Why isn’t the monitor outside?

We keep the Inspector inside so we can light it easier for you to be able to see 24/7. There is no need to have it outside or face it into the wind. The kind of radiation we’re looking for at first with fallout that may travel across the Pacific Ocean to Southern California is gamma radiation. Gamma travels great distances and goes through just about anything, including you and me. Lead will stop it. In fallout, one the primary radionuclides of concern is iodine-131 which emits a lot of gamma radiation but is a beta emitter as well. If we left the Inspector outside and fallout begins to come down, the beta emitting I-131 could contaminate the instrument. Even without contamination issues, measuring it inside or outside, if at the same elevation, location and not over concrete (which has some uranium in it which skews the readings higher), is the same.

Can’t you do it outdoors too?

No, we have only one Inspector and they are not cheap. There also is the issue of contamination as previously noted.

Why do the numbers jump around?

Ions from the earth (radium and uranium) and cosmic radiation (including the Sun) do not emit in a steady manner. It’s random. That said, when the numbers go up and stay up, that’s the time to pay close attention.

When should I be worried?

A range of normal background radiation at this location at this time over several days has been determined to be between 40 to 46 CPM. These measurements are similar to background measurements taken in this location over long periods of time prior to the partial meltdowns in Japan.

Should radiation measured by the Inspector begin to rise to double background, we will be concerned. If the measurements go to triple background and above for a sustained period of time in the next few days, we might deduce that this may be coming from the Japan nuclear disaster.

What just happened? It just spiked from 50 to 389?

We used to leave the Inspector on view during our 10 minute averaging which counts the total ionizing events which are then divided by ten for a more accurate Counts Per Minute measurement. This practice confused and alarmed some folks because they thought that was the actual CPM going up and up. We now remove the Inspector for 10-15 minute periods to do this averaging which is then immediately posted on EnviroReporter.com’s Radiation Station.

Can you convert CPM to millisieverts?

0-200 cpm / 0-0.05 mR/hr

200-400 cpm / 0.05-0.1 mR/hr

>400 cpm / >0.1 mR/hr

When do you think my family and I should leave? Before the fallout? Wouldn’t it be too late once it starts?

We aren’t going advise anyone. We just don’t know if we will experience contamination, at what level, or where. For all you know, you could inadvertently flee towards contamination and not from it.

The state government and EPA say they are activating over 200 fallout monitoring stations. How can I access their information like I can here at the Radiation Station in real time?