Radioactive Iodine in Sewer Sludge in Oshu City, Iwate

Oshu City is located 187 kilometers north of Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant.

The city announced the latest survey of radioactive materials in sewer sludge in a sewage treatment center in the city, and it shows iodine-131 being detected in the sludge cake since August 25.

From the city's announcement on September 7 (original in Japanese, I translated the dates, etc.; emphasis is mine):

Collection date	Testing date	I-131	Cs-134	Cs-137	Cs-Total
7/7/2011	7/14/2011	ND	81	100	181
7/21/2011	7/23/2011	ND	71	64	135
7/28/2011	7/30/2011	ND	58	79	137
8/4/2011	8/7/2011	ND	38	76	114
8/11/2011	8/12/2011	ND	33	52	85
8/25/2011	8/27/2011	2,300	47	52	99
8/31/2011	9/2/2011	590	20	57	77
9/6/2011	9/6/2011	480	82	96	178

The city says it has stopped the shipment of sludge cakes from this plant because of the high radioactive iodine concentration detected from the August 25 sample, but that the sludge cakes have been used as fertilizer material because the amount of radioactive cesium has been below the provisional safety limit for composts and manures (400 becquerels/kg).

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