Japan: Nuclear Test Gauges Will Measure Radiation Effects

“They’re basically in a full-scale panic” among Japanese power industry managers, said a senior nuclear industry executive. The executive is not involved in managing the response to the reactors’ difficulties but has many contacts in Japan. “They’re in total disarray, they don’t know what to do.”

Mums the word. Seems all the officials dealing with Japan’s nuclear crisis are being tight lipped on the effects of potential radiation upon the United States, its West Coast, and the world at large. Nobody wants to go there.

I am digging around and found this and will follow the trail if radiation is detected out in the Pacific or Hawaii, or on our mainland.

Bloomberg: Nuclear Test Gauges Help Warn of Possible Tsunamis, Japan Aftershock Risk

EXCERPTS: Entire article, click here

Devices used to monitor a potential ban on atomic-weapons testing are helping warn of possible tsunamis from aftershocks in Japan and may aid in tracking radiation leaks from the country’s damaged nuclear plants.

The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization’s preparatory commission sent data on March 11 to seven tsunami warning centers in the Asia-Pacific region, including in Japan and the U.S., officials said in a telephone interview yesterday from Vienna.

The seismic detection system delivers earthquake data “more quickly than many other sources,” said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association in Washington. Radiation monitors provide reliable information on radiation plumes, “whether the source is from a nuclear weapons explosion or nuclear power accident,” he said.

Radiation Detection

The monitoring system also will include 80 radionuclide monitors, of which 63 are operational, Thunborg said. The monitors can help determine how much and what kind of radiation is moving through the atmosphere and where it is likely to go, based on weather patterns, she said.

Of the 10 stations in the Asia-Pacific region, the closest to Japan are on Wake Island in the northern Pacific and on Guam, both U.S. territories. So far, the system hasn’t detected any radiation, possibly because radiation moves slowly and hasn’t yet reached the stations, Thunborg said.