Ambient office  = 53 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 88 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 89 nanosieverts per hour

Iceberg lettuce from Central Market = 77 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 92 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 88 nanosieverts per hour

Part 1 of 2 Parts
         The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reports that they are now moving away from planning for the aftermath of small nuclear detonations in U.S. cities carried out by terrorists to planning for big nuclear detonations over sixty of the biggest U.S. cities by “state actors.” A two-day National Academy of Sciences workshop for public health officials and emergency response groups is currently being held at the NAS headquarters. This shift is at least partly because of the threat now posed by North Korea.
       Luis Garcia is the chief of FEMA’s chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear branch. He recently told a reporter that their focus is on one hundred to one thousand kiloton detonations. The current nuclear detonation guidance for emergency planners was released by FEMA in 2010. These guidelines were related to one to ten kiloton blasts which would be smaller than the nuclear detonations at Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of WW II. Following the attack on 9/11, it seemed reasonable to focus on nuclear attacks by terrorists which would likely be small bombs.
       When N.K. tested a thermonuclear device last year that was estimated to be in the range of two hundred and fifty kilotons, planners realized that they had to start thinking in terms of big nuclear detonations over U.S. cities. Cham Dallas of the Institute for Disaster Management at the University of Georgia told the attendees at the NAS workshop, “The North Koreans have really changed the calculus. We really have to look at thermonuclear now.”
       At the NAS workshop, Dallas speculated that a rough estimate of the deaths that would result from an urban detonation of a nuclear device could be derived by multiplying one hundred thousand by twice the number of megatons in the bomb. This would mean that if a one megaton device were detonated over a major city, there would be about two hundred thousand fatalities. There would also be many survivors with major burns and radiation caused illnesses.
       The new guidelines will apply to the sixty largest U.S. cities. They will be based on newer detonation models developed at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) . These new models include weather patterns that will direct and distort the clouds of fallout from a detonation. They also include estimates of the shelter provide by concrete buildings. A representative of LLNL said, “A 10 times larger [explosion] yield does not make things 10 times worse.” If people remain in shelters for hours or days after a detonation, there will be fewer cases of radiation sickness.
       There are also other contingencies that are taken into account in the new LLNL model. There might be cyberattacks that accompany nuclear attacks. Infrastructure such as power plants or cell phone systems could be crippled. Another possibility is that a single nuclear detonation could be triggered and then blackmail messages could follow with the threat of more detonations if terms are not met. Garcia responded to an audience question that FEMA had also considered a scenario in which a nuclear bomb detonation, a cyberattack, an electromagnetic pulse and a biological weapon release all occurred at the same time somewhere in the U.S.
Please read Part 2

Ambient office  = 60 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 59 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 63 nanosieverts per hour

Avocado from Central Market = 66 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 108 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 100 nanosieverts per hour

      One of the big fears of the national security establishment in the U.S. is the threat of the detonation of a nuclear device in a U.S. city by a terrorist group. Radioactive materials are tightly controlled in the U.S. by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. If terrorists are unable to obtain nuclear materials within the U.S., then they might attempt to smuggle them into the U.S. in a cargo container.
       Port security in the U.S. has struggled for years to increase the inspection of cargo containers entering the U.S. at points of entry. Currently, the U.S. authorities use computers to review the manifests of cargo containers bound for the U.S. Any cargo containers that arouse suspicion are x-rayed and tested for neutron emissions before being allowed to enter the U.S.
      A team of chemists and physicists from Washington University in St. Louis is working on a better computer chip that will help improve radiation detection in cargo shipments entering the U.S. They are working with Texas A&M University as part of a five year ten million dollar grant for research in low-energy nuclear science. The money is being provided by the Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration’s (DOE/NNSA) Center for Excellence in Nuclear Training and University-based Research.
       Robert J. Charity and Lee G. Sobotka at Washington University are working on a new approach for neutron detection that includes the design and construction of a new type of computer chip. George Engel, a professor at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville, is helping with the design of the chip.
       Sobotka said, “The problem with existing neutron detectors is that they are too big to get fine position information. They needed to be big to get the required detection efficiency. The solution is to have many — tens of thousands — of small detectors. This had not been contemplated before as it requires a signal processing stream for each of the small detectors.”
        Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) are the basis of data processing in computers, cell phones and other electronic devices. These sophisticated chips are designed and fabricated for the very specific efficient processing needed by a particular device for a particular application. The design and fabrication are complex and scientists don’t usually use ASICs for prototypes of devices.
        Two ASIC chips designed by the researchers will be used in combination with a particular organic crystal in their neutron detector. They will then carry out high-resolution experiments with neutron sources that cannot be accomplished with current technology.
       In addition to improving the detection of neutrons during the inspection of cargo, the new device containing the new chips and organic crystal will also advance our understanding of atomic nuclei. The new device will allow the researchers to improve the current model of the distribution of neutrons in the nuclei of heavy metals such as uranium and plutonium.
       Any improvement in neutron detection that can be successfully scaled to industrial production and economic price points will be a boon to insuring national security and prevent the smuggling of radioactive materials.

