UPDATED
See 1:17 AM Thursday March 16 Michael Collins comment below!
EnviroReporter.com‘s “Radiation Station” will go online tomorrow as noted by LA Weekly‘s Dennis Romero in a Monday March 14, 2011 post on The Informer.
Romero writes, in part:
Award-winning environmental reporter Michael Collins, an LA Weekly contributor, tells us he’s setting up a radiation monitoring station in Santa Monica tomorrow. Feedback from a Geiger counter will be viewable on his website in real time via web cam.
About two times the “background” radiation base (what comes from the ground and atmosphere normally) or more will be cause for concern, he says.
The station should be able to tell us how much radiation has come over from Japan. He hopes the station will become a cornerstone of a national network of private radiation monitors who will take advantage of the web. Already, he says, several environmentalists have vowed to tie in with their own Geiger counters.
In our upcoming feature tomorrow, “Melt Down Wind,” we will be explaining exactly what the latest thinking is on whether nuclear radiation can reach America’s West Coast and how it can be detected.
Currently, there are no free and openly available radiation monitors available in Southern California for the public to see just how “hot” the radiation readings in the region are. The government’s emergency disaster network does not include such a system.
We will be able to show, in live time, just what the radiation readings are in Santa Monica which will give some indication of what the Los Angeles Basin is going to be exposed to since Santa Monica is upwind of most of the basin.
Certainly, we are hoping that no radiation from the Fukushima meltdowns is detected by us.
EnviroReporter.com‘s “Radiation Station” will be utilizing a Radalert Inspector Nuclear Radiation Monitor, the same monitor that can be seen in a KNBC-Channel 4 News clip on the biomedical nuclear and chemical dump we exposed on this website and LA Weekly that lays buried on Veterans Administration land in Brentwood. [Check out the clip, third from the bottom, here.]
“Radiation Station” will go online Tuesday in the afternoon. Other folks with nuclear radiation monitors and Geiger Counters, who stream their readings like we plan to, will be invited to be linked to from our website. These people can reach us on our contact page.
OMG…whats this??
http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/DC-Nuclear-Plant-Near-Epicenter-Shuts-Down-128261808.html
Just came across this article. Apparently,concern about radiation is all in the mind. I don’t understand how this man can sleep at night. http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,780810,00.html
Thank you for this site. It seems like you’re the only one who is asking questions & doing the research. I’m in Santa Monica and I am CONCERNED. Can you please provide some kind of summary of any unusual radioactive activity that might have occurred in our area? A certain happiness has left my soul forever, after Fukushima. I’m just getting my life started and yet I feel like a part of my life is already over. Leuren Moret’s truths had me weeping.
Please follow up with me about any data compilations that you may have.
Blessings.
Does your home/apartment have granite in it?
I ask this, because, the background radiation at
your station seems higher than some others on radiation
network.
I guess I am hoping things are not as bad as they really are.
I thank you for broadcasting your information.
Please continue to do so. I and many other people are
depending on you for the truth.
Do you have cement near the radiation monitor?
granite?
or something else that off-gases radiation?
Michael – you rock
Thank you so much for this site. I live in the Santa Cruz mountains and been silently and very lonely thinking about radiation on my windshield, as Joanne Rand sang once. In 1991 I got a speck of plutonium in my gullet at Nevada site demonstration and been down in hell ever since; life revolves around my bed and not much more. I worked against nuclear power for a few years and a little will do you for life. It seemed selfish to think of myself in this crisis. I pray for a most positive outcome in Japan, and I hope this wakes up humankind to our follies. NO NUKES.
Let the nuclear industry build their toys in HELL.
Michael,
I want to thank you for the peace of mind you have brought us all with this site. If it wasnt for you I do not think I could have slept for the last week. You are terriffic. Thank you. Keep up this important work.
You have brougt me more comfort than any of our ” fearless leaders” have. Notice they have all left the country? Coincidence? I dont know? If it wasnt for you I would probably be in a panick. To reassure us all I want to see Sasha and Maliea and Barack and Michelle out here in L.A. Having a picnic or skiing or something. If its so safe prove it. Let your kids go play soccer.
Anyway, thanks for the peace of mind!
