Mitsui OSK: Container Ship Heading Back to Japan After Radiation Found (China)

[jpak]

http://www.ytwhw.com/2011/0328/Mitsui-OSK-Container-Ship-Heading-Back-to-Japan-After-Radiation-Found.html

Japanese shipping company Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd. (9104.TO) said Monday its container ship is heading back to Japan, after Chinese authorities claimed high levels of radiation from the vessel.

The container vessel called MOL Presence had stayed off the Chinese port of Xiamen after Chinese authorities detected a high level of radiation last Tuesday, though a specific figure wasn't available.

According to a Mitsui spokeswoman, China again detected radiation worth 3.5 microsieverts per hour in the second test Saturday. Further details were not available.

<snip>

The vessel was on its way from the U.S. and Japan to China carrying furniture, clothing and machinery and other goods in its containers. Before arriving Japan, the ship was sailing about 124 kilometers off the coast in Fukushima where the heavily damaged nuclear power complex is located.

<not much more>

[kristopher]

1. Japanese history trivia

The post-feudal government of Japan - made up of the people who rejected US colonialism and set the course of modernization for Japan, who instituted the "Meiji Restoration" - was funded by loans from Mitsui Trading Company.

[PoliticAverse]

2. 3.5 microSieverts/hour...

would be...
3.5 microSieverts/hour * 24 hours/day * 365 days/year = 30,660 microSieverts/year = 30.66 milliSieverts/year
roughly 5 times the world average background radiation of about 2.4 milliSieverts/year.

Time for the treatment the USS Ronald Reagan received:

[crickets]

3. And what about the condition of the contents?

I fear the "take it back, we don't want your goods" reaction is going to happen more and more as time goes on. Poor Japan.