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Study finds no evidence of internal radiation in children from Fukushima

OCT 13, 2015
Physics Today

Japan Times : Developed for use with children, the Babyscan is a full-body scanner that can detect as little as 50 Bq of radioactivity due to cesium. That level is less than one-fifth the amount measurable by devices used to evaluate adults. Between December 2013 and March 2015, more than 2700 children under the age of 11, mostly from Fukushima prefecture, were examined for the presence of cesium, which would indicate they had been exposed to radiation following the 2011 disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. According to the study, none of the children had detectable levels of cesium. In addition, even if they had levels below the detectable level, the resulting exposure would be less than 16 µSv per year, well below the 1-mSv limit for normal situations defined by the International Commission on Radiological Protection.

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