Radioactive ash causes Kashiwa incinerators to shut down
CHIBA —
Authorities in Kashiwa City, Chiba Prefecture, said Tuesday that levels of radioactive cesium found in ash from garbage disposal facilities can no longer be contained and stored, causing garbage incineration plants to be temporarily shut down.
In July, the Kashiwa municipal government detected 365 to 70,800 becquerels of cesium per kilogram in radiation checks conducted at two incineration plants and one final disposal facility. Since then, Kashiwa had been storing ash containing 8,000 becquerels per kilogram or more of radioactive materials in temporary storage, based on Environment Ministry guidelines that forbid the dumping of contaminated ash in landfills. Authorities say it is Japan’s first plant closure due to radioactivity.
According to a Fuji TV report, authorities plan to burn the remaining garbage at newer and more efficient plants that they hope will release a lower concentration of radioactive ash. The city plans to demand financial compensation from Tokyo Electric Power Company for the extra costs involved.
Japan Today
Order by Time Order by Popularity
40 Comments
Login to comment
5
thepro
Why doesn't the government use the 10km area around daiichi as storage space for all the radioactive crap. Nobody is going to be living there anyway.
0
Disillusioned
Gotta love that last paragraph! They 'hope' it will release a lower level of radioactive ash? Meanwhile, north-west Chiba has just been exposed to cloud of radioactive smoke and ash particles. And, this is only the beginning! These kinds of reports will only become more frequent over the next year or so as the clean up gets into full swing.
3
JapanGal
I wish my Geiger counter would arrive.
1
Darren Brannan
today,huh? I reported this on here two days ago, assuming this is the Nanbu plant? ah well..this plant must have been inundated with Cesium isotopes.There was quite a lot of Cesium popping up in Kashiwa back in July...then that Iodine spike...my worry is the 'missing' isotopes that these places were claiming to be losing through steam.
9
rollthedice
I too am waiting on my dosimeter to arrive. I keep feeling either I am paranoid or 99% of the Japanese population is unaware that a major nuclear accident occurred in their country. I met a woman last week who is now 5 months pregnant and going out of her way to buy Fukushima produce to "support the farmers". Utter insanity.
1
sillygirl
hope......hope is gone
2
rollthedice
Does anyone know why there would be so much radiation in the trash they are burning??
1
gogogo
Errrr what about the smoke? is anyone measuring that?
rollthedice: I purchased a geiger meter, a dosimeter can't show active radiation or test foods it can only show the dos of radiation you have received in the last x hours.
1
smithinjapan
"...authorities plan to burn the remaining garbage at newer and more efficient plants that they hope will release a lower concentration of radioactive ash."
I just bought a ticket for the year-end lottery. I hope to win!
2
societymike
It briefly states in the article, but to be more clear, they are transporting radioactive debris from Fukushima to destroy it in these plants and lessen the radioactive effects while making it easier to transport, contain, etc.
3
Mr. Bill
Or they could just stop importing and burning it?
I have only one answer for this insanity. Some people are making some sweet cash in this process. Those people should be imprisoned for life.
2
goinggoinggone
...and yet "rumors and lies" about radioactive contamination are allegedly a problem for Fukushima residents, in another article on Japan Today. Which is it "rumors and lies" or the reality of life in this part of Japan?
2
Darren Brannan
A lot of this is waste sludge from sewage output, storm water runoff and regular garbage like leaves etc. I think you wil find that this is not from Tohoku! Tokyo and Chiba have plenty of isotopes of their own to deal with even without tohoku ヘドロ debris. This is mostly runoff from silt and rain, and no doubt a tiny amount of cesium coming from the toilets. The Nanbu plant has had probs since July, and they weren't receiving radioactive debris from up north. This is Kanto radiation guys.Cesium was found in soil in kashiwa in July. The geiger camera app for iphone works well and is only 85 yen!
0
kurisupisu
@rollthedice- the Japanese history books will rue this time as being one of a civilisation whose ignorance and self centredness destroyed thousands of lives.............
2
kurisupisu
I forgot to say-BAN BURNING NOW!
I meant to shout it.........
1
Farmboy
Yes, I don't see why newness or efficiency will make much difference since the radioactive part is still going to be radioactive, but if they burn it just a little at a time in a place that isn't so loaded up, it will slide by the rules, and make things radioactive much more slowly. Appearances are important.
2
Apsara
There is apparently quite a radiation hotspot in the Matsudo-Kashiwa area of Chiba for some reason. I kind of doubt they are burning debris from Fukushima there as suggested by another poster.
0
Mr. Bill
Does the app have a name? There are fake counters such as Pipclock. Its just a joke.
But this does seem real: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJcOq5sLxPo
I would like some feedback on this because I don't even own a phone that can run such apps.
1
Christina O'Neill
As the cleanup continues the amount of contaminated debris that needs to be proccessed is gong to drasticly increase in volume. Treating and interning the byproduct within the 10 mile exclusion zone makes sense.
3
Farmboy
I hear the not-so-radioactive stuff is used as landfill. Does anyone remember that US Palmolive commercial where the woman says, "You're soaking in it"? It's kind of like that, I think.
1
zichi
The post don't state what they are burning nor where the waste is coming from?
0
Darren Brannan
no it doesn't,Zichi...but Chiba hasn't been doing some deal like Tokyo. This is a recap of when the problem first got noticed back in July. http://www.infiniteunknown.net/2011/07/11/burned-normal-household-trash-in-kashiwa-city-in-chiba-prefecture-70800-becquerels-per-kg-radioactive-cesium/ This is just Chiba..the same thing must be occurring in Saitama,Tochigi,Ibaragi and it definitely is happening in Tokyo. The big concern is that the concentration of the isotopes seems if anything to have gotten worse in some areas of Kanto since July, instead of better.
