Monday, August 1, 2011

#Radioactive Rice: Chiba, Tochigi Prefectures to Test New Crop for Radiation

But just like in beef, the testing will be done by sampling. We know how that ended, in case of radioactive beef.

Or more like in vegetables, where they test one crop from one plot in one farm in one municipality, and if that passes the test, all farms in that municipality are good to ship.

The harvest season in Chiba is about to start, in early August.

Expect the triumphant declaration of safety by the governors, followed by ....

NHK World English (8/1/2011) reports:

The Chiba and Tochigi prefectural governments say they will test the rice harvested in their prefectures for radiation.

The decision comes after radioactive cesium was detected in rice straw, vegetables and compost following the Fukushima nuclear accident.

Farmers in Chiba and Tochigi planted rice seedlings in their fields after the accident and are voicing concerns over possible contamination due to fallout from the Fukushima plant.

Officials in Chiba, where harvesting is expected to begin as early as August, say they will sample unmilled rice from one to several farms in each rice-growing municipality to measure radiation levels.

They say they will not allow any farms in a municipality to ship their rice unless the tests show that the radiation readings of samples from the area are within the safety limit set by the central government.

Tochigi authorities plan to have each area submit a sample for testing. They say they will also purchase 2 special devices to detect radioactive cesium, although they are still discussing the details of the testing method with the government.

In Tochigi, rice harvesting will start in early September.

The 2 prefectures are the first in Japan to announce that they will test rice for radioactive cesium.

I am also a little worried about the rice currently in the market. It was harvested last fall, and is kept unmilled in warehouses until it's ready to be sold in the retail market. Remember the radioactive shiitake mushrooms that were grown indoors? The source of radioactive cesium in those mushrooms hasn't been identified, as far as I know. I sure hope it is not "air".

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks Ultra Man Seven,

Don't know what we in Japan would do without you.

If you check this chart,

http://www.nnistar.com/gmap/fukushima.html

it appears that the breadbasket of Honshu Island is pretty much contaminated, and that means cesium which is around for a good long while in the soil. It is in Japanese for the most part and I am confused by who is taking these readings. It says MEXT but if you look at another MEXT chart on the web (the English home page) the readings are much much lower. They also get readings from local governments, so those might explain the differences, there may be other sources as well, (someone can explain this?). Thanks.

Of course, Fukushima is by far the worse, but MIyagi, Yamagata, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Chiba and Gunma are all suspect. Certain parts of those regions may be OK but even Aomori or Nagano, not to mention Tokyo (where some things are grown), Kanagawa , Shizuoka and Yamanashi may also not be pristine!

It is obvious to anyone with a brain cell in their head that any produce from these areas has a high likelihood of either being sent their from another planet, or, having certain amounts, safe of unsafe, of radiation on them (from beta particles of cesium on up to alpha nasties like plutonium).

After Professor/Doctor Kodama's devastating presentation there can no longer be any doubt that Kanto has been contaminated at a fairly high level (equal to many Hiroshima bombings, ho hum) and this stuff does not go away anytime soon. Unless people wake up and demand extremely strict screening procedures, and an end to all nukes in Japan, the long term prognosis for this country is not good at all, not at all.

But, the mass of people are too busy trying to scrape out a living or are watching their TVs (Talmud Vision) to get their daily dose of Bread and Circuses and Dread and Circumcisions.

Anonymous said...

I've a theory re indoor mushrooms: contaminated mulch.

Apolline said...

Hear and listen this japanese woman in Fukushima :
(english subtitled) :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tyt85_iDmmI&feature=related

"Please listen to the plight of Fukushima people left behind by their own government"
Ajoutée par pejorativeglut le 26 juil. 2011

On the 19th of July 2011, people in Fukushima had a meeting with government officals from Tokyo to demand that the government evacuate people promptly in Fukushima and provide financial and logistical support for them. Also, they brought urine of children to the meeting and demanded that the government test it.

Above is an excerpt from the video below:


2011_7_19 対政府交渉 in 福島~「避難の権利」の確立を求めて Dijest_04
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlgLDT39Nn8&feature=related

Friendly yours

nika said...

i still go with contaminated water on the shiitake - i grow shiitake on logs myself - water is crucially important and it takes a lot of lead time for the mycelium to propagate throughout the log or bag culture - the growth medium would not have been made from trees that were cut this march or after. one does not use "mulch" in growing shiitake.

Remember, also, that rice milling - especially if you take it down to polished white rice - requires water.

Where will this water be sourced from?

see this link for some photos and description of japanese rice processing - http://www.sagevfoods.com/MainPages/Rice101/Milling.htm#process also see this PDF with some other photos - http://www.knowledgebank.irri.org/ericeproduction/PDF_&_Docs/Teaching_Manual_Rice_Milling.pdf

Anonymous said...

Remember also that fungi, mushrooms, breath oxygen like animals do.

Anonymous said...

http://www.47news.jp/CN/201108/CN2011080101000992.html

Apolline said...

The Pr Kodama's video has been removed by youtube on my blog. Is it just in France ?
I look at yours, subtitled in english.
Hélios

Apolline said...

Your english subtitled video is not removed. It would be better to record it.
Is it censored by japanese government ?

nika said...

if they remove your videos you should provide links to download from this blog and i would be happy to mirror it on my youtube and also at http://www.fukushima-diary.com if need be

just let me know

Anonymous said...

http://www.47news.jp/CN/201108/CN2011080101000992.html

Is google tranlate off, it's saying 10S/hr at base of cooling stack near #1?

nika said...

see this re: 10 Sv/hr measurement - http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/record-high-radiation-at-japan-nuke-plant/story-e6frf7jx-1226106280508

"TEPCO said radiation levels reached at least 10 sieverts per hour near the debris left between the number one and number two reactors of the plant at the centre of the ongoing nuclear crisis.

The previous record was three to four sieverts per hour monitored inside the number one reactor on June 3.

"Three plant workers were exposed to a dosage of four millisieverts while they were monitoring radiation," a TEPCO spokeswoman said. "We are still checking the cause of such high levels of radioactivity."

Anonymous said...

Robbie001 sez:

@ Nika

If this story is accurate there are few things that are going to be humming with 10 Sv/hr the first thing that comes to mind is raw fuel debris. I wonder if some of the fuel debris they buried early on has been uncovered by activity at the facility or maybe rain has eroded it up? It is possible something was shielded with debris and the slow steady exterior debris clean up finally exposed it. I wonder where the 10 Sv/hr surprises figure into TEPCO's road map to ruin? Probably right behind establishing a 120,000 ton "cooling loop".

I predict in Japan "Cold Shutdown" will equal Cool Enough Shut-up in the future.

nika said...

I would love to see what Gundersen says about this level of radiation - likely is some of that missing spent fuel - i so do not trust news from TEPCO that even that we are hearing of this nightmarish amount of contamination means it could be worse - am still trying to wrap the brain around the mag of this radiation. also need to rethink what a 4 mSv exposure looks like tho it tells us nothing about nature of source and if it was dust = internal uptake

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

I posted 10 sieverts/hr radiation article. It's not even 10 sieverts/hr. The meter went overscale.

nika said...

ahh - so it pegged out at 10 sieverts/hr - nice - fukushima just cant be boring can it - its like the nuclear armageddon olympics

netudiant said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

.. and if the workers only received 4mS, they cleared the area quickly after the meter pegged.

A Labyrinth of Nasties

Tokyo Brown Tabby said...

@Hélios
Prof. Kodama's full-version video has been removed from YouTube. I don't know why. Censor, perhaps. It became too popular.
I've downloaded the English-subtitled version just in case. Thanks for your concern.

Anonymous said...

If food in warehouses could get contaminated from just the air, then everyone in Japan is in big trouble.

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