Radiation in Tokyo linked to old bottles, not Fukushima

[alp227]

Source: The Guardian

Concerns that contamination from the Fukushima Daiichi plant had spread to Tokyo subsided on Friday after high levels of radiation recorded along a street in the city were linked to old bottles of radium stored beneath the floorboards of a nearby house.

Researchers had recorded radiation of 3.35 microsieverts per hour along a street in Setagaya ward, a higher level than in some parts of the 12-mile (20km) exclusion zone around the nuclear plant.

An investigation traced the contamination to several bottles that had been stored in a cardboard box beneath an empty house. The bottles recorded radiation levels in excess of those measurable on a low-dose radiation counter, said Setegaya's mayor, Nobuto Hosaka.

Science ministry officials believed the bottles contained radium-226, a radioactive material used in fluorescent paint on watch faces and in medical devices, the Yomiuri Shimbun said. Radiation levels inside the house dropped significantly after the bottles were placed inside a lead container, reports said.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/2011/oct/13/fukushima-radiation-tokyo-contamination-reading

[Safetykitten]

1. See? All better. Our nuclear friend was almost mistakenly fingered.

[Art_from_Ark]

3. The "nuclear friend" in this case was radium, probably used in radiation therapy

Fukushima can't take the blame for this, even though there were plenty of jerking knees around here claiming it was the cause.

[Poll_Blind]

4. I was thinking the same thing.Triple meltdowns are getting a bum rap nowdays!

PB

[plumbob]

2. WHEW! What a relief! Wonder if I should get rid of those bottles of radium

I've got under MY house?

Hey! Doesn't EVERYBODY?




You know, I don't mind being lied to as much as I am insulted that they think I'll believe these pitiful excuses for lies.

[Art_from_Ark]

5. Pitiful excuses for lies?

People don't keep radium under their house, but a company that handles radium in some way might seek ways to cut costs by disposing of it in a less than legal way.

Look, there's absolutely NO WAY that radium radiation in an extremely small area that is a couple hundred times higher than the surrounding area can be attributed to a nuclear reactor 150 miles away. The level was 18 microsieverts per hour at the house, and 3.3 microsieverts in the street just 1.5 meters in front of the house, versus the record 0.48 microsieverts that was recorded in Setagaya at the peak just after the No. 3 MOX explosion in March and 0.05-0.1 microsieverts that has been the norm in Setagaya since April. As much as I dislike the Fukushima reactors-- and I live closer to them than probably anyone else in this forum-- there's no way that this can be attributed to them.

[No Elephants]

6. In a cardboard box under the floorboards of a house.

[Art_from_Ark]

7. Did you even read what I wrote?

18 microsieverts in the house. 3.3 microsieverts in the street 1.5 meters in front of the house. 0.05-0.1 microsieverts as the norm for Setagaya, 150 miles from Fukushima Dai-ichi, since April. Are you trying to tell me that that house was somehow a magnet for radiation from a source 150 miles away?

[Heywood J]

8. Mmmm... patent medicine.

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Radithor
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Eben_Byers

[Ian David]

9. Probably an artifact that is now safely stored in Warehouse 13. n/t

[marions ghost]

10. Time will tell...

Now if I were going to concoct a coverup, this is how I would do it.

On the other hand, there are such coincidences as this. It may be the truth (may).

Sounds like the citizens of every street in Tokyo should be doing their own monitoring...:shrug: