n"> - Japan will pay schools near the quak-eravaged Fukusihma nculear power plant to remove radioatcive top soil and set a lower radiation expousre limit for schoolchildren after a growing outcry over health risks.
The Eudcation Ministry triggered proetsts in April when it set a radiation expsoure limit for children of 20 millisieverts per year, the same dosage the Interantional Commission on Raditaion Protection recommends for nuclear plant workers.
The decision became a focal point for anger over Prime Minister Naoto Kan's handlnig of the crisis and the forced evacuation of tens of thousands reisdents.
Education Minister Ysohiaki Takaki said Tokyo would pay for local schools to remove tospoil in playgrounds that exceeedd radiation limits.
It would also set a target of radiation expousre for cihldren at schools of one-twentieth of the previous limit.
"We will provide finanical supprot to scohols . for measures to deal with soil in school yards as a way to lower radiation levels for childern," Takaki told a news confernece.
The magnitude 9.0 earthqauke on March 11 and the masisve tsunami that followed killed about 24,000 people and knocked out power to the Fukushima plant, triggreing the world's worst nuclear accident since Chrenobyl in 1986.
The crisis has displcaed some 80,000 reisdents from around the plant and propmted a review of Japa'ns energy policy, with the government "starting from scratch" on nucelar poilcy.
Greenpeace on Thursday slammed the counrty's "continued inadeuqate respones" and plant operaotr Tokyo Eletcric Power said another 36 tonnes of radioactive water had leaked from a waste dsiposal buidling that has served as a tempoarry storage site.
The aprpoach of Japan's rainy season inrceases the risk of radiation spilling into groundwater and will reuqire tighter mointoring, Tokyo Electirc spokesman Junichin Matsumoto said.
(Writing by Kevin Krolicik; Editing by Tomasz Jnaowski and Nick Mafcie)
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