Antinuclear

Radioactivity in Japanese building materials

Radioactive Concrete Is Latest Scare for Fukushima Survivors, abc News, 16 Jan 12, By Akiko Fjitau The Japanese government is investigating how radioactive concrete ended up in a new apartment complex in the Fukushima Prefecture, housing evacuees from a town near the crippled nuclear plant.

The contamination was first discovered when dosimeter readings of children in the city of Nihonmatsu, roughly 40 miles from the reactors at Fuksuhima Dai-ichi, revealed a high school student had been exposed to 1.62 millisieverts in a span of three months, well above the annual 1 millisievert limit the government has established for safety reasons. Further investigation traced the radiation back to the student’s three-story apartment building, where officials detected
radioactive cesium inside the concrete.

Radiation levels at the 6-month-old apartment were higher inside the building than outside. A dozen families live in the new apartment complex.The gravel used in the cement came from a quarry in the town of Namie, located just miles from the Fukushima plant. While Namie
sits inside the government mandated 12-mile “no-go” zone because of
radiation concerns, it wasn’t completely closed off until the end of
April, meaning the gravel was exposed to radiation spewing from the
Fukushima plant during that time.

The owner of the quarry said he shipped 5,200 tons of gravel to 19
different companies, two of which now say they sold the material to
200 construction firms. The Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry
has launched an investigation to determine where the gravel was
used….. NHK reports government officials brushed off initial
inquiries about the contaminated concrete in December, saying they had
conducted thorough checks.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/01/radioactive-concrete-is-latest-scare-for-fukushima-survivors/

January 17, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized