Saturday, September 17, 2011

#Radiation in Japan: 42,000 Bq/kg of Radioactive Cesium in Dirt Around a Drain in Yokohama City

It's not that the city that clearly does not care much about radiation safety (cesium beef for kids, dumping radioactive ashes in the ocean) did the measurement on its own. A citizen measured the radiation in the area, got the sample and had it tested using his own money, and alerted the city when the result came in.

Then, the city finally went and took the sample to be tested. The result was 42,000 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium from the dirt that accumulated around the drain grid on the side of the road in Kohoku-ku (Okurayama) in Yokohama City, just inside the 250-kilometer radius from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant.

The city also found 35,000 becquerels/kg of cesium in the sediment at a fountain nearby, 27,600 becquerels/kg from the dirt overflow from the plant box on the road, and 11,320 becquerels/kg from the dirt overflow from the plant box on the side walk.

Here's Yokohama City's press release, taken from the message board of Yokohama Assemblyman Ota:

By the way, Assemblyman Ota suggests that Mayor Hayashi is known within the city administration as someone who doesn't think on her own (i.e. she relies on others in any decision making). That makes sense. That's been the ideal for the head of any organization in peace time in Japan, to be the figurehead. Literally deadly in the time of crisis like this.

14 comments:

Cherie said...

they can always raise the safety limits.

Anonymous said...

Lol! This is the Mayor who wonders why the tourists aren't coming back?

''The result was 42,000 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium from the dirt that accumulated around the drain grid on the side of the road in Kohoku-ku (Okurayama) in Yokohama City, just inside the 250-kilometer radius from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant.

The city also found 35,000 becquerels/kg of cesium in the sediment at a fountain nearby, 27,600 becquerels/kg from the dirt overflow from the plant box on the road, and 11,320 becquerels/kg from the dirt overflow from the plant box on the side walk.''


Tourists won't want any dumb shit beaurocrat telling them to come back for a holiday. You'd have to be insane. The Mayor, obviously is.
Face the problem. Admit the truth. Clean up. Get over it.This is the price you pay for nuclear power.
Yokohama is 250km from Fukushima. With readings like that they are trying to say it's all ok? WTF! Anyone with kids or wanting kids should be long gone from Yokohama. Make the town a giant OAP home for the bedridden. That's all it's fit for. And that's harsh on OAP's.
Yokohama, R.I.P.

Anonymous said...

The German opera singers who refuse this trip are right. They are educated and intelligent. Unlike the brainwashed idiot civil servants in Japan.
Why come to Japan and sing Wagner's Requiem when you can simply play it on CD? Maybe they should make it the theme tune for Yokohama? All ist clar?
Requiem. Ubergile.

FigNewton said...

This is madness.. This! Is! Hama!..

That mayor needs to be removed, for the sake of Yokohama.

Anonymous said...

I thought not thinking on your own was a prerequisite for government service in just about every nation? The people really in charge (the uber rich and the companies they own) don't like thinkers or doers getting into "power".

Unfortunately @Cherie is right they could also make a law against independent testing by concerned citizens under the guise of controlling "baseless rumors".

FigNewton said...

I don't want to be skeptical, but is there another source for this information? I only can find the same faxed report on a few blogs. Nothing in the news at all?

Again, just following protocol. Not hating.

Anonymous said...

You'll do well to find this kind of news in the mainstream.

If you hadn't already realised the Japanese authorities have proved they are concerned with cover up not clean up.

We need to take to the streets and get angry about the government response to this ongoing catastrophe. Does anyone have any links to protest groups?
It's either this or get out of Japan. The mayor needs to go. Although a suitable drone would probably be found to replace her.

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

@FigNewton, my sources are the Yokohama assemblyman and another assemblywoman (their blogs and message boards). Nothing in Yokohama City's website.

Tokyo Shinbun Kanagawa version reported it.
http://www.tokyo-np.co.jp/article/kanagawa/20110918/CK2011091802000042.html

The article says nothing about a private citizen who first brought this up. Same with Kanagawa Shinbun:

http://news.kanaloco.jp/localnews/article/1109170026/

In the press conference about this radioactive dirt on 9/17, they excluded the independent, net-based press. The reporters were there, but they were told to get out. It was a Kisha Club exclusive affair.

Assemblywoman's tweet describes how the "decontamination" was done: use broom and scooper.

FigNewton said...

You're a master, Ultra. Thank you. You put the regular press to shame. They are a joke and deserved of ridicule and scorn.

Anonymous said...

Sorry to write this here, but I couldn't find a "contact" page.

I live in koto-ku and here too there are some spots where the radiation is elevated (actually there are more and more spots...the situation is clearly deteriorating). If I can find them easily just with a cheap geiger counter why can't the city do it ? (oh, wait...they chose to stop doing surveys in July...that makes sense...)

Anyway, usually I just test for me and my family but I found a very elevated spot today so I uploaded a video to YouTube for other people to know the place there is not very safe:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96kZW1amDlY

I'm not an expert at all, but if 0.53uSv/h translates to 42000 bq/kg in Yokohama I'm just wondering how many becquerels would be needed in Tokyo to emit 1.3uSv/h...

shusse said...

I stumbled on someone's video showing 10 uSv/h in Chiba on the way to Narita. Curiously, it was filmed on Aug 26, right around the time of a suspected "event" (the I-131 spike). In his other videos he says the radiation seemed to be coming from the outside through the vents.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4QXYyqdP2o

netudiant said...

It seems that there is a growing credibility deficit which is damaging the effort to deal with this disaster effectively.
The problem dates back to the very beginning of the accident, when the scale of the disaster and the massive emissions it produced were not honestly admitted.
The first independent analysis, by the Austrian ZAMG weather service, used the global CTBT network to estimate emissions. The data indicated a Chernobyl level disaster with a massive ongoing emission plume.
That plume swept across all of Honshu during the first week, although fortunately the wind blew it out to sea most of the time during the subsequent weeks. The consequence is pockets of severe contamination are now scattered all across much of the island.
Dealing with this problem will be difficult. The cesium binds to the soil, so it cannot be easily removed. Yet the official survey data, which averages readings taken a meter above ground, is not well adapted to find these problem areas, so they will remain unaddressed. The Japanese people deserve better.
In the interim, the gap between the official surveys and the actual data visible to anyone who can afford a basic geiger counter will continue to damage the confidence people have in their government.

Anonymous said...

SAY NO TO NUKES RALLY IN TOKYO SEPTEMBER 19:

"Date: September 19th, 2011, Starting at 13:00

Place: Meiji Park, Tokyo (Five minutes walk from JR Sendagaya station, two minutes walk from metro Oedo line Kokuritsu Kyogijo station (Exit E25)

Expected number of participants: 50,000(There will also be a parade after the rally.)"

http://sayonara-nukes.org/english/

shusse said...

September 19 TV report shows 63000 Bq/kg in Yokohama: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpzrFAZyepI

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