The amounts of radiation in areas around Japan's quake-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant will drop within a month's time, a Russian nuclear expert says.
Rafael Arutyunyan said radioactive iodine-131 has a half life of eight days.
"There will be no traces of iodine left in a month," Arutyunyan said. "That's why the radiation conditions will dramatically improve."
The confirmed death toll from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami has now stands at more than 10,000, police say, while over 17,440 are listed as missing.
Operations have continued to restart the cooling systems at Fukushima's six reactors to try to avoid a major radioactive release.
The Japanese government on Friday asked people still living within 30 km of the damaged plant to leave due to shortages of food and other essentials.
Food, water and fuel in prefectures around Fukushima are in short supply over contamination fears, while countries including the United States, Russia and Australian have banned the imports of food products from Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi and Gunma prefectures.
MOSCOW, March 25 (RIA Novosti)
