All rice grown in Fukushima pass radiation safety checks for first time

[FBaggins]

All bags of rice harvested in Fukushima Prefecture in 2014 submitted for testing met the national standards for radiation, marking the first time that all bags fell within acceptable levels since the checks began in 2012. Testing for radiation got under way after the March 2011 accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

In 2014, an estimated 10.75 million bags of rice were tested, and all were found to have less radiation than the national standard of 100 becquerels per kilogram.

The Fukushima prefectural government began testing all rice grown in the prefecture in 2012 after purchasing about 190 testing devices to be used throughout the prefecture.

In past testing, about 10 million bags of rice were checked annually. In 2012, 71 bags were found to exceed the safety standards, while in 2013, 28 bags were over the standard.

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201501030034

[hunter]

1. I'm guessing it's less harmful at this point than the arsenic in some U.S.A. rice?

Oh dear...

[NutmegYankee]

2. Arsenic is common in rice all around the world.

The plant just takes it in better than other grains.

http://discovermagazine.com/2013/oct/13-food-at-risk

[hunter]

6. Fallout of coal power plants, arsenic based pesticides, and geological arsenic "sweet" waters.

A toxin is a toxin is a toxin.

Doesn't matter where it comes from.

So far fossil fuel power is well ahead of nuclear power on the Grim Reaper's scorecard.

[RobertEarl]

13. Wrong again

It is amazing how often you are..... but when it comes to radiation, there you are.

Not only are the chemicals that come from nukes toxins, but those manmade chemicals radiate particles which mess with your cells.

Surely you must ask yourself why is it they don't test rice for coal emissions. Why is there no place where people had to leave their homes forever when a coal plant blew up?

100 becquerels is a lot of radiation. And it bio-accumulates for a long time because some of it radiates particles for 30 years. What they sampled is just an instant in time.

Your continued discounting of the nuclear pollution, hunter, is anti-scientific and baseless.

[NutmegYankee]

18. Uh no.

Coal is composed of several millions of years of dead plant material all concentrated into a rock. Every heavy metal, including radioactive ones with long half lives, that were taken up by the plant when alive is now in the coal. And when burned, it's now in the air to rain down on everything in the path.

Oh and 100 becquerels isn't a lot of radiation. Becquerels are a very small unit. Perhaps you were thinking of Sieverts? Also, the cesium has a half life of 30 years, meaning that half of it will have decayed in 30 years. But the radiation level will be highest now. It's Math. It's an exponential decay equation.

[caraher]

26. I can pretty much guarantee he wasn't thinking of Sieverts

Robert Earl has very... interesting... scientific ideas. Like tornadoes are basically falling water and Fukushima has made a significant contribution to heating the Pacific Ocean.

You could keep yourself busy for a very, very long time correcting Robert Earl's posts, to far less effect than 100 Bq of Cs-137 would have on your lifetime radiation exposure...

[zappaman]

28. You left out the Dolphins in the Atlantic who have been irradiated by Fukushima.

[Logical]

35. I thought all the Dolphins were supposed to be dead by now. Nt

[jeff47]

53. Well, all life in the Northern hemisphere was supposed to be wiped out 2 years ago. (nt)

[LeftyMom]

54. Probably because they ate the time-traveling nuclear sea stars. nt

[RobertEarl]

29. And I've given up on you

It should be quite evident why. You have an obsession that just won't leave you. I guess I'll have to start paying rent for the space I occupy in your head?

You have not offered any sound science in all these years. Now's your chance, caraher.....

[zappaman]

31. I wouldn't waste my time if I were you.

No one takes that poster seriously.

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/doomsday-preppers/videos/prepper-profile-robert-earl/

[progressoid]

60. Uhmmm...

Is that the same person?

[QuestionableC]

82. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[NCTraveler]

106. Is that really RE? The one at DU? nt.

[NuclearDem]

40. I'm 100% positive Robert just slipped MIRT's net.

It was cute at first, but it's pretty obvious now.

[zappaman]

41. Yeah.

Some are good.

[FBaggins]

42. Aw come on...

Even MIRT deserves a good belly laugh now and then.

[NutmegYankee]

49. I know.

We've had some "chats" before on the board. But I'm still trying to be polite.

