Tokyo Radiation Hotspot Discovered By Officials

TOKYO — Japanese officials have found a small area in Tokyo with higher levels of radiation than evacuation zones around the Fukushima nuclear plant.

Tokyo's Setagaya city's mayor says concerned parents monitoring for radiation asked them to conduct further tests on a roadside spot near a kindergarten. Its radioactivity slightly exceeded that of an area about 25 miles (40 kilometers) from the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant.

Mayor Nobuto Hosakai says the cause is being investigated. He says rainwater containing radioactive particles had been dripping from the roof of a building by the sidewalk.

Officials said Wednesday that an estimated annual exposure at the spot wouldn't pose a health danger. They say the area has been closed off and city officials will also survey nearly 260 parks.

Comments

[ThomasMc]

03:57 PM on 10/15/2011

Just think, if the Tea Party gets any more power, they'll deregulate everything, including nuclear power plants. Then when a Fushushima type event occurs, they will refuse to pay for any testing, saying it will only benefit those dying of radiation poisoning!

[Joffan]

08:49 AM on 10/14/2011

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/13/tokyo-radiation-hotspot-source-found_n_1009119.html

[WeMustDoBetter09]

08:20 AM on 10/14/2011

Just In: Yokohama City Just Confirmed Strontium-90 Existence in Rooftop Sediment
The city was testing on its own, using the sample that had over 100,000 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium.

195 becquerels/kg of strontium-90 has been detected from the sample that had over 63,000 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium. Both samples were taken from the same rooftop of an apartment building in Kohoku-ku in Yokohama City.

Details to be announced later in a press conference, according to a Yokohama Assemblywoman (Ms. Sakura Inoue). Right now the city is holding an emergency meeting of the radiation countermeasures staff.
http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/10/just-in-yokohama-city-just-confirmed.html

[WeMustDoBetter09]

07:51 PM on 10/13/2011

OT
30 foot long crack found in containment building at Ohio nuclear reactor — Reactor was being replaced after cracks found on fuel rod nozzles (VIDEO)
http://www.wtol.com/story/15690306/crack-discovered-in-davis-besse-containment-building
OAK HARBOR, OH (WTOL) – Workers replacing the nuclear reactor head at the Davis-Besse plant discovered a crack in a concrete containment building Monday.

The plant has been shut down for nearly two weeks while the reactor is replaced with a new one [...]

The vertical crack runs as much as 30 feet along rebar [...]

First Energy, which owns Davis-Besse, is replacing the current reactor head after cracks were found on fuel rod nozzles. [...]

“The significance of the finding is yet to be determined, that’s why we’ve engaged the outside experts.” -First Energy Spokesperson Jennifer Young

Information coming soon about:
1) Davis-Beese’s near meltdown in 2002
2) The crack in the containment building at Florida’s Crystal River nuke plant

[WeMustDoBetter09]

07:17 PM on 10/13/2011

New Developmen­ts?
BBC News - Alexander Litvinenko murder was 'London nuclear terror' http://bbc­.in/nU4uLc and there is 'Fukushima nuclear genocide' ongoing
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15293395

[Joffan]

07:41 PM on 10/13/2011

Your second quoted phrase is not a quote. You made it up. The BBC article is only about Litvinenko.

[PoloniumMan]

08:51 PM on 10/13/2011

The case of Litvinenko was just old school KGB assassination.

[WeMustDoBetter09]

06:56 PM on 10/13/2011

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2011
(UPDATED) New Twist on 4.7 Microsieverts/Hr Radiation in Setagaya-ku, Tokyo: Radon??
http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/10/new-twist-on-47-microsievertshr.html
(UPDATE: They say it was most likely radium-226, the surface radiation was 600 microsieverts/hour.)
From Tokyo Shinbun quoting Kyodo News (10/14/2011):
http://www.tokyo-np.co.jp/s/article/2011101301000799.html
(read it)
EX-skf discusses article saying:
The radiation was so high that the survey meter that they brought couldn't measure as it went overscale. No one is currently living in that house.

