You're reading: Foreign rescue team exposed to radiation in Japan

Foreign rescue team exposed to radiation in Japan

By Interns.

Published March 16, 2011 at 8:22 am

Futaba Kosei Hospital patients are assisted by Japan Self Defense Force personnel as they disembark from a helicopter in the compound of Fukushima Gender Equality Centre in Nihonmatsu, Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan on March 13, 2011 after being evacuated from the hospital in Futaba town near the troubled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex. They might have been exposed to radiation while waiting for evacuation when an explosion of Unit 1 reactor of the complex blew off the top part of its walls on Saturday, one day after a strong earthquake and tsunami hit northeastern Japan.

Photo by AP Photo/The Yomiuri Shimbun, Daisuke Tomita

A team of Australian and New Zealand search and rescue workers has been exposed to low levels of radiation after their helicopter was forced to land near Japan's disaster-stricken nuclear power complex.

The leaders of both countries announced the contamination on Wednesday and said they were satisfied the workers’ health was not at risk.

Ice on the rotors of the U.S. helicopter they were using caused an unscheduled landing Wednesday at Fukushima airport, about 12 miles (20 kilometers) outside the exclusion zone around the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant.

The team was tested when they returned to base, and two Australians and two New Zealanders were found to have "very low levels of contamination on their boots," Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard said.

The leaders of both countries announced the contamination on Wednesday and said they were satisfied the workers’ health was not at risk.

Ice on the rotors of the U.S. helicopter they were using caused an unscheduled landing Wednesday at Fukushima airport, about 12 miles (20 kilometers) outside the exclusion zone around the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant.

The team was tested when they returned to base, and two Australians and two New Zealanders were found to have "very low levels of contamination on their boots," Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard said.