nuclear-news

However, motorists in Japan are facing an unfamiliar peril. They are being offered used cars with low mileage, well-maintained engines and sound bodywork. The only flaw is that they are dangerously radioactive.

In the aftermath of the nuclear disaster, used-car dealerships have found themselves stuck with vehicles that have absorbed high levels of radiation from the meltdown of the reactors at the Fukushima nuclear plant.

Barred from exporting the vehicles, they have resorted to re-registering them to disguise their origin, and selling them to customers who have no idea of the risk to which they are being exposed.

One van in particular, which has become notorious, is so radioactive that sitting inside it for two hours a day will expose the occupant to more than the government’s recommended maximum dose over the course of a year.

ts purchaser knows none of this because the auction house that sold it refuses to disclose his or her name and address.

“It is just the tip of the iceberg,” one car dealer told the Asahi newspaper. “If high radiation is detected, decontamination is too difficult. This is why such vehicles are auctioned within Japan.”

Compared with many countries, Japan’s domestic used-car market is small, but many vehicles are exported, especially to Russia and other parts of Asia……

According to harbour authorities, 660 cars were barred from export last month because they exceeded radiation limits, about one per cent of those tested. No one knows how many of these have been re-registered and submitted once again to the domestic market….

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/radioactive-second-hand-cars-dog-japan/story-e6frg6so-1226177000267