6/22/2012 85.03 μSv/h Mud in Fukushima City

Source: Birdhairjp
Date: 6/22/2012 upload date

Editor's Note: The air measurement mentioned in the video description of .45 μSv/h is roughly 4.5 times as high as other parts of Japan, if we assume .1 μSv/h is "normal".  85 μSv/h would then be 850x the normal air reading by this metric.

Video Description

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On 23 June 2012, I measured radiation at a riverside of WATARASE river in Fukushima city of Fukushima prefecture, Japan.

The monitoring point is central area of Fukushima city, near the bridge of national road route 4 across the river, only 200m for Fukushima prefectural government office, and 55km from Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear power plant.

There are rain water drainage ditchs into ABUKUMA river from "WATARI", a housing area of Fukushima city.

I monitored 0.45 micro Sievert per hour in air at my breast hight of the river water's edge.
15.70 in air at 100cm high near mud of the drainage ditch, 85.03 micro Sievert per hour on the mud. It is said that "WATARI" area is one of the hotest spot of Fukushima city center area.
Measuring instrument is made of Ukraine, ECOTEST MKS-05.
Population of Fukushima city : 290,000.
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This place has been reported in June 2012, by a NHK-ETV program, "What's going in rivers ? Networking, Fukushima Pollution Map"
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85.03μSv/h 福島市渡利 阿武隈川への排水路泥 2012年6月23日, 川で何がおきているのか

10/27/2011 Japanese government still refusing to evacuate Fukushima children.

Source: dahawaiiguy808 YouTube channel
Date: 10/30/2011 upload date of 10/27/2011 meeting

8/19/2011 M6.8 quake hits Miyagi and Fukushima

Source: NHK World
Date: Friday, August 19, 2011 15:57 +0900 (JST)

A magnitude 6.8 earthquake jolted the disaster-affected prefectures of Miyagi and Fukushima in northeastern Japan on Friday afternoon. A tsunami advisory was issued, but was later lifted.

The Meteorological Agency says the quake struck at around 2:36 PM. Its focus was off Fukushima, at a depth of 20 kilometers.

Tremors with an intensity of 5 minus on the Japanese scale of zero to 7 were observed in Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures. Smaller tremors were felt in wide areas from northern to western Japan.

The agency withdrew a tsunami advisory issued to coastal areas of Miyagi and Fukushima about 40 minutes after the quake.

No abnormalities are reported at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that was struck by the March 11th earthquake and tsunami.

Tokyo Electric Power Company says external power sources are intact and that radiation readings around the plant are showing no changes.

Sendai City in Miyagi Prefecture says one person suffered a light injury. Fukushima Prefecture says there have been no reports of damage or casualties.

The Meteorological Agency says the latest quake is likely to be an aftershock from March. It warns that more strong tremors are possible during active seismic periods that will likely recur in cycles.

Editor's Note: Apparently the quake has since been downgraded to a 6.3 according to reports by both the USGS and ESMC. Is there a scientific reason for this or is the reason more sinister as YouTube activist dutchsinse suggests? Refer to map below for quake location.

View Live Ustream Radiation Detectors in a larger map

8/5/2011 City resorts to secret dumping to deal with piles of radioactive dirt

Source: Asahi Shimbun
Date: August 05, 2011

Dump trucks unload bags containing radioactive dirt at a temporary disposal site in Fukushima Prefecture on July 28. (Satoru Murata)

FUKUSHIMA--Deep in the mountains, a 4-ton dump truck unloads burlap bags that land with a thud in a hole shaped like a swimming pool 25 meters long and more than 2 meters deep.
...
Read full article here

7/27/2011 Voices From Fukushima

Source: Safecast.org
Date: Wednesday July 27th, 2011
by: Ed M Koziarski


This video was presented at the Institute for Strategic Leadership‘s “Carry On Fukushima” program in Tokyo on 7/21/11. It includes voices from food producers in the area around the still-leaking Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant:

