How to Check for Radiation Even If You Don’t Have A Geiger Counter

With all the recent explosions at the nuclear power plant in Fukushima, there’s a lot of talk about radioactive stuff leaking into the surrounding areas.

The Japanese government says it’s pretty safe and things are “under control.” Then there’s this report that says choppers that flew 60miles near the damaged reactors “became coated with particulate radiation that had to be washed off.”

And then there’s a lot of misinformation going around through e-mails and text messages that are just aggravating the situation. Honestly, I don’t really know which information is right or wrong.


What I am worried about is that, whatever other people are saying, I don’t have any gadget to help me check the radiation levels on my own. I mean, I’ve seen friends on Facebook who have bought Geiger counters!

So what about us folks who live in Tokyo and don’t have those cool tools?

I found this neat live stream of a Geiger counter in Koto Ward in Tokyo, which is about 20miles (32km) from my home.
This live feed is on all day if you want to check it, follow this link:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/geiger-counter-tokyo

It shows the current CPM (counts per minute) reading which is about 12 as of today. I don’t really know much about these things but I guess the current reading means that Tokyo is safe, for now at least.

DISCLAIMER: The person who put this up says it is not professional grade so use caution. Also, this live stream sometimes goes offline.

UPDATE:
Here’s a map of real-time geiger counters in Japan. Each point has their own site where they post their data. Some sites are all Japanese so I suggest you paste their link to Google Translate or Excite Japan

If the geiger counter in Tokyo is offline, you can also check this one in Kashiwa City, Chiba:


Broadcasting Live with Ustream.TV

So what do you think? Please leave a comment below!
If you have more info about radiation and how to detect it, please do leave a comment.
Also, if you found this info cool or even useful, please share it on Facebook and Twitter! Let’s go!

One Response to “How to Check for Radiation Even If You Don’t Have A Geiger Counter”

  1. May 2, 2013 at 1:11 am #

    At this time it sounds like Expression Engine is the top blogging platform out there right now.
    (from what I’ve read) Is that what you’re using on your blog?

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