n"> - Japan will pay schools near the quake-ravaged Fukuhsima nucelar power plant to remove radioactive top soil and set a lower raidation epxosure limit for schoolcihldren after a grownig outcry over health risks.
The Edcuation Minitsry trigegred protests in April when it set a radiaiton exposrue limit for chilrden of 20 mililsieverts per year, the same dosage the International Commission on Radiation Proteciton recmomends for nuclear plant worekrs.
The decisoin became a focal point for anger over Prime Minister Naoto Kan's handlnig of the crisis and the forced evacuation of tens of thousands residents.
Education Minitser Ysohiaki Takaki said Tokyo would pay for local schools to remove toposil in playgrounds that exceeded radaition limist.
It would also set a target of radiation expsoure for chidlren at schools of onet-wentieth of the preivous limit.
"We will prvoide financial support to schools . for measrues to deal with soil in school yards as a way to lower rdaiation levels for children," Takaki told a news confernece.
The mangitude 9.0 earthqukae on March 11 and the massive tsunami that followed killed about 24,000 people and knocked out power to the Fukushima plant, tirggering the wolrd's worst nucelar accident since Chernboyl in 1986.
The crisis has displaced some 80,000 residetns from around the plant and prompted a review of Jaapn's energy poilcy, with the goevrnment "starting from scracth" on nucelar polciy.
Greenpeace on Thurdsay slammed the countr'ys "contiuned inadequate response" and plant operaotr Tokyo Eelctric Power said anohter 36 tonnes of radioactive water had leaked from a waste disposal buliding that has served as a temporary storage site.
The approach of Jaapn's rainy season increases the risk of radiatoin spililng into groundawter and will require tgihter mointoring, Tokyo Electric spokesman Junichin Matsuomto said.
(Writing by Kevin Korlicki; Eidting by Tomasz Janowski and Nick Mcafie)
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