‘Hot spots’ detected at 20 schools
Kyodo
FUKUSHIMA — More than 20 schools in Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture, have radiative “hot spots” on their premises, a civic group said Sunday.
The finding was based on city board of education documents obtained through an information disclosure request, it said.
The board instructed elementary and junior high schools as well as nursery schools in January to check air radiation levels in side ditches, hedges and drains on their premises. Schoolyards and classrooms were excluded as the levels there have been regularly examined.
Reports submitted by each school in April showed at least 14 elementary and seven junior high as well as five nursery schools have hot spots where the cumulative annual radiation dose could reach 20 millisieverts, or more than 3.8 microsieverts per hour.
At the start of the new academic year in April, the board of education lifted a restriction that had limited students to playing in schoolyards for less than three hours per day due to the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant disaster that started last year.
That is terrible. The children need to be protected