0
zichi
Darren,
I can only say I'm happy we decided to leave Tokyo for the Japan Alps (8 years) and then Kobe where we still live (9 years).
0
Darren Brannan
Yeah mate. Gunma and Nagano haven't exactly come out of this unscathed, so Kobe is good. Just got a random 0.5 'high radiation' alert again tonight on my Soeks. Here in Osaka.. So there is still stuff floating about. That is twice now in the same park.
1
zichi
Darren,
maybe that's off the bats used by the Hanshin Tigers?
2
valley-of-the-shadows
Massive amounts of stuff floating around now! Every farmer at present is setting a blaze fires to burn hay, fallen leaves and weeds etc.! Keep your windows closed firmly during fall!
1
Darren Brannan
Maybe kanemoto then Zichi!
Valley- yes that is a good point, when the leaves start falling there will be big concentrations. Places famous for their autumn displays like Nikko will probably suffer given the problems Tochigi has already had with leaf litter and cesium. Then the snows will come and then it will all melt and flow down from the mountains in Gunma and Tochigi into the rivers.. And then it just might radioactive pollens in Spring.
1
Fadamor
If you burn garbage at a more efficient plant AND capture all the radioactive ash, then the amount of non-radioactive matter will decrease in relation to the radioactive matter per gram of ash. The bulk will be reduced but the radioactivity will stay the same. They will still need to dispose of that radioactive matter, it's just that they won't need as much land/ocean floor to store it in.
-1
herefornow
Farmboy -- exactly. Japan has no idea how to deal with all the consequences of this disaster, so all they can do is utter platitudes and make worthless promises. Why anyone stakes their health and future by hoping for a better outcome is simply ignoring decades of history. They have mishandled every crisis potentially treatening the people's health -- hepatitis, asbestos, etc. -- since the end of the war. This is just following the same script. But on a much bigger and more dangerous scale.
0
the_odeman
What happened to sharing is caring?
1
Pukey2
As someone who is living in one of these hotspots, I'm totally mad at the way authorities are handling the situation and even madder at the people who were responsible for doing nothing to make sure that plants were safe from tsunamis. Readings are available for my place, but you have to go on the net to find them - and the readings are just as high as some places in Fukushima. However, why are the readings not made more public? I can't find them in newspapers. And Japan Times showing readings from one city per prefecture is absolutely useless for people not living in those cities. In the Kanto region, there is absolutely no correlation between readings and distance from the Fukushima plant. It was just pot luck that rain dumped a whole load of cesium onto certain areas. I found high readings dating back to the day it first rained after the leak, but it certainly wasn't publicized much at the time. Most people were more worried about the water. I guess it was wise, after all, to cover myself as much as possible and wear a mask when going out.
And why are the Japanese so obsessed with burning things? Radiation or no radiation, am I the only one bothered by breathing in god knows what? I've seen farmers burn plastic bags, and idiotic neighbors burn garden waste (for god's sake, just put it in a bag and have it collected like normal garbage).
0
whiskeysour
KASHIWA is very close to the Tokyo, anybody in tokyo flipping out already. Or Tokyo has an invisible bubble or something.
Pukey2 - everybody likes burning everything in japan. that's just the way japan is.
0
gogogo
It is a toy, it even says so when you load it. Would you trust your life to a 85yen toy? I bought a real geiger meter and the iphone app is pure BS, I've tested them side by side.
0
Darren Brannan
have you gogogo? I also have a real geiger counter and if you use the iphone app the way it is supposed to be used over about 30 minutes, the results I got were very similar to what my Soeks with the lastest firmware was reading.Not exactly the same and it took 30 minutes.No Geiger Muller tube in the iphone so of course it cannot compare with a real geiger counter..but 85 yen vs 40,000 seems like a reasonable spend to me. Anyway, for those living in Chiba, a man has bought a survey meter type counter for measuring Bq in soil and food, and is renting it out at JR Kashiwa station. You can take things there and test them. I don't know how he is decontaminating his machine each time, but here is the link: http://mainichi.jp/select/jiken/news/20111005k0000e040026000c.html
0
Darren Brannan
and they just found Shiitake mushrooms in Chiba with 1955 Bq (4 times the Jpn safe limit) of Cesium.Obviously big issues in Chiba. http://mainichi.jp/select/today/news/20110928k0000m040101000c.html
0
Ash 'Vanguard' Baker
glad i live in Shizouka..
0
Darren Brannan
Here are some maps from Monbusho that show hotspots around Kanto.
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/rakkochan+zaiseihatan/searchdiary?word=%2A%5B%A1%DA%A4%DE%A4%C8%A4%E1%A1%DB%A5%DB%A5%C3%A5%C8%A5%B9%A5%DD%A5%C3%A5%C8%5D listed by prefecture.
1
realist
Unbelieveable. Pretty soon all of japan will be under huge levels of radiation. Maybe the wise ones were the "flyjin" and the many Japanese who left here in March?
0
Darren Brannan
http://piratecom.blogspot.com/2011/10/blog-post.html?spref=tw not just the flyjin, realist...there was a kashiwa moms group set up to protect kids from radiation.They managed to get over 10,000 signatures to petition the mayor to set safer limits at schools.....but now they have folded. All the moms have fled Kashiwa...with their families I hope.
0
Ranger_Miffy2
Well, I for one shall be buying my green tea from Uji and Kyoto for the next few years.
Back to top