• Ohashi may need to look outside Fukushima now for organic suppliers for his bread. He says we need to learn to coexist with radiation.
• Suzuki and Fukumoto are leaving the idyllic farming community of Kaidomari to live in balance with nature elsewhere.
• Hongo won’t sell his potentially contaminated rice this year, but he’s eating it himself.
• Yoshizawa wants to save his 300 irradiated dairy cows from a death sentence.
• Yamamoto was a farming intern when the disaster struck. She decided to stay and volunteer at an evacuation center.
• Yoshida is committed to stay and continue farming on the land his family has cultivated for 200 years.

Uncanny Terrain is a documentary about organic farmers facing Japan's nuclear crisis, and an online community fostering dialogue on food safety, sustainable agriculture, alternative energy and disaster response. Please keep the conversation going by donating at http://tiny.cc/uncannydonate

ISL（institute for strategic leadership)の主催で開かれた「頑張っぺ福島」フォーラムで上映した映像。これまでアップしてきた映像をまとめ、銀嶺食品の大橋雄二さんの話を加えました。この­映像はこれまで撮影してきたものほんの１０％です。今後も編集、撮影を継続し、福島の声を残します。

7/25/2011 Japanese Nuclear Emergency Director: You Have No Right to a Radiation-Free Life

Source: Gizmodo
Date:  7/25/2011
by: Sam Biddle


This footage, from a recent meeting of indignant Japanese citizens and feckless Japanese government types should be a little shocking. Sadly, it's just more of the same—ineptitude and inaction. Buy denying the right to avoiding radiation? OK, shocking.

The Tokyo meeting was meant to broach the push to expand the evacuation zone around Fukushima—a zone that's proven inadequately and dangerously narrow. One Fukushima resident asks, "As other people do, people in Fukushima have the right to avoid the radiation exposure and live a healthy life, too. Don't you think so?"

A Nuclear Safety Commission Of Japan rep, when pushed to go beyond his canned non-answer, deadpans "I don't know if they have that right." The crowd reacts as you would expect when told they nuclear-threatened welfare isn't a concern. After being jeered at by the understandably outraged audience, and ignoring requests to test the radioactive content of young residents' urine, the government panel packed up and left.
If you could compress the past four months' anxiety, tension, crisis, inaction, confusion, and stifled anger into one meeting room, you'd produce the above, this smoldering radioactive diamond of national failure. [via Boing Boing]

Editor's Note: Here is a plea from parents in Fukushima City for an official evacuation order from the Japanese government. A must read if you have not already.

7/17/2011 Residents of Fukushima trapped in dangerous radiation contaminated areas due to lack of government evacuation order/aid

7/25/2011 Fukushima to provide life-time cancer checks

Source: Asahi.com
Date: 7/25/2011

Fukushima Prefecture on July 24 finalized the nation's largest life-time health study to check for thyroid-gland cancer among 360,000 young people living near the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
...
Read full article here

7/25/2011 Fukushima mobilizes 3,900 to help decontaminate 'hot spots'

Source: Kyodo News via Japan Today
Date: Jul. 25, 2011 - 04:46PM JST

FUKUSHIMA — Decontamination efforts began at several “hot spots” – areas where especially high radiation levels were detected - in and around Fukushima City on Sunday and continued Monday. Some 400 experts and 3,500 residents are participating in the effort. Residents worked to haul mud and debris from gutters and deweed the area.

Additionally, a specialized cleaning vehicle decontaminated certain roads, especially those used by children to commute to school. After the initial cleanup, residents reported Monday morning that the radiation level had dropped by about half, from 10 to around 5 microsieverts an hour.

The cleanup area is about 90 kilometers away from the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, outside of the mandatory evacuation zone. But concerns began to rise when a high reading of 3.83 microsieverts/hr was measured in June. The cleanup was initiated in the hopes of avoiding the need for an evacuation of the area, local officials said.

