Safecast is a global sensor network for collecting and sharing radiation measurements to empower people with data about their environments.

the_STIG

Permanent foreign resident of Japan for over 30 years who is praying for a better future for this country which is also MY home.

Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun newspaper article about Safecast Loftwork event on March 25, 2012

April 4, 2012 11:24 April 4, 2012 11:24 April 4, 2012 11:24
 

Introduction by the translator: The following is an unofficial English translation of the original article in Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun a Japanese newspaper about industrial matters. The Nikkei group also publishes the Nihon Kezai Shimbun which is the major financial newspaper of Japan. Please note that the journalist solely used the term “Senryokei” to describe radiation measurement equipment (which includes geiger counters, but is a wider, more general term). There is no mention in the article about Safecast’s bGeigie system (of which the geiger counter “survey meter” is only a part of the total) continuously recording sets of GPS-coordinates and radiation levels that gets uploaded to the internet “as-is” under a Creative Commons CC0 1.0 license for everyone to observe, download, and use freely without any limitations.

Safecast Survey Meter – Technology and Funds from Outside Sources

“This is our new survey meter”, said Dan Sythe, President of International Medcom in California, presenting a palm-size prototype of a new survey meter. On March 25, 2012 core members of Safecast, an international volunteer group, gathered in Shibuya, Tokyo to celebrate their group’s one year anniversary.

The survey meter measures alpha, beta, gamma rays and can be easily connected to the internet via USB. It has a characteristic design with no sharp edges. The price will be around 50,000 yen and part of each sale will be donated to Safecast.

It will be sold on the Amazon internet site from sometime this summer, and it may make more of the general public participate in radiation measurements to facilitate large scale measurement of the radiation that was dispersed in various places after the nuclear power accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi in March 2011.

Dan Sythe got involved in Safecast through his friend. Several Safecast members got involved in the same way. Safecast started from the online communication of only three individuals. Right after the nuclear power accident Pieter Franken, CTO of Monex Securities Co., Joichi Ito, known for his extensive activities in foreign countries, currently Director of MIT Media Lab, and Sean Bonner, a Los Angeles based entrepreneur, exchanged e-mails and tweets: “What has happened?” “Did you make sure your family is safe?” Their conversation shifted to the subject of radiation and that survey meters to measure radiation were scarce and hard to get hold of. They agreed that they have got to make one by themselves. Continue reading »

  • April 4, 2012 11:24
  • Posted by the_STIG on April 4, 2012 11:24
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Fukushima New Year Cesium Spike

January 7, 2012 09:13 January 7, 2012 09:13 January 7, 2012 09:13
 

The Japanese New Year started with an M7.0 earthquake centered at an island 600km south of Tokyo, but the quake was still strong enough to shake a very widespread area of northern Japan including Fukushima to a Level 4 of the Japanese local intensity scale of 7 levels.

Come January 2, Fukushima Prefecture’s official radiation monitoring system showed an unusual increase in cesium fallout from an ND (not detected) on January 1 to 432MBq/km2 on January 2.

Fukushima Prefecture fallout around January 2, 2012

Fukushima Prefecture fallout around January 2, 2012

Continue reading »

Citizens Group Leader in Kashiwa Radiation Hotspot Quits

October 16, 2011 10:38 October 16, 2011 10:38 October 16, 2011 10:38
 

The leader of a Citizens’ Group to Protect Children from Hotspot Radiation in Kashiwa city, Chiba, decided to suspend its activities. Mrs. Yuki Ohsaku, representative of the group evacuated recently to Kyushu after her two children started nosebleeding and other core members also are considering moving out of Kashiwa city. 10 members have already relocated. (Above video of Interview with Mrs. Ohsaku on the radio)

In May the Kashiwa mayor wrote in his blog that those worried about the effects of radiation have some kind of mental problems. Kashiwa city originally had no plan to conduct any survey after citizens reported high radiation levels. Mrs. Ohsaku’s group collected over 10,000 signatures and submitted the petition to the City Council with 100 members, and this made the Kashiwa city start measuring radiation levels in schools and do decontamination work. Continue reading »

Safecasting Seoul, Korea & Hong Kong, China

October 14, 2011 07:09 October 14, 2011 07:09 October 14, 2011 07:09
 

Is the radiation level in Japan higher, equal, or lower than in neighbouring countries to Japan that did not (yet) experience a Nuclear Disaster?

I decided to find out, so I packed a bGeigie in my check-in luggage when leaving on a business trip to Seoul, Korea, and Hong Kong, China. After arriving at Incheon airport in the evening of September 23, I immediately asked my Korean business partner, that picked me up in his car, if it would be all right to mount the bGeigie on the rear window of his car. Surprised, but complying, we soon drove the 1 1/2 hour trip from Incheon to Dongdaemun in the centre of Seoul.

As you can see from the Safecasting Map, leaving Incheon Airport we soon hit a high of 99CPM / 0.283uSv/h, while in the centre of Seoul we saw a more comfortable 40CPM / 0.114uSv/h to 50CPM / 0.253uSv. The Incheon levels are only a bit below the levels we see near the hotspot in Chiba, while the downtown Seoul levels are similar to the levels we measure in central Tokyo. On average the levels in Seoul could even be considered a bit higher than the average levels of Tokyo. But there is no significant difference. So is it safe to visit Seoul considering radiation?