[jeff47]

50. Don't forget that the radiation can travel back in time

to kill starfish before the plant exploded.

[LanternWaste]

111. I was willing to give the little fella the benefit of a doubt, but with the links you've posted...

OK... I was willing to give the little fella the benefit of a doubt, but with the links you've posted he made, I'm compelled to go with somewhat under-educated and over-inflated.

"The tornado 'tube' is full of water falling from the clouds."

[RobertEarl]

27. One bag of rice is ok, then

Eat two bags, you may be over the 'safe' limit. Three bags? Four? A hundred in a year? You see where this is going?

The good news is that Japan is learning how to manage the contamination. But resolving the contamination is a whole 'nuther field. What about what's in the water? The air? Other foods, like fish?

Radiation bio-accumulates. But you know that. So why do you dismiss it? What is your reasoning for wanting people to ignore the contamination?

[Ptah]

33. If someone eats a hundred bags of rice in a year? That's a lot of rice!

[Bonobo]

68. Three of those bags would be sufficient for one year. nt

[FBaggins]

69. Heck... two of them lasts my family of six for at least a year

but it hardly matters.

When governments set allowable contamination levels for something like rice, they base the number on the assumption that a person eats it every meal every day for years. And even with those assumptions, Japan originally had allowable levels in rice set much higher (1,000 Bq/kg) and dramatically lowered it for Fukushima just to ease public concern.

Of course it had the opposite effect. Causing some people (as you can see on threads like this) to falsely assume that anything above 100 is somehow dangerous.

[Bonobo]

70. The allowable amount for 1 kg of vegetables is 2,000 becquerels FYI. nt

[Art_from_Ark]

79. I'm sure the average Japanese family eats much more rice than yours does

I know a Japanese woman who has a family of 6 who go through a 5kg bag of rice in less than a week. That's more than 250kg-- 550 pounds-- in a year.

Just about any Japanese family, especially one with teenagers, is going to consume a lot of rice.

[FBaggins]

95. Oh.. no question

I know a Japanese woman who has a family of 6 who go through a 5kg bag of rice in less than a week. That's more than 250kg-- 550 pounds-- in a year.

That's just about spot-on for the reported average consumption of rice that they used in their dose estimates (a bit over 50kg/yr/person). And if that seems like quite a bit to readers here in the states... it's actually down by more than half in my liftime.

Either way though... the point is the same. When they set the testing threshold, it was based on a calculation that assumed that the person obtained all of their rice for the year from sources at that same contamination level.

[NutmegYankee]

48. The biological half-life of Cesium 137 is 70 days.

So, every 70 days you will have eliminated half of the cesium you ingested. The body excretes salts in sweat and urine, and Cesium will be treated like potassium. See post #9 for a discussion in how contamination is addressed.

[newfie11]

65. Nope it's half life is 30 years nt

[NuclearDem]

66. Biological half life is not the same thing as general half life.

[NutmegYankee]

71. BIOLOGICAL half life is 70 days.

Definition:
Biology - The time required for one half of the total amount of a particular substance in a biological system to be degraded by biological processes when the rate of removal is nearly exponential
Nuclear physics - The length of time required for one half of a radioactive substance to be biologically eliminated from the body

[newfie11]

75. Pffff

Believe what u want.

[NuclearDem]

84. No, that's how physics and biology work.

If you don't acknowledge that, you have absolutely zero fucking business discussing the issue.

Goddamn it.

[QuestionableC]

85. Yeah!! Screw that guy for using science and logic and shit!

[newfie11]

99. im sorry to upset you life with rice

Eat up and enjoy. When you wonder where that cancer came from, think hard!

[NutmegYankee]

90. How could you be a former medical industry worker (radiographer) and not know/accept that?

That is high school biology.

[newfie11]

97. Sorry but xraying rice is not in my profession

Human biology and radiation effects are not exactly the same as effects on rice.

[FBaggins]

100. You would have been better off not responding

Deleting the prior post would have been even better still.

Your error has nothing to do with the rice. It was confusing a physical half-life with a biological half-life.

You clearly lacked a clue re: what was discussed.

