Visualization of cesium concentration in farmland contaminated by radioactive materials

Recovery of farmland contaminated by the large number of radioactive materials released by the TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident is an important issue for the reconstruction of Fukushima Prefecture, an agricultural prefecture. Before the resumption of farming, the government is stripping the surface layer of the farmland of soil contaminated with cesium, as well as applied soil to compensate for the reduction in the surface layer of soil and to reduce the concentration of residual cesium. However, the undone decontamination and the loss of soil fertility due to the stripping away of fertile topsoil has become a major problem.
In response, universities, research institutes, and companies with related technologies collaborated to form the "Visualization Technology Development Group" to develop a robot equipped with a tractor with a high-precision guidance system that uses KURAMA's radiation mapping technology and soil fertility estimation technology using spectroscopic methods being studied at the University of Tokyo. This measurement data can now be transmitted to the cloud to visualize cesium distribution and soil fertility in real-time. Compared to the conventional method of collecting soil samples one by one and evaluating them, or judging them based on the results of actual cropping, the new method significantly improves work efficiency and enables a quick and effective response to undone decontamination and loss of fertility.

For more information on this technology, please see our brochure(Japanese). In receiving subsidies for this development, we are also selling this robot from a company within the group because the social implementation of the research results is necessary. Please contact us for details.

This research and development are supported by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries' "Advanced Agriculture and Forestry Robotics Research and Development Project based on the Fukushima Innovation Coast Initiative".
"Visualization Technology Development Group" consists of Kyoto University, the University of Tokyo, Kochi University of Technology, Fukushima Agricultural Research Center, Hitachi Zosen, Kokusai Kogyo, Matsuura Denkosha, and S2 Factory.