Radiation hotspot found in residential Chiba

Despite initial fears that the spike in radiation readings was a result of fallout from the Fukushima nuclear disaster, authorities saidy there is a low probability that the two are connected.

What??? More bottles?, or a natural spike? Is Japan naturally covered with hot spots? Way way too little information, explanations..."regrettable" It's the best word so functional.

How the hell can the nuclear plant explosion and this be connected? Jeez that would just be impossible. YEAH RIGHT !

The two are most defintely connected and I'd say there are plenty more areas contaminated like this, tempted to get a geiger counter and start measuring places i frequent see just how much is around.

Authorities said that once they buried the hotspot under sand and a sheet, the reading fell to 0.4 microsieverts an hour

Would not a meter high slab of concrete poured onto the hotsppot be more of a permanent fix.

Despite initial fears that the spike in radiation readings was a result of fallout from the Fukushima nuclear disaster, authorities saidy there is a low probability that the two are connected

This hotspot Probably came from burning radioactive waste in the incinerators.

Authorities said that once they buried the hotspot under sand and a sheet...

Um, why not find the cause? Sand and a sheet. Great. Why I do I see Fukushima covered in a sheet in the future?

Don't worry, Kashiwa is pretty much an extension of Saitama.

On a serious note, it could be another stash of industrial waste that's dumped, concealed and forgotten during the chaos of the post-war recovery period.

Nedo (Kita-Kashiwa) area is said to be lower than other areas. It often gets flooded there. Minor flood, though. There are many schools in the area.

They are burning the radioactive material out in chiba

The dots, clear, are there to be connected. To deny is sheer lunacy.

Authorities tested the land and reported a reading of 57.5 microsieverts an hour.

This is dangerous number, right?

Kashiwa is located in northern Chiba, and has a estimated population of 404,820 people.

I'm one of them ><

Authorities said that once they buried the hotspot under sand and a sheet, the reading fell to 0.4 microsieverts an hour, NTV reported.

They buried??? What was the cause of it, then???

The fact is, and if you want to try it yourself you can, no matter where you go in the world, if you take a radiation instrument with you and look around, you'll eventually stumble across something that's above what the background for that area normally is.

What happened to the other 2 hotspots from not so long ago in Chiba and Yokohama? Will this one also be forgotten next week?

God's presence is everywhere so is radiation in Japan.

Now that there are tens of thousands of geiger counters in the hands of citizens, the Japanese government must be very, very worried. Many of the radioactive sites that the authorities and Japanese power companies have dumped in neighborhoods over the past 5 or 6 decades are going to be turned up in the next few years. I'm sure there will be a lot of "we have no idea how that plutonium could have got there, it's a real mystery" kind of stuff...

God's presence is everywhere so is radiation in Japan.

No one doubts, couldn't be told better. The only difference is, we know much more about God than the radiation.

Not related to Fukushima? So what is it related to exactly? The way the article reads, they don't caew where is came from as long as it wasn't Fukushima.

I live one station down from Kashiwa, and the safety of my children and the value of my property just went through the floor. In a couple of weeks the city office - the people who agreed to accept radioactive waste and burn it on my backdoor, are going to be expecting me to shell out an arm and a leg in residence tax.

I wish them luck. They'll be getting a single-barrelled salute via my winking ringpiece should they try to pop round to collect it.

Has anyone been around the US bases in Okinawa with a Geiger counter?

Just wondering.

Good luck selling that piece of land and persuading someone to build on it. A bunch of sand and a plastic sheet as a fix??! Are they insane? Here`s a wild, crazy idea - how about finding out the source of the problem?

Farmboy, those videos are grossly misleading, they get people all excited. That spot in the puddle is high but I can almost completely guarantee that at one metre above the ground it won't be. And with the same level of certainty it won't be any where near that level once it's stopped raining.

Go back to the same spot, measure one metre above ground on a dry day and if it's still very high then it's a problem.

But as scientific evidence it's the same as saying the world is flat because all I can se is flat land.

Farmboy, I'm talking about your video which is of a puddle. And taken just above the puddle. It's inaccurate and misleading. I asked someone at safecast if Geiger counters should be used to measure radiation at ground level 'no, absolutely not' was the answer. In short, it distorts the readings.

Radiation particles are carried in rain, where rainwater gathers it will be higher. When that has dried the level of radiation drops dramatically.

No official data is taken at ground level. Around the world. And that's for a reason.

It seems to be an ex Japan-military site - what on earth were they doing here all those years ago?

This is dangerous number, right?

No, not really. If it were milliSieverts, it would be a problem, but this is a thousand times less. If you sat on top of the spot your entire life, you might increase your risk of cancer somewhat, but the dose would still be much much less than if for example you lived in Ramsar.

In fact, the consumer geiger counters I've seen for sale will not be able to measure really dangerous levels of radiation, as it would be off their scale. "As long as this instrument returns a reading, you're safe," should be printed in the ads and documentation, and "when it doesn't, it's probably because it's broken."

Not to say they shouldn't figure out what the source is - if something's leaking it can leak more. If it's Fukushima fall-out, there're no worries.

Wow, a low probability that the two events are connected!

Probably so much radiation from unreported leaks over the years that only since the Fukushima disaster are citizens (not gov't) finding all the hot spots only because they are actually looking for them.

You'd think the Occupy movement in the US would provide a clue as to how to deal with the problem, and kick the old men out of office. All of them.

zichi and other people, thank you very much for the information. I am trying to get as much information as possible myself, too :)

They really need to stop dragging radioactive materials from low population areas of Japan and dragging them for incineration to high population areas such as the outskirts of Tokyo.

Everyone involved in this madness, from company workers to politicians, should be rounded up and jailed for this madness. It is quite literally criminal.

And yes, there are tests to determine if the isotopes came from Fukushima or not.

Why does it always seem to be the case that 'concered resident' are the ones reporting this information?

I cannot recall seeing any news where central government or local government have found any contamination.

I suppose that when looking for contamination on the ground that trying to locate anything from a fast moving helicopter hundreds of metres up in the air would prove difficult,,,,,,,

It just gets worse and worse. Time to start packing, wouldn't you say?

They are calling it a residential area, but looking at the aerial photos reveals some large industrial sites nearby. The presence of large industrial sites is probably a requirement for Japanese residential areas. Zoning and public health and safety are not widely understood concepts here. But caesium cannot be a result of industrial production, it can only be from a nuclear plant so the link to Fukushima is clear. Now they are saying that rainwater brought this circumstance into being. If so there are probably many dozens if not hundreds of such sites in Chiba alone.

They don't know how long the drain has been broken, but all the rainwater for the past 7 months leaking out from around the pipe into the soil would give a high reading, don't you think?

There was a military facility there a long time ago (WWII?) as someone pointed out.

The plastic sheeting is a temporary measure until the contaminated earth can be moved.

Not sure if this disputes or corrects any claims made so far, but this morning they were talking about the ratio of Cs134 and Cs137 being almost 1:1, which is unusual since the current disaster is producing a lot more Cs137 than 134. i.e. the ratios are different to other hotspots..