June 26, 2012
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government on June 25 decided to carry out its first radiation decontamination work at a public park more than a year after the Fukushima nuclear accident.
The decision came out as a result of repeated actions that Japanese Communist Party representatives in the metropolitan assembly had taken since last year.
The JCP Tokyo assembly members’ group after the Fukushima nuclear accident began checking radiation levels at various locations in Tokyo-owned facilities. Based on the results, the JCP has requested the Tokyo government to measure radiation doses at its facility areas and clean up the areas if high radiation levels are detected. The government kept rejecting the JCP’s request.
The Tokyo government finally accepted the JCP’s data collected at Mizumoto Park in Katsushika Ward on June 22 and surveyed radiation doses at 14 locations in the park. It also decided to conduct radiation decontamination work at 9 locations out of 14 which marked higher radiation levels than the science ministry’s standards for required decontamination.
According to the science ministry’s standards, radiation decontamination is required when the air radiation level at 1 meter above ground level exceeds 1 microsievert per hour. The level of radiation at the surveyed 9 locations was 1.16 microsievert and over, which includes one location at a level of 6.64 microsievert.
A Tokyo government official said to reporters, “Today’s data is higher than the ministry’s standards. We will conduct radiation decontamination work without delay after discussing with the state and our environment bureau, and put the data on our web site.”
JCP representative of the Tokyo assembly Kachi Kayoko stated, “The metropolitan government claimed that there is no place recording radiation of 1 microsievert and higher. It should remove radioactively-contaminated materials from places where higher level of radiation is detected and carry out a thorough survey of radiation levels at all its public facilities.”
The decision came out as a result of repeated actions that Japanese Communist Party representatives in the metropolitan assembly had taken since last year.
The JCP Tokyo assembly members’ group after the Fukushima nuclear accident began checking radiation levels at various locations in Tokyo-owned facilities. Based on the results, the JCP has requested the Tokyo government to measure radiation doses at its facility areas and clean up the areas if high radiation levels are detected. The government kept rejecting the JCP’s request.
The Tokyo government finally accepted the JCP’s data collected at Mizumoto Park in Katsushika Ward on June 22 and surveyed radiation doses at 14 locations in the park. It also decided to conduct radiation decontamination work at 9 locations out of 14 which marked higher radiation levels than the science ministry’s standards for required decontamination.
According to the science ministry’s standards, radiation decontamination is required when the air radiation level at 1 meter above ground level exceeds 1 microsievert per hour. The level of radiation at the surveyed 9 locations was 1.16 microsievert and over, which includes one location at a level of 6.64 microsievert.
A Tokyo government official said to reporters, “Today’s data is higher than the ministry’s standards. We will conduct radiation decontamination work without delay after discussing with the state and our environment bureau, and put the data on our web site.”
JCP representative of the Tokyo assembly Kachi Kayoko stated, “The metropolitan government claimed that there is no place recording radiation of 1 microsievert and higher. It should remove radioactively-contaminated materials from places where higher level of radiation is detected and carry out a thorough survey of radiation levels at all its public facilities.”
