Research highlights nuclear soil pollution in Japan

Some farmers in Japan are unable to safely cultivate their land due to soil pollution caused by the atomic disaster in Fukushima earlier this year.

A radiation leak was recorded at the nuclear power plant following a huge earthquake and resultant tsunami.

Now a team of researchers have warned that food grown in some nearby regions will be blighted by high levels of caesium found in the soil, the Associated Press reports.

The research has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal and it has indicated the problem could affect Japan for a long time, as caesium-137 has a half life of 30 years.

"We are now conducting further checks covering 3,000 spots in Tokyo and 14 prefectures and plan to publish the results later," the researchers commented.

Earlier this month, bosses at Japanese power company Tepco were forced to play down the significance of the discovery of xenon gas at the Fukushima plant, which normally indicates a nuclear meltdown.

Posted by Claire Manning