Japan Today Get your ticket to GaijinPot Expo 2024
national

Radioactive ash causes Kashiwa incinerators to shut down

40 Comments

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

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

40 Comments
Login to comment

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.

5 ( +5 / -1 )

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.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

I wish my Geiger counter would arrive.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

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.

9 ( +9 / -0 )

hope......hope is gone

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Does anyone know why there would be so much radiation in the trash they are burning??

2 ( +2 / -0 )

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 ( +1 / -0 )

"...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!

1 ( +2 / -1 )

rollthediceOct. 04, 2011 - 05:07PM JST Does anyone know why there would be so much radiation in the trash they are burning??

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.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

According to a Fuji TV report, authorities plan to burn the remaining garbage at newer and more efficient plants

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.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

...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 ( +3 / -1 )

@rollthedice- the Japanese history books will rue this time as being one of a civilisation whose ignorance and self centredness destroyed thousands of lives.............

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I forgot to say-BAN BURNING NOW!

I meant to shout it.........

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Does anyone know why there would be so much radiation in the trash they are burning??

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.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

The geiger camera app for iphone works well and is only 85 yen!

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.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

So there is still stuff floating about.

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!

2 ( +2 / -0 )

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 ( +1 / -0 )

Appearances are important.

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.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

What happened to sharing is caring?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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).

1 ( +1 / -0 )

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 ( +0 / -0 )

The geiger camera app for iphone works well and is only 85 yen!

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 ( +0 / -0 )

glad i live in Shizouka..

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Well, I for one shall be buying my green tea from Uji and Kyoto for the next few years.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites