Upside Down on Radiation Dangers

DDP Newsletter, September 2013, Volume XXXI, No. 5

The Fukushima containment vessels for radioactive water are leaking. This is a news hook for alarmists who have been warning of dire consequences, including a “mass extinction event” and the potential death of “billions” of people, ever since the tsunami occurred in March 2011. For example, Christina Consolo (@RadChick4cast) warns of an “apocalypse” that could make “at least the northern half of Japan uninhabitable” if it isn’t already (RT.com 8/19/13, reprinted by lewrockwell.com). She also warns that North America is in “huge trouble.” Her credentials: she’s an “award-winning biomedical photographer and host of Nuked Radio” (NaturalNews.com 5/1/12).

A hemorrhagic disease in Pacific herring is being blamed by some on the Fukushima leak, and commenters warn that “when their tears turn bloody, people will start to wake up” (Globe and Mail 8/13/13).

Russia warns that a nuclear catastrophe could occur if the U.S. strikes the Miniature Neutron Source Reactor near Damascus (RT.com 9/5/13).

Arizona’s Maricopa County Department of Emergency Management has comprehensive 3-dimensional mapping capabilities to aid in responding to an event such as an accident or terrorist attack at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station near Phoenix. The maps “will aid in predicting where a radioactive plume would be likely to travel if a release were to take place” (Arc News, summer 2002). But how will the actual doses be measured?

In the 1983 movie The Day After, which portrays an all-out nuclear exchange, survivors have to go to a museum to find radiation monitoring instruments. One child asks, “What is radiation?” Some die of radiation sickness after heedlessly running through a fallout-contaminated field. “Anyone over 60 will especially appreciate one special line. It’s worth watching the movie for that alone,” writes Stephen Jones. (See whether you can identify it.) The entire movie is now available on YouTube.com, and had nearly 1 million views as of Sep 6 (http://tinyurl.com/mwqknq3).

So what do Americans worry about, and what do the authorities protect us from?

A detector advertised for public safety officers and military (nukeALERT 951 by Berkeley Nucleonics, not to be confused with the NukAlert) has alarm levels 1-9 and “H” for high. At “H,” the dose rate is 13 mrem/hr (0.13 mSv/hr)—the NukAlert’s lowest level is 100 mrem/hr. “As seen in The New York Times,” it could warn us about—granite counter tops (NYT 7/24/08, http://tinyurl.com/msn25lj). The device pictured in the article linked to the company’s website is actually a Model 915 palmRADII, which can read up to 300 rem/hr.

How dangerous are the countertops? The hottest ones are among the more exotic striated varieties from Brazil or Namibia. “A small number of commercially available samples…could conceivably expose body parts that were in close proximity for two hours a day to a localized dose of 100 mrem [1 mSv] in just a few months.”

As Arthur Robinson points out, the average dose received by residents of Taiwan apartments built with Co-60 contaminated rebar, whose cancer rate was only 3% of that of the general population of Taiwan, was 40 mSv/yr (4,000 mrem/yr, 4 rem/yr) (J Am Phys Surg, fall 2013, www.jpands.org/vol18no3/robinson.pdf).

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) maintains the RadNet system of radiologic monitoring stations (www.epa.gov/radnet), with more than 100 fixed air monitors and 40 deployable portable monitors. They have been able to identify fallout from Fukushima. Consolo writes extensively about the readings—which are in counts per minute and provide no meaningful dose information.

The RadNet’s filter-based air monitoring system is, however,  wholly inadequate to the task of measuring fallout produced by nuclear terrorism, states Philip Smith, because particles only remain airborne for a short time. Also, the vast array of highly sensitive detectors deployed among responders for interdiction can become saturated [and useless] at high radiation levels, notes the National Capital Region planning document (www.fas.org/irp/agency/dhs/fema/ncr.pdf). They may be unable to measure a dose higher than 10 mR/hr (0.1 mSv/hr). Authorities directing public response will receive erroneous and confusing information from responders carrying such instruments. Smith is trying to establish a standard for a national system of dynamic, vendor-neutral fallout measurement with continuous autonomous reporting. Ideally every fire station should have one. The device can be set up to automatically shut down a building’s ventilation system if dangerous fallout is detected. (See www.viewpointsonics.com/naer/index.php for a brief video presentation on the system.)

The equipment for a fallout monitoring station is very reasonably priced and requires only a flat roof, an internet connection, and minimal power. Call DDP for more information.

In the meantime, reports from NukAlert ER [extended range] instruments are being transmitted continuously (see the live feeds on the website cited above). The Physicians for Civil Defense monitoring station sits next to Dr. Jane Orient’s computer. It can also serve as a dosimeter, keeping track of the accumulated dose.

If a crisis occurs before enough proper instruments can be manufactured and  widely distributed, most Americas may have no way to measure high-dose radiation except the Kearny Fallout Meter (KFM). (Have you made one yet? Is it in a tightly sealed can to keep the desiccant dry?)‎

DOSES IN PERSPECTIVE 

• 1 mSv/yr (100 mrem/yr): maximal excess nonoccupational, nonmedical exposure permitted in U.S.
• 1-3 mSv/yr (200-300 mrem/yr, 0.2-0.3 rem/yr): average natural background
• <10 mSv/lifetime: maximum exposure for resident of Fukushima prefecture (UNSCEAR)
• Up to 10 mSV/yr (1 rem/yr): airline flight crews
• 350 mSv/lifetime (35 rem): Chernobyl evacuation level
• 43.8 mSv/yr (5 μSv/hr  8760 hr/yr 10^-3 mSv/μSv): at front of Chernobyl sarcophagus (Nature 3/31/11) (4.38 rem/yr)
• 0.3 mSv (30 mrem, 0.03 rem): average exposure for resident of Europe to Chernobyl fallout over a period of 20 years (ibid.)
• 100 mSv/yr (10 rem/yr): optimal hormetic exposure per some researchers
• 100 mR/hr (1,000 μSv/hr; 8,960 mSv/yr): highest average background where people live normally
• 1,100 mGy/yr (110 rad/yr): dogs exposed for their whole lives had no significant change in blood count and no increased tumor incidence (Dose-Response, December 2012, http://tinyurl.com/lzodtfw)
• 1,000 mSv (100 rem): acute radiation sickness likely
• 1,000 mSv/hr for 3 hr (300 rem total): LD₅₀ for humans (acute exposure)
• 1,200 Bq/kg: U.S regulatory limits for radioactivity in food
• 100 Bq/kg: new Japanese limit (Forbes 1/11/13, http://tinyurl.com/amssdth) (In June 2011, fish sampled off the coast of Japan had higher levels of natural potassium-40 than of Fukushima-derived cesium [Science 10/26/12].)