Geiger Boy Shows All Is Well in Tokyo

My friend Matt, another very level-headed Canuck in Tokyo, has posted this several times to show people the REAL radiation count in Tokyo.

This is a geiger counter that is placed in Hino, Tokyo. I'll include the location so you can see exactly on Google map if you wish.

This is not something that was just placed for this event; it has been around for some time and has been recording real time alpha, beta, gamma radiation for years I think. Therefore there is actually historical data.

If you follow the link, you will see at the top, the real time reading at the location. And below that you will see the historical readings of one year ago.

They are pretty much identical. Which means, that the radiation we are receiving NOW, is really no different than that which we had received when "all was fine" and the nuclear reactors were chugging away, producing power for 135 million energy-guzzling Japanese.

The Link: http://park18.wakwak.com/~weather/geiger_index.html

The Data:

Nuclear radiation detector：Black Cat Systems GM-10 Geiger Counter Radiation Detector
Radiation detected： Alpha - Above 3 MeV , Beta - Above 50 keV , Gamma / X-Ray - Above 7 keV
Location： 　Latitude:N 35 ° 39 ' 28 '' ( 35.658 °) , Longitude:E 139 ° 24 ' 5 '' ( 139.402 ° )　
100CPM = about 1 micoro Sievert/hr
Reload every 10 minutes.

So, I'm with Matt. There currently is nothing to worry about in Tokyo, and we shouldn't be over-reacting.

Of course, I wouldn't wander into the "no go zone", but the distance Tokyo is from these reactors is further than the distance of New York City from Three Mile Island. Did America evacuate NYC during the Three Mile Island Crisis?

Back to a relaxing dinner, then to do the dishes, and have a nice, slow, triple espresso.

I highly recommend those folk in the USA who are suddenly concerned and buying up KI (Potassium Iodide) pills to reconsider (as professionals in the USA are trying to explain). Any airborne radioactivity won't be strong enough to do any damage there, in Alaska, or Hawaii. Hospitals and pharmacies are recommending people NOT to request it needlessly. Stockpiling is not the right approach because it has a very short shelf life and is also apparently very easy to produce, or acquire when needed. And taking KI needlessly can actually cause other health issues. This was reported in the N.A. news feeds.