Fukushima plant “clearly a lost site”

France’s Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) has expressed its views on the consequences of the Fukushima disaster, reports Green Action Japan.

André-Claude Lacoste, President of ASN (France’s Nuclear Safety Authority) expressed his views on the implications and consequences of the Fukushima disaster on Wednesday 30 March 2011, in front of the Parliamentary Office for the Assessment of Scientific and Technological Options.

On contaminated land:
“Depending on the level of contamination, the management of these territories will be extremely difficult for years to come, if not for decades.”

On the stabilisation of the reactor site and beyond:
“If there are orders of magnitude that I would like to share with you, they are the following: the return to a more or less acceptable level of safety on-site is a question of weeks, and, no doubt, of months. The management of the contamination outside the plant – the plant clearly is a lost site – beyond, around the plant, it is a question of years if not of decades.”

Transcript by EnerWebWatch, translation by Mycle Schneider

Has the radiation reached the United States? You might want to keep a close eye on the Radiation Network’s volunteer monitoring using Geiger Counters here. You can see a couple of the readings hoving at the top end of the 5-60 background radiation level.

Is the Malaysian government monitoring radiation levels around the country so that we can all be assured that the levels are no higher than the usual background radiation level?