Radiation Realities
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Author: Mr. Craig Douglas |
The fallacy of radiation readings circulating here in the US
There has been a lot of spreading of alarming numbers of radiation readings coming from all over the media and internet since the nuclear power plant problems in Japan. With this article I hope to shut them all down.
First off I sell radiological survey meters, geiger counters, and dosimeters at gun shows around the country. So I would have an ulterior motive to panic you further to sell more equipment, but in actuality I am more interested in the truth getting out there instead of all this panic, hype and lies being spread suggesting the problem is much worse than it is. I have made guest appearances on many talk shows in the last week to try to get the truth out about what is going on.
Invariably
someone who owns a piece of radiation detection equipment,
usually a surplus Civil Defense radiological survey meter,
will go on the 
internet with their
"report" of what they are reading in their local area. Civil
Defense models such as the CD V-710, CD V-715, CD V-717, and
the CD V-720 are for detecting high level gamma radiation
(although they will also detect X-rays). Let's examine gamma
radiation for a moment. Gamma radiation emits as rays from a
source and travels in straight lines and penetrates objects
much like X-rays do. Mass is the best protector from Gamma
radiation, that's why our Fallout Shelters from the 50's and
60's were underground; you only need mass between you and the
gamma source to protect yourself. Because of the curvature of
the earth and the nature of gamma radiation, it is not
possible to measure gamma radiation from Japan here in the US
with the above listed equipment. If you are measuring anything
on one of these devices you either don't know how to use the
equipment, or your equipment is not calibrated properly.
Here's a way to confirm this at home; take a reading as you
were before outside, then without changing anything on the
instrument, take it in an underground location such as a
basement and you will see the reading persists on your
instrument. If you really had been reading gamma radiation,
the needle would have dropped to zero when you took it
underground.
Beta radiation acts differently and must attach to a particle such as dirt or dust, then travel via the prevailing winds to be measured away from the site of trouble. This is called fallout, and in the event of a nuclear weapon detonation, the beta particles will be blown high into the atmosphere by the blast as seen with the large mushroom cloud. In this event the beta particles could go into the jet stream and travel for some distance before finally falling back to earth where we could measure them. Now in the case of Japan, there has been no mushroom cloud, only much smaller hydrogen explosions which even if there was any radiation present at the time of those explosions they certainly wouldn't have gone high into the atmosphere. Any beta radiation will travel with surface winds and wouldn't get very far before falling into the Pacific Ocean or whichever way the winds might take it. The only surplus Civil Defense models that could measure beta radiation would be the model CD V-720 (high level only), and the CD V-700 which can measure low level beta and low level gamma. Remember, this is the ONLY type of radiation that could POSSIBLY get here from Japan, and this is extremely unlikely unless there is some sort massive explosion that could get the beta particles airborne high enough to reach the jet stream..
Another device which is more important but much less known because of the movies is the CD V-750 dosimeter charger and dosimeters. Dosimeters are small devices that you wear that measure your accumulated gamma radiation level (expressed in roentgens or "r") over time. The dosimeters from Civil Defense have different scales on them and will be the models CD V-138 (0-.2r), CD V-730 (0-20r), CD V-740 (0-100r), and the most common CD V-742 (0-200r). If you were be exposed up to 50r you would not have any visible effects. If you were exposed from around 50-200r you would get radiation sickness depending on your immune resistance and bio-terrain. Between 200-500r some will die from these exposures. If you were exposed all the way up to 600r you would die within two weeks. These higher numbers are what people are falsely claiming to have been exposed to already here in the US, but I haven't heard any reports of people passing from radiation here, or even Japan for that matter other than those performing tasks at the power plant to attempt to contain the situation.
For up to date information on real radiation numbers as updated every 15 minutes here in the U.S. go to http://www.blackcatsystems.com/RadMap/map.html
The bottom line is I need not worry what happens in Japan if I am living in the United States, even if all of the cores completely melt down. I would worry if I was in Japan, but not here. Now that's not to say that I need not worry; that earth quake could as just as easily happen off the coast of California, or even on the New Madrid fault in Missouri. Then there could be a concern for my safety here in the US
Remember, we already fought World War III many times over. We bombed ourselves, the Soviet Union bombed themselves, the Chinese, etc. with all the nuclear weapons testing done over several decades all over the world. Did you panic then? That was a much greater danger than what we are seeing in Japan today.
Craig Douglas
www.ForbiddenKnowledge.info
