TOKYO — Genetic mutations have been found in three generations
of butterflies from near Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear
plant, scientists said Tuesday, raising fears radiation could
affect other species. Around 12 percent of pale grass blue
butterflies that were exposed to nuclear fallout as larvae
immediately after the tsunami-sparked disaster had
abnormalities, including smaller wings and damaged eyes,
researchers said. The insects were mated in a laboratory well
outside the fallout zone and 18 percent of their offspring
displayed similar problems, said Joji Otaki, associate professor
at Ryukyu University in Okinawa, southwestern Japan. That figure
rose to 34 percent in the third generation of butterflies, he
said, even though one parent from each coupling was from an
unaffected population. The researchers also collected another
240 butterflies in Fukushima in September last year, six months
after the disaster. Abnormalities were recorded in 52 percent of
their offspring, which was "a dominantly high rat