Higher than normal airborne radiation was detected at an elementary school in northeastern Tokyo, the Adachi Ward government said Oct. 17.
Radiation of 3.99 microsieverts per hour was detected 5 centimeters above the ground beneath a drain pipe attached to a machinery room at Higashi-Fuchie Elementary School in Adachi Ward.
The ward government, which cordoned off the surrounding area, said it was planning to remove and replace the soil.
The machinery room, which houses a water filter for an adjacent outdoor swimming pool and other equipment, is located in a remote area on the school grounds.
A road and pathway used by students to commute to and from the school runs about 3 meters from the site where the radiation was detected, but it is shielded from the area by concrete walls.
"Students normally don't go there (the machinery room area)," said a ward government official. "There has probably been no impact on their health."
The radiation levels at the machinery room site were 0.41 microsievert per hour at 50 cm above the ground and 0.24 microsievert per hour at 1 meter above the ground.
The maximum radiation level before the March 11 accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant was 0.079 microsievert per hour at a height of 19.8 meters above ground level at a measurement station in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward.