Sunday, July 17, 2011

#Radioactive Rice Hay Found in Miyagi Prefecture

in three locations in two cities that are150 kilometers north of Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant.

In response to the radioactive rice hay found in Fukushima Prefecture that contained up to 500,000 becquerels/kg of cesium, Miyagi Prefecture did the survey of rice hay in three locations in two cities, Kurihara City and Tome City, north of Sendai City. Maximum 3,600 becquerels/kg of cesium was found in the rice hay, which had been used by the cattle farmers to feed their cows.

Sankei Shinbun (7/15/2011) reported the comment of the cattle farmers:

「大変憤慨している」-。宮城県登米市の肉用牛農家の男性(58)は声を荒らげた。「稲わらは秋に田んぼから収集したものだけを牛に食べさせているが、経 営への打撃は大きい」と話す。「まさかここまで(放射能が)飛んでくるとは夢にも思わなかった。...」

"I am very upset", says a cattle farmer in Tome City in Miyagi Prefecture. "I've been feeding the cows with the rice hay collected from the rice fields last fall. This is a big blow to my farm. I never imagined that the radioactive materials would fly this far. "

The Miyagi prefectural government's instruction to cattle farmers were: "Do not use the rice hay collected after the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident." So, following the instruction, the cattle farmers were feeding their cows with the rice hay collected last fall.

This is the radiation contour map created by Professor Yukio Hayakawa, the volcanologist at Gunma University. Notice the arm that goes north from the Fukushima I Nuke Plant and curl left. Kurihara and Tome are right below the curl. If only someone had shown the map to the cattle farmers there ...


Or if only someone had shown the cattle farmers the radioactive materials dispersion forecast by ZAMG, German Weather Bureau, or Norwegian Weather Bureau early in the accident, they would have seen that Miyagi Prefecture was almost constantly under the radioactive plume from the nuke plant.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, Japanese farmers follow instructions of the Japanese government entities. Officially, there has never been a "problem" with radioactivity outside the 20/30km zone. Hayakawa's map and alternative resources are part of "baseless rumors". Until the attitude towards "facing the music" changes, we will see a lot more of these things. That's the root of the problems now.

Anonymous said...

This map is not tough enough. Why are there no contamination shown in Kanagawa or shizuoka where the tea was contaminated? This map is not good enough to be used to protect sufficiantly againtst conamination. I wonder when it will be completed? The map could also provide a wrong sense of safety, where no contamination is showm, but where contamination did actually occur.

Anonymous said...

The most extreme levels of radiation was found in fresh water fish shortly after the Chernobyl accident.

When the Chernobyl exploded for 25 years ago, Sweden was hit by the radioactive dust. Here is a report written by the Food ministry in Sweden about 10 years after the accident.

http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.slv.se%2Fsv%2Fgrupp1%2FRisker-med-mat%2FRadioaktivitet-och-bestralning%2FRadioaktiva-amnen%2FTio-ar-efter-Tjernobyl%2F&act=url

The google translation is fairly good even if it goes wrong sometimes.

NFA = Food ministry
överskottshö = left over hay
fårkroppar = bodies of sheep
"clean" should sometimes be translated to "raindeer"
"It is particularly clean, freshwater fish, game and mushrooms" =
"It is particularly reindeer, freshwater fish, wild animals and mushrooms"
årsintaget= yearly intake

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