Environmental impact of nuclear power materials decay, they release particles that can damage the body and lead to cancer, particularly cesium-137 and iodine-131. In the Chernobyl disaster, releases of cesium-137 contaminated land. Some communities, including the entire city of Pripyat, were abandoned permanently. One news source reported that thousands of people who drank milk contaminated with radioactive iodine developed thyroid cancer. The exclusion zone (approx. 30 km radius around Chernobyl) may have significantly elevated levels of radiation, which is now predominantly due to the decay of cesium-137, for around 10 half-lives of that isotope, which is approximately for 300 years. Due to the bioaccumulation of
Timeline of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster of a new leak of radioactive water into the sea. The Itabashi Ward Office announces that a concentration of caesium-134 at 2,700 becquerels per kilogram – in excess of the government's provisional limit – was detected in tea processed from leaves picked on 9 May in Tokyo. The water decontamination and water recycling systems are now both functional. 100% recycled water is now used for reactor cooling, and no additional volume of contaminated water is being generated. Radioactive caesium-137 is found in Tokyo's tap water for the first time since April. Radioactive caesium from Fukushima was expected to enter the