The exposure of Japanese citizens living nearby the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant to radiation has been one of the most feared incidents in the country. However, it has recently been discovered that these peoples exposure to radiation was overestimated four times more than their actual measure of radiation.
Residents Of Date City Took Independent Actions; Provided Themselves With Individual Dosimeters To Measure Level Of Radiation
It can be recalled that during the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami back in 2011, there have been approximately 65,000 citizens living near the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant that exposed radiation to all of them. After the disaster, most of the citizens living near the Nuclear Plant were asked to evacuate. However, despite having lived only 60 kilometers away from the Plant, Date City residents were not asked to evacuate and thus stayed in the area even being continually exposed to radiation.
The residents of Date have remained in the city even after being exposed to radiation. Since measuring radiation level of a certain area and individual is too expensive, the Japanese government opted for the option of aerial monitoring of the regions since it is faster and cheaper, although proven to be inaccurate. After having seen that the national government had no intentions of providing the residents with equipment to measure the radiation level individually, Date City Mayor Shoji Nishida decided to take action for his city on its own. Three years after the incident, he decided to issue dosimeters which are personal monitoring skills that can measure the gamma rays of each individual.
Data Of The Government Found Out To Be Four Times More Than The Actual Level Of Radiation
The first few thousands of the dosimeters were released to expecting women and children under the age of 16. More money from the city funds was made available after the residents voluntarily started to help in the process of decontaminating the city. Thus, more dosimeters were produced and given to everyone. Thus, after this, the researchers have studied the results of the dosimeters as opposed to the data of the government that they have measured by the use of aerial monitoring. It was then found out that the actual measurement of radiation was in fact only 15 percent of the record of the government. It has then been confirmed that they have presumed the radiation level to be four times more than its actual measurement.