[newfie11]

101. I already told u what the half life of cesium 137 is

Now if u would like to direct me to scientific proof that it is not still 30 years in the dirt that rice is growing in please do.

Btw you are aware Chernobyl is still off limits due to cesium 137. Now explain to this ignorant radiation worker please why that is.
Let's see could it be because everything around it was contaminated and still is.
But wait, why is it the rice in Japan grown in cesium 137 contaminated area is now miraculously free of radiation.

[NuclearDem]

103. So full of wrong.

Now if u would like to direct me to scientific proof that it is not still 30 years in the dirt that rice is growing in please do.

The discussion was about the biological half life of cesium in the human body, which is not thirty years.

But wait, why is it the rice in Japan grown in cesium 137 contaminated area is now miraculously free of radiation.

Strawman of the highest order. Nobody has said the rice is free of radiation, just that the levels are safe for human consumption.

[FBaggins]

104. And that was your error

The conversation didn't have anything to do with the half-life of cesium.

It was RobertEarl's (frequently repeated) ignorance re: how bio-accumlation works. NutmegYankee corrected his misunderstanding to teach him that cesium does not just add up in the body, it is also removed from the body over time. You jumped in inexplicably (thinking you were correcting NY) with an irrelevant comment.

Now if u would like to direct me to scientific proof that it is not still 30 years in the dirt that rice is growing in please do.

Nobody said that it wasn't. They corrected you that it had anything at all to do with the conversation.

Btw you are aware Chernobyl is still off limits due to cesium 137. Now explain to this ignorant radiation worker please why that is.

It isn't just the Cs137, but that doesn't matter. The "ignorance" you're exhibiting here is that you ignore that amounts matter. It's the reason that your patient gets only a lead apron while you get behind a shield wall. Because you're in the lab for thousands of xrays to their one.

But wait, why is it the rice in Japan grown in cesium 137 contaminated area is now miraculously free of radiation.

Pretty simple, really. There isn't much cesium in the air... it fell onto the soil and plants. So the plants that were growing at the time (the 2011 crop) were comparatively heavily contaminated. Crops grown since then aren't getting new fallout and rice grain absorb little to no cesium from the soil they grow in. There wasn't anything "miraculous" ivolved. 99.999+% of the crop has been well below the threshold from the time the first fresh crop was planted post-2011.

[newfie11]

102. Maybe you need to study higher than HS biology class

[FBaggins]

105. Again... you're making a fool of yourself

The biological half-life of cesium in humans is about 70 days. The physical half-life isn't relevant to the conversation.

[NutmegYankee]

112. What that statement means is anyone who graduated high school should know that.

That you didn't know it doesn't reflect well. The doubling down doesn't do you any good. You were wrong and anyone reading knows that. Hell, the post you replied to even went into discussions on how the body purges salts. Cesium is an alkali metal, like lithium, sodium, and potassium. It will form a salt and get excreted like one. After 70 days, half of whatever was taken in on day one will have been excreted, usually by urine and sweat.

Notice that is completely different than the decay of Cesium 137 itself, which has a half life of 30 years.

[snooper2]

67. All the fish are dead already, remember, you told us this

keep it straight!

[NuclearDem]

34. "It is amazing how often you are..... but when it comes to radiation, there you are."

Oh the irony.

[FBaggins]

45. "100 becquerels is a lot of radiation."

Sigh... you're just irreparably gone round the bend on such things, aren't you RE?

It's hilarious how often you start statements with "the science says" that bear no relationship at all to actual science (or even reality)

No... 100 Bq is not a lot of radiation at all. Your body alone is somewhere between 50-100 times that level right now. In fact, there are perfectly normal foods (brazil nuts for instance) that are over 100 Bq/kg already.

Any idea how radioactive the stuff they use for radiation therapy is (you know... the stuff that saves lives every day in hospitals around the world)?

100,000,000,000,000 Bq

Ever seen a self-illuminating exit sign?

Did you know that there's one to two trillion Bq in there?

How about those old watch dials with the glowing hands? Care to guess?

[FBaggins]

8. Probably was all along

[SidDithers]

3. But Arne Gunderson said we'd have to evacuate the Northern Hemisphere...

or some such other hyperbolic nonsense.

