Radiation in Japan: Highly contaminated soil from near Tokyo

This is a brief video to show you a soil sample I received from Kashiwa which is a city near Tokyo, about 200 km (125 mi.) away from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Kashiwa is hotspot which has been in the news several times. Here is a blog with a number of related articles and translations: http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/search/label/Kashiwa

I'd like to give a big thank you to youtube user asuperdry (http://www.youtube.com/user/asuperdry) for sending this to me. When I asked him if it would be possible to send me a sample he didn't hesitate and did it really quickly.

My reason for getting the sample is that I am going to send it to someone in the U.S. who is curious to analyze some samples from Japan and perform gamma spectroscopy in an attempt to identify what radioactive materials are present.

Disclaimer: Previous work in a research facility has taught me to be cautious around hazardous materials. I follow basic protection and anti-cross contamination principles as well as cautious storage and metering after handling and storing to confirm no radiation is present where it shouldn't be.

Fair use notice: Any maps or web sites shown are for news reporting, documentary, and analysis purposes and of limited quantity and scope. There is no intent to use material inappropriately.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Japan
• radiation
• Fukushima
• Daiichi
• nuclear
• accident
• Cesium
• Plutonium
• Geiger
• Counter
• Kashiwa
• Tokyo
• Chiba
• nuke
• 日本
• 福島
• 第一
• 原発
• 事故
• 放射性
• セシウム
• ガイガーカウンター

[kamijo666]

Hi,

Thanks for the video.

I'm living in Tokyo and I would like to know how you calibrate your geiger-counter for caesium 137? Can the RD1503 geiger counter be calibrated as well?

Thanks a lot.

[AluminumStudios]

@kamijo666 uSv and mrem take into account energy levels so you must know what you are measuring in order to derive the proper number. Many Geiger counters are not calibratable (mine aren't), but instead are manufactured on the assumption that Cesium 137 is being measured. This is the most common factory calibration.To actually calibrate a calibratable one you need to buy a Cesium test source of a known strength and take a careful measurement and align your counter to the expected val.

[AluminumStudios]

@AluminumStudios I don't know about the RD 1503, but calibrating them yourself isn't easy. If you have a quality one it might be best to have the manufacturer do it. I can't recall if it's S.E. International or International Medicom (one or the other), sells the Inspector and can calibrate and certify them. Youtube user antiprotons had his calibrated a short while ago.

[kamijo666]

@AluminumStudios

Thanks a lot for the information!

Unfortunately "the Inspector" was too expensive for me, so I hope mine will do the job. As it's maybe too late to ask the manufacturer to do it for me I have to buy a Cesium test source... do you have any information on where I could find one (except around Tokyo^^). And if I can find one still not really sure how to calibrate it by myself...

[AluminumStudios]

@kamijo666 You probably don't want a Cesium test source as they are QUITE radioactive! I personally don't think a Geiger counter needs to be carefully calibrated because even if yours if off by a bit, it will be off consistently and you can still clearly see differences in radiation from place to place and day to day and THAT is more important than knowing weather an area is really .9 uSv/hr or 1.1 uSv/hr for example.

[MVrockersPS3]

only 30 year half life so at least it's not 10,000 years

[AluminumStudios]

@MVrockersPS3 You typically require 10 half-lives for a substance to decay to trace amounts, so 300 years for cesium. However, Cesium is not the only contaminant. There are many others with much longer half-lives, however, the government is pretending that cesium and iodine are the only two. It's all they're testing for. BTW, where was 10,000 years said and why is 30 years of exile from people's villages acceptable?

[smartazuis]

@AluminumStudios hi William you do great work, so thank you. I have studied radiation detox for the last year and the simplest way to make people understand is on my channel written with web sites to explain how and why. Please tale a look at it and tell me what you think, also pay needed attention to the John k Hutchison video, thanks again !

[MVrockersPS3]

@AluminumStudios the proposed yucca mountain nuclear waste repository was to hold nuclear waste for 10,000 years. yea I do agree that all this contamination is really bad and this whole situation is unacceptable and a nuclear power plant should be walk away safe so this can never happen.

[kamijo666]

@AluminumStudios

I like your answer, you're cool man!^^

Let's have a geiger party in Tokyo some day!