Friday, October 14, 2011

(UPDATED) Strontium in Yokohama: City Still Hides (But Information Wants to Be Free...)

(UPDATE: Iwakami just disclosed the number that Yokohama City wanted to hide in the press conference last night.

From the apartment building rooftop sediment:

  • Radioactive cesium (previously measured): 105,600 becquerels/kg

  • Radioactive strontium (89 and 90 combined): 236 becquerels/kg

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The City of Yokohama did have a press conference late at night on October 14, but the officials only disclosed the data of strontium (89 and 90 combined) from the samples taken from the public locations - side of the road and at the fountain in a public park in Kohoku-ku in Yokohama.

It kept mum on the rooftop sediment in an apartment building that had over 100,000 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium, citing some sort of agreement with the person who provided the sample. (That person says, "What are they talking about?", by the way.)

The results of the testing done by Yokohama City, as provided by Yasumi Iwakami on twitter:

From the sample taken from the side drain of the road in Kohoku-ku:

  • Radioactive cesium (measured previously): 39,012 becquerels/kg

  • Radioactive strontium (-89 and -90): 129 becquerels/kg

From the sample taken at the fountain in Shin Yokohama:
  • Radioactive cesium (measured previously): 31,570 becquerels/kg

  • Radioactive strontium (-89 and -90): 59 becquerels/kg

The city considers strontium to have come from from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, and will ask the national government to test for strontium outside the 100-kilometer radius from the nuke plant. Yokohama is about 250 kilometers away from the plant.

Mr. Iwakami reports that during the press conference the city was heavily criticized for not disclosing the number for the sediment on the rooftop of the apartment. The city didn't have a convincing argument as to why they were not disclosing, Iwakami says.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why all this susprise?
Look at here: more Sayama tea with high radiation...
http://www.mhlw.go.jp/english/topics/2011eq/level_oct13.html

netudiant said...

Well, we know from Chernobyl that radiation is deposited in a leopard spot pattern, so there will be pockets of much above average radiation.
The point though is that here we have a substantial spot 250km from ground zero. Far beyond the 'safe' 80km limit.
Well beyond the 80 mile radius suggested by the US government.
So what can the average Tokyo resident do when he learns that his home is much closer to the Fukushima site than the Yokahama hot spot? At some point, the people will get angry about this.

Anonymous said...

Chernoble Strontium spots all over the globe, also in Japan.

Fukuspotting continuing unhindered, run into shelter you ppl of Pripyat!

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