Quote Originally Posted by undgrd
Denver will always be higher because of elevation.
Quote Originally Posted by lapis View Post
It's now at 74. Does that mean it's getting more of the Japanese radiation than the west coast?

Radiation in Denver versus Tokyo...

According to this, the total annual background exposure in Denver is 11.8 MILLIsieverts per year, which is 11,800 microsieverts per year, which is 32 microsieverts per day, which is 1.3 microsieverts per hour.
http://isis-online.org/risk/tab7
Current rate in Tokyo is 0.049 microsieverts per hour. The Denver rate is 27 times the current Tokyo rate, primarily due to radon gas in Denver, but that is not quite right and is an overestimate because it depends what is included and excluded, outdoors versus indoors, etc.


The International Commission on Radiological Protection recommends evacuation of a locality whenever the excess radiation dose exceeds .1 rem per year. But that's one-third of what I call the "Denver dose." Applied strictly, the ICRP standard would seem to require the immediate evacuation of Denver.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...444059332.html

Suffering from Rocky Flats...

Denver suffers from the long term effects of the incident at Rocky Flats where they used to manufacture the triggers for Hydrogen bombs, (small saucer shaped ingots of Plutonium). A similar event to that here in the UK some years earlier at Calder Hall, where the dust filters were contaminated with radioactive dust and caught fire.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Flats_Plant
http://www.lm.doe.gov/rocky_flats/Sites.aspx