7/20/2011 Fukushima city sows sunflower seeds to decontaminate 'hot spot'

Source: Kyodo News via Japan Today
Date: Jul. 21, 2011 - 05:05AM JST


FUKUSHIMA — Fukushima city officials sowed sunflower seeds Wednesday at a plaza in the city as part of efforts to remove radioactive materials from the soil.

Sunflowers are said to absorb radioactive substances, and the 6,000-square-meter plaza, located on a hillside about 1 kilometer away from the prefectural government offices, is one of the so-called “hot spots” where radiation levels are sporadically higher than other areas.

7/17/2011 Residents of Fukushima trapped in dangerous radiation contaminated areas due to lack of government evacuation order/aid

Date: 7/17/2011

Last month, the parents of 14 students sued the Koriyama Municipal Government in order to get their schools moved to safe areas. This is the first of its kind lawsuit brought against the Japanese government. Quoting from the article Radiation scare prompts lawsuit to move Fukushima schools from Majorix News:

...
In a suit filed at the Koriyama Branch of the Fukushima District Court, parents of 14 pupils attending either elementary or junior high schools in the city sued the Koriyama government, demanding schools be moved as blocs into safe areas.


“Our aim is to make sure all children in Fukushima Prefecture can take classes in safety,” Kenichi Ido, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said.


Lawyers for the plaintiffs said they had calculated that of the 266 elementary or junior high schools located within cities in Fukushima Prefecture, merely five recorded radiation levels below the safe average annual radiation exposure level of 1 millisievert as outlined by the International Committee on Radiological Protection (ICRP). In nearby Aizu, where radiation exposure is comparatively low, only one school falls below the ICRP guideline.[1]
...

Back in May MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) announced it would increase the safe exposure limit by 20 times from 1 millisievert per year to 20 millisieverts per year but parents pushed back and now MEXT said it would abide by the old safe exposure limit as specified by the ICRP (International Commission on Radiological Protection).[1] Thanks to whomever signed the petition from Green Action Japan, apparently you did help make a difference!

Putting public pressure on politicians can be effective. Residents in Fukushima City are calling out for the world's assistance in persuading the Japanese government to issue an official evacuation order for them so that they can evacuate themselves and their children from dangerous radiation contaminated areas. Following is a video translated from Japanese to English (and French):


The video was made by representatives of Moms To Save Children from Radiation. You can show your support by sending an e-mail to mscrjp@gmail.com or passing on the video or this article.

A recent saddening development is that the Japanese government is actually thinking about lessening its evacuation zone and sending residents back in to previously evacuated areas. According to yesterday's AFP article Japan PM visits Fukushima amid talk of cut in zone:

...
The government is now looking at resettling people in evacuated areas outside the plant's 20-kilometre (12-mile) no-go zone, although it has declined to give a specific timeframe.

The mass-circulation Asahi Shimbun on Saturday said the situation has improved enough for the government to consider narrowing an emergency evacuation zone, imposed between 20 and 30 kilometres from the plant, in August.[2]

...

This is quite bad news, because it means that financial assistance to help people evacuate will be lessened as well.[2]

Presently financial assistance is only available to evacuees who were living within a certain radius (20 km) of the Fukushima I nuclear power plant when the accident occurred. This is already keeping people from leaving contaminated areas who might otherwise be able to evacuate (if given an official order by the Japanese government along with financial assistance), as per the plea from Moms to Save Children from Radiation above.

I thought the following video by political activist and talk show host Alex Jones summarized the plight of those living in radiation contaminated areas quite well.


This is an impromptu video made by Mr. Jones before he went in for an interview with RT News concerning the topic of Bohemian Grove. The Bohemian Club includes several thousand of the Western power elite and they meet once a year in Bohemian Grove to engage in ritual sacrifice (to the ancient Babylonian god Moloch via the Cremation of Care ceremony), cavorting/debauchery and, some would argue, plotting world domination.

