The 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympics torch relay will start from Fukushima. It is safe, said the government. (Image via Japan Today)

No radiation threat for torch relay: Fukushima

Ahead of the 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, Fukushima Prefecture assured the participants and spectators of the Olympic relay that they should not worry about the radiation exposure. The prefecture is known as the house of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, meltdown during the 2011 tsunami.

The four-month torch relay will begin on 26 March at J-Village, a soccer training center in Fukushima also a base for workers battling the 2011 nuclear meltdown. The torch relay will last until March 28. More than 260 people will bring the torch.

From the 24,000 monitoring spots for the torch relay in Fukushima, the Iitate Village – located about 240km northeast of Tokyo – had the highest reading at 0.77 microsievert/hour, per December 2019 survey. The radiation level is 20 times higher than in downtown Tokyo.

Staying in Iitate for four hours means a radiation exposure of 3.08 microsieverts or 0.003 millisieverts.

The Japanese government aims to keep the radiation below 1 millisievert.

The M9 earthquake hit the eastern region of Japan causes the worst nuclear disaster ever since the Chernobyl incident in 1986. The contaminated water at the meltdown Fukushima nuclear plant, operated by Tokyo Electric Power, meant that it would take a decade-long of recovery, alarming the neighboring countries such as South Korea (S. Korea).

Distrusting Japan, S. Korea planned to bring its own nuclear detectors and home-grown food.

Source: https://bit.ly/2RLNLba