Safecast is an international, volunteer-centered organization devoted to open

citizen science Citizen science (CS) (similar to community science, crowd science, crowd-sourced science, civic science, participatory monitoring, or volunteer monitoring) is scientific research conducted with participation from the public (who are sometimes re ...

for environmental monitoring. Safecast was established by Sean Bonner, Pieter Franken, and Joi Ito shortly after the

Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster The was a nuclear accident in 2011 at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima, Japan. The proximate cause of the disaster was the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which occurred on the afternoon of 11 March 2011 and ...

in Japan, following the Tōhoku earthquake on 11 March 2011 and manages a global open data network for

ionizing radiation Ionizing radiation (or ionising radiation), including nuclear radiation, consists of subatomic particles or electromagnetic waves that have sufficient energy to ionize atoms or molecules by detaching electrons from them. Some particles can travel ...

and air quality monitoring. The Safecast team, with help of International Medcom, Tokyo hackerspace, and other volunteers, has designed variou
devices
for radiation mapping. Haiyan Zhang developed a widely used interactive map of radiation levels around Japan, and was a mapping consultant in the formative phase of Safecast. The

Geiger counter A Geiger counter (also known as a Geiger–Müller counter) is an electronic instrument used for detecting and measuring ionizing radiation. It is widely used in applications such as radiation dosimetry, radiological protection, experimental ph ...

-like devices developed include the bGeigie and bGeigie Nano for mobile applications (carborne and walking measurements) as well as fixed stations called Pointcast. Despite being a citizen science project, professional quality and scientific grade data was sought from the onset, and the methodology and tool-sets Safecast developed and deployed are cited in scientific literature and by governments. All data are collected via th
Safecast API
and are presented on the publicly available interactiv
Safecast Tile Map
with global coverage. Safecast later expanded to offer air quality sensors (PM1, PM2.5, PM10 µg/m³

particulate matter Particulates – also known as atmospheric aerosol particles, atmospheric particulate matter, particulate matter (PM) or suspended particulate matter (SPM) – are microscopic particles of solid or liquid matter suspended in the air. The ter ...

) which also report to open crowdsourced maps. As of 2020 the project has made 120 million observations and calculated mean dose rates for 330 cities around the world.

bGeigie Nano

Safecast bGeigie Nano is a portable radiation detector equipped with a

Geiger–Müller tube The Geiger–Müller tube or G–M tube is the sensing element of the Geiger counter instrument used for the detection of ionizing radiation. It is named after Hans Geiger, who invented the principle in 1908, and Walther Müller, who collaborated w ...

type detector, built-in GPS and logging to microSD card. File:Safecast bGeigie Nano - closed.jpg, bGeigie Nano with closed case File:Safecast bGeigie Nano opened.jpg, Safecast bGeigie Nano opened The bGeigie Nano is available as a kit, so the user needs to learn how to solder in order to build it from the supplied parts. Until November 2020 the kit could be purchased from th
Kithub product page
The device was developed in collaboration with International Medcom Inc. and shares some parts with thei
Inspector Alert
detector. According to th
Safecast Github page
"bGeigie Nano is a lighter version of the bGeigie Mini using an Arduino Fio, a GpsBee, an OpenLog and an Inspector Alert geiger counter. The aim is to make everything fit in a Pelican Micro Case 1040". The final version of the bGeigie is placed inside the smaller Pelican Micro Case 1010. It features the LND 7317 pancake Geiger-Mueller tube type detector, a GPS receiver and is expandable with a Bluetooth module. The mode switch offers choice between geotagged radiation logging (data saved to microSD card) and measuring without GPS - showing also Bq/m2 (¹³⁷Cs) values. Inside the case the unit is calibrated for gamma radiation. The main unit taken out of its case will additionally do α- and β-detection for careful use as a surface contamination spot meter. According to the KitHub page Safecast devices are also used by the following institutions: *

International Atomic Energy Agency The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is an intergovernmental organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy and to inhibit its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons. It was established in 1957 ...

