Monday, July 25, 2011

#Radiation in Japan: Government to Survey Half of Japan for Soil Contamination

Afraid of a "chaos" in the harvest season, perhaps?

After more than 4 months since the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident started, the Japanese government must be feeling it safe to admit to a far wider contamination by radioactive fallout.

The Ministry of Education and Science announced that it will conduct the aerial survey of 23 prefectures (out of total 47) to determine the level of soil contamination. For some reason, Hokkaido is excluded, but every prefecture from Aomori to Shiga, which is located about in the middle of the Honshu Island will be surveyed. It's all of Tohoku, Kanto, Chubu-Hokuriku.

(In the map, Hokuriku is bundled with Chubu; Hokuriku includes prefectures facing the Japan Sea. For more details within the regions, go to the web-japan.org page.)

If I were the official at the Ministry, I would test Hokkaido, too. I have seen too many radioactive plumes sweeping the island of Hokkaido in the simulation animations by several European meteorological institutions. (For the latest from the German Weather Bureau, go here. But even they will stop publishing the dispersion map on July 29... )

From NHK News Japanese (4:28AM JST 7/26/2011):

東京電力福島第一原子力発電所の事故の影響で広がった放射性物質の範囲を調べるため、文部科学省は、青森県から滋賀県までの23の都と県で、ヘリコプターを使って上空から土壌の汚染状況の調査を行うことになりました。

The Ministry of Education and Science will conduct the aerial survey using helicopters to determine the level of soil contamination from radioactive materials released from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. The survey will be conducted in 23 prefectures from Aomori to Shiga.

文部科学省は、福島第一原発の事故で拡散した放射性物質の状況を上空からヘリコプターを使って福島県や宮城県で調べていて、今月20日には、宮城県の土壌汚染マップを公表しています。上空からの土壌汚染の調査は、ほかの県からも調査の要請が相次いだことから、文部科学省は、青森県から滋賀県までの23の都と県で行うことになりました。調査は、自治体のヘリコプターを利用して行われ、上空150メートルから300メートル付近より、大型の検出器を使ってガンマ線の量を測定し、地上付近の値を換算することにしています。調査は、26日から茨城県でも始まる予定で、年内には予定している宮城、秋田、山形、岩手、福島、青森、東京、長野、新潟、山梨、神奈川、群馬、茨城、千葉、栃木、埼玉、愛知、石川、静岡、福井、冨山、岐阜、滋賀の23都県すべてで終えたいとしています。

The Ministry has been conducting the aerial survey in Fukushima and Miyagi Prefectures, and on July 20 disclosed the soil contamination map of Miyagi Prefecture. There have been requests for the aerial survey for soil contamination, so the Ministry has decided to do it in 23 prefectures. The survey will be done using the helicopters owned by the prefectures. The gamma rays will be measured from a large gamma-ray detector on board the helicopter from 150 to 300 meters from the ground, and the radiation level near the ground surface will be calculated. The survey will start in Ibaraki Prefecture on July 26. The Ministry hopes to finish the survey in all 23 prefectures by the end of this year. The prefectures are: Miyagi, Akita, Yamagata, Iwate, Fukushima, Aomori, Tokyo Nagano, Niigata, Yamanashi, Kanagawa, Gunma, Ibaraki, Chiba, Tochigi, Saitama, Aichi, Ishikawa, Shizuoka, Fukui, Toyama, Gifu, Shiga.

20 comments:

@ortospace said...

Gamma rays aerial survey from helicopter flying 150-300 m?!
Do you think it's effective? Anybody can write a technical opinion on the meaning of this survey?

Anonymous said...

Widespread Corruption at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
Published: 3 September 2007
Last updated: 11 July 2011

http://www.jm-rico.at/

Anonymous said...

I wonder about this every time I read about helicopters flying low over the ground to measure radiation. Doesn't a low flying helicopter effectively blow radioactive dust into the air? And is the resulting contamination measurement lower than it would be without using a helicopter because some contamination is blown away by the prop? Will the pilots run sorties along a set pattern trying to sweep a little of the contamination toward the ocean? As you can tell, I know nothing about helicopters other than they are really big flying fans.

netudiant said...

At the altitudes the survey is expected to use, about 500-1000ft, there should be little ground impact other than noise.
Cesium will be the primary contamination looked for. In decay, cesium emits a very clean gamma ray peak at about 700keV, plenty punchy to go through some dirt and air into the detector. However, from 500+ feet, the signal will not be very intense. Moreover, because gamma rays are not easily captured by a camera, a non imaging sensor is probably appropriate. That will give some measure of the contamination, within a fairly large bubble sized by the flight velocity and altitude and the response speed of the sensor. Given that Japan is quite hilly, this will be a big job. It seems certain that eventually all of Japan will get scanned, but the bulk of the people and the crops are in the areas to be surveyed at the first pass.

Antony said...

This is one of the things Dr Chris Busby said during his recent trip in Japan that the Japanese govt MUST do in order to produce a radiation contamination map (to be published on the Internet and so on) that will allow people to make up their own minds what to do. Needs to be done quickly and properly. One further measure was to set up high-volume air filters at 10s of kms distances out to 200-400 kms from Fukushima No.1 to monitor airborne hot particles and so on. The filters must be analyzed every 2 weeks for uranium, plutonium and so on and the results published. Looks like the Japanese government will do the first, but totally ignore the second, which is really necessary.

