More than twelve years have passed since the Fukushima reactor accident, and since then intensive efforts have been made to rid the country of the radiation leaks. And yet two-thirds of the cesium-137 nuclides that entered the environment as radioactive fallout are still in the top layer of soil. This is the conclusion reached by French and Japanese researchers in a study, which are now in the compartmenthblatt Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) has appeared. The mountainous forests northwest of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant are still particularly polluted. And as the authors write, heavy rainfall or erosion could continue to cause radiant material to get into the rivers and thus into settlements.
The forests around Fukushima are still contaminated – despite the soil being removed – knowledge
