Le 25.3 l'UE a pondu une directive 297/2011 pour relever la dose de radiation maximale autorisée pour les produits alimentaires venant du Japon. La dose maximale de 370 (nourriture pour enfants et produits laitier) ou 600 becquerels/kg (autres produits) a été relevée à 400 (enfants) resp. 1.000 (produits laitiers) et 1.250 bq/kg (autres). Certains produits comme l'huile de poisson et les épices peuvent maintenant même dépasser 12.500 bq/kg, soit 20 fois la dose autorisée jusqu'à maintenant.

Darin hat die Europäische Kommission nach Angaben der Verbände die Grenzwerte für etliche Produkte aus radioaktiv kontaminierten japanischen Regionen deutlich heraufgesetzt: auf 400 Becquerel/Kilogramm für Säuglingsnahrung, auf 1000 Becquerel/Kilogramm für Milchprodukte und auf 1250 Becquerel/Kilogramm für andere Nahrungsmittel.

Article 2
Les niveaux maximaux admissibles applicables aux denrées alimentaires de moindre importance énumérées en annexe sont dix fois supérieurs à ceux fixés dans l'annexe du règlement (Euratom) no 3954/87 pour la rubrique « Autres denrées alimentaires à l'exception de celles de moindre importance » ou conformément à des règlements adoptés en application de l'article 3 dudit règlement.

Fukushima plant groundwater likely contaminated despite data error
TOKYO, April 1, Kyodo
 
Groundwater at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is highly likely to be contaminated with radioactive materials, even though its operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. is reviewing its analysis released late Thursday due to erroneous calculations, the government's nuclear safety agency said Friday.
 
The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said some of the analysis data on the groundwater presented by the utility known as TEPCO cannot be trusted due to the errors, casting doubts on the finding that the concentration of radioactive iodine in the water was 10,000 times the legal limit.
 
Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for the governmental nuclear regulatory body, said it was ''extremely regrettable'' that TEPCO had given incorrect radiation data at the plant for the second time. The agency has strongly warned the operator over the matter and urged it to take steps not to do so again, he added.
 
''TEPCO faces a grave situation as it is failing to live up to the expectations of people who are very worried by the company. Its data should be trustworthy,'' Nishiyama said.
 
Earlier in the week, the utility corrected its analysis of radiation levels in water accumulating in the basement of the No. 2 reactor's turbine building.
 
The agency said the density readings of radioactive substances in groundwater samples taken on Tuesday and Wednesday from around the No. 1 reactor's turbine building may be revised downward, as TEPCO's evaluation programs for materials such as tellurium, molybdenum and zirconium were found to have errors.
 
But it said the firm's analysis programs for radioactive iodine were confirmed to be correct.
 
On Friday, workers continued operations to secure enough space at tanks to store radiation-contaminated water that has been soaking the basements of the reactors' buildings and filling up tunnel-like underground trenches connected to them.
 
TEPCO has been pouring massive amounts of water into the reactors and spent nuclear fuel pools at the plant as a stopgap measure to cool them down, because serious damage to fuel rods from overheating could lead to the release of enormous amounts of radioactive materials into the environment.
 
However, the measure is believed to be linked to the possible leak of radiation-contaminated water from the reactors, where fuel rods have partially melted.
 
Removal of the water at the turbine buildings is believed to be essential to restoring the vital functions to stably cool down the reactors and the spent nuclear fuel pools.
 
In an effort to prevent radioactive dust from being dispersed by wind and rain from the plant, TEPCO will begin a test spraying of a water-soluble resin, which has coating effects, later in the day.
 
As a result of hydrogen explosions, masses of debris have been strewn around the site, which was ravaged by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. A total of 60,000 liters of resin will be sprayed over a period of two weeks.
 
The engineers will also start moving fresh water carried by a U.S. Navy barge to tanks at the plant, which will be injected into the reactors to cool them down.
 
The barge containing 300,000 gallons of fresh water is now moored at the Daiichi power station, while another ship carrying an additional 200,000 gallons is expected to arrive later Friday, according to the U.S. Navy.
 
==Kyodo

Tokyo (CNN) -- Tens of thousands evacuated from around the stricken Fukushima Daiichi power plant may not be allowed home for months, a Japanese minister said Friday, with no end in sight for the nuclear crisis as fresh concerns mount about alarming radiation levels in beef, seawater and groundwater.
 
While he didn't set a firm timetable, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said people who'd lived within 20 kilometers (12 miles) of the nuclear facility would not return home permanently in "a matter of days or weeks. It will be longer than that."
 