Whether people believe the government is another matter. Some simply do not. I am rather shocked to see the Ministry of Education, of all people, responding so quickly, even releasing the photo above so quickly. That ministry is the last one I'd expect to respond to ordinary people's concern. How ironic.

(Oh wait... The radiation near the surface of the side walk (5 centimeters off) was rather high at 1.34 microsievert/hour, according to Mainichi Shinbun (10/13/2011). Radon in the bottle under the house cannot explain that, can it??)

In the meantime, more radiation "hot spots" (often several microsieverts/hour) have been discovered in the Tokyo metropolitan area.

Many in Japan are saying this is a "wag the dog" event, because the response from the government was just too quick. Unconfirmed report that the company who DID radiation measurement was a TEPCO subsidiary.
(go figure)

[Joffan]

07:38 PM on 10/13/2011

Confined* radium of that age (more than few months old) will be at decay equilibrium with several of its daughter products down to Polonium-214 - that is, the decay products will also be emitting radioactivity at the same rate. In particular, Lead-214 and Bismuth-214 will be emitting gamma rays. These will probably be what was detected on the sidewalk, and will have a characteristically different energy than anything from fission products.

-----------------
*"Confined" because otherwise the first decay product radon, a gas. may escape.
http://www.ead.anl.gov/pub/doc/natural-decay-series.pdf

[Joffan]

05:48 PM on 10/13/2011

Oh look, it's nothing to do with Fukushima.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-15285843
================
But officials later said they were almost certain that the radiation had not come from Fukushima, after the source was traced to the basement of a nearby house, where an unknown material was being stored in old bottles in a wooden box.

Tests are now being carried out to confirm the bottles are to blame and to establish what they contain.
================

Not that it was a problem in the first place - contrary to the Busby-worshippers creed, low-level radiation of this sort is no health concern at all. It's the equivalent of evacuating a city if someone breaks a mercury thermometer - irrational and counterproductive.

[markkocaldo]

02:10 PM on 10/13/2011

Turns out it was some old bottles stored away by Big Oil and released so they can keep selling $1.5B annually worth of gas per reactor shutdown o the low information Japanese citizen.

Rdiation levels outside the Fukushimi plant never got higher than what folks live with year round with very low cancer levels in Ramsar Iran.

[Atoms4Peace1]

11:20 AM on 10/14/2011

Or Denver Colorado.

Rad levels outside the plant are really not at all life threatening.

[ddpalmerr]

01:31 PM on 10/13/2011

You missed one WeMustDoBetter09.

"When the groundwater reaches the surface of hot spring locations, travertine, a calcium carbonate (CaCO3) mineral precipitates out of solution with dissolved radium substituting for calcium in the mineral as RaCO3. High concentrations of radium carbonate are found in the residual deposits (up to 30 m thick) of the hot springs. These materials are often used as building materials by the residents of the area. The gamma radiation at waist level in these houses reaches up to about 20 uSv/h. The walls of the bed rooms (made of sedimentary rocks from the hot springs) of these dwellings also show dose rates as high as 143 uGy/h. In spite of the fact that the levels of natural radiation in these areas is up to 200 times higher than normal background levels, nearly all inhabitants still live in their old ancestral dwellings, without any ill effects."

Introduction to Medical Geology By C. B. Dissanayake, Rohana Chandrajith

20 uSv/hour is more than 6 times the levels found in Tokyo. 143 uGy/hour (which for gamma equates to about 143 uSv/hour) is more than 42 times the levels on the Tokyo street and people tend to spend more time in their bedrooms than in the street.

Oh wait this is natural radioactivity and people have been exposed to it for generations WITHOUT ANY ILL EFFECTS. But I guess natural radioactivity, even at much higher levels, doesn't cause harm, right?

[WeMustDoBetter09]

11:42 AM on 10/13/2011

The Guardian covered it now:
Fukushima radiation fear in Tokyo after danger reading
Radiation level on Tokyo street was 17 times recommended limit, exceeding readings in parts of Fukushima exclusion zone
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/2011/oct/13/fukushima-radiation-tokyo-contamination-reading

[ddpalmerr]

06:43 PM on 10/13/2011

Yes and the BBC reported the real story.

