Tuesday, June 5, 2012

#Radioactive Scrap Metal Shipped from Chiba Stopped at China's Ningbo Customs


From China Central Television News Content (news date is not clear from the site; Yahoo Japan reporting the news says it's from 6/5/2012):

East China's Ningbo Customs recently seized 1,127 tons of radioactive metal scraps coming from Japan's Chiba Port.

The scraps were imported by a Ningbo-based company and shipped from Chiba Port. Testing result showed that their Cesium-137 content was more than three times above China's national safety limit.

"We has detected that there are excessive radioactive materials in cargoes of two ships from Japan, most of them from ports near Fukushima," said Dai Weigu, deputy director of Logistics Monitoring Department of Zhenhai Customs which is affiliated to Ningbo Customs.

Ningbo Customs have seized a total of 8,544 tons of radioactive metal scraps since the Japan tsunami, said Wang Lingbao, director of Logistics Monitoring Department of Zhenhai Customs.


There are numerous scrap metal merchants and processors in Chiba Prefecture.

CCTV News, from youtube (Any readers who understand Chinese care to tell us what they are saying?):

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hahaha. usually its the Japanese who point the finger at the Chinese for some dodgy imports , now the boot is on the other foot... karma is a bitch

Anonymous said...

Isn't it funny how the rest of the world still hangs on to realistic radiation limits in everyday items while Japan chants the "no immediate danger mantra? You'd think China would relax their standards if the world community really felt radiation wasn't an issue. So the Chinese won't allow their steel workers and general citizens to be slightly exposed but the Japanese are feeding their children food with varying levels of contamination and letting them play in "black dust" under the guise of "cleaning up".

Anonymous said...

@3.43 Yep its disgusting and the japanese still dont get it.... total ignorance and hubris...

TechDud said...

Friday, April 20, 2012
"Bridgestone Cycle Co. plans to recall 9,405 of its Jobno bicycles after radioactive materials were found in its Chinese-made stainless steel basket, the company said..."
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120420a6.html

TechDud said...

Mind you, the substances involved are different, as the bicycles contained small quantities of Cobalt60.

If the scrap has been 'seized', can i assume that Ningbo Customs will levy fines on the exporter?
Can i additionally assume that the importer may refuse to pay for the scrap?

"Isn't it funny how the rest of the world still hangs on to realistic radiation limits..."
I do not believe Health Canada's limits of 1000Bq/kg for each radionuclide type in food and milk, etc. is any where near realistic. This is far in excess of the stated limits in Japan, IIRC.

TechDud said...

@Anonymous - "@3.43 Yep its disgusting and the japanese still dont get it.... total ignorance and hubris..."

Neither to the Americans, nor the Canadians; almost total ignorance and hubris.

John said...

My wife speaks Chinese. She says that there is no additional information to what has already been posted. She says that the Chinese men say: "Since the nuclear incident at Fukushima, Japan has been habitually exporting radioactive products to China (implies that there is a Chinese government testing regime and that most of the goods coming from Japan are radioactive but below the Chinese limit). This shipment of scrap metal, however, is more than three times the legal limit so it is being stopped. This scrap metal comes from close to Fukushima." That is what my wife told me was said.

Atomfritz said...

Highly interesting, thank you!

Indeed, formerly gamma contamination of scrap metal was usually due to Co-60, originationg mostly from gamma sources and increasing quantities of reactor scrap metal whose cobalt impurities became radioactive cobalt-60 because of neutron irradiation.
Now this is shifting toward Cesium as main pollutant, pointing to Japanese origin.

After these many thousand tons of confiscated materials I guess Japan will shift to other scrap importers who don't care so much about contamination, or just melt the scrap itself, allowing for dilution just below the allowable levels.

So my guess that in some years every authenticity check against forgeries of Japanese products will include checking for the obligatory Cesium radiation, which will be considered as proof of genuineness.

Anonymous said...

"thanks to radioactivity we can now levy a "radio-tax" like a "carbo-tax" on countries because we can measure the rate of recycling involved.
countries that export metals with low to non-existent levels of radioactivity will be slapped with a "radio-tax" because these exports are virgin metals dug up from ugly pits that destroy nature and the environment.
if however sufficient radioactivity IS measured in exported metals, this implies that metals originate from the green nuclear industry are being recycled and nature is nor further harmed by mining. these export-metals will get extra credit and a big FAT SMILEY STICKER on the crate."
- to be announced soon

Anonymous said...

You should have bought a squirrel...hope you all started preparing last year. Btw, those radioactive tuna were tested LAST year.

Anonymous said...

Sorry to say but the Japanese people are "Dead Men Walking" and the Government doesn't care !!

Anonymous said...

If I were to buy a Japanese car I would certainly check for radioactivity before paying for it. Anything from Japan is suspect now. I worry that American companies are using Japanese scrap to manufacture things made right here in America. There is no testing going on that I know of.

ericswan said...

The consequences are too much to think about. I wonder if the advertisers on this page know what they are reaping.

Anonymous said...

The $64,000 question now is : Should cars, bikes and consumer products made with metals in Japan be tested for radioactivity too? This is because used cars exported to Russia from Japan were found to be radioactive last year.

Anonymous said...

Everything anyone can think of should be tested for a while after the disaster, until we get a good idea of what's affected. Then we can try and trace the sources and limit excessive contamination, preventing future occurrences.

Problem is, people don't see it that way. They keep insisting everything's safe and won't even check to confirm. They'd rather wait until people die and evidence of severe radioactive contamination are undeniable. That way, they only have to pay the small penalty costs, instead of forking out the costs for proper testing.

TechDud said...

I would be more concerned about clean water & food first.

In fits of hunger or thirst, nobody eats a car (unless unusually determined), and it's not about to vaporize anytime soon for you to breath. True, the 'daughter-products' would claim the interior eventually; some could be internalized by breathing...

I wonder how such exposure will equate with a long-distance flight in time.


"They keep insisting everything's safe and won't even check to confirm."
Ah, the "head-in-the-sand" philosophy. The anniversary of the Titanic (and Fukushima Daiichi) was when i started my move from Denial through Acceptance.

Is it not amazing how it has been revealed lately, that the Titanic may have had a coal-fire onboard before leaving port on that tragic trip. An at-pier ship-to-ship coal transfer is suspected to have supplied the Oxidizer needed to start the "internal" combustion in at least one hold. In an effort to remove the fuel source, it was vociferously shoveled in to feed the boilers; hence the high rate of travel. Over time, thermodynamic stress likely weakened the hull on the same side of the ship that struck the iceberg.

scrap metal recycling said...

Dead men walking?

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jade said...

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jhon said...

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