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Kashiwa govt wants help with hotspot Tadao Baba and Eiji Noyori / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writers Officials from the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry check a location in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, on Sunday where radiation of 57.5 microsieverts per hour was detected. KASHIWA, Chiba--A radiation hotspot in Kashiwa has still not been decontaminated a week after radiation of 57.5 microsieverts per hour was recorded on a city-owned plot of land. The city insists such a high level of radiation is beyond the level a local government can handle on its own, though it decided to conduct surveys to...

Sunday, Oct. 23, 2011 Science ministry reverses government claims after on-site survey finds high amouts of cesium Kashiwa hot spot linked to Fukushima Kyodo, Staff report CHIBA — The science ministry said Sunday the high radiation detected on city-owned land in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, is emanating from cesium that was probably ejected by the crippled Fukushima No. 1 power plant, contradicting earlier government claims. When the Kashiwa Municipal Government first received a report about an airborne radiation reading of 57.7 microsieverts per hour at the site, it said the radiation was unlikely to be related to the Fukushima disaster because...

Chiba Pref. city finds major radioactive hot spot on public land KASHIWA, Chiba -- Officials here announced Oct. 21 the city government has discovered a hot spot emitting extremely high radiation of 57.5 microsieverts per hour on a plot of public land in a residential district. The new hot spot was found within a radius of just one meter. Radiation levels in Kashiwa and its vicinity are relatively high because of the effects of the ongoing Fukushima nuclear crisis, but the latest discovery of such an intense hot spot in the city's Nedokoyadai district came as a surprise. City radiation...

Radioactive ash causes Kashiwa incinerators to shut down National Oct. 04, 2011 - 03:15PM JST ( 25 ) 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...