Releasing the monitoring results in Mito city and Tokyo today, Greenpeace said that it had found evidence of radioactive fallout.
Neutron radiation is the most penetrating and one of the most dangerous forms of radiation.
Our results raise further serious questions about the Japanese government's nuclear safety and emergency planning procedures and the safety of the nuclear industry in general. This undoubtedly would have affected the hundreds of people who traveled on a nearby main road, were in the more than 170 houses, on a golf range and on agricultural land . Neither the owner of the plant, JCO, nor the Japanese authorities used neutron detectors until six and a half hours after the accident. However Greenpeace was able to estimate the full radiation doses by analysing household salt samples obtained from residents living around the plant. The amount of this radioactive isotope present in the salt can then be used to calculate the intensity of neutron radiation emitted during the accident.