Surely, the sainted Arne Gunderson wasn't wrong.



Sid

[RobertEarl]

14. He's been more Truthful than the nuke industry

Your anti-science stance on this matter is fascinating.

Your discarding the science about nuclear pollution and only attacking the independent scientists who bring the truth, while giving a huge pass to the polluting and lying industry, is weird.

[hobbit709]

16. I'll believe you actually know something about science when you give up on the time traveling

radiation.

And a rock would be more truthful than the industry but that doesn't make him factual.

[RobertEarl]

20. You, again?

What is it with your obsession?

You have no comments about radiation, so your comments have nothing to do with science. All you have is your obsession.

The sea stars are still dying, the sea life off the coast of California is dying all the biologists are wondering what is happening. Well, cesium and other chemicals from Fukushima is what is happening. If you have ANY evidence to the contrary, get over your obsession and post a link.

[zappaman]

21. Wow.

You still are flogging your starfish killing, time traveling, Atlantic dolphin hurting, all West coast of US irradiated radiation?

[hobbit709]

23. Look in the mirror before you make those accusations.

And your obsession with radiation killing the starfish has been refuted more than once.

And I know a bit more about radiation than you do. I've been exposed to both ionizing and particle radiation-one of the reasons I got away from that field of engineering physics.

[RobertEarl]

24. So, no links?

The idea that radiation is killing the sea stars has not been refuted. Not by any science based evidence. In fact, the science says radiation can kill sea stars.

So, your still with the obsession? Interesting that you got out of the field because you know what radiation can do. Unfortunately the sea life can't do the same. But what do you care, eh?

[jeff47]

56. Well, I gave you links more than a year ago, and you still spout the same nonsense

Really makes it clear that there's no need to provide links - you'll just ignore them.

[newfie11]

4. I would take this with a grain of rice

I'm sorry but I don't believe it.

[NutmegYankee]

9. It's doable. Cesium is taken in like potassium.

Use of a high potassium containing fertilizer will prevent the rice from absorbing a lot of cesium. Over time the cesium washes out of the upper layers of the soil (same reason we need fertilizers in the first place) and between dilution and high potassium fertilizer the rice grown won't have much radioactivity. The 100 becquerel/kilogram limit is very low. The average person contains 4400 becquerels from their potassium content in the blood alone.

[hunter]

30. It's not black and white...

... what would you rather eat? Very slightly radioactive rice from the Fukushima district, or a similarly toxic but less radioactive rice from somewhere else? Possibly even rice grown by slaves.

California brown rice is a significant food source of mine, but even that choice is a minefield of the bad vs. the very bad. It's ethical juggling.

People need to eat. My own food budget has some limitations. Still, there are foods I'm affluent enough to mostly avoid. I'll pass on unsustainable seafood caught and processed by slaves and contaminated with mercury from coal fired power plants.

It's easy not to "believe it," but the actual situation of Fukushima fallout is much more complicated than you imply. If you don't trust the authorities then I suppose you could buy whatever equipment you need and acquire the expertise to make the measurements yourself. Modern Japan is not the sort of society where the authorities euphemistically "disappear" peaceful whistleblowers, dissidents and oddballs. Similar to the U.S.A., being a troublemaker in Japan only makes you less employable. So far as I can discern from the internet (I've never been to Japan myself) there are survivable niches in Japan for semi-employable eccentrics such as myself, just as it is here in the U.S.A..

[newfie11]

63. Is this the same authorities that told parents there was no danger for their children

The authorities that told drs not to report all the bloody noses that occurred in children. The increased leukemia levels.
I'm very familiar with damages of radiation. I lived in Ambrosia Lake NM (the uranium capitol of the world). I've held pitchblend in my hand and I've seen uranium mine trailing blown from huge piles through atlas fences. This of course was to keep people out, not uranium in. Look at the health problems left for the Navajos.
My entire family has no working thyroid and my dad, who was an electrician wiring the mines, died of cancer at 56.
No I don't believe anything said about radiation levels by any government.
Take a look around the history of Hanford.
I've also been a reg radiographer for 43 years. I've had enough radiation & will avoid what I can. Rice from Japan is just one more thing.

