#Radiation in Japan: A Hokkaido Town Measures Radiation As "Temporary" Disaster Debris Depot May Be Coming Near Them

A neighborhood association in a district in Tomakomai City in Hokkaido has started to measure the radiation levels throughout the district to obtain the baseline data. Why? Because a "temporary" depot to store the disaster debris from Tohoku may be coming near them.

Now that it's a law of their land that the national government will be doing the debris collection and disposal, many cities and towns who have mostly escaped the radioactive plume from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant may receive their "share" of radiation via radioactive debris - either as is, or in the form of radioactive ashes after the debris gets burned.

From Hokkaido Shinbun (8/18/2011):

苫小牧市の沼ノ端中央町内会（竹田秀泰会長、８１５世帯）が、放射線量の測定を独自に始めた。近くの苫小牧東部地域（苫東）が東日本大震災のがれき置き場の候補地となっており、同町内会は「仮にがれきを受け入れた場合、受け入れ前と比べ放射線量がどう変化するかの基礎資料にしたい」と話している。

The Numanohata Central Neighborhood Association in Tomakomai City [in Hokkaido] with 815 households has started the radiation survey on its own. Nearby Komato [Tomakomai East - an ill-fated national industrial development project from 1960s] is one of the candidate sites in Hokkaido for storage of the disaster debris. The Association says, "If the debris come here, we would like to have the baseline data on radiation so that we could compare before and after".

　道によると、町内会単位での定期的な放射線量測定は「聞いたことがない」（原子力安全対策課）という。

According to the Hokkaido prefectural government (nuclear safety measures section), they've never heard of a systematic radiation measurement on the neighborhood association level.

　沼ノ端中央町内会はＪＲ沼ノ端駅南側に位置し、苫東から１０キロ圏内にある。

The Numanohata Central Neighborhood Association covers the area south of Numanohata train station, and the area is within 10 kilometers of Tomato.

I don't think these townspeople want the debris, neither do the residents in cities and towns throughout Japan (from Hokkaido to Kagoshima in Kyushu) where the disaster debris may go for "temporary" storage or final disposal. But there seems to be some sort of campaign is starting, whereby notable "celebrities" appear in the MSM to either praise Fukushima (prefecture) for perseverance in the face of adversity or denounce those Japanese who do not want radiation in their neighborhood or in their food as "selfish".

Perverse.

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