Plutonium found outside Japan's nuclear plant

Low-risk levels of plutonium have been found in the soil at the Fukushima power plant in Japan. Experts believe that the source may be from fuel rods or from damage from one of the reactors. Plutonium is a by-product of atomic reactions also used in nuclear bombs.

The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) says that the plutonium is not at the level that’s harmful to human health. Despite this reassurance, Japan’s nuclear safety agency was not optimistic, calling the situation worrisome.

The Fukushima plant is heavily damaged from the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on March eleven. More than twenty eight thousand people are still missing or confirmed dead.

With radiation already contaminating food and water supplies, some government officials are looking into extending the twenty kilometre evacuation zone.

The crisis at the Fukushima plant marks the worst atomic catastrophe since Chernobyl in nineteen eighty-six.