[stevenleser]

72. You could buy some of the rice and a geiger counter and test for yourself.

They have geiger counters on ebay as low as $35.

[Brother Buzz]

78. Testing food in Japan practically turned into a cottage industry

This PBS clip is almost two years old. Yet even back then, the results were surprisingly pleasant and dispelled a lot of the fears consumers had.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/science-jan-june12-fukushimapt3_03-13/

[stevenleser]

96. Which is exactly the right answer if you have any concerns

if you feel you can't trust the government, take steps.

[Brother Buzz]

107. "Trust, but verify" doesn't mean squat if you have an agenda and manipulate science

"Stated to me for a fact. I only tell it as I got it. I am willing to believe it. I can believe anything" - Mark Twain

[stevenleser]

108. Rense radio has a David Duke's radio show and a Stormfront radio show. Not a good source. nt

[Brother Buzz]

109. Try telling that to the 'Visqueen and duck tape' crowd that bought into this hokum wholesale

I'll reiterate Samuel Clemens' words:

"Stated to me for a fact. I only tell it as I got it. I am willing to believe it. I can believe anything"

[stevenleser]

110. Ah, I get where you are coming from now. Exactly.

The conspiracy types irritate me because they like to wallow in these theories instead of, in many cases not all, going and taking some action to confirm or disprove their paranoia.

[shenmue]

5. Wow!

A good step.

[brentspeak]

7. All DU'ers: Send your Fukushima rice to FBaggins

"FBaggins" is the Nuclear Industry's anonymous representative for DemocraticUnderground.

If FBaggins identifies himself on a Youtube video while eating some Fukushima-confirmed rice, then maybe I'll consider it safe.

Otherwise...

[Bonobo]

12. Why attack the OP? There is a ink to a reputable newspaper.

If you are saying that the newspaper is lying or that the tests were faked, then maybe you should say that instead of attacking the OP.

I cannot understand the reaction to good news in this way. It is almost as if people don't want Japan to recover because it might undermine their arguments against nuclear power.

I am sure you can see how silly that would be. Right?

[RobertEarl]

15. Correction

We wished it had never happened, this pollution of Japan. So please just stop with the BS about we "... don't want Japan to recover..."

The science says that what happened at Fukushima is deadly around the world. And since there are another 400 or so nuke plants that could go Fukushima any minute, we are all in peril. That's why we want the Truth about Fukushima and why we want nukes closed: NOW.

After all, the biggest liars through this whole matter has been the industry. That's who we are attacking. Not what you are spewing about how we "...don't want Japan to recover...." Please,, just stop that crapola, K?

[Bonobo]

17. And yet when good news comes out, scientifically verifiable studies...

Studies based on not one bag of rice, but thousands of tons of rice, then you say "Nah, it couldn't be true" and attack the OP.

You SAY you want Japan to recover, and yet there is that ugly little reaction that goes on whenever heartening news comes out.

Crapola? I don't think so. Why do you have to treat any heartening news as a personal attack on your dogma? Why?

[zappaman]

19. It's weird, ain't it?

I think some people are so invested in the bullshit of Fukushima killing starfish, irradiating the entire west coast of the US, and even reaching dolphins in the Atlantic, that they hate good news cuz it shows their delusions for what they really are.

[rpannier]

80. Yeah it'sweird

- Weird that the Japanese Government tacked on negative reporting of Fukushima as a violation of state's secret
- Weird that despite denials that the radioactive water has been leaking into the Pacific Ocean in 2013 Shunichi Tanaka, head of Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority, has told reporters that it’s probably been happening since an earthquake and tsunami touched off the disaster in March 2011.
-Weird that TEPCO admitted in 2013 that it's leak had reached 310 becquerels per liter for cesium-134 and 650 becquerels per liter for cesium-137. WHO sets a safe standard at 10 becquerels per liter.
- Weird that Jota Kanda, an oceanographer at Toyko University of Marine Science and Technology, who has been studying the leak estimated that the plant is still leaking (Nov 2014) 0.3 terabecquerels of cesium-137 per month and a similar amount of cesium-134 per month.

[RobertEarl]

93. Still leaking and will continue

The cores are either in the basements or in the ground. The water they are dumping on the cores to keep them cool flows past the melted cores (corium) and it picks up corium particles and carries those particles into the Pacific.

