Lenz Blog on March 31, 2011 (boomark / email).