Infinite Unknown

- High levels of cesium detected in fish off Chiba (NHK, Feb 18, 2013):

Fish caught in waters off Choshi City in Chiba Prefecture have been found to contain radioactive cesium above the government safety limit.

Choshi is nearly 200 kilometers south of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Chiba Prefecture says it found 130 becquerels of cesium per kilogram in Japanese sea bass caught about 10 kilometers off Choshi on Thursday of last week. The acceptable limit is 100 becquerels.

It is the first time that higher-than-permitted levels of radioactive substances have been found in fish landed at ports in the prefecture.

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Tags: Chiba, Contamination, Environment, Fish, Food, Fukushima, Global News, Health, Japan, Nuclear, Nuclear reactors, Radiation

- #Radioactive Japan: Miyagi, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Chiba to Have Final Disposal Sites for Highly Radioactive Ashes from Garbage Incineration, Sludge

Goshi Hosono’s Ministry of the Environment is on the sudden offensive against citizens and residents of Kanto and Tohoku, again.

According to the Yomiuri Shinbun article, the Ministry of the Environment is already talking with the officials in the municipalities in three prefectures to built final disposal sites in their cities and towns.

As the wide-area disposal of disaster debris winds down as it is now widely revealed that there is simply not enough debris to widely distribute, Mr. Hosono looks desperate to do something so that he can claim he has made people “share the pain”.

From Yomiuri Shinbun (8/21/2012):

汚染ごみ焼却灰、４県の国有地に最終処分場

Final disposal sites for ashes from contaminated garbage to be built in the land owned by the national government in four prefectures Continue reading »

Tags: Chiba, Environment, Fukushima, Global News, Government, Health, Ibaraki, Miyagi, Nuclear, Nuclear reactors, Politics, Radiation, Tochigi

- 180,000 Bq/Kg from the yellow substance in Kashiwa Chiba (Fukushima Diary, Aug 19, 2012)

Tags: Chiba, Fukushima, Global News, Japan, Kashiwa City, Nuclear, Nuclear reactors, Radiation



- 14 μSv/h from the yellow substance on the roof in Kashiwa Chiba (Fukushima Diary, Aug 10, 2012):

…

Around the end of July, I had the professional cleaners wash the roof of our house.
The roof was covered with something like this yellow moss. It was 0.7 μSv/h on its surface.

I took 20g of it by a kitchen knife. Radiation meter indicated it was red zone, 1.2 μSv/h.

I haven’t measured 1.2μSv/h from merely 20g of sample even around here known to be hotspot.

It was totally washed off after cleaning, radiation level was decreased a little bit, 0.4 μSv/h on the surface, but the yellow substance was still with mud in the rain gutter.
I took 3.6 kg of it with the perfect protective clothing (tyvek, gas mask, goggles, plastic gloves).
I packed the clothing soon after taking off the sample, had shower to clean eyes, ears, nostrils carefully.
This is very dangerous, please don’t do it. I can’t take a responsibility if something happened to you.

The radiation level was 14 μSv/h. I haven’t measured higher than 10 μSv/h before. It makes sense why the radiation level is high on the second floor.

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Tags: Chiba, Fukushima, Government, Japan, Kashiwa City, Nuclear, Nuclear reactors, Radiation, Society

- 12,200 Bq/Kg from Teganuma lake Chiba (Fukushima Diary, July 4, 2012):

Chiba prefecture measured radiation at 19 points of Teganuma lake (195km from Fukushima) including 2 rivers to flow into Teganuma lake. The rivers run through hotspots, and they measured over 10,000 Bq/Kg from the ground soil of the bottom of rivers, where the rivers flow into the lake. The highest reading was 12,200 Bq/Kg. The measurement was done from 5/24 to 6/6/2012.

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Tags: Chiba, Environment, Fukushima, Global News, Health, Japan, Nuclear, Nuclear reactors, Radiation

- Something fishy’s going on in a fishing port in Japan, literally – and tons and tons of it too! (Rocket News, June 5, 2012):

Something terribly fishy is going on at the fishing port of Ohara (pronounced Oh-hara) in Isumi City of Chiba Prefecture, and it has nothing to do with espionage or political corruption. There are tons and tons of dead sardines washing up on the shore, and not only is the sight disturbing, but the huge amount of dead fish is literally smelling up the entire surrounding area.

