Friday, October 14, 2011

Accumulating Contamination


Japan Today: "IAEA team urges gov't to focus on reducing radiation danger to public"

http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/iaea-team-to-unveil-preliminary-findings-on-fukushima-nuclear-accident
 
[the IAEA is recommending Japan that it] “'is advised to consider explaining to the public the importance of focusing on radiation doses that may actually be received by people, rather than on data containing contamination levels,' the report said...."

Majia Here: Why is the IAEA advising Japan to focus on the public's "dose" rather than "data containing contamination levels"?

The answer is because contamination levels are so high and contamination is increasingly found to be ubiquitous.

Here are some links to stories documenting that radiation contamination is being found in Tokyo and other cities far from Fukushima, beginning with the latest news

Asahi: Radiation on Tokyo sidewalk exceeds parts of no-entry zone

http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201110130284.html
"Radiation exceeding levels in the no-entry zone around the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant has been found on a sidewalk in Tokyo. (October 14)"

"According to an Oct. 12 announcement by Setagaya Ward Mayor Nobuto Hosaka, the spot in the 5-chome neighborhood of the ward's Tsurumaki district had radiation levels of 2.707 microsieverts per hour, higher than the 2.115 microsieverts measured at a monitoring post on Oct. 12 in Iitate, Fukushima Prefecture, which is within the 20-km exclusion zone around the Fukushima plant..."

Majia here: the sidewalk in question is used by students at an elementary school.
 
The same story is being reported by Asahi and can be found here:
 
Asahi: Radiation on Tokyo sidewalk exceeds parts of no-entry zone
http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201110130284.html
 
 
Here is another story documenting contamination:
 
Asahi: High cesium levels found in parts of Niigata Prefecture
http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201110130279.html

"Relatively high levels of radioactive cesium have been detected in parts of Niigata Prefecture, according to the science ministry...

In Niigata Prefecture, 30,000 to 60,000 becquerels of cesium 137 were detected per square meter in parts of Uonuma and Aga, which border on Fukushima prefecture, and in parts of northern municipalities, including Sekikawa and Murakami...

The highest accumulation levels of cesium 137 were about 20,000 becquerels per square meter in southern parts of Yuzawa, eastern parts of Akita and other locations."

MAJIA HERE: The article states that the Chernobyl exclusion zone was set at 550,000 becquerels per square meter and that contaminated zones were set at 37,000 becquerels per square meter for Cesium-137.

Finally, here are stories from Fukushima Diary and Enenews documenting accumulating contamination.

http://fukushima-diary.com/2011/10/news-strontium90-in-yokohama-was-2-5-times-more-than-what-they-measured-in-fukushima/

http://enenews.com/wsj-tokyo-area-officials-say-park-has-radiation-levels-5-times-higher-than-had-been-previously-detected-in-city






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