I got a Science article offlist on Fukushima. It sums up public efforts to monitor and report areas far from Fukushima and found `hot' spots and higher levels of radiation. A volunteer plotted the 6300 data points and discovered two band like areas. One reached south 225 kilometers to outskirts of Toyko. The other southwest. The radiation level was 0.4 microsieverts per hour, or 3.5 millisieverts per year.
Earlier this year I was trying to read up on radiation, doses, and diseases associated with exposures. It's pretty difficult to study. Even the units of measure are confusing. Here is the wiki on ionizing radiation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionizing_radiation#Ionizing_radiation_level_examples
About the time I thought I had sorted it out, it was already clear the Japanese government was lying to protect TEPCO. The IAEA was waffling and probably compromized. The Union of Concerned Scientists seemed helpful but also seemