"Estimated radiation doses of Fukushima returnees withheld for half a year"

As reported by the Asahi Shimbun, the Japanese national government withheld radiation survey results for a half-year, taken in Fukushima Daiichi fallout contaminated communities such as Tamura, Fukushima Prefecture.

The surveys showed that residents would be exposed to more than 100 millirem per year from the contamination.

One such community was given the go-ahead to re-occupy its evacuated homes on April 1st. The government did not even let on that such testing had been underway for six months, even though they held a number of meetings with the community's nuclear evacuees about moving back into their abandoned homes. The government only made the data available after pressed to do so by the Asahi Shimbun on April 15th.

Although the 100 mR/yr exposure level is the ultimate clean-up goal, in the meantime, dose rates of 2 Rem/year will be allowed (20 times the 100 mR/yr level), even for children, pregnant women, the old, the infirm, etc. 2R/yr is how much radioactivity a German nuclear power plant worker is limited to.