When the event first happened, the cores were releasing into the air, and that's what was being found in the rice. Now that the cores have consolidated and are being covered with water, air emissions have been greatly controlled.

That means less it being deposited on the rice fields. But what is escaping is going into the ocean, and ocean currents are carrying that contamination across the Pacific.

[RobertEarl]

22. Why?

The fucking radiation from nuclear power plants is the deadliest shit man ever made. That's why.

And you should stop putting quotes around your made up sentences and attributing those quotes to me. But then doing so is par for the course for pro-nukers, eh?

What is a shame is that Japan has to even worry about radiation. Do you even care for the poor people of Japan and what they are going through? I do.

[zappaman]

25. Since the poster you are insulting actually lives in Japan

While you live in fantasy land, I'd say yes.
Yes he does care more than you.

[Bonobo]

43. I wish you had given him a little more rope...

It was starting to get seriously hilarious.

[FBaggins]

46. Oh... don't worry. He provides his own rope.

He was booted from E/E for uncivil behavior, but he was not allowed back in because the anti-nukes felt that he was so far around that bend that he made the rest of the anti-nukes on DU look bad.

Frankly... I don't think they believed that it wasn't on purpose. "sock puppet" was mentioned more than once.

[zappaman]

55. BeFree to think that! n/t

[FBaggins]

47. The radiation is the "deadliest shit man ever made"?

The amazing thing is how few (i.e., zero) people the Fukushima radiation has killed so far.

Oh wait... I forgot the time-traveling bit. I guess we know what killed the dinosaurs, eh?

[Katashi_itto]

59. I thought it was Republicans.

[proverbialwisdom]

61. Miss this?

http://www.stripes.com/news/judge-sailors-class-action-suit-can-proceed-over-alleged-radiation-exposure-1.311088

Judge: Sailors' class-action suit can proceed over alleged radiation exposure

By Matthew M. Burke
Stars and Stripes
Published: October 30, 2014

A U.S. federal judge has ruled that a class-action lawsuit filed by about 200 Navy sailors and Marines can proceed against Japanese utility TEPCO and other defendants who they blame for a variety of ailments from radiation exposure following a nuclear reactor meltdown 3½ years ago.

In a decision released Tuesday, Southern District of California Judge Janis Sammartino ruled that the suit can be amended to add the builders of the Fukushima-Daichi Nuclear Power Plant reactors — General Electric, EBASCO, Toshiba and Hitachi — as defendants.

<>

MORE:

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/aug/20/us-navy-sailors-legal-challenge-fukushima-radiation-tepco
http://spoonsenergymatters.wordpress.com/?s=Operation+Tomodachi

[FBaggins]

62. Not at all... Why?

You don't think they actually have a chance of winning, do you?

[jeff47]

51. Um, no. The deadliest shit man ever made is botulism toxin.

It's LD50 is lower than any other material - 1.3–2.1 ng/kg. (LD50 is the amount required to kill 50% of the people given the material)

The LD50 of Vx nerve gas is 10 mg/kg. Or to keep the units the same, 10,000,000 ng/kg.

The LD50 of Cesium is much, much higher - 2.3 g/kg. Or to keep the units the same, 2,300,000,000 ng/kg.

We don't know what the LD50 of Uranium in humans is, but from mice and accidental exposure cases it appears to be about 1g/kg. Or 1,000,000,000 ng/kg.

And if you don't like wrinkles, you can get botulism toxin injected into your face.

[Katashi_itto]

57. Personally I hope it goes well. I would like to retire in Japan.

[rpannier]

77. Considering the lengths the Japanese government has gone to prevent any bad news

about the Fukushima reactor to be published it's certainly not unwarranted to question anything they say.
Given that the government has tacked on a provision to a security bill that makes it a crime to report anything negative, it should be a cause for concern.
I live fairly close to Japan (Korea) and travel a lot to Japan for business.
I am skeptical because the Japanese Government has done nothing to be entitled to the benefit of the doubt

[FBaggins]

92. You don't realize that what you just said was entirely false... do you?

(apart from where you live and how you feel about things presumably)

There is no provision in any Japanese law that makes it a crime to report anything negative about Fukushima. It a frequently repeated internet conspiracy theory... but there's no truth to it.