(IAEA) * Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety / Institut de radioprotection et de sûreté nucléaire (IRSN), France * Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), United States * Czech National Radiation Protection Institute
Státní ústav radiační ochrany
(SÚRO), Czech Republic Slovenian NGObr>IRNAS
- Institute for development of advanced applied systems Rače / Inštitut za razvoj naprednih aplikativnih sistemov Rače performs monitoring in Slovenia with their one bGeigie

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and the “bGeigies for Ukraine” initiative

Following the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...

and especially the

Capture of Chernobyl During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone was captured on 24 February (the first day of the invasion) by the Russian Armed Forces, who entered Ukrainian territory from neighbouring Belarus and seized the entire ...

and the activities of the Russian forces in the contaminated areas of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone including digging trenches or using the highly contaminated Red Forest as a route for their convoys initiated a request for a new radiation mapping of the region after the withdrawal of Russian troops. On July 20, 2022 Safecast announced the “bGeigies4Ukraine” initiative (#bgeigies4ukraine) - joint initiative of: * Safecast,

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

SaveDnipro
Ukraine * National Radiation Protection Institute
Státní ústav radiační ochrany
(SÚRO), Czech Republic
Chornobyl Radiation Ecological Biosphere Reserve
Ukraine SÚRO provided 10 bGeigie Nano dectectors and following radiation monitoring led to over 300,000 data points gathered as of September 17, 2022. All the data gathered within #bgeigies4ukraine initiative the are part of the interactive Safecast Map and the dataset available under CC0 license.

Discontinuation of bGeigie Nano kit production, development of alternatives

In November 2020 KitHub announced in their email newsletter stopping the production of the bGeigie Nano kits after 5 years. Two devices are currently under development that could replace bGeigie Nano in the future (the existing devices will remain in service).

bGeigie Zen by Safecast

In April 2021 Safecast announced development of new device called bGeigie Zen. File:BGeigie Zen 1.jpg, Safecast bGeigie Zen radiation detector - inner units File:BGeigie Zen 2.jpg, Safecast bGeigie Zen radiation detector with plastic case BGeigie Zen is based on original bGeigie but uses a new sensor board, the SafePulse and M5Stack modular IoT platform. The presented prototype was built in bigger Pelican 1015 case.

CzechRad by SÚRO

CzechRadhttps://github.com/juhele/CzechRad - CzechRad is a direct bGeigie Nano alternative in development. The device uses same LND 7317 (USA) Geiger tube as bGeigie Nano, same Pelican 1010 plastic case and same output data format (LOG files). Compared to bGeigie, CzechRad is not assembled from several commercial modules but instead uses brand new custom designed boards - mainboard using SAMD21G processor (ARM M0+), GPS module by uBlox. The electronic boards will be manufactured by Tesla (Czechoslovak company). While bGeigie Nano uses OLED display in inverse mode (white text on black), the CzechRad has standard monochrome LCD display, which is better readable in daylight. File:2022 11 01 CzechRad 001 fullres (52484894083).jpg, CzechRad pre-production prototype with closed case File:2022 11 01 CzechRad 004 fullres (52483850677).jpg, CzechRad pre-production prototype opened

References

External links

* {{official website, http://blog.safecast.org/
bGeigie Nano radiation detector homepage
* Brown, Azby; Baumont Genevieve; Kuča, Petr; Helebrant, Jan - ''Citizen-based radiation measurement in Europe: Supporting informed decisions regarding radiation exposure for emergencies as well as in daily life''. RICOMET2016 Conference poster
Available online as PDF
* Brown, Azby; Franken, Pieter; Bonner, Sean; Dolezal, Nick; Moross, Joe - ''Safecast: successful citizen-science for radiation measurement and communication after Fukushima'' - Published 6 June 2016 • © 2016 IOP Publishing Ltd Journal of Radiological Protection, Volume 36, Number 2
available online
Radioactivity Ionising radiation detectors Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami Emergency organizations Radiation protection organizations Emergency management software Citizen science Crowdsourcing