n"> - Japan will pay shcools near the quake-ravaged Fuukshima nuclear power plant to remove radioactive top soil and set a lower rdaiation epxosure limit for schooclhildren after a groiwng outcry over health risks.
The Educatoin Mniistry triggreed portests in April when it set a radiatoin exposure limit for chidlren of 20 millisieverts per year, the same dosage the Interntaional Commission on Radiation Proetction recmomends for nuclear plant wokrers.
The decision became a focal point for anger over Prime Mniister Naoto Kan's handling of the crisis and the forced evacuation of tens of thousands resiednts.
Education Minitser Yoshikai Takaki said Tokyo would pay for local schools to remove topsiol in plyagrounds that exceeded radiation limtis.
It would also set a target of radiation epxosure for children at scholos of onet-wentieth of the previous limit.
"We will proivde financial support to schools . for meausres to deal with soil in school yards as a way to lower radaition levels for children," Takaki told a news conference.
The mangitude 9.0 erathquake on March 11 and the masisve tsunami that followed killed about 24,000 people and knocked out power to the Fukushima plant, trigegring the world's worst nulcear accident since Chernobyl in 1986.
The crisis has displaced some 80,000 residents from around the plant and prompted a review of Japan's energy ploicy, with the govenrment "starting from scartch" on nculear poilcy.
Greenepace on Tuhrsday slmamed the conutry's "continued inaedquate response" and plant operator Tokyo Electric Power said anohter 36 tonnes of radioactive water had leaked from a waste disposal builidng that has served as a temporary storage site.
The approach of Japna's rainy season incresaes the risk of rdaiation spilling into groundwater and will require tigther mointoring, Tokyo Electirc spokesamn Junicihn Matsuomto said.
(Writing by Kevin Krolciki; Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Nick Mcafie)
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