Heck... they report negative things about Fukushima all the time.

[Art_from_Ark]

81. You don't have to fake the results to get the results you want

One has to remember that Fukushima Prefecture is as large as Connecticut, and that only a relatively small part (~250 square miles) is still deemed unfit for human habitation. The worst radiation follows a pretty discernable pattern of trending toward the northwest of the reactors, with scattered hot spots remaining around that. Basically, all you have to do is identify the areas that have produced the rice with the highest levels of radiation, then probihit rice farming in those areas, and eventually you will only get rice that passes the radiation tests.

[Bonobo]

83. Another way to put that is:

Tell farmers in radioactive areas (perhaps soil measurements determined this) that they cannot harvest and sell rice if they do not look like they will pass the required levels of radioactivity. Then, since they are not producing rice, their rice is not included. A rather simple explanation requiring no ill will and one which demonstrates safety above else.

So... they did the right thing and it is seen as an evil conspiracy?

[Art_from_Ark]

86. I wouldn't call it an evil conspiracy

But I would like to know more about exactly where the rice was grown.

For example, Western Fukushima has always had much lower radiation levels than Eastern Fukushima due to, among other things, prevailing wind patterns, and even the area to the immediate south of Fukushima Dai-ichi, Iwaki City, has consistently had lower radiation levels than areas just a tiny bit farther to the north, like Tomioka. So this news doesn't really prove anything if they merely prohibited rice cultivation in areas that had previously had the highest radiation levels.

[Bonobo]

87. Why do you assume it is supposed to "prove" anything? That is the spin being added here.

Each province is clearly responsible for assuring that their rice is safe for the market. Fukushima is the province in question (for those other than Art who aren't familiar) and they have one their job here. They kept dangerous rice off the market and assured the safety of the Fukushima rice on the market. What is the problem? Other than the spin being debated here, I mean.

[Art_from_Ark]

88. I think that in this particular forum, it's being spun as if everything is OK in Fukushima

"See? All Fukushima rice is OK! No problem in Fukushima!"

My point is, there is probably more to this story. Of course, it's a good thing to keep potentially unsafe rice off the market. But I think that the story is being misinterpreted here (in this forum) as meaning that there are no more radiation problems in Fukushima, which is not the case.

And I think there is still a lot of mistrust, at least in this part of Japan, about official pronouncements about Fukushima farm products. I doubt that people around here are going to rush out and buy Fukushima rice, even if it is heavily discounted. In fact, almost all the rice that I see discounted in stores around here is "Koshihikari blend" rice from (in small print) "Aomori, Iwate and/or Fukushima prefectures". I got a 5kg bag of "blend rice" for 900 yen the other day, which you have to admit is pretty cheap, especially for Koshihikari, and yet, when I went back to the same store a week later, it seemed like they had sold hardly any of the remaining bags.

[Bonobo]

89. Incredibly cheap.

But yes, I agree. This forum wants everything to fit into a small packaged container where they can apply their simple dogma that is either positive/negative to any particular "story". Pro-pitbull/anti-pitbull, pro-circumcision/anti-circumcision, pro-police/anti-police, etc.

In this case, someone culled the internet for the term "fukushima", posted it and it became fodder for the same tired dualistic, simplified thinking that everything else does here.

"Oh, you don't condemn the news that Fukushima rice all passed the test for radioactivity?"
"Oh, you don't agree the government is lying again!?"

"You MUST be pro-nuclear!! Why do you hate the next generation so much that you want to condemn them to death!?, etc."

[FBaggins]

91. One problem with that

If farmers grow rice and it ends up testing above the limits... the government buys the rice and destroys it (the farmer still gets paid). If the farmer doesn't grow any rice... he doesn't get anything.

So why would that happen?

[Art_from_Ark]

94. You are making some unbased assumptions

First, farmers who have stayed in the "hinan shiji kuiki" (areas where it was determined that evacuation may be necessary just outside of the 20km exclusion zone) do receive compensation ("baishou&quot for lost rice production ("gentan&quot . Other farmers are planting alternative crops in former rice fields ("tensaku&quot . And why would the government keep paying farmers to produce rice that keeps having to be destroyed? If the rice produced in those areas is consistently unacceptable, it would make more sense for the government just to compensate those farmers for lost production, rather than always destroying rice that took many inputs of time, labor, water, fuel and fertilizer to produce.

