'Citizen scientists' track radiation seven years after Fukushima

I’m sure when the government gets wind of this they will send in their own “experts “ and reassure everyone that they have absolutely nothing to worry about and everything is under control.

Hey if you don’t talk about it doesn’t exist!

:-/

Quite a few of my friends in ibaraki have been measuring radiation since 2001 and their results do not match the government’s. My friends have measured high levels of radiation in north-eastern Tokyo around Kita-Senju, but the government reports all state the fallout was localized and within the 20klm exclusion zone. Another one of my friends measured alarmingly high levels of radiation around his house in Tonegawa, southern Ibaraki, so much so that he sold his house and left japan so his children were not exposed to daily doses of radiation. The government and TEPCO have lied about the fallout since day one and continue to do so.

Aaaargh! Since 2011!

I must be a scientist too.... I measure the outside air temp and humidity on a daily basis.

bonesToday  07:03 am JST

I’m sure when the government gets wind of this they will send in their own “experts “ and reassure everyone that they have absolutely nothing to worry about and everything is under control.

Why would they? Nothing in the article indicates the government has any interest in censoring this project. Do you know of any time in post-war Japanese history the government has censored public information generated by the public? That sounds very totalitarian, and whatever faults the current admin has, it stretches the truth to say they are totalitarians.

SaikoPhyscoToday  08:17 am JST

I must be a scientist too.... I measure the outside air temp and humidity on a daily basis.

If you perform experiments with that data grounded in the scientific process, then yes, yes you are.

I don't trust the safe cast and I don't agree that building your own geiger counter is an accurate measure.

I paid about $2,000 for my geiger counter and I spend a month researching which was the most profesional and most accurate one.

I have a blog and i shared my research regularly until the Japanese government introduced the state Secrets and the state Security Bil and the conspiracy bill.

All my readings contridicted.official ones, but i think most posters can understand why.

Katsu

nothing indicates the government, but do you honestly believe that if more people become aware of the fact that they have been misled by the government they put their faith and trust in to ensure their safety and well-being,and decide to gather in protest or demand explanations that the government would not do everything they can to make it all go away as quickly as possible so they can get back to doing their unscrupulous deeds while pretending to care about the lives of the average citizen?

bonesToday  09:23 am JST

Katsu

nothing indicates the government, but do you honestly believe that if more people become aware of the fact that they have been misled by the government they put their faith and trust in to ensure their safety and well-being,and decide to gather in protest or demand explanations that the government would not do everything they can to make it all go away as quickly as possible 

I bolded the part that seems particularly unlikely to me in a Japanese context.

But even then, no I don't see any reason to think even then that the Japanese government would move to censor private citizens' data. It hasn't happened with other movements that sparked protests in Japan, like for example the US Base relocation protests in Okinawa.

Japan will never change unless people start going to the election.

Only less than 50 % go to vote, and that's the number of people who doubt the gvnt.

Ignorance of young people who only know the word kawaii drives me nuts.

"transparency and being open are very important to create trust." optimistic fellow.

Katsu

So are you suggesting that the Japanese populous are just going to go along with the status quo and are not likely to ruffle any feathers even if there is something that can potentially affect their lives or the lives of their children?

Are you inferring that the people will just take anything the government tells them at face value?

Well if that is the case then, the government would not have to censor anything.

@zichi. Thank you for rembering my past post. Jaoanese usually rember to 3years, so they think fujushima is over.

The reSon i dont trust safecsst is becsuse i did the same reading in the same place. Of course wind, snow,rain,typoons, nuclear tests in NK, venting of reactors for maintanance,Chenobyl, natural occuring radiation, france,usa and britains nuclear accidents, solar flares...etc, all have effects on readings.

But, i stand by my data because it is fact. Ihave no agenda other than my love of planet earth,its people and animals. Just because im a vegetarian doesnt make me a radical.

bonesToday  10:05 am JST

So are you suggesting that the Japanese populous are just going to go along with the status quo and are not likely to ruffle any feathers even if there is something that can potentially affect their lives or the lives of their children?

No, I'm saying exactly what I posted.

Are you inferring that the people will just take anything the government tells them at face value?

No, I'm saying exactly what I posted.

Well what you posted could give the impression that you think the Japanese people are gullible and passive.

To the bemusement of friends and family, he started measuring local radiation levels in 2007, so when the disaster happened, he had baseline data.

Fantastic!

"The readings were so high... 50 times higher than natural radiation," he said of the post-disaster data. "I was amazed... the news was telling us there was nothing, the administration was telling us there was nothing to worry about."

Okano is a hero!

Probably not and even a distance of 50 meters can show every different readings. 

That is true. That is why I mentioned various parameters. But there is ionizing radionuclides existing right here right now. I made the choice to move to Kansai for my life, my partners and childs.

i can’t tell other people to move, just give information. I posted my blog before, but the mod deleted it.

I posted I’m a veggie because I don’t want to sound like some screaming leftie, just to say I don’t have any agenda, but enjoy open truthful discussion.

I’m sure when the government gets wind of this they will send in their own “experts “ and reassure everyone that they have absolutely nothing to worry about and everything is under control.

If someone reads the article they would read:

He says Safecast's data mostly corroborates official measurements

so much so that he sold his house and left japan so his children were not exposed to daily doses of radiation

Radiation is everywhere. Leaving Japan will not stop your children from being exposed. And if they have just been monitoring since 2011, then how do they know their readings are due to Fukushima rather than due to some other cause that was there before they started monitoring?

I checked the Safecast website, the Safecast bGeigie Nano - Mobile Radiation Monitoring Device

is $600 USD! Ouch.

my only concern with this chap who has built a GC, how are they calibrated? who calibrates them? so how do we/he know that they are accurate?

Thyroid anomalies is increasing year by year but it is not known almost socially.

Present Japan's social atmosphere try to avoid to criticize nuclear plants like before 2011.

Voices of unrest about radioactive contamination or radiation disease have been repressed under the name of "Hindrance to the reconstruction" "Discrimination" "Damages to reputation".

Japan's Abe government applied 20 times higher radiation safe limit than other area to the suffered area,declared "Safe".

'Don't trust your government, save yourself'-seems to be a global mantra in such disastrous events, when officials do just anything to save face, and thus betray their citizens..

I remember so many radiation sites set up both by Japanese and foreigners who did not trust the Japanese government. But the government figures were consistently much higher than their figures, so most of the sites from 2011 are gone.

Do you know that on any flight at all radiation is alive. In the space the radiationn levet is even higher than inside a nuclear plant, That´s it.

Thyroid anomalies is increasing year by year but it is not known almost socially.

Almost undoubtedly due to more testing and the tests being able to detect anomalies that would have never shown up before.

There's no conclusive proof about lower levels of radiation on whether it can damage health.

Depends on what you consider conclusive proof. There are areas in Iran and Brazil where background radiation levels are higher even than allowed for a nuclear worker. People have lived in these places for millennia and no adverse affects have been detected in the population.

@zichi. mRI scans in my hospital are less than 1 millisievert. Don’t know your source, but know mine.