Daily bus service to travel through highly contaminated zone near Fukushima Daiichi
January 23, 2015 As reported by the Asahi Shimbun, two trains stations in the Fukushima Daiichi region, disconnected due to severe radioactive contamination for nearly four years now, will be reconnected by daily bus service.
The trip between the two stations will take about an hour, and there will be no stops between in the highly contaminated zone.
An Abe Cabinet Office team measure radiation levels along the 46-km (28.6-mi) route last summer, about 1.2 microsieverts (0.12 millirems) of radiation in an hour, if the bus travels at 40 kph (25 mph).
Before the catastrophe began, members of the general public were only supposed to be allowed 100 millirem per year of radioactivity exposure stemming from the nuclear power industry. However, shortly after the catastrophe began, that limit was increased 20-fold, to 2,000 millirem/year (2 Rem/yr). This is the legal limit for radioactivity exposure allowed for nuclear power plant workers in Germany, by way of example. Even especially vulnerable children, and pregnant women, are allowed to be exposed to the 2 Rem/yr dose levels in Fukushima Prefecture now.
Taking daily round trips on that bus route would deliver about 88 millirem/year, nearly equal to the total amount previously allowed from nuclear power industry exposures.