70 000 More Need to Be Evacuated in Japan over Fukushima Radioactivity

handout picture made available 24 May 2011 by the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) shows the reactor building of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station Unit , 22 May 2011

Another 70 000 living close to the area of the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan need to be evacuated, according to France's Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN).

The French institute said in a report Monday that radioactivity deposited by the Fukushima NPP badly damaged by the March 11 earthquake in Japan could be harmful for the people that it slated for evacuation.

The institute has in effect updated its assessment of the earthquake designated a new area northwest of the NPP, which is beyond the 20-km evacuation zone but whose inhabitants also need to be evacuated.

The newly designated area is described as the most contaminated territory outside the evacuation zone; its inhabitants would be exposed to radiation of more than 10 millisieverts (mSv) in the year following the disaster, according to the IRSN, as cited by international reports. 10 mSv is three times the normal radiation from natural sources, according to the French standards.

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