Environmentalists yesterday said 54 locations around the nation had radiation levels more than three times the permitted maximums and said the high levels in the study may have been caused by poor nuclear waste treatment.
Starting in March last year, documentary maker Lin Jui-chu (林瑞珠) gathered more than 50 volunteers to survey Taiwan’s radiation levels.
The volunteers used handheld digital radiation detectors to measure ionizing radiation at 733 sites and 1,959 detection spots across the nation. They made an effort to record data at elementary schools, parks, beaches and other frequented areas.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Lin said she was inspired by a report produced by Tokyo-based Taiwanese writer and anti-nuclear advocate Liu Li-erh (劉黎兒) about her discovery that the radiation levels in many parts of Taipei were higher than some recorded in Tokyo after the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear accident in 2011.
Hsinchu Environmental Protection Association chairperson Chung Shu-chi (鍾淑姬) said: “Up to the end of last year, our survey results showed that the radiation levels detected at 54 of 44 sites were above 0.3 microsieverts per hour — about three times the allowable standard in Taiwan.”
Their data showed the highest radiation levels of 1.92 microsieverts, 1.42 microsieverts and 0.928 microsieverts, were all detected at National Tsing Hua University.
Green Formosa Front standing director Lin Chang-mao (林長茂) said that because radiation exposure may cause the most harm to organs in adults — especially women’s reproductive organs — and children’s heads, they conducted their measurements at 1m above ground level.
Lin said they had doubts about the 24-hour radiation levels reported by the Atomic Energy Council’s 45 monitoring stations across the nation because the council’s detection equipment is enclosed in steel boxes, and the levels detected at Lanyu (蘭嶼) — where a temporary nuclear waste storage facility is located — were often the lowest among all the stations.
The volunteer group said they suspected the average radiation levels detected across the nation were the result of poor nuclear waste treatment, especially at Taiwan Power Co’s volume reduction center for compressing and incinerating low-level radioactive waste.
Nuclear expert He Li-wei (賀立維), an Yilan Charlie Chen Foundation consultant, said based on the law of conservation of mass, the decontamination of radioactive substances does not completely destroy the radiation, so burning nuclear waste may cause radiation to spread into the air and water.
They urged the council to explain how it will deal with the radiation levels.
In response, the council said the detected levels may have been affected by background radiation levels or improper use of the detectors and that it was willing to conduct a survey along with the civic groups to clarify the measurements.
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