The NNSA ( National Nuclear Security Administration ), which is part of the Dept of Energy is responsible for responding to any terrorist nuclear threat. For example, someday terrorists may have a nuclear weapon ( probably courtesy of Iran ), or a "dirty bomb" or some other threat that has to do with nuclear radiation.
In such a case, one would like the NNSA to be able to zero in quickly on the threat. They would probably use helicopters like the one that is doing this survey.
However, they need to know what the normal radiation sources are. For example, if you were to look at a map of radiation sources, you would see radiation sources in any hospital that has a nuclear medicine department, or that uses radioisotopes for diagnosis and treatment.
In case of a nuclear emergency, you don't want NNSA tracking down all the hospital sources when they look at the radiation sources map. They need to know what *normal* looks like. That way any radiation sources they detect during an emergency that are *not* on the normal map are the suspicious ones that need to be checked out.
NNSA is doing their job so they can better protect us. Nothing to get upset about here.
The problem is that they are not getting background levels. They are getting post-Fukushima levels, which eventually the public will come to believe as background. 40,000 Bq is the new 30.
Evidently, you haven't been following. BRAWM hasn't picked up radiation from Fukushima in over a year. Additionally, even when BRAWM did pick up radiation from Fukushima, it was "noise" in comparison to the natural background radiation, that the only way to see it was by using spectroscopy.
So the background radiation now is practically all natural background radiation, the same as it was before the events at Fukushima. Therefore, the helicopters will see background radiation that is due to the natural background. It is erroneous to say that there is a new, significantly increased background due to Fukushima.
Nothing sinister about this at all
The NNSA ( National Nuclear Security Administration ), which is part of the Dept of Energy is responsible for responding to any terrorist nuclear threat. For example, someday terrorists may have a nuclear weapon ( probably courtesy of Iran ), or a "dirty bomb" or some other threat that has to do with nuclear radiation.
In such a case, one would like the NNSA to be able to zero in quickly on the threat. They would probably use helicopters like the one that is doing this survey.
However, they need to know what the normal radiation sources are. For example, if you were to look at a map of radiation sources, you would see radiation sources in any hospital that has a nuclear medicine department, or that uses radioisotopes for diagnosis and treatment.
In case of a nuclear emergency, you don't want NNSA tracking down all the hospital sources when they look at the radiation sources map. They need to know what *normal* looks like. That way any radiation sources they detect during an emergency that are *not* on the normal map are the suspicious ones that need to be checked out.
NNSA is doing their job so they can better protect us. Nothing to get upset about here.
Problem
The problem is that they are not getting background levels. They are getting post-Fukushima levels, which eventually the public will come to believe as background. 40,000 Bq is the new 30.
Evidently, you haven't been following...
Evidently, you haven't been following. BRAWM hasn't picked up radiation from Fukushima in over a year. Additionally, even when BRAWM did pick up radiation from Fukushima, it was "noise" in comparison to the natural background radiation, that the only way to see it was by using spectroscopy.
So the background radiation now is practically all natural background radiation, the same as it was before the events at Fukushima. Therefore, the helicopters will see background radiation that is due to the natural background. It is erroneous to say that there is a new, significantly increased background due to Fukushima.
"NNSA is doing their job so
"NNSA is doing their job so they can better protect us. Nothing to get upset about here."
I'm from the government and I'm here to help.
Hilarious.