Testing of Fukushima rice about 1 month behind schedule
- Published
The Fukushima prefectural government said Wednesday that work to check all harvested rice for cesium has fallen behind schedule.
Currently, the prefectural government and local associations of rice growers are testing all rice for cesium at Koriyama. However, prefectural officials said there are only four machines and some 6,000 bags are being delivered to the center each day, NTV reported.The machines can check up to 4,000 bags per day, taking about 10 seconds per bag, officials said.
In August, Fukushima Gov Yuhei Sato said every bag of newly harvested rice in the prefecture would be tested before it was shipped to markets across Japan. He said that this year's rice harvest was expected to amount to around 12 million bags.
The government this month tightened the allowable radioactive cesium level in rice to 100 becquerels per kilogram. Previously, it was 500 becquerels.
