Mr. Chivers: Your awake and posting: when will we see raiowater results? (from Bill)

Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 2011-04-16 00:13

Been kind of quiet there today, but we were told you had new samples.

when will you post them?

‹ lessons from Chernobyl RADIOACTIVE FALLOUT FROM THE CHERNOBYL NUCLEAR REACTOR ACCIDENT data in CA ›

Rainwater results?

Submitted by Bill (not verified) on Sat, 2011-04-16 00:14.

not raiowater. Late. Tired. Awaiting results, breathlessly.

I think rain water was in

Submitted by dchivers on Sat, 2011-04-16 00:18.

I think rain water was in the counting station today. Should be posting sometime this weekend. We have not had much rain here in the last week.

Thanks very much and a quick question

Submitted by Bill (not verified) on Sat, 2011-04-16 00:24.

with all the media attention to your work have there been any overtures from industry or government or UC authorities to you folks to delay releases of info, or share it with authorities first or spin the info to reassure the public that we are not in danger?

In other words, are there backchannel (nonpublic) contacts with your upper echelon staff or do you folks on the team discuss how to present the data so as to keep the public calm and comfortable with the data you publish and the statements on risk (or lack thereof) you present?

I have not seen any of this

Submitted by dchivers on Sat, 2011-04-16 00:49.

I have not seen any of this other than some comments from our UC media relations on our website on how we could be a bit more clearer to a non-scientific audience. In the beginning, we debated for quite some time before releasing data to ensure the context was presented simultaneously. When I say "we" I mean within our group and not with any other authorities. In our department, we are pretty flat organizationally speaking. We have a department head who deals mainly with the administration of the department and provides leadership. The department head position is kind of a rotating position that is elected from the faculty. In fact, this position is not always desirable since it comes with a huge workload over and above a professor's research. In short, each professor runs their own show and can say just about anything given their tenure status and no one really controls what we publish. However, I could see where some professors could be in conflict if they are on advisory committees or analysis teams within government or industry. This is not the case with our group with respect to Fukushima as our research and analysis interactions with the government has nothing to do with nuclear power and we mainly perform basic research on radiation detection technologies.

Thanks - and one last question re: rainwater results

Submitted by Bill (not verified) on Sat, 2011-04-16 01:00.

Very interesting and reassuring. I really do admire the openness and availability of the BRAWM team (and the patience with us all).

I myself worked some years ago with the Radiation and Public Health Project and admored the work of their teram and especially Dr. Ernest Sternglass who has been much maligned by the industry but whose credentials are impeccable (He was actually the Project Director for the joint NASA/Westinghouse Apollo Lunar Scientific Station Project until Nixon cut the program).

In any case, we were told that you had a deluge several days ago and rainwater was collected then (maybe wednesday) -- so what is the process and is there any reason for delay of the results or is it just a long process to evaluate and release them (and who on the team is responsible for getting these results posted here).

I feel like you folks gave us a lot of info quickly, but that recently there has been little in the way of new (updated or current) results on food, milk and rainwater.

Any reason for this (especially the most recent rainwater samples)?

One has to realize that this

Submitted by dchivers on Sat, 2011-04-16 01:28.

One has to realize that this is not our full-time job and that for the first two weeks we essentially put off our other work (i.e. research on grants) to provide this service. At this point, we have employed a number of students to maintain the work and provide results in an efficient manner, but they too are now catching up on homework, tests, etc. We have scripted (i.e. code) most of our analyses that we were performing pretty much in spreadsheets for the first 2 weeks and so we have become more efficient. I think some of the delay has been due to a couple of reasons, one of which was a leaking maranelli beaker of milk that forced us to clean one of our caves and so we lost that sample. I did check today on what was in the caves and rain water was being counted. Tomorrow is also Cal Day, which is basically an open house for most departments for incoming students and we had to prepare for that. No excuses, but I just wanted to convey that we are very busy normally and this is now work that is forcing a new normalcy in both our students and faculty.

Thanks, that explains a lot

Submitted by Bill (not verified) on Sat, 2011-04-16 01:39.

I figured that was the case.

HOWEVER, I have to say that your lab has proven to be one of the most useful and informative and up to date sites and sources of information anywahere in the United States.

Hopefully, you folks will get all the support you need to continue this in as in depth and comprehenizive ay possible.

The WHO said this week that the health results will not be known and must be studied for the next twenty years. YOUR lab's results will be critical to document the actual amounts of radiation detected from an unbiased source.

WITHOUT these ongoing tests and samples of milk, produce, rainwater, etc, it will be much more difficult to do the epidemiological studies which will be required in order to assess the harm or risk of harm here in the United States as a result of the Fukushima disaster.

You folks may feel that this is "just" a public service, but from where I sit this is a historic opportunity to do the long term studies of low level radiation and bioaccumulation and pathways of exposure that NO ONE else seems to really be doing.

This is a service which is not just public info but is CRITICAL to the needs of humanity.

The data is SO important not only for parents like me, but for future scientists and researchers.

So keep reminding yourselves that this is REALLY important and that the worl is watching and waiting for what you folks have to tell us.

and thanks for doing it. (Hope you get HUGE grants to continue this work too! and a device to measure for Strontium 90!)

Again

Submitted by JMS (not verified) on Sat, 2011-04-16 04:02.

Thanks for everything you guys are doing.

yes - please update results !

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 2011-04-16 01:23.

or tell us why they have slowed down.

we trust and depend on these tests.

tests

Submitted by Percy (not verified) on Sat, 2011-04-16 13:10.

Thanks for all you are doing. I'm sure you aren't the only ones monitoring, but others are not allowing free public access to results.

People, remember that these scientists have voluntarily taken on this extra work on top of their other responsibilities. They are very kind to allow us free access since that too involves extra work.

Maybe we should order them a pizza.