And Now: Government To Survey Half Of Japan For Soil Contamination

See also:

– Japan Is Only Conducting VOLUNTARY TESTING As Threat to Japanese Food Chain Multiplies, Cesium And Iodine Contamination Found In Milk, Vegetables As Far As 360 Km From Fukushima Nuke Plant

– This Is Outrageous: Japanese Government Killing Its Own People In Fukushima (Video)

– #Radiation in Japan: Government to Survey Half of Japan for Soil Contamination (EX-SKF, July 25, 2011):

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):

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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.

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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.