Safecast: Radiation Monitoring by Citizens
Chiba and Tokyo
April 2013
Hiroshi Murakami attaches a Geiger counter on his car window.
He's a volunteer member of a grass-root organization, Safecast, which was formed right after the nuclear accident in Fukushima. Its members have been continuously measuring radiation all over Japan.
Safecast has invented a compact Geiger counter with GPS. With this, volunteers can easily collect radiation data street by street.
All the collected data are public on the Safecast website. Anyone can access the data from an iPhone, too.
Mr. Murakami joined Safecast in the fall of 2012. He says he measures radiation during his daily commute.
Volunteers of Safecast come from all over the world. In their office in Tokyo, there are members with professional knowledge of computer programming and product design working together.
With help from business and academia, the Safecast members are now producing new smaller Geiger counters and preparing a new project to measure air pollution.
Through Safecast, individuals are creating the largest of public domain radiation data ever.
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Safecast
http://blog.safecast.org
Ganbatte 365
http://www.ganbatte365.jp