Sincerely,
Kristi
Like I said, we will be taking the Inspector outside. The detector needs to be within and inch of any suspected contaminated surface to detect alpha and beta. You can bet I will do that David. Thanks.
“Only if fallout actually ‘falls’ on the ground (and everything else) would taking the Inspector outdoors to measure for beta radiation which would be heightened. ”
But that’s the dangerous scenario. California isn’t going to get direct radiation from Japan. What it may get is soot in the atmosphere and rain. This needs to be outside; you’re not going to get an Alpha read at all inside.
Is there a government response to keep things under wrap to avoid panic and also to avoid desolation in LA/SoCal leading to economic collapse?
Thanks for this. We are being advised at school via a public report that the KI (potassium iodide) pills are contraindicated and could cause more harm than good.
Merci pour votre initiative, ça changera un peu des mensonges des autorités! j’ai diffusé le lien de votre site en France, si ça pouvait donner des idées à un journaliste Français vraiment indépendant……
J’ai un doute! ils ne disent que ce qu’on leur permet de dire!
Merci et bon courage!!!
Michael & team – Radiation Station is an awesome addition to your site. Given that government monitoring & plume modeling is not being shared with the general public – having some kind of local resource is a major victory.
One request:
Please could you re-post the radiation readings on another site somewhere in text only? Your site is getting very slow with all the traffic. Plus, if you were targeted for a DOS attack – we’d all be back in the dark again.
Best wishes for continued success!
STEVE…
Michael,
Thank you for the site! Is there any way you could post under the counter what the “normal” range is considered and what the “alert” cpm is? If you can post when it is averaging like you did in the beginning it would cut down on the hysteria. I logged in when it was averaging and people were freaking out. Some were saying they were going to start taking their iodine pills…
Thanks for all the hard work!
Rodger
Thank you for the service you are providing.
Is there any thought behind having this monitor indoors and not outdoors besides convenience?
?????found it interesting that they announced they put up monitoring panels along the beach cities..and san bernadino! why woudl they put it in san bernadino?could it be for winds that head inland toward palm springs?
thank you for doing this. this is what community and americans do best- be there for each other, protect each other and make sure the truth is sent out.
lets hope this is a good learning session for protecting our futures and not the other. I am thankful you are willing to do this. The news seems to flip flop (much like the white house). i trust David Ono, Frank Buckley and Anderson Cooper who are seeking the facts in Japan and I add your site to get this information to us here.
Thank you so much for doing this, I’m in Encino and will be checking your site starting tomorrow on the hour
The internet is so wonderful
Thank you once again
BTW, Please provide numbers shown on this device and the elevated concern associated with them.
Thanks for this service. I’m very concerned that the main stream media is throwing gravy on everything for the sheeple out there and I don’t trust them AT ALL.
Time to pull up the boot straps and fend for ourselves.
Please let me be wrong and let this just be flagrant hype (although it does go to show how many of us really don’t trust what comes out of the boob tube).
DZ – Yes it is possible to post one outdoors as a comparison but we only have one Radalert Inspector. Do know, though, that right now the readings inside and out are the same because the Inspector detects gamma radiation equally indoors and outdoors. Only if fallout actually ‘falls’ on the ground (and everything else) would taking the Inspector outdoors to measure for beta radiation which would be heightened. We do not, however, plan to do that.
New York based radiation monitoring station located 15 miles from Indian Point: http://www.aspnic.com/rad/
Thank you.
Is it possible to post one outdoors as a comparison?
Joe, it has been up for a while now: https://www.enviroreporter.com/2011/03/enviroreporter-coms-radiation-station/
so is radiation station on its own website or what?
i’ll check back 1 more time, then i’m giving up.
Tell me one thing.
Why should we trust you or your report? you could just be a part of the cover up.
BUNK!
Thx for doing this mate I really appreciate it . I know it’s a lot to ask but if you could post info for San Francisco ?
Michael, thank you for your test into this very frightening topic. For those of us less knowledgeable about this topic, where is a place I can go to learn what these different units of measurement mean and what a typical non-event baseline would be. I’d love to have that number to compare these number to.
Thank you again for your hard work.
Thank you, Andrea. I may be too busy tomorrow to find out the conversion rate but if you contacted Int. Medcom and asked for me/us, it would be great. I will find out regardless but perhaps Friday.
