Radiation dosimeter sales spiking since nuke disaster

radiation dosimeter sales spiking since nuke disaster

A steady stream of customers in search of radiation dosimeters filled a store tucked away in an alley in Tokyo’s Akihabara district on Nov. 19.

A year ago, many of the Toyo Keisokuki store’s new clients would not have known what a dosimeter was, but in Japan since the accidents at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, the meters are rapidly becoming a hot item.

More than 10 types of dosimeters line the shelves at Toyo Keisokuki, with price tags ranging from 30,000 yen to 200,000 yen (about $400 to $2,667).

The store says it has sold several hundred dosimeters since the disaster, often to parents or grandparents concerned about the threat of radiation to their children or grandchildren. Sales are up 10 times on previous years, when most buyers were engineers.

One of the new customers, Tsunehito Wake, 38, runs a firm in Tokyo s Suginami Ward and has three young children aged between 1 and 5.

Concerned about the effects of radiation from the Fukushima disaster, he evacuated his children to Shikoku island in western Japan in March and is still concerned about contamination at his Tokyo-area home.

He brought in an expert to measure radiation levels in his garden, but was visiting Toyo Keisokuki on Nov. 19 to get his own dosimeter. He said he had searched for dosimeters on the Internet, but needed advice to work out which one to get.

"If the dosimeter shows a high radiation level that makes you anxious, you should report it to the local government," a clerk told him.

Wake eventually bought a Russian-made dosimeter with a manual written in Japanese and priced between 30,000 yen and 40,000 yen.

Masami Ishibashi, an assistant at the store, said she always asks customers what they want to measure before selling anything.

http://www.chinadosimeter.com/