Sources:
[1] Radiation scare prompts lawsuit to move Fukushima schools, Majorix News
[2] Japan PM visits Fukushima amid talk of cut in zone, AFP

7/5/2011 Japan groups alarmed by radioactive soil

Source: AFP
Date: 7/5/2011

TOKYO — Soil radiation in a city 60 kilometres (40 miles) from Japan's stricken nuclear plant is above levels that prompted resettlement after the Chernobyl disaster, citizens' groups said Tuesday.

The survey of four locations in Fukushima city, outside the nuclear evacuation zone, showed that all soil samples contained caesium exceeding Japan's legal limit of 10,000 becquerels per kilogram (4,500 per pound), they said.

The highest level was 46,540 becquerels per kilogram, and the three other readings were between 16,290 and 19,220 becquerels per kilogram, they said.

The citizens' groups -- the Fukushima Network for Saving Children from Radiation and five other non-governmental organisations -- have called for the evacuation of pregnant women and children from the town.

The highest reading in the city of 290,000 people far exceeded the level that triggered compulsory resettlement ordered by Soviet authorities following the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine, they said.

Kobe University radiation expert professor Tomoya Yamauchi conducted the survey on June 26 following a request from the groups.

"Soil contamination is spreading in the city," Yamauchi said in a statement. "Children are playing with the soil, meaning they are playing with high levels of radioactive substances. Evacuation must be conducted as soon as possible."

The coastal Fukushima Daiichi plant has been spewing radiation since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami knocked out its cooling systems.

7/5/2011 45% of Kids in Fukushima Survey Had Thyroid Exposure to Radiation

Source: Qatar News Agency (QNA)
Date: 08:23 2011/07/05

Tokyo, July 05 (QNA) - Around 45% of children in Fukushima Prefecture surveyed by the local and central governments in late March experienced thyroid exposure to radiation, although in all cases in trace amounts that did not warrant further examination, officials of the Nuclear Safety Commission said Tuesday. The survey was conducted on 1,080 children aged 0 to 15 in Iwaki, Kawamata and Iitate on March 26-30 in light of radiation leakages from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant crippled after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami disaster, Japan''s News Agency "Kyodo" reported. Separately, a survey of soil at four locations in the city of Fukushima on June 26 found that all samples were contaminated with radioactive cesium, measuring 16,000 to 46,000 becquerels per kilogram and exceeding the legal limit of 10,000 becquerels per kg, citizens groups involved said Tuesday. (QNA) ST/LY

Here is the corresponding story from Democracy Now:


Click here to see the full Democracy Now news report

7/5/2011 Fukushima residents dump radiated soil in absence of plan

Source: Reuters
Date: Tue Jul 5, 2011 1:33am GMT
by: Antoni Slodkowski

FUKUSHIMA, Japan (Reuters) - They scoop up soil from their gardens and dump it in holes dug out in parks and nearby forests, scrub their roofs with soap and refuse to let their children play outside. More than three months after a massive earthquake and tsunami triggered a nuclear meltdown at a nearby power plant, Fukushima residents are scrambling to cope with contamination on their own in the absence of a long-term plan from the government. ... Read full article here

6/14/2011 JST: Fukushima City to give dosimeters to 34,000 children from fall

Source: Kyodo News via Japan Today
Date: Jun. 14, 2011 - 12:59PM JST

FUKUSHIMA — The Fukushima city office in Fukushima Prefecture said Tuesday it will give dosimeters to all children attending preschools as well as elementary and junior high schools in the city amid growing concerns over exposure to radiation from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant nearby.

...
Read full article here

6/13/2011 | (VIDEO) RT in Fukushima: Radiation 1000 times over normal outside no-go zone

Source: RT News
Date: 6/13/2011 upload date

Radioactive material has been detected in seawater around Japan's Fukushima plant, with concentration levels 240 times higher than safety limits. Scientists warn that the element, strontium, is highly dangerous to humans as it can accumulate in bones and possibly cause cancer.