Japan government to ban rice planting in some radioactive fields
BY SATOSHI OTANI STAFF WRITER
10 April 2011 The government plans to prohibit rice planting in fields where the concentration of radioactive cesium exceeds 5,000 becquerels per kilogram of soil. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said Friday that the new bans would apply to areas beyond the current 30 kilometer exclusion zone around the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. Rice production within the 30-km zone is already effectively banned. An analysis by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries found that 10 percent of cesium in soil is absorbed into rice by the time of harvest. The safety standard for cesium in rice is a maximum of 500 becquerels per kg of rice, so the ministry decided that the corresponding standard for soil should be 5,000 becquerels per kg of soil. … On Wednesday, the Fukushima prefectural government announced the results of soil surveys at 70 places on farmland, including rice fields, in the prefecture. The concentration of radioactive cesium exceeded 5,000 becquerels in only two of the rice fields, both located in Iitate village. The prefectural government plans to announce the results of additional surveys on Tuesday. … Soil surveys have not been conducted within 30 km of the nuclear power plant because those areas are currently off-limits. “Rice cultivation itself is impossible in those areas,” a ministry official said. The agriculture ministry is considering whether to impose a uniform ban on rice cultivation on the entire 30-km zone. …
