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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Bay Area rainwater registered radiation levels that exceed federal drinking water standards by 181 times on March 24. But experts say the amounts are declining and still well below a single roundtrip flight to and from the East Coast. Still, some are criticizing the federal Environmental Protection Agency for not publishing data in a timely manner...
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Did you know that sleeping next to someone blitzes you with 0.05 millionth of a sievert of radiation per night? That eating a banana gives you 0.1 millionth, and that a day’s dose at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant would give you .0036 sieverts? For some great perspective on the doses of radiation and...
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Chair of the California Air Resources Board, Mary Nichols, answers questions about radiation from Japan, nuclear power in California, implementing AB32, and what mode of transportation she uses to get to work in an interview with KQED Climate Watch’s Craig Nichols.
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The United Nations predicted that radiation from Japan’s nuclear crisis would reach the West Coast on Friday afternoon, based on weather patterns. It stressed that the amount would be very low, and the New York Times reported that “at worst, would have extremely minor health consequences in the United States.” The calculations were...
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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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A group at Lawrence Livermore Lab is modeling the spread of nuclear materials from Japan through modeling changes in wind patterns and rain that could affect the distribution of radiation. The National Atmospheric Release Advisory Center provides predictions of atmospheric plumes so that emergency managers can decide whether to take protective action. [ Read...
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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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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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