[FBaggins]

98. Not really.

why would the government keep paying farmers to produce rice that keeps having to be destroyed?

Because almost none of it has had to be destroyed. Most people think this report is something new, but it's really barely changed over the last couple years. These results aren't really all that substantially different from 2012 or 2013.

In all three years (12-14), an average of 10-12 million bags were produced and tested. I'm going by memory, but it was something like 75 bags that exceeded the 100 bq/kg limit in 2012... and a couple dozen last year. There's no point in paying farmers not to grow ric when 99.999% of the rice has been fine.

The 2011 crop saw quite a bit of contamination (because that rice was in the field when Fukushima blew), but that hasn't been the case since then.

[pa28]

36. Having him live in the red zone while he's at it would be a worthwhile cultural exchange.

He can also dine on Fukushima free range beef. Filet mignon!

[L0oniX]

10. Land for sale real cheap in Hanford too. Street lighting not needed.

[olddots]

11. a glowing reveiw

[RobertEarl]

32. Some background on nuclear radiation from an expert

Adm.Hyman Rickover, the Father of the Nuclear Navy and of Shippensport nuclear reactor. In the twilight of his career, he testified before Congress in January 1982. Below is an excerpt from his testimony. Given who this man was and what he did, his statements were profound.

Here’s an excerpt from Rickover’s testimony:
[/i
“I’ll be philosophical. Until about two billion years ago, it was impossible to have any life on earth; that is, there was so much radiation on earth you couldn’t have any life — fish or anything. Gradually, about two billion years ago, the amount of radiation on this planet and probably in the entire system reduced and made it possible for some form of life to begin…

Now when we go back to using nuclear power, we are creating something which nature tried to destroy to make life possible… Every time you produce radiation, you produce something that has a certain half-life, in some cases for billions of years.

I think the human race is going to wreck itself, and it is important that we get control of this horrible force and try to eliminate it… I do not believe that nuclear power is worth it if it creates radiation.

Then you might ask me why do I have nuclear powered ships. That is a necessary evil. I would sink them all. Have I given you an answer to your question?”

On the hazards of nuclear power.
Testimony to Congress (28 January 1982);
published in Economics of Defense Policy:
Hearing before the Joint Economic Committee,
Congress of the United States, 97th Cong., 2nd sess., Pt. 1 (1982)

_____________
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hyman_G._Rickover

[NuclearDem]

37. That's about as relevant as the "Darwin recanted on his deathbed" nonsense.

[jeff47]

52. Did that radiation travel back in time too?

I’ll be philosophical. Until about two billion years ago, it was impossible to have any life on earth; that is, there was so much radiation on earth you couldn’t have any life — fish or anything

No, the first problem with life as we know it on Earth was the impact that formed the moon. That happened about 4.5 billion years ago, and liquefied the entire planet. We don't know of any lifeforms that can survive in molten rock.

Simple bacteria appear in fossils 3.6 billion years ago. For them to be common enough to be found in fossils, they would have had to appear quite a bit before that. Several hundred million years is not out of the question. As in, about when the Earth became solid again and liquid water could exist.

Which kinda indicates that his theory about radiation meaning life couldn't appear until 2 billion years ago is wrong.

[newfie11]

64. +infinity!!!!!!

[Orrex]

38. Know what goes great with rice? Starfish.

Mm-MMM! Super-delicious!

[zappaman]

39. Only the time traveling ones!

[Orrex]

44. You're right! I plan to have them yesterday.

[Kali]

58. to the alerter of this post

you probably meant to send it to a jury but it went to the Hosts. when alerting on an OP there are two options, one for SoP and one for CS.

[Throd]

73. Does this mean I don't get to ride the 1,000 foot mutant squid from Tokyo to Los Angeles?

I was looking forward to that.

[Rex]

74. Wow, that is great news!

Must be hell cleaning up that type of particular mess.

[lapfog_1]

76. yup, looks normal to me