Finding that radiation-tainted straw was produced far from nuclear plant causes shock

[kristopher]

Finding that radiation-tainted straw was produced far from nuclear plant causes shock

Prefectural officials interview livestock farmers after radioactive cesium was detected in cattle raised in Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture, on July 10. (Mainichi)

Revelations that radiation-contaminated rice straw used as feed for beef cattle was produced far away from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant have sent shockwaves through the livestock farming community in Fukushima Prefecture.

Consumers have also been filled with a sense of growing distrust in the government over delays in responding to the problem of radiation-tainted beef.

Forty-two beef cows that ate rice straw contaminated with radioactive cesium were found to have been shipped from a livestock farm in the Fukushima Prefecture town of Asakawa from April 8. The rice straw had been supplied by a farmer in Shirakawa, about 75 kilometers away from the tsunami-hit nuclear power station.

"It's unbelievable that this (contamination) occurred in an area so far away from the nuclear plant," said a 34-year-old man who has run a livestock farm in Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture, for nearly 10 years.

On July 8 the ...

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110715p2a00m0na002000c.html



Farm ships 42 cows fed irradiated straw
Another town in Fukushima has tainted beef
Kyodo

FUKUSHIMA — The Fukushima Prefectural Government said a farm in the town of Asakawa shipped 42 cows to Tokyo and other places after feeding them straw containing high levels of radioactive cesium, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government said Friday it found a high level of cesium in beef produced from some of the cattle.

Miyagi Prefecture said Friday it found 3,600 becquerels of cesium per kilogram in straw checks at three places in the prefecture. Following the discovery, the prefecture ordered about 900 farms in the prefecture not to feed their cows straw harvested after March 11.

The 42 cows from Asakawa were shipped between April 8 and July 6: 14 were taken to Yokohama, 13 to Tokyo, 10 to Sendai and five to Chiba Prefecture, the Fukushima government said.

The straw was found to contain up to 97,000 becquerels of cesium per kilogram, about 73 times the government limit. It was cut last year by a rice farm in Shirakawa, Fukushima Prefecture, and was left in an open field.

Following Fukushima's announcement...

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110715x1.html

[FBaggins]

1. Doesn't the second article clear up the first one?

The straw was cut last year and had been stored in a field. It doesn't say that the straw was in Shirakawa when it received the fallout.

In other reporting (link below) it's said that the hay was wrapped and shipped to the farm (which is pretty close to the plant) on multiple ocasions from late March to Early April.

I think almost everyone would agree that it's far more likely that the hay was contaminated after it got to the farm in Fukushima.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110715005727.htm

[kristopher]

4. You think almost everyone would agree???

Your zeal to defend the nuclear industry once again leads you to a false conclusion.

Although it isn't in the papers yet TV broadcast as said the contamination occurred in Shirakawa before the straw was baled and wrapped. There was a warning sent out to the farmers not to use feed that had been left outside unwrapped. The farmers followed the advice, but it didn't help because no warning was made to the straw providers to not use straw that had been left exposed.

It's just one more example of the unavoidable Rube Goldberg nature of dealing with the aftermath of a nuclear disaster.

FWIW the water purification system has broken down again and again they are having difficulty repairing it because of the high levels of radioactivity from what was spilled. It is been an almost daily occurrence.

You just can't beat that French nuclear technology, you know?

[FBaggins]

5. The rational ones, yes.

You really think it's more likely that there was fallout vastly exceeding anything else detected in the region of that farm... then that a farm far closer to the reactors that we know had hay in the field shortly after the largest releases of cesium might actually have gotten some fallout?

There was a warning sent out to the farmers not to use feed that had been left outside unwrapped.

When was that warning sent?


FWIW the water purification system has broken down again and again they are having difficulty repairing it because of the high levels of radioactivity from what was spilled. It is been an almost daily occurrence.

So? How much water has been treated and how does that compare to the amount of water leaking from the reactors during the same period?

[kristopher]

6. You are some piece of work...

I just told you what they government has already determined yet you still insist your speculations based on the premise of "defend nuclear at all costs" is nonetheless correct.

Wow.

[AndyTiedye]

2. Fukushima Released (and Continues o Release) a Lot More Radiation Than They are Admitting

:nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke: :hide:

[peace13]

3. The amazing thing is that this surprises anyone. n/t

[thereismore]

7. 75 km is so far away? That's just idiocy. nt