If you teach in South Korea and spend any amount of time on Facebook, you probably saw people posting like crazy about the potential scare of radioactive rain drifting west from Japan to the Korean peninsula. The government has been doing everything it can to calm fears and assure people there is no possibility of radioactive rain:
Heavy rains, expected to fall Thursday, will not contain radioactive materials released directly from the crippled Japanese nuclear plant, Korea’s weather agency said Wednesday.
Citizens here have expressed concerns over “radioactive rainfall” that would continue for a prolonged period following the widening nuclear crisis in quake-hit Japan.
Adding to the atomic fears, weather agencies in Norway and Germany, respectively, warned earlier this week that radioactive materials will reach the Korean Peninsula in the coming five days.
However, the Korea Meteorological Administration on Wednesday dismissed the overseas forecasts, saying the air current near the nuclear power plant has shifted to east. [...]Despite the confidence that the Korean government has that the rain will not contain dangerous levels of radioactive particles, hundreds of schools across Korea shut their doors today and told their students to stay home and stay away from the rain. Strange indeed for school officials to be cancelling school if there actually is no danger...
Source VOA News:
Showers on the Korean peninsula prompted some schools to close Thursday. Many parents were worried about exposing children to "radioactive rain." They were not reassured by South Korean authorities, who said there is no risk to children, even if some radioactive particles might be detected in rain water.
Fears about radiation in rain prompted classes to be canceled at some schools in South Korea. In Gyeonggi province, 125 kindergartens and elementary schools gave students the day off.
A spokesman for the provincial education office, Cho Byung-lae, says all institutions there were asked to curtail outdoor activities, but it was left up to school principals to decide whether to cancel instruction.
Cho says they did not decide to close schools because of radiation, calling that a rather remote risk. But, he explains because there was such strong concern expressed by many parents, school authorities decided to relieve their anxiety. [...]I wouldn't mind getting some more days off work. Last year was the great swince flu scare, and not it is radioactive rain... geesh...
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