Nuclear Leaks 6: Mid-level Radiation Fallout Reaching North America

You Have Beautiful Eyes (2005) © Banksy. Image Source: California Literary Review.

There are a number of sources online that confirm that since roughly 13 April the radiation from Japan's Fukushima reactors is reaching mid-levels in North America, with low levels reaching Europe.  For a report on cesium-137 found in Vermont milk a week ago today - as well as radiation levels in water and milk across the US, go here.  Some experts believe that next week there will be more solid information in the United States. There is a general Japanese Ministry NISA fact page here and the French institute IRSN has a main page on this issue here.  The German institute GRS has a fact sheet here. A list of radiation-monitoring Webpages is here, including several links to Asian monitoring sites.

See the links below for other monitoring sites with radiation plume trajectories, local radiation levels, projections or nuclear installation locations (Hat tip: fooyoh and Continuous Learning and Development):

• MEXT (Japan)
• University of Maryland
• US Environmental Protection Agency Page on Japan's Disaster
• US Environmental Protection Agency - RadNet Monitoring
• Radiation Network (United States radiation map - updated daily)
• Radiation Network (Alaska and Hawaii maps)
• Radiation Network (Japan map)
• Radiation Network (European map - waiting for radiation values)
• Health Canada
• EURDEP (EU/Europe)
• HPA (United Kingdom) - Weekly update on Fukushima
• HPA (United Kingdom) - Radiation monitoring
• IRSN (France)
• IRSN (France - monitoring of radiation in the air)
• CSN (Spain)
• YLE (Finland)
• RIVM (Netherlands)
• NAZ (Switzerland)
• BFS (Germany)
• Radiation Early Warning System (Austria)
• Slovenian Radiation Monitoring Site
• Serbian Radiation Monitoring Site
• Russia Radiation Monitoring Site
• Hong Kong Observatory

Health Canada is opening more radiation monitoring stations in British Columbia.  Radiation reached Nova Scotia on 14 April and there are elevated levels in Ontario.  The Ontario government is under fire for not disclosing the precise levels of Japanese radiation present in the Canadian province.  Health Canada is reassuring the public:

The damaged nuclear power reactors in Japan are not expected to pose a health risk to residents of British Columbia or the rest of Canada. Given the thousands of kilometers between Japan and Canada's west coast, any radioactive material that might be pushed eastward via wind patterns is expected to be dispersed over the ocean long before it reaches Canada.

Health Canada will continue its regular radiation surveillance and monitoring activities across Canada. Health Canada has monitoring stations across the country in strategic locations and major population centres.

Taking potassium iodide is not recommended by the Canadian government to its citizens resident in Canada; there is more information on it here.

The video below shows the course of the jet stream from Japan over North America and then to Europe after the Japanese earthquake on 11 March, with mid-levels of radiation starting to arrive in the mainstream USA and Canada this week.

Youtuber dutchsinse summarizes online Fukushima radiation information available as of 13 April. Video Source: Youtube.

Forbes just ran a piece on how to remove radioactive iodine from drinking water (here).  Other recommendations come from Mary Shomon's blog - monitor radiation levels, remove radiation from your water, protect yourself nutritionally. (Hat tip: Mary Shomon.)

See all my posts on nuclear topics.