The city of Koriyama is 50km (31 miles) away from Fukushima Daiichi, well out of the evac zones, yet the soil at their schools are so contaminated they have get rid it.

Starting this weekend, they will remove the top 2 centimeters (.78 inches) of soil from 28 schools.  Even after the soil removal, school officials say they will not allow the children to play in the yards for more than one hour per day.

A female employee, working at the Fukushima Daiichi nuke plant, is contaminated with three times the safe limits for women.  She was working at the damaged plant, directing emergency crews.

Tokyo Electric Power Company thinks she was contaminated when taking off the protective suit.  They say most of her contamination is internal, so they think she inhaled the radiation. TEPCo is now testing all female employees at the nuke plant.  Safe exposure limits for women are set lower than men.

Reports are being issued saying emitted radiation levels, from Fukushima Daiichi, are going down.  At the same time reports are being made about increasing radiation levels in water.

Japan’s Nuclear Safety Commission estimates the amount of radioactive emissions are down at around 1 terabecquerels per hour as of Sunday.  They compare that to 154 terabecquerels per day on 05 April.  But they are talking about emissions into the air.

Tokyo Electric Power Company is reporting skyrocketing radiation levels in water coming from Fukushima Daiichi’s damaged reactors.  A survey done on 21 April,  found an increase of radioactive substances in the flooded basement of Reactor 4’s turbine building.

TEPCo says the levels of cesium-134 and 137 increased about 250 times, compared to last month.  Radioactive iodine has also increased.

A possible reason for the decrease in air borne radiation, and an increase in water born radiation, could be due to the amount of water being pumped into the reactors.  However, the over all result is not a decrease in radioactive  emissions, it’s just shifted from the air to the water.

Several European scientists are saying there is evidence that a nuclear reaction explosion did indeed take place at Fukushima Daiichi.  They are even saying that Chernobyl was better controlled than what is happening at Fukushima Daiichi.

Professor Tom Burke, founder of E3G, says Fukushima Daiichi is still ongoing, after five weeks, while Chernobyl was “over with” after about two weeks.

Another scientist, Professor Christopher Busby, thinks there was a fission reaction in Reactor 3 spent fuel pool, causing a nuclear explosion. That’s because Reactor 3 has MOX fuel rods, using uranium.  Some evidence of nuke explosion, scientists point to, is the ever increasing radiation levels, and the types of isotopes being found around Fukushima, like plutonium and strontium.

French nuclear officials are concerned about Reactor 4 fuel pool.  That pool had active fuel rods in it.  They were put there after Reactor 4 was shut down for routine maintenance, just before the 11 March disasters.  Tokyo Electric Power Company has admitted, in recent days, that they are having major problems with Reactor 4 fuel pool, as well as Reactor 1 overheating and active fuel rods exposed.

Professor Busby believes there is still fission taking place.  He said it would explain why they haven’t started pouring concrete on the reactors, because: “You can’t seal a fissioning reactor…”.

Officials from the health ministry say Japan needs a better way to predict radiation contamination, especially in tap water.

One example is that experts failed to take into account wind, and rainfall, coming from the direction of the Fukushima Daiichi nuke plant.  The officials think their discussion, to find ways to improve their system, will last until the end of June.

For the first time since the 11 March disasters, police will begin searching for victims inside the original 20km (12.4 miles) radiation evac zone.

They are searching Futaba Town in Fukushima Prefecture, near the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.  Earlier this month search crews began to slowly work in towards the 20km zone.

Police say Futaba is a ghost town.  So far there are no signs of people.  Every now and then they see a dog, or cat.  They say there is evidence that people left in a hurry, like laundry still hanging on clothes lines.