Should I leave Japan? I live 90km from the damaged nuclear power plant, should I move away? If so, how far?

Question:

I have a flexible job, so I don't have to live in the north eastern side of Japan. I can live in another area or even leave the country entirely. I'm also a male in my 40's and I don't have a family. Uprooting will not be a big deal. My English is pretty good, so I can move to another country and eke out a living there as well. What should I do?

Answer:

No. You'll receive more radiation from your cellphone or microwave oven as long as you stay out of the 8 km no-entry zone. While there is a lot of FUD going around, you can check the facts at the IAEA site.

http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/2011…
http://www.slideshare.net/iaea/radiologi…

As far as the conspiracy hypothesis about how the Japanese government is "hiding" something, that's really stretching it. All countries that have nuclear capability also have monitoring to ensure that other countries are not "cheating". Some of those countries are not friendly to Japan. If there were any political points to be made by the anti-Japan countries they would be speaking up loudly, but they aren't. In addition, the IAEA has sent independent observers to monitor the conditions and would also speak up if there was anything significantly different.


Note that the data collected over years indicates that low level radiation is non-harmful and may be beneficial.

"The most rigorous epidemiological study of the effects of low exposure to radiation workers was the Nuclear Shipyards Workers Study initiated by the USA Department of Energy in which 71 000 workers were examined. There were two exposed groups with doses less than or greater than the equivalent of 5 years’ background radiation. These were compared with similar workers with no exposure. The higher dose group had lower cancer death rates and lower death rates from all causes. Similar findings of lower deaths from all causes were shown in the British Radiologists Study of all British radiologists between 1900 and 1980."
http://bravenewclimate.com/2011/07/21/ra…

If anything, the situation shows how safe nuclear power is. Consider that forty year old plants were hit with an earthquake five times the strength they were designed for and yet they still shut down safely. The generators came on like they were supposed to when grid power was cut. Then the tsunami hit and the generators were wiped out. However, the battery backup still worked for the designed eight hours. The problem happened when no new generators could be put in. Even so the problems have been minimal--media scare mongering for ratings not withstanding.

Here is an informative article describing the situation:
http://bravenewclimate.com/2011/03/13/fu…

And here is a chart that helps make sense of the numbers:
http://www.xkcd.com/radiation/

And here is a blog from a Japanese resident who vacationed in Fukushima:
http://www.davidchart.com/Blog/2011/09/1…