"Tokyo radiation hotspot 'not linked to Fukushima'"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-15285843

[Atoms4Peace1]

11:21 AM on 10/14/2011

Its not dangerous. Stop spreading lies.

[rickpark1]

11:30 AM on 10/13/2011

100 years from now 3rd grader Johnny is going to ask his science teacher "why were the experts so stupid" back then.?

[Joffan]

06:19 PM on 10/13/2011

I hope so. I hope that in 100 years a lot of the things we struggle with will be recognized as foolishness. Low-level radiation phobia among them.

[ddpalmerr]

06:37 PM on 10/13/2011

I believe you have it backwards. The question will be "why were stupid people considered to be experts?"

[Joffan]

07:17 PM on 10/13/2011

Heh. Now that, sadly, probably won't change, but the subjects they are concerned about may do.

[WeMustDoBetter09]

11:21 AM on 10/13/2011

Bloomberg: Yokohama official refuses to say if first lab tests detected strontium-90 — Koide: It seems to be a relatively high radiation dose
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-10-13/tokyo-yokohama-expand-checks-after-radiation-hot-spots-found.html
[...] Yokohama city official John Kuramochi [...] declined to confirm if the first lab tests showed the sediment contained strontium 90.
Strontium 90 has a similar struture [sic] to calcium and tends to accumulate in bone and can cause bone cancer and leukemia, Hiroaki Koide, a nuclear physics scientist at Kyoto University, said on the phone today.

“It seems what was found in Yokohama is a relatively high radiation dose, so they need to thoroughly investigate.” [...]

[Atoms4Peace1]

11:25 AM on 10/14/2011

There you go again. "Relatively high dose". My god when will the lies stop?

A relatively high dose to what? Normal?

You are going to need a lot more Sr90 than what was found - if indeed it is attributed to Fukushima.

Now that people are measuring things, do they really know where it came from? They werent measuring before so how could they be sure of the source?

[WeMustDoBetter09]

10:34 AM on 10/13/2011

Symposium – “The World After Fukushima 3/11”
Friday Oct. 21 6pm

@ CUNY Graduate Center (Skylight Room: #9100)

365 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10016

Although information has been coming in from Japan since 3/11, there is a huge gap between what the people in Japan are actually experiencing, doing and thinking after the Fukushima nuclear accident, and what the people in the US know and think about it. We are inviting three intellectuals/activists from Japan to share their first hand experiences and thoughts with us here in the US, and to discuss together the significance of the situation, the question of our human survival and the global struggles for it.

[Atoms4Peace1]

11:26 AM on 10/14/2011

Geez - intellectuals and activists really understand. Laughable.

[WeMustDoBetter09]

10:11 AM on 10/13/2011

Watch out:
Radioactive waste to be burned
http://enformable.com/2011/10/radioactive-waste-and-landfill-flooding-disposal-areas-in-tokyo-to-be-destroyed-by-fire/

[Atoms4Peace1]

11:27 AM on 10/14/2011

You know the amount of radiation burned when coal is burned far outweighs any of this.

[WeMustDoBetter09]

09:52 AM on 10/13/2011

TOKYO, Oct. 13 (Xinhua) — Radiation levels at areas in Tokyo and Chiba prefectures were found Thursday to far exceed current levels in Fukushima prefecture, home to the crisis-hit No. 1 nuclear power plant located 200 km north of Tokyo.
http://enformable.com/2011/10/195-bq-of-strontium-90-found-on-rooftop-near-yokohama-first-time-strontium-concentration-more-than-100-bqkg-found/
An area along a sidewalk in Tokyo’s Setagaya Ward, frequently used by elementary school children, was found to have airborne radiation measuring 3.35 microsieverts per hour and a children‘s amusement park tested positive with 5.82 microsieverts in the Funabashi district of neighboring Chiba prefecture, local authorities said Thursday.

It is the first time Strontium-90 at a concentration of more than 100 becquerels per kilogram has been detected beyond 100 km from the troubled plant in Fukushima, the officials said.