The latest on Santa Monica, Anna, is being updated manually in this message thread as you can read above. We will be going live soon.
The the good news is this: all is at NORMAL BACKGROUND right now: 9:17 PM to 9:27 PM
Ten minute average Counts Per Minute: 437/10 = 43.7 CPM background
Can you please post a link so we can see the results for Santa Monica? Thank you!
Thanks! I was just wondering if there is a way to do it, and how you could tell (as you did above) that the 42 CPM is under 14 microrem/hr. I just looked up the manufacturer website and all their instruments (at least those that they sell currently) can read in a variety of units, including CPM and mrem/hr. Please do let me know what you find out in terms of a conversion factor. Or, if you can give me the model number, I can ask the company for you.
Thanks again. Let’s all hope that the readings you now have, in 45 CPM, will stay the same! You are doing a GREAT service to all of us concerned here in LA!
Andrea, this RadAlert Inspector takes 10-minute averaging counts in CPM and not millirem per hour hence why we are staying with CPM to determine levels above background should they occur. That said, we are picking a fairly consistent NORMAL background range of 0.014 to 0.02 mrem/hr just by eyeballing the instrument. We will put a call into the manufacturers of the Inspector, International Medcom, to see if they can give us an accurate chart so we can nail down the exact equivalent numbers so we all know what the ‘dose’ factor is.
Mike, will you also have information on the much awaited site about how to convert the cpm to mrem/hr for THIS instrument?
Your welcome, artemis b.
Everyone please forgive the time it has taken to set up this system. It will be fully online by the end of the day/night. Before it is operable, we will be posting two important pieces including one where the live shot of the Inspector will be available 24/7 (to answer your question, artemis b).
However, we are collecting the raw data as it comes in and everything is STILL NORMAL.
That said, I am going to copy and paste in the background-establishing numbers up until now, a total of 9 (nine) readings. We will explain in detail how this all works in the upcoming post “EnviroReporter.com’s Radiation Station,” but a simple explanation will do now:
The Inspector detects ions zipping through its Halogen-quenched, uncompensated Geiger-Mueller tube with thin mica window.
To establish background for our area (Santa Monica/West Los Angeles) we do it away from “hot” (ionizing) sources and take 10 (ten) minute readings and divide by 10 to get Counts Per Minute.
You will see, following, that all these readings TODAY are about the same which means NORMAL BACKGROUND.
Here is the raw data:
3/15/11
12:11 AM to 12:21 AM
Ten minute average Counts Per Minute: 441/10 = 44.1 CPM background
8:14 AM to 8:24 AM
Ten minute average Counts Per Minute: 426/10 = 42.6 CPM background
(Between 0.002 & 0.014 millirem/hour)
9:18 AM to 9:28 AM
Ten minute average Counts Per Minute: 458/10 = 45.8 CPM background
10:15 AM to 10:25 AM
Ten minute average Counts Per Minute: 400/10 = 40.0 CPM background
11:11 AM to 11:21 AM
Ten minute average Counts Per Minute: 424/10 = 42.4 CPM background
12:12 PM to 12:22 PM
Ten minute average Counts Per Minute: 451/10 = 45.1 CPM background
1:18 PM to 1:18 PM
Ten minute average Counts Per Minute: 430/10 = 43.0 CPM background
2:20PM to 2:30 PM
Ten minute average Counts Per Minute: 421/10 = 42.1 CPM background
5:11 PM to 5:21 PM
Ten minute average Counts Per Minute: 431/10 = 43.1 CPM background
9:17 PM to 9:27 PM
Ten minute average Counts Per Minute: 437/10 = 43.7 CPM background
10:55 PM to 11:05 PM
Ten minute average Counts Per Minute: 415/10 = 41.5 CPM background
3/16/11
1:00 AM to 1:10 AM
Ten minute average Counts Per Minute: 441/10 = 44.1 CPM background
thanks for this really important service.
how often will you update us? i.e. is there STILL no change (since noon)?
No, Marc. That is a for-profit venture that costs over $100 to join and, judging from their website, is not very impressive IMHO. Radiation Station is free and available to all.
