Radioactive cesium more than 10 times the standard for waste disposal has been detected on lawn covers that had been placed in a schoolyard from mid-March until early April at Horinouchi Elementary School in Tokyo's Suginami Ward.
The measured value, 90,600 becquerels of radioactive cesium per kilogram, was more than triple the 26,400 becquerels contained in sludge at a sewage treatment facility in Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture, about 60 kilometers from the disabled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. According to the ward government, the school started covering the lawn area of its schoolyard with nine sheets of the polyethylene covers only during nighttime in January. The school, however, left the covers on the schoolyard for the entire period from March 18 to April 6, about the same length as the spring break. (Asahi)
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