Akhir 25, 1432 H/March 30, 2011, SPA -- People evacuated from a danger zone around Japan's damaged Fukushima nuclear plant may need to stay away for many months, but experts said that there are ways to make their return swifter and easier, according to Reuters. Radiation levels in the area now are higher than normal and could increase risks to long-term health, but so-called remediation methods, such as deep-ploughing the soil, removing topsoil altogether and choosing crops and ways of farming that don't pick up much radioactivity, can cut the risk of harm. Tens of thousands of people, including farmers and their families, have been evacuated from a 20-km (12-mile) exclusion zone around the stricken Fukushima plant, and another 130,000 who live in a 10 km (6-mile) band beyond the exclusion zone have been advised either to leave or stay indoors. Assuming no drastic worsening of leaks from the tsunami- and quake-damaged plant, there will be no long-term exclusion zone like that around Chernobyl in Ukraine, the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster in 1986. "The worst-case scenario in terms of people re-occupying the area is that people might be able to go back within months," said Steve Jones, an independent nuclear and environmental consultant. "There's likely to be an extended ban on food production within the affected sector -- of about 20 to 30 km out -- that might persist for some time. But there is then also the option of applying all sorts of remedial measures." Experts say the key to the future of the current exclusion zone will be levels of radioactive caesium 137, which has a half-life of 30 years. That means that its radioactivity drops by 50 percent every three decades. -- SPA