Andrea and Mike: we will be up later today. Stay tuned!
is the live stream up ? and if so what is the link ? I also heard that there have been more radiation released from the reactors directly into the atmosphere are we safe here in the US ( west coast CA ) ?
Michael, do you have a link yet to the monitoring station? Or know approximately when that (or others) will be available? Or know of a government web site that gives out any readings they may have taken?
Thank you.
Michael, will you be tied into radiationnetwork.com, the site that crowdsources geiger readings across the US? Also, thanks for doing this, it’s unclear to me why we have a tsunami warning system, but not one for radiation in case San Onofre blows.
Thank you for this, Catherine. We hope that we will hear from folks in Seattle and Washington State so they can participate in this citizen-led radiation monitoring system.
Later today we will explain how anyone with a Geiger Counter and/or nuclear radiation monitor (there is a difference) can participate in networking this information, streaming or not. Stay tuned.
Ok, I live in Seattle, is there anyone you know up here that would set up a geiger counter too, or at least set up a update of radiation levels?
Thanks
The monitoring station is actually on now – we just don’t have our live webcam set up fully. That will come this evening (but still today).
The page that this will appear on will be called “EnviroReporter.com’s Radiation Station” which will be up this afternoon. We will be explaining how our nuclear radiation monitor works and what we are measuring.
The station is in Santa Monica on the West LA border hence the name of the page.
Currently, we are taking background readings every hour. These results will be on that new page because these 10-minute averages measure normal background radiation and will help us contrast any possible fallout arrives should it arrive, which we certainly hope it does not, obviously.
As of this hour, all gamma radiation readings are NORMAL.
Check back this afternoon for the radiation monitoring page as well as a post delineating what is being done to monitor radiation in California as well as entreating Governor Brown to prepare to distribute KI (potassium iodide) pills which combat the dangerous effects of one of the fallout’s most active radionuclides: Iodine 131.
Stay tuned and check back often!
Will the monitoring station be on line today as sheduled? Is this the page the station will be on?
Thanks, Rodger
Here is a link to a DOE site which monitors radiation in eastern Calif.
http://www.cemp.dri.edu/cgi-bin/cemp_stations.pl?stn=TECO&prod=0
they have historical averages, hourly updates etc.
VJBinCT is absolutely correct. While we are obtaining and setting up the webcam for a live stream, we are taking repeated 10-minute readings with our RadAlert Inspector Nuclear Radiation Monitor, and the background radiation we are detecting is NORMAL.
This is obviously good news for the Los Angeles basin as the winds primarily blow from west to east in this area and Santa Monica is west of Los Angeles.
We will describe how this radiation monitor works, specs, settings, placement and more information that is pertinent to accurate readings in our next radiation detection piece or here in this article’s comments as events warrant.
You can see a photo of the Inspector in an article of ours called “Rocketdyne – It’s the Pits” which is available at https://www.enviroreporter.com/rocketdyne-its-the-pits. Note the significance the nuclear radiation monitor played in this piece despite being initially dismissed as a “toy” by a Boeing official who had accompanied us on a tour of a reactor at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory that was being dismantled, dismantled incorrectly, because of missing the hottest area, until we came along with our RadAlert monitor.
To reiterate: we entirely agree with VJBinCT and will do our utmost in making sure the information we present you is extremely accurate and understandable.
That said, know that at 9:10am in Santa Monica/West Los Angeles, the background radiation readings, which will be included in our coverage later today, are NORMAL.
I hope that there is baseline data (like radiation levels today or for the last week, before any chance of elevated levels from the Japanese reactors) posted, so any real change can be noted properly. Details of the measurements are important (like type and model of detector, settings, and placement), as threshold levels for counting and the siting of counters will affect response. Unless these are known, the results might lead to untoward panic or complacency. Too important not to get right.
Fantastic – I’ll send everyone here – Thanks!
I am so relieved to hear this. I live in L.A. and am not allowing myself to worry, but my mom in Phoenix and boyfriend in Dallas are doing plenty of worrying for me. I’ve already sent this link to both of them. Apparently you can’t trust the radiation maps making the rounds online, and I don’t trust the government to be forthcoming about just how much danger we could be facing. It feels good to have a local trusted source like you providing such an invaluable community service. Thank you.