According to the news, the dead fish started washing up around noon of June 3rd, and as of early afternoon on June 4th, the situation still remained pretty much out of control. The amount of dead sardines that has washed up is thought to total several dozen metrics tons, so you can imagine how bad the smell of rotting fish must be.

We’ve seen the pictures uploaded onto Twitter, and the port looks completely filled with fish – it almost looks like a carpet of sardines. It doesn’t seem likely that any fishing boats will be setting sail from this port soon. There are also, of course, the usual posts and comments on the internet on how this could be an omen, a sign of a coming great natural disaster.

When we inquired with a local inn, we were told that the port was scheduled to be closed from June 1st to 5th, but given the emergency, local fishermen are currently out in full force trying to resolve the situation. Already more than 2 full days into the bizarre occurrence, the smell has to be almost unbearable, but the people of Ohara still have no idea when they will be able to get rid of all the sardines. We sincerely hope they will be able to solve the problem quickly.

Source: Twitter @yumihareyama (Japanese), Twitter @ryoshikobo (Japanese)

▼You have to admit the sight is somewhat apocalyptic

[ Read in Japanese ]

Tags: Chiba, Environment, Fish, Global News, Health, Japan

- Iodine 131 measured in Tokyo (Fukushima Diary, May 3, 2012)

- Iodine 131 measured in Kawasaki, Yokohama, Chiba and Gunma (Fukushima Diary, May 3, 2012)

- Iodine 131 measured in Yamanashi (Fukushima Diary, May 3, 2012)

Tags: Chiba, Environment, Fukushima, Global News, Gunma, Health, Iodine-131, Japan, Kawasaki, Nuclear, Nuclear reactors, Radiation, TOKYO, Yamanashi, Yokohama

- 14,210 Bq/Kg of cesium beside school in Chiba (Fukushima Diary, April 25, 2012):

Noda city Chiba measured 14,210 Bq/Kg and 8,650 Bq/Kg of cesium from soil taken in street gutters beside schools, announced on 4/24/2012.

On 4/17/2012, Noda city took samples from street gutters beside 6 elementary schools and 2 junior high schools. They measured 14,210 Bq/Kg and 8,650 Bq/Kg of cesium at 2 of 8 locations but it is not announced where those 2 locations are.

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Tags: Chiba, Children, Environment, Fukushima, Global News, Government, Health, Japan, Nuclear, Nuclear reactors, Politics, Radiation, Society

- Professor Yukio Hayakawa Takes a “Radioactive Walk” In Abiko City and Kashiwa City in Chiba (EX-SKF, April 19, 2012):

The Gunma University professor took a walk in part of Abiko City and Kashiwa City, in the so-called “Tokatsu area” in the northwest corner of Chiba Prefecture with elevated radiation levels.

He says there is a statistically significant difference between the radiation levels on the ground levels and the levels at 1 meter off the ground, with the levels at 1 meter off the ground 20 to 30% less than at the ground levels.

The radiation levels of “black dust” he found along the way (in microsievert/hour):

2.676
3.767
2.489
1.556

Professor Hayakawa’s walk from Abiko City to Kashiwa-no-ha in Kashiwa City on April 16, 2012:

我孫子-柏の葉

EveryTrail – Find hiking trails in California and beyond

Tags: Chiba, Environment, Fukushima, Global News, Health, Japan, Kashiwa City, Nuclear, Nuclear reactors, Radiation, Society, Yukio Hayakawa

- 186 Bq/Kg from tap water in Kashiwa (Fukushima Diary, April 7, 2012):

A Japanese magazine reported they measured 186 Bq/kg from tap water in Kashiwa.

186 Bq/kg from tap water in Kashiwa Chiba (3/14/2012)

147 Bq/kg from tap water in Kashiwa Chiba (3/24/2012)

62 Bq/kg from tap water in Tokyo (3/14/2012)

31 Bq/kg from tap water after filtering in Tokyo (3/14/2012)

They used the dosemeter named JG22N. JG22N picks up beta ray and converted it into the energy of cesium 137.

It therefore might have picked up strontium, iodine, and tritium and converted it all to cesium 137.

Tritium has almost never been measured from tap water or rain though it acts exactly like water. Continue reading »

Tags: Chiba, Contamination, Environment, Fukushima, Global News, Health, Japan, Kashiwa City, Nuclear, Nuclear reactors, Radiation, TOKYO