Radiation 'hot spots' near Olympic torch relay in Fukushima: Greenpeace

This is why any reporting needs to be done completely independent of the government and of the IOC. If not, you know that the readings will always be, surprise surprise, be below “nationally allowed” standards. I personally don’t know if they even actually do any tests.

However, J-Village's internet site says the radiation reading at its main entrance was 0.111 microsieverts per hour on Wednesday, while one of its fields showed a reading of 0.085 microsieverts per hour.

Greenpeace said it had relayed its findings to the Japanese government as well as local and international Olympic organizers.

The group will publish a report of its findings in the region next year.

So, who to believe, an environmental group that sometimes uses eco-terrrorism to further it's own causes, or a Japanese government that far too often covers it's own arse to make things look better than it really is?

Personally speaking, neither, so it's just better to move the start!

Greenpeace said they had detected some spots with radiation levels as high as 1.7 microsieverts per hour when measured one meter above the surface.

As at ground level? Most people don't float 1 meter off the ground.

The Japanese government does not measure at ground level where people actually walk-Greenpeace does.

Most people don't float 1 meter off the ground.

How tall are you?

Lies upon lies upon lies. Cancer? Who cares?

This is why any reporting needs to be done completely independent of the government and of the IOC. 

Agreed, we need more independent organisations that do research because i have absolutely no faith in what the government says.

This is why any reporting needs to be done completely independent of the government and of the IOC.

+1

clippetyclop:

Are you saying your feet are 1m above the ground?

Are you saying your feet are 1m above the ground?

Who mentioned feet? Are feet more susceptible to radiation than the rest of the body? I suspect most people here are at least a metre tall, so the readings at that height are relevant.

At one meter above the ground can be found some genetically important bits.

Happy to see that the article included the data, and didn't just claim 'hot spots'. 

It seems to me that the relay start location needs to be moved, even though no runner is likely to be harmed by this level of radiation. However, one wouldn't want to live nearby. Very embarrassing for the government and Olympic committee.

Good post Zichi.

I have my suspicions that Greenpeace are doing what they did in their initial "survey" of Fukushima City just after the accident: pushing readings at drains and trees, which funnel a lot of rainwater, and so get a lot of radionuclides coming down to the drain, roots in the case of trees.

They published the research from their Fukushima trip - headlines about "massive readings" in Fukushima City, much higher than the government were reporting. I went though the Excel file, summed the readings and took the average. Looked at the radiation reading for Fukushima City (we had those in the Tohoku newspapers at that time) - exactly the same as the Greenpeace average for Fukushima City. But Greenpeace were not interested in the average, just fear-inducing headlines that drove families apart and made people feel like they were unclean outcasts.

If the only radiation we are exposed to came from one meter from the ground ,then then life would be very simple However,, it is not.

Radioactive particles can be found in food, house dust, smoke and even in the walls of buildings.

Even Shinkansen stations leading up and down to from Fukushima to Tokyo have a higher readings due to the accident.

And what about the radioactive package flown by drone that ended up on PM Abe’s roof?

maybe Abe and those in government can run that leg of the torch relay, they can hand out bottles of water to them from the reactor storage before they release it into the oceans, after all its all safe according to them

Educator60 - excellent point. Their measurements points need to be identified.

I think that nothing international should be done anywhere close to Fukushima. Hot spots don't kill you, not give you any noticeable effect (unless you stand on a piece of a crude reactor bar). Yet, you never know and never can know. TEPCO and the government never did it, and still do not say everything about it now. Would you eat an apple, if I tell you that now it is clean because I washed it very well, but previously I dropped it into the the sewage? I doubt it . And that it is not because it is stinky or dirty.

And yet, posters like oldman_13 claim countries that are going to bring their own food and radiation meters are "whining" and wrong for doing so. Yet he'd be happy if athletes slept and trained in hotspots and were fed "food the government deems safe, to prove it's safe", no questions asked.

smith,

I agree.

If I were an Olympian there is no way I would want to be in Fukushima just to appease Abe's 'Everything is under control,' quote.

I hope the rest of the world doesn't get hoodwinked like the locals do.

Very disappointed.

1 Meter....the handle height of baby strollers.

Setagaya-ku had measurements of 5 all over the place.

@Go-Go, how do you get around, slither? Guess which humans are mostly around 1 meter in height, with their noses around in that air... children. Do you see now?

A lot of figures have been bandied about but just to put things into perspective, while the house in Ito is of course not the same as Fukushima or for that matter Tokyo, the radiation measurements are for a real situation.

 Measurements around the house indicated 0.1 to 0.11 inside, the small garden 0.12, ground at the rain pipe discharge 0.33 on the west side, 0.18 to 0.22 on the east side, 0.1 on the hard car parking area and the gravel path in front of the house 0.17 micro Sieverts. The values outside are about half at a height of 1 metre. These measurements are done in April for the last 3 years and show little change. The yearly value in the house would then be 0.88 milli sieverts. The Radon level inside is about 18 to 20 Bq which using WHO conversion yield about 1 milli sieverts a year. So the total yearly exposure is just under 2 milli seiverts per year.

Radiation 101: Background radiation is NATURAL. Radioactive isotopes spewed from the internal workings of a fission reactor are MAN MADE. Massive deadly difference.

Are you saying your feet are 1m above the ground?

All a matter of comprehension!

I've seen journalists go in with greenpeace. Levels are dangerously high in these 'hotspots'

Ive seen Japanese youtuber walk along a park in Tokyo with a detector and in some bits it was bloody 40-41 times the normal levels. Yet stupid moms with kids just said 'shranai'. They prefer cancer over facts.

Chernobyl is still bloody radioactive to this date, so why should Fukushima be any different? I guess Japanese are immune to radiation because of A-bomb I guess (NOT).

I call pure fabrication.  If not, dates, times, identifiable place names please.