The adverse impact of radioactive contamination in Japan continues to widen hundreds of kilometers away from the site of the worsening nuclear disaster.
Aljazeera reports that dozens of Japanese sewage treatments plants in areas hit by Fukushima's radioactive fallout are stuck with tons of radioactive sludge contaminated by cesium-137. Treated sewage that was processed for cement production and agricultural fertilizer is now accumulating at sewage plants because its too radioactive. Nobody wants it.
Cesium-137 has a half-life of 30 years (that's recognized as at least 300 years of biological hazard) emitting highly penetrating gamma rays in addition to beta particles. Its "biogeochemical" properties allow it to move readily through the food chain entering the same pathways as the nutrient potassium.