Japan found the first case of rice with radioactive materials far exceeding a government-set level for a preliminary test of pre-harvested crop, requiring thorough inspection of the rice to be harvested from the region, the farm ministry said late on Friday.
The ministry said radioactive caesium of 500 becquerels per kg was found in a sample of the pre-harvested rice in Nihonmatsu city, in Fukushima Prefecture, 56 km (35 miles) west of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant which was crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, triggering the world's worst nuclear disaster in 25 years.
The ministry said the Fukushima Prefecture will expand the inspection spots nearly ten-fold to around 300 areas.
It is the first case in Japan of rice containing radioactive caesium exceeding 200 becquerels per kg, a level which requires further thorough testing of the area for the harvested rice.
If this level of radiation is being found in new crops some 35 miles from the plant and six months after the disaster, it's a pretty good bet there's going to be continued problems with irradiated crops for some time into the future. How many tons of irradiated crops are being missed by spot inspections?
I've said before the total cost of this disaster will be into the trillion dollar range, and the more signs like this we see, the higher that bill will be in the end.
This will be a generational disaster for Japan.
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