Just as farmers markets are swinging into full bloom, there’s very disturbing news about radiation from Japan reaching new levels in Europe. And if it’s high there, it’s significantly higher along the West Coast. A French research organization that monitors radiation, CRIIRAD, says the risk of exposure to the radioisotope iodine-131 has risen from...
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Newsweek magazine’s feature story about the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear power plant hazards facing California, titled “How to Save California,” does not actually discuss solutions, but does give a good overview of the problems and the state’s lack of preparedness for a catastrophe like Japan’s. The open glimmer of good news is an earthquake...
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California health and emergency officials said a “plume” of radiation coming from the Japanese nuclear crisis that’s expected to hit the West Coast as early as tomorrow will bring radiation levels to no higher than normal background levels. The officials from the California Department of Public Health and the California Emergency Management Agency said...
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Federal and state officials have been staunchly insistent that radioactive fallout from Japan’s nuclear reactor crisis will not reach California and the rest of the West Coast. But there’s been little ability for the public to gain more detailed information on airborne radiation levels because data from federal monitoring stations are difficult to obtain and...
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The Environmental Protection Agency currently operates 12 radiation monitors in California and two in Hawaii, but announced yesterday that it will deploy an undisclosed number of additional monitors. The EPA’s silence on where and how many of the monitors will be added, riled the Sierra Club, which asked for more information. Public concern over...
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California’s San Andreas fault is already overdue for a slip, and the triumvirate of consequential earthquakes along the Pacific Plate this year has some speculating the Golden State could be next. The recent earthquakes in Japan, Chile, and Christchurch, New Zealand all occurred along the Pacific Plate, which also falls beneath the West Coast...
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The Environmental Protection Agency has a radiation detection network across the U.S. called Radnet, which is continuously monitoring radiation levels. Luckily for the Bay Area there are two — one in downtown San Francisco at Bay Area air district headquarters at Ellis and Van Ness, and one in San Jose. Word has it that...
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As the world watches the catastrophe caused by a massive earthquake in Japan unfold, Bay residents are also worried that radiation from four debilitated nuclear plants could drift over the Pacific and impact the region. Officials maintain that such a risk is very small and while they are monitoring the situation, they’ve been given...
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Over the past decade, California wavered between supporting nuclear energy and being split down the middle. The unfolding catastrophe in Japan may put an end to the debate. The state has a ban on any new plants until there is a permanent solution to storing nuclear waste. Currently two plants – Diablo Canyon and...
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KQED’s Forum will discuss the relief effort underway in Japan. Among the panel of guests are Brad Alexander, spokesman for the California Emergency Management Agency, and Ross Stein, geophysicist at the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park.
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