525 USA Aerial Measurement Flight Hours @ Fukushima

U.S. nuclear special team sent to Japan right after 3.11

http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2012/12/202165.html
16:20 31 December, By Masakatsu Ota, TOKYO, Dec. 31, Kyodo

The United States sent a special nuclear response team trained to handle nuclear accidents and terrorism to Japan right after the outbreak of the March 2011 nuclear disaster. This was the first dispatch of the Consequence Management Response Team (CMRT) for an emergency outside the United States. The team, affiliated with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), a semi-autonomous agency of the Energy Department, is tasked with dealing with nuclear accidents and terrorism in the United States by detecting and analyzing radiation contamination.

The CMRT is dispatched to nuclear-disaster zones equipped with the Aerial Measuring System (AMS), an airborne system using military aircraft to detect gamma rays from altitudes of about 150 to 700 meters and calibrate doses of radiation with the help of highly advanced analytical software.

The CMRT, consisting of 33 scientists and engineers, arrived at Yokota Air Force Base in Japan on March 16 from Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas and initiated test flights within 12 hours of arriving, according to a NNSA senior official. The CMRT conducted the first round of AMS operations from March 17 to 19, using two U.S. military aircraft.

The AMS flight operations in Fukushima were conducted around 100 times totaling 525 flight hours until the CMRT left Japan on May 28, 2011, he said. Its experience in Fukushima did and would enrich the capability of the AMS, he and the U.S. government source suggested. Based on the data from the initial AMS operations, the CMRT worked out the first radiation-contamination map covering areas within about 40 km of the plant.