ABSTRACT
On April 22nd the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) issued a press release on environmental monitoring with the objectives of obtaining an overview and providing data necessary to support the decision to establish evacuation routes (IAEA 2011). The plan included the following: data collection on radioactive material inside an appropriate area, including the area near the Fukushima Daiichi plant; continuing evaluations of changes in dose rates and accumulated radioactive materials in zones near the Fukushima plant; providing maps and other information to local residents on dose rates, distributions of radioactivity, estimated accumulated doses and levels of soil surface contamination. The enforced plan on environmental monitoring will be conducted in close cooperation between MEXT, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency, various universities, the Ministry of Defense, the local police and prefectural police, Fukushima prefecture, electrical utilities and others, including the U.S. Department of Energy and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA 2011).