I also took a couple of 1meter air measurements with the Inspector while walking around streets in the centre of Seoul, and found typical readings of 0.14uSv/h – 0.15uSV/h.

Around mid day of September 26 I arrived in sunny Hong Kong. Since no one was scheduled to pick me up, I went to the taxi stand and asked the kind driver if it would be OK to mount my bGeigie on the window of the taxi on my ride to Central, Hong Kong? Interestingly, despite of the past Great Britain Connection, many taxi drivers in Hong Kong only speaks basic, rudimentary English, but a big smile goes a long way :-) I have included a couple of photos to illustrate how the bGeigie was comfortable riding on the outside of the taxi window. Yes, the bGeigie just works! No problems locking on to GPS satellites.

After leaving Hong Kong International Airport we soon picked up 93CPM / 0.266uSv/h, but had ups and downs on the way in towards Central. The surprising thing was that the peak value I saw of 104CPM / 0.297uSv/h happened as we drove through Central. Later I experienced that the Inspector ticket away at a highish 100CPM while on the night stand in my hotel room! So naturally I took it out for a walk in the Harbour area where I would get readings of up to 124CPM near the soil (5cm), and 0.32uSv/h at one meter.

So this confirmed what I already had heard about Hong Kong: that the general radiation level here is highish, and actually beyond the Tokyo average even after Fukushima!

So, now it is time to ask which is safer of Hong Kong, Seoul, and Tokyo based on the data available? Safecast stands for MEASURING RADIATION & OPEN SOURCE SHARING of those measurements on an “as is” basis.

How safe you are, and how safe you want to be, is up to yourself to decide based on the raw data available.

Excessive Radiation Exposure to Tokyo Population on March 15

October 12, 2011 16:03 October 12, 2011 16:03 October 12, 2011 16:03
  
Kyoto University Radiation Researcher Hiroaki Koide's table of radiation exposure in Tokyo on March 15

Shinzo Kimura was a scientist with the Research Institute under the Japanese Ministry 
of Health and Welfare, and he did a survey on the health effects on the citizens of 
Narodichi, Russia after the Chernobyl accident. Right after 3-11 the 
Ministry pressured him not to publish any of his data and not to provide any 
information to the public. He quit in protest. As his wife is a medical doctor, they 
decided to stay in Tokyo. On March 15 he called several friends living in Tokyo 
with small children and told them to stay indoors to avoid radiation. Then 
he took air samples and sent them to Kyoto University Nuclear Researcher Hiroaki Koide for 
analysis. Later he left for Fukushima to do additional radiation 
measurements.

Here is a link to an NHK Special program in English language featuring Shinzo Kimura’s work

Koide analysed the data that he had received from Kimura but was told by Kyoto University 
 (a Japanese national university) not to make it public, according to his testimony at 
the administrative committee meeting of the House of Councillors held on May 
23. The data was published for the first time in this meeting which was aired on the 
internet, but amid information clampdown by the Government, the printed 
press and TV didn’t report it. Continue reading »

Who is in charge of decontamination?

September 9, 2011 09:10 September 9, 2011 09:10 September 9, 2011 09:10
 

Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) is the largest (Government affiliated) research organisation in Japan with over 4000 employees. They played a major role in promoting nuclear power, especially fast breeder reactors. On September 5 Professor Kaneko of Keio University mentioned in his tweets a conversation he had with his friend, Professor Kodama of Tokyo University who is organizing decontamination in Minami-Soma city. They went to school together when they were thirteen.

Professor Kodama complained a lot about seeing too many of JAEA people getting involved with the Nuclear Emergency Response Force in Fukushima and its decontamination projects. He says they don’t know anything about decontamination. One of them even suggested at the decontamination symposium in Minami-Soma on September 3 that mixing the soil surface with the soil underneath to reduce the radiation level below the permissible limit and pretending that decontamination has been done. Continue reading »

  • September 9, 2011 09:10
  • Posted by the_STIG on September 9, 2011 09:10
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Safecasting Mount Fuji

September 4, 2011 15:21 September 4, 2011 15:21 September 4, 2011 15:21
 

From August 25 through 28 I made a family vacation by car circling Mount Fuji staying at pensions by the Fuji 5 lakes and in the Hakone-area, basically locations in a circle around Mount Fuji.

From the start from my home near Shimo-Kitazawa in Setagaya, Tokyo I mounted a Safecast bGeigie equipped with a MedCom Inspector, GPS-equipment and SD-card based recording facility. In other words this model does not require a separate PC, and it is very automated in its operation (except that you must remove the SD-card and move the files over a computer and send them as an attachment to Safecast).

Continue reading »

Japan Government monitoring of Twitter and personal blogs

July 21, 2011 10:43 July 21, 2011 10:43 July 21, 2011 10:43
 

Since March 11, 2011 it has been frequently reported that YouTube videos containing footage or comments unfavorable to Tepco or the Japanese government have been removed within several hours of their posting. Examples of offending YouTube videos include excerpts of TV shows with controversial comments, footage showing smoke emitted from the nuclear reactors, an ex-Tepco employee speaking on his Fukushima experiences etc. Continue reading »