Illegal levels of radioactive substances found in Fukushima mushrooms
TOKYO, April 3, Kyodo
The health ministry said Sunday it has detected radioactive substances higher than the legal limits in mushrooms sampled Friday in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, where the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is located.
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said it found the mushrooms to contain 3,100 becquerels of radioactive iodine and 890 becquerels of radioactive cesium against the limits of 2,000 becquerels and 500 becquerels.
The announcement led the prefectural government to ask farmers to voluntarily refrain from shipping mushrooms in Iwaki.
Meanwhile, the science ministry said its helicopter, which examined air samples at the altitude of 160-650 meters, detected radiation of 0.30 microsieverts per hour in the sky above Kawamata in the prefecture -- a level more than 10 times the normal figures for the prefecture's sky at 0.01-0.03 microsieverts.
''Radioactive substances have spread to higher altitudes in the atmosphere,'' the ministry said.
The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology also said it found that levels of radiation went down in some locations in the Tohoku northeastern Japanese area and the Kanto area surrounding Tokyo.
Radiation levels in Ibaraki Prefecture in the 24 hours after 5 p.m. Saturday fell to 0.180 microsieverts from 0.187 microsieverts in the preceding 24-hour period, while those in Tokyo and Gunma Prefecture went down to 0.094 microsieverts and 0.050 microsieverts.
==Kyodo