Anonymous said...

More bullshit being spewed by the JP government. testing soil from a helicopter, what a load of bollocks ! needs people on the ground collecting samples and doing analysis in a Lab... just like the guy in Kashiwa did testing soil near a kids playground...had high radioactivity which was poo pooed by the Kashiwa mayor.

STeVe the JeW said...

helicopter surveys... lol

for once i'd actually like to hear the phrase "boots on the ground"

Anonymous said...

"The Ministry hopes to finish the survey in all 23 prefectures by the end of this year." Well, no rush then, just people's health at stake......

Anonymous said...

If The German Weather Bureau (dwd) is quitting their dispersion maps on July 29th, what other(s), if any, are remaining?

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

@anon at 1:02AM, as far as I know, none. There are many Japanese who have counted on the DWD's animation, and they are at a loss what to do if the DWD stops. Readers in Germany, do you know the person that I can write to in the German government so that the DWD's forecast can continue somehow?

@ortospace said...

@laprimavera: a couple of weeks ago I wrote a thank-you letter to DWD at , got no replies though...

@ortospace said...

sorry, the address didn't come out, it was info@dwd.de

Anonymous said...

".. sized by the flight velocity .."

Velocity used will turn it into farce or factual.


You know, kind of like the Goog Spam filter product offer, all-or-none filtering applied days later. Farce or factual.


"what a load of bollocks ! "
The Goog blogware package. Bollocks!

doitujin said...

yes, that's the only contact mail given in the "Impressum"
(http://www.dwd.de/bvbw/appmanager/bvbw/dwdwwwDesktop?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=dwdwww_footer_impressum)

but maybe explaining the need from the japanese point of view would help? or collecting names of supporters? i'm wondering how they did those maps and if it was very hard work for them so that they would really want to be able to stop doing them...

Anonymous said...

Open censorship in Japan:

EX-SKF, con you translate this?

http://www.soumu.go.jp/main_content/000110048.pdf

Here's the cover document.

http://www.soumu.go.jp/menu_news/s-news/01kiban08_01000023.html

It's open season on bloggers I guess. It's good that you can post from anywhere and that blogspot is not located in Japan.

Some tips.

Use the Tor browser to edit your posts. That way you can post to blogspot.com from countries other than Japan. I recommend the portable Firefox version copied onto a USB stick. Find Tor here:

https://www.torproject.org/

That takes care of YOUR safety. As for whether your government can get to Google and therefor your blogspot account remains to be seen. Just in case...

Backup your blog if you haven't already. Do it often.

http://expertscolumn.com/content/how-make-backup-your-blog-blogger

You could do your readers a favor by posting your backup for us to download for 'insurance' (as well as for posterity).

Set up accounts on other blog sites as placeholders in case of emergency. You can then provide a backup of this site and carry on from somewhere else.

If, on the slim chance they shut down your Twitter account, they can't eradicate your tag 'EX-SKF' from the entire web. We'll find you.

I'd have emailed you but this is much safer AND I'm behind Tor. Besides, I'm sure your readers can benefit from these tips as well

Anonymous said...

The Hokkaido prefectural government has been doing some soil test of their own: http://www.pref.hokkaido.lg.jp/kz/kst/rom/English/radmat_soil_English.htm not that I really believe them anyway but they say it is inline with the normal...

Anonymous said...

Robbie001 sez:

Aerial surveys are SOP during widespread contamination but at the altitudes they are contemplating it is going to complicate the calculations. They will have to allow for interference from the atmospheric attenuation. Increased altitude is going to increase the Minimum Detectable Activity of Nal based detectors HPGe based devices are less susceptible but they are still effected.

I have absolutely NO FAITH in the JGOV/TEPCO accurately detecting and releasing the data. So far they've done a horrible job detecting and reporting the easy on the ground numbers aerial detection is an order of magnitude harder.

Here is an unclassified report on aerial detection by BechtelNevada. Note this report is geared towards detecting point sources but the tech is the same. Generally aerial surveys are backed up by boots on the ground to insure accuracy. If they don't follow up with ground surveys then they really don't want to know the facts and this is just a feel good PR move.

AERIAL RADIATION DETECTION DOE/NV/11718--242

http://www.osti.gov/bridge/servlets/purl/14046-eRy9Ko/webviewable/14046.pdf

Anonymous said...

"I have absolutely NO FAITH in the JGOV/TEPCO accurately detecting and releasing the data."

So now they have speed, altitude, and fuel consumption against them.

Anonymous said...

AS you ca see by Utube videos, radiation is not uniformely distributed. Many videos show radiation concentrated at downspouts from roofs. What they are proposing to do here is average out the hot spots with the cold spots. It is a little like averaging the volume which bullets occupy in a total volume of a batlefield, where a firefight is going on. Such a volume is a negligible percentage. Yet it only takes one bullet to kill. Such a survey as proposed is done for statistical purposes. Yet its usefullness to those with boots on the ground is limited. I would not rely on such a servey for my safety.

Viola said...

The Deutscher Wetterdienst (dwd) is part of the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development.
http://www.bmvbs.de/EN/Home/home_node.html

Although I'm going to write to Minister Ramsauer right after posting here, I'm not very confident they will continue. But anyway - it's worth a try.

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