The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said safe radiation limits had been exceeded at Iitate village, 25 miles northwest of the Fukushima plant and well outside the government-imposed 12-mile exclusion zone.
Japan’s top government spokesman, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, confirmed that “the IAEA has informed us that the level of radiation in the soil exceeded one of the IAEA standards.”
“And the IAEA has advised us to carefully assess the situation on the basis of this report,” he told a news conference.
Sky News Asia correspondent Holly Williams said: “Four of the six reactors will need to be scrapped, but experts say that could take decades.”
When asked whether Japan would now expand the exclusion zone, he said: “I don’t think that this is something of a nature which immediately requires such action.
“But, the fact that the level of radiation is high in the soil is inevitably pointing to the possibility that the accumulation over the long term may affect human health.
“Therefore, we will continue monitoring the level of radiation with heightened vigilance and we intend to take action if necessary.”
Meanwhile, protesters have swarmed the headquarters of plant operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco).
Williams said: “It stands accused of ignoring safety warnings.”
In a separate measurement, the level of radioactive iodine-131 in the sea off the disaster-hit nuclear plant has soared to its highest reading yet at 4,385 times the legal limit, plant operator Tepco said.
The Fukushima plant was crippled by a tsunami on March 11 and hit by several explosions, leading to frantic efforts to prevent a catastrophic meltdown as radiation has wafted into the air and seeped into the ocean.
According to Elena Buglova, head of the IAEA’s Incident and Emergency Centre, the reading in Iitate village was 2 megabecquerels per square metre.
That was a “ratio about two times higher than levels” at which the agency recommends evacuations, she said.