* Please note that this event will start at 7:00 p.m.,
30 minutes earlier than regular ICAS events.
* Feel free to circulate this invitation to friends or colleagues.
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Citizen Radiation Monitoring in Japan: Safecast ====================

Date: Friday, March 7, 2014
Time: Door opens at 6:30pm, Program starts at 7:00pm Venue:Temple University Japan Campus, Azabu Hall 2F
http://www.tuj.ac.jp/maps/tokyo.html(access:
http://www.tuj.ac.jp/maps/tokyo.html)
Panelists:
Joe Moross,
Tokyo-based radiation and environmental sensor engineer Sean Bonner, an artist, musician, and tech entrepreneur based in Los Angeles Azby Brown, Director of the KIT Future Design Institute in Tokyo
Moderator:
Kyle Cleveland, ICAS Associate Director
Admission: Free. Open to public
Language: English
RSVP:
icas@tuj.temple.edu
* If you RSVP you are automatically registered. If
possible, we ask you to RSVP but we always welcome
participants even you do not RSVP.
* RSVPなしでも参加できますので、直接会場へお越しくださ
い。

Overview

SAFECAST, a non-ideological, non-profit, volunteer-based organization created in the days immediately following the events of March 11, 2011, has become one of the most prominent and reliable independent sources for radiation data in Japan and abroad. In the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear crisis, concerns about radiation exposure continue to fester, with low public confidence in government and industry statements that the nuclear fallout does not pose a significant risk to public health. Despite highly-publicized official medical and scientific findings that suggest that future health risks will be low, the general public remains worried about the impact of long-term exposure, and lacking faith in government reassurances, have increasingly turned to alternative sources of information like SAFECAST.

Until recently, radiation measurement on a large scale has presented high technical, financial, and political barriers to entry. In an attempt to fill the acute information vacuum about the severity of the fallout, SAFECAST quickly began to field mobile detectors of its own design, which leveraged open-source software and hardware and new-generation DIY tools such as laser cutters and custom PCB fabrication to dramatically accelerate development and deployment time. The group simultaneously developed an information management system that allows GPS-tagged radiation data points to be uploaded into a central database and displayed on an interactive web-based map. SAFECAST's radiation information system has seen the rapid deployment no fewer than seven increasingly refined GPS-enabled mobile radiation detector designs, called "bGeigies,"
the web-based "GeoSense" map, a free iOS-based map application, and other devices and software, all developed by volunteers and made freely available through Creative Commons licenses.

The radiation data gathered by SAFECAST volunteers in Japan and abroad currently exceeds 15 million data points, arguably the most extensive public data set of its kind. It was soon hailed as a technically competent, credible, and objective source of radiation information for Japan by specialists on both sides of the nuclear power debate. Though relations between third-party monitoring groups and government and official regulatory bodies is generally characterized by mutual distrust, SAFECAST's input has increasingly been sought by both local governments in Japan and regulatory agencies abroad, a tacit admission of the inadequacy of official efforts. The group was recently invited to share their methodology and their criticisms at the IAEA's International Experts Meeting on Radiation Protection after the Fukushima Daiichi Accident in Vienna.

For this event, a panel of Safecast volunteers will discuss the state of radiation monitoring and communication three years after the start of the Fukushima disaster, describe the challenges they have faced in cultivating and maintaining an active and independent global network of volunteers, and report on the reception their critique received from the IAEA.

http://blog.safecast.org/about/SAFECAST Website:
http://blog.safecast.org/about/

Panelists

Joe Moross is a Tokyo-based radiation and environmental sensor engineer, and was formerly senior engineer in charge of radiation safety for the linear accelerator facility of the National Institute for Research in Inorganic Materials in Tsukuba.

Sean Bonner, a founding member of SAFECAST, is an artist, musician, and tech entrepreneur based in Los Angeles.

Azby Brown is an architect, designer, and author, and is Director of the KIT Future Design Institute in Tokyo.

________________________________
Robert Dujarric, Director
Kyle Cleveland, Associate Director
Eriko Kawaguchi, Coordinator

Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies
Temple University, Japan Campus
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