nuclear-news

Japan official fudging of radiation readings

False hope: radiation monitoring in the Fukushima area (includes video)  Greenpeace by Greg McNevin – October 23, 2012 Last week, three Greenpeace radiation-monitoring teams took to the streets of Fukushima City and the heavily contaminated region of Iitate to again record and assess contamination threats.

Like many trips before, we noticed decreased expose rates in a few areas, but many hotspots remain throughout heavily populated Fukushima City. What is more concerning, however, is the official government radiation monitoring stations that have appeared throughout the city.

Earlier this month The Association for Citizens and Scientists Concerned About Internal Radiation Exposures raised concerns that the Japanese government was manipulating radiation readings with these official monitoring stations.

The story was familiar to us, as in March this year, while conducting
radiation checks in a park in the suburb of Watari, we came across a
newly installed official radiation monitoring post. This station
showed a relatively low level of contamination when compared to levels
we had measured previously, however, it was placed smack in the middle
of a small area that had been clearly decontaminated. New soil had
replaced the old, but as soon as you stepped off the cleaned area the
levels of contamination rose sharply, and remained much higher
throughout the park – with the exception of around the official
monitoring post itself.
We had only measured this one post on that visit, and given it had
only been recently installed we had hoped this would mark the start of
a new initiative by the authorities to comprehensively decontaminate
populated areas, and do more to keep the public informed of radiation
risks.
Unfortunately, we have now found that this is not the case.
Between October 16 and 19, Greenpeace checked 40 monitoring posts
throughout Fukushima city. For 75% of them, the radiation readings
close to the posts were lower than readings for their immediate
surroundings. Contamination levels within 25 metres of the posts were
up to six times higher than at the posts themselves.
The authorities claim they do not intend these monitoring posts to be
misleading, stating that they publish information about which areas
around the posts have been decontaminated. However, for the people
living in the areas and anyone passing by, they certainly give the
impression that contamination levels are lower than what they may be
just a few metres from the posts.
Not only that, the decontamination work remains patchy. The
authorities have taken care of the low hanging fruit such as some
public parks and school yards, but our teams found that many hotspots
remain throughout the communities, and little is being done to clean
them up……. This not only again highlights the Japanese
Government’s relentless underplaying of both the seriousness and scope
of this nuclear disaster, but it also once again speaks to its
inability to put the health and safety of its people before
politics…… The government is still pretending it has everything
under control when it clearly doesn’t, and unfortunately there is no
easy way out. All it can do is admit the reality of this situation and
give it the attention it deserves.
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/nuclear-reaction/false-hope-radiation-monitoring-in-the-fukush/blog/42696/

October 24, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, secrets,lies and civil liberties