Kashiwa

After Kashiwa officials covered the spot with a plastic sheet, radiation levels dropped to 0.3 microsievert per hour.

Tokyo Cites Rain for 'Hot Spots' Yuka Hayashi 2011

The Kashiwa official said the city will step up efforts to find and eliminate contaminated areas by poring through gutters lining hundreds of miles of local roads, and in over 600 parks and playgrounds.

Tokyo Cites Rain for 'Hot Spots' Yuka Hayashi 2011

The likely link to the nuclear accident came after a map based on the government's aerial surveys singled out Kashiwa as among a few notable hotspot areas in the metropolitan area.

Tokyo Cites Rain for 'Hot Spots' Yuka Hayashi 2011

Kashiwa, located 29 kilometers northeast of Tokyo, has a population of 400,000 people.

Tokyo Cites Rain for 'Hot Spots' Yuka Hayashi 2011

TOKYO—After the discovery of the most radioactive "hot spot" so far outside Fukushima prefecture, officials of Kashiwa, a bedroom community just north of Tokyo, began combing through roadside gutters and playgrounds Monday to find and clean up tainted spots.

Tokyo Cites Rain for 'Hot Spots' Yuka Hayashi 2011

"The numbers we found last week were way above what we could imagine based on what we had learned in the past," said an official at Kashiwa city's radiation-safety division, who asked that his name not be disclosed.

Tokyo Cites Rain for 'Hot Spots' Yuka Hayashi 2011

The levels found in the soil in Kashiwa were not directly comparable to those found in Fukushima, which were measured in the air.

Tokyo Cites Rain for 'Hot Spots' Yuka Hayashi 2011

In the latest sign that radioactive material has spread far beyond the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, officials said the area in Kashiwa, about 200 kilometers from the plant, was likely contaminated as a result of cesium-laced rain that fell soon after the March 11 disaster.

Tokyo Cites Rain for 'Hot Spots' Yuka Hayashi 2011

Kashiwa officials had initially suspected the cause of the contamination to be something other than the March 11 accident, saying the land had been the site of a military installation in the past.

Tokyo Cites Rain for 'Hot Spots' Yuka Hayashi 2011

Mr. Oku said, however, there was no need for people in Kashiwa to evacuate because the hot spot is concentrated in a small patch of land, and that the contamination could be contained and then cleaned up.

Tokyo Cites Rain for 'Hot Spots' Yuka Hayashi 2011