Ambient office  = 97 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 119 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 114 nanosieverts per hour

Carrot from Central Market = 108 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 100 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 87 nanosieverts per hour

       A Radioactive Dispersal Device (RDD) is consists of a conventional explosive that is surrounded by a shell of radioactive material. If such a device is detonated in a dense urban area, the explosion itself will have little effect but the radioactive materials will be dispersed over a wide area and threaten the health of millions of people. It is highly likely that the city would have to be abandoned at great cost in both money and human suffering. This type of bomb is also referred to as a “dirty” bomb.
       Whenever a moderate quantity of radioactive materials from any source vanishes, there is great concern that it may have been stolen by or may be sold to terrorists for the purpose of making a dirty bomb for a terrorist attack. Even if the material was lost or stolen by people who do not know what they have, it could still pose a danger because if the shielding container is broken or deliberately opened, it could threaten the health of people in vicinity.
      There are many possible sources for radioactive materials. Radioactive materials are widely used in research, medicine and industry. Oil and gas companies often use isotopes such as iridium-192 in their exploration and exploitation of reserves of oil and natural gas that they are fracking or intend to frack. The isotope is injected into the well and then detectors are used to find out how the fracking of the Earth is proceeding.
       Malaysia is a monarchy in Southeast Asia. There are thirteen states and three federal territories separated into roughly equal parts by the South China Sea. Malaysia has a population of about thirty million people. They have major reserves of oil and gas which are used for energy production. Exploration and fracking are carried out at a number of locations. Iridium-192 is sometimes used for this purpose.
       Nuclear materials in Malaysia are regulated by the Atomic Energy Licensing Board which is currently searching for a device that contains Iridium-192. The device belongs to a company that provides tests, calibrations and inspections to oil and gas companies, power plants and companies in other industries. The device weighs about fifty pounds and is worth around eighteen thousand U.S. dollars. Ir-192 has a half-life of seventy-three days.
       Two employees of the company loaded the device into a pickup truck to take to a job site. When they returned from the job site after completing their work, they found that the device was missing from the bed of the truck. They claimed that they have not stopped anywhere on the way back. The tailgate was down when they got back, and the device may have fallen out of the truck. The employees immediately retraced their steps but found nothing. A search by authorities also yielded no results.
       The authorities do not know whether this is an accident or a theft. As mentioned above, there is a danger that the contents of the device could be used to make a dirty bomb. Iridium-192 is a very popular isotope for thieves interested in making a dirty bomb.
       There have been terrorist attacks by Islamic extremists since 2000 in Malaysia. In 2015, Malaysia arrested terrorists affiliated with ISIS. Terrorists from the Middle East have tried to buy radioactive isotopes to make a dirty bomb before. If the Ir-192 was stolen and finds its way to terrorists, there could be dirty bomb attack in Malaysia.
 

Ambient office  = 103 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 101 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 103 nanosieverts per hour

Carrot from Central Market = 70 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 93 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 84 nanosieverts per hour