…As we drove deeper into the no-entry zone, curving past beautiful and empty homes with tile roofs, the numbers on our dosimeter started to soar well beyond the safe-guideline level.3.41 uSv/hr.

7.12 uSv/hr.

12.03 uSv/hr.

32.04 uSv/hr….

We were about eight or nine miles from the nuclear plant, I’d guess, with thick trees on both sides. The rancher, Masami Yoshizawa, placed the dosimeter on the ground. We waited for new numbers to flash.

71.32 uSv/hr.

That’s 2.5 times the level at the front gate of the nuclear plant.

Stand in that spot for a year, and you’d be exposed to almost 625,000 uSv–36 times the annual maximum.

[quote]Yoshizawa makes daily trips into this no-entry zone, tending to the contaminated cattle that the government wants him to euthanize. Taking care of the animals has become his mission, and he’s willing to take a health risk. Plus, he’s 57, and his boss, Jun Murata, acknowledged that the ranchers’ lifestyle was less than healthy.

“We smoke and drink all the time,’’ Murata said. “Even if we would develop cancer, we wouldn’t know whether it came from radiation or smoking too much.”

Yoshizawa had his body tested for radiation in July, and a doctor told him his levels were on the “high end.” But Yoshizawa didn’t change his daily routine.

[/quote]

Source: Washington Post