"The evacuation period is going to be longer than we wanted it to be," Edano said. "We first need to regain control of the nuclear power plant."
 
The plight of the evacuees and those within a 20-to-30 kilometer radius of the facility, who have been told to stay indoors and encouraged to leave, is one of many storylines still playing out in relation to the crisis. Many are rooted at the northeast Japan power plant where dozens of workers, soldiers and others are rushing to prevent the disaster from worsening, while further afoot farmers, citizens and officials are dealing with the effects of already released radiation.
 
That includes news Friday, from Edano, that more tests would be conducted on radiation levels in beef, as well as chicken and pork that came from the most affected areas.
 
Japan's health ministry reported the previous day thatradiation higher than the regulatory limit has been found in beef from Fukushima prefecture, the same province as the embattled nuclear plant. Radiation likely would enter a cow -- or, similarly, a pig or chicken -- indirectly, after it eats grass and other feed that itself has been contaminated.
 
The radiation levels, detected in a single cow, were slightly above the guidelines set by Japan's Nuclear Safety Commission -- 510 becquerels (a measurement of radioactivity by weight), compared to the official limit of 500 becquerels.  
 
The meat will not be sold and will be retested, the ministry said.
 
This radiation finding is the first one involving beef, although authorities have banned the sale and transport of numerous vegetables grown in the area after tests detected radiation.
 
Cesium 134 loses half its radiation every 2.1 years, notes the Argonne National Laboratory in Argonne, Illinois. Cesium 137, experts have said, has a half life of 30 years.
 
Cesium 137 levels have also spiked in ocean waters off the nuclear plant, according to the nation's nuclear and industrial safety agency. A Wednesday afternoon sample showed levels of 527 times the standard.  
 
Because of its long half life, experts have said its presence is worrisome.  
 
"That's the one I am worried about," said Michael Friedlander, a U.S.-based nuclear engineer, explaining cesium might linger much longer in the ecosystem. "Plankton absorbs the cesium, the fish eat the plankton, the bigger fish eat smaller fish -- so every step you go up the food chain, the concentration of cesium gets higher."
 
Questions remain about how the cesium reached the sea, as did radioactive iodine-131 isotope samples taken Wednesday 330 meters (361 yards) into the Pacific Ocean that showed levels 4,385 times above the regulatory limit. This exceeded the previous day's reading of 3,355 times over the standard -- and was an exponential spike over the 104-times increase seen just last Friday.
 
Officials have downplayed the potential perils posed by this isotope, since it loses half of its radiation every eight days. All fishing is banned within 20 kilometers (12 miles) of the plant, and Hidehiko Nishiyama of Japan's nuclear safety agency adds that such waterborne radiation should dilute over time.
 
As efforts continued Friday to cool nuclear fuel in reactors and spent fuel pools -- using concrete pumping trucks and a new supply of fresh water from a U.S. Navy barge that docked in waters outside the plant Thursday -- concerns remained about other water sources that have shown high levels of radiation.  
 
This includes water in exposed maintenance tunnels leading in and out of the Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4 reactor buildings, one of which earlier had radiation levels 100,000 above the norm.
 
Authorities have been working in recent days to drain these tunnels, to prevent them from spilling over and sending tainted water into the ground. By Friday, an official with the Tokyo Electric Power Company -- which operates the plant and heads the recovery effort -- said water levels had dropped one or more meters, and that the issue was no longer urgent.
 
What has become more of a priority is testing, and finding the source of, an apparent spike in radiation in groundwater near the plant.  
 
Just after midnight Friday, a Tokyo Electric official said that iodine-131 levels in ground water from a pipe near the No. 1 reactor had 10,000 times the standard limit. But the utility later backtracked, promising to get more clarity later.
 
Edano addressed this confusion in a press conference later Friday, noting that a "constant amount of radiation" appeared to be getting into the groundwater while noting that further tests are forthcoming.
 
"The numbers released ... looked strange, and that led to the recalculation," he said. "In either case, underground water seems to contain some level of radioactive substances, and this leads to an understanding that the ... soil in the vicinity needs to be monitored closely."
 
All this contamination -- both into the ground and, eventually, the sea -- is the result of a leak or some other sort of ground seepage from one of the nuclear plant's four most embattled reactors, a Tokyo Electric official said Thursday. The official noted that the high levels suggest the release of radiation into the atmosphere alone couldn't be the lone source.