40,000 Bq/Kg from the surface of fruit tree

40,000 Bq/Kg of cesium was measured from the surface of peach tree in Date shi Fukushima.
This fruit farmer cut half of his trees to make room for radioactive waste produced from decontamination. However, because he had 40,000 Bq/Kg of cesium measured from the rest of the trees, he gave up growing.

The safety limit is going to be 100 Bq/Kg after April. However, they measured 80~90 Bq/Kg from peach last autumn, which is near the safety limit.

Fruit trees in Date city Fukushima had the surfaces peeled by the high-pressure water for decontamination.
Source
「それでも作るしか」「もう無理」…果樹農家悲鳴 死活問題に
2012.4.1 00:04

 

生産者にとって死活問題になりかねない放射性セシウムの基準値超え。特に年1回の収穫に懸け、日々の作業を続ける果樹農家は大きな不安を抱えている。

3月下旬、特定避難勧奨地点が点在する福島県伊達市。山間部の畑に立つカキの木の幹は、真っ白な木肌が目立つ。四方に枝を張るブドウの木も痛々しい赤茶色。いずれも高圧水による除染で樹皮が剥がれた結果という。

「基準がどうあれ、木がある以上、とにかく作るしかない」。1ヘクタールの畑でブドウ、モモ、カキを育てる男性(50)はつぶやく。昨季、周辺で収穫されたモモから1キロ当たり80~90ベクレルの放射性セシウムを検出。同500ベクレルの暫定基準値は下回るが、同100ベクレルの新基準値ならギリギリの数値だ。「除染すれば大丈夫なはずだが、ゼロでないと消費者も手にしてくれない」

東電の補償は出たが「補償のためじゃない。おいしかったと言ってもらうため作っている」という。

あきらめた農家もある。同じ山沿いで長年モモを育ててきた菅野重治さん(65)は昨年、除染で出る廃棄物の仮置き用スペースを作るため、木の半分を引き抜いた。しかし残り半分の木の表面から1キロ当たり4万ベクレルを検出。「もう無理だ」と観念した。

値下がりを受け周辺農家が養蚕から果樹に転換したのは半世紀前。「また新しい何かを見つけないと若い人は戻ってこない」と菅野さん。その「何か」は見つかっていない。(荒船清太)

 

 

About this site

This website updates the latest news about the Fukushima nuclear plant and also archives the past news from 2011. Because it's always updated and added live, articles, categories and the tags are not necessarily fitted in the latest format.
I am the writer of this website. About page remains in 2014. This is because my memory about 311 was clearer than now, 2023, and I think it can have a historical value. Now I'm living in Romania with 3 cats as an independent data scientist.
Actually, nothing has progressed in the plant since 2011. We still don't even know what is going on inside. They must keep cooling the crippled reactors by water, but additionally groundwater keeps flowing into the reactor buildings from the broken parts. This is why highly contaminated water is always produced more than it can circulate. Tepco is planning to officially discharge this water to the Pacific but Tritium is still remaining in it. They dilute this with seawater so that it is legally safe, but scientifically the same amount of radioactive tritium is contained. They say it is safe to discharge, but none of them have drunk it.

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