Japan Broadcasting Corporation
May 9, 2011
Tokyo Electric Power Company has detected high levels of radioactive strontium in soil inside the compound of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
Strontium can cause cancer and like calcium it tends to collect in bones once humans inhale it.
Up to 570 becquerels of strontium 90 per kilogram of dry soil were detected in samples from 3 locations. They were taken on April 18, about 500 meters from the Number 1 and 2 reactors at soil depths of up to 5 centimeters. The amount detected is about 130 times higher than a previous high, level that was measured in Fukushima Prefecture before the accident at the nuclear plant.
TEPCO also said it found 4,400 becquerels of radioactive strontium 89 per kilogram of dry soil taken from the same location.
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