Tokyo Metropolitan Gov’t to begin atmospheric radiation tests across city

As concerns over radioactive contamination from the Fukushima nuclear
crisis continue, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government has announced it will
begin checking atmospheric radiation levels at about 100 locations
across the city.

"We have received requests from municipalities all over Metropolitan
Tokyo for concrete radiation figures taken by experts with high-fidelity
equipment,“a Tokyo government representative stated on June 8.”So, we
decided the metropolitan government would take the measurements."

According to the announcement, the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of
Public Health will take the radiation measurements one meter off the
ground at locations specified by each municipality, starting on June 15.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government will also lend its constituent
municipalities 70 radiation detectors. Adachi and Katsushika wards have
already begun their own radiation monitoring programs, while other local
Tokyo governments including Taito and Setagaya wards have plans to begin
radiation checks in the near future.

Mainichi Shimbun , June 9, 2011

* http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/national/news/20110609p2a00m0na010000c.html

Strontium contamination found outside nuclear crisis exclusion zone

Radioactive strontium 89 and strontium 90 has been detected in 11
locations outside the 20-kilometer exclusion zone around the
crisis-stricken Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant, the government
announced June 8.

The radioactive isotopes of strontium are thought to cause bone cancer
and leukemia. However, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports,
Science and Technology has said the amounts detected are miniscule, and
present no threat to human health.

The science ministry took soil samples in areas around the Fukushima
plant from late March through early May. The highest strontium
contamination outside the exclusion zone was found 29 kilometers west
northwest of the plant in the town of Namie, with 1,500 becquerels of
radiation from strontium 89, and 250 becquerels from strontium 90 per 1
kilogram of soil.

The second-highest contamination was found 36 kilometers northwest of
the plant in the village of Iitate, with 1,100 becquerels of strontium
89, and 120 of strontium 90. The furthest from the plant strontium was
detected was 62 kilometers away in the city of Fukushima, which
registered 54 becquerels of strontium 89 and 7.7 becquerels of strontium 90.

The science ministry had previously detected strontium in three
locations outside the 30-kilometer indoor standby order zone, and in
four locations inside the exclusion zone.

Mainichi Shimbun , June 9, 2011

* http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/national/news/20110609p2a00m0na002000c.html

TEPCO to test new water treatment system Fri. in Fukushima crisis

TOKYO (Kyodo) — Tokyo Electric Power Co. plans to begin testing a newly
installed radioactive water treatment system at its troubled Fukushima
Daiichi nuclear power plant Friday, to deal with the massive amount of
contaminated water that has hampered crisis control, a government
regulator said Thursday.

The roughly weeklong trial run will precede a planned full operation of
the system from mid-June to remove highly radioactive materials from the
water accumulating at reactor facilities to eventually recycle it for
cooling crippled reactors.

The government’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said it is
evaluating the plant operator’s plan, adding that it hopes to approve
the move by the end of the day.

With highly radioactive water likely continuing to leak from damaged
reactors, the planned launch of the decontamination process has been an
urgent task as the operator, known as TEPCO, seeks to restore stable
cooling functions for the reactors.

The plant in Fukushima Prefecture has been critically damaged since the
March 11 quake and tsunami knocked out its power.

During the trial run, low-level radioactive water that has been kept at
a tank on the plant premises will be sent into the new installation to
see if it can remove radioactive cesium and other contaminants from the
water, lower its radiation levels and desalinate it.

TEPCO wants to process a total of roughly 250,000 tons of highly
radioactive water at the new facility by the end of next March.

TEPCO also began testing seawater treatment equipment in the sea near
the plant Thursday for removing leaked radioactive cesium, with plans to
begin full operations after monitoring the trial run for two to three days.

To help slow the spread into the Pacific Ocean of the highly tainted
water that leaked from around seawater intakes for the plant’s Nos. 2
and 3 reactors, TEPCO has so far installed fences around the intakes.

Mainichi Shimbun , June 9, 2011

* http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/national/news/20110609p2g00m0dm055000c.html