Radiation found outside Japanese schools

Radiation hot spots were recorded outside 26 schools in the same prefecture as the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, a civil group said Sunday. The group said it obtained the information about the schools in Koriyama from municipal education board documents it obtained through an information disclosure request, Kyodo News reported Monday. In January, the education board had nursery, elementary and junior high schools check air radiation levels in side ditches, hedges and drains on school property. Schoolyards and classrooms were not tested because those areas have been examined regularly, the news agency said. The results of those tests showed at least 14 elementary schools, seven junior high schools and five nursery schools had hot spots where the cumulative annual radiation dose could reach 20 millisieverts, or more than 3.8 microsieverts per hour. When the new academic year began in April, the education board lifted a restriction that students play in schoolyards for less than 3 hours per day in the wake of the nuclear disaster last year. "There are many spots in schools where radiation levels still remain high," Tokiko Noguchi, head of the civil group, told reporters Sunday. The group is calling on the education board to restore the restriction.