nuclear-news

High radiation in Fukushima neighbourhoods

Japan Newspaper: Radiation levels rising every month since decontamination in Fukushima district — Gov’t won’t help or even respond — “Are they forcing us to tolerate high radiation?”   http://enenews.com/mainichi-radiation-levels-rising-every-month-since-decontamination-in-fukushima-district-govt-wont-help-or-even-respond-are-they-forcing-us-to-tolerate-high-radiation  Title: One year on, Fukushima still fights uphill battle to decontaminate farming district
Source: Mainichi Japan
Date: Oct. 18, 2012
h/t Fukushima Diary

[…] The residents of the Onami district are frustrated with the government’s inaction, with one of them saying, “Are they forcing us to tolerate high radiation doses?”

[…] because the district is not in a government-designated evacuation zone, there is no government support for local residents.

[…] The Fukushima Municipal Government believes that the high radiation doses have gathered in street gutters as a result of “soil re-deposition” in which radioactive substances were pushed down by rains and winds.

The Fukushima Municipal Government asked the Ministry of the Environment to conduct the second round of decontamination in spring this year, but there has been no reply so far. An official of the Fukushima Municipal Government said, “Because it is so costly, they may be waiting for the radiation levels to go down naturally without conducting decontamination.”

First example given by Mainichi

A 68-year-old woman in the district has been measuring radiation levels […] her home was decontaminated in April this year, the level of radiation was 226 microsieverts per month, but it rose to 238 microsieverts in June, 246 microsieverts in July and 251 microsieverts in August.

Second example given by Mainichi

The radiation dose neighborhood association chief Toshihiko Kurihara, 71, measured in a street gutter near his house dropped to the 2-microsievert-per-hour level after the first round of decontamination in March this year from the 9-microsievert-per-hour level registered before the decontamination. However, the radiation level there stood at 10.36 microsieverts per hour in August. “It starts rising in a matter of time after decontamination,” he said with a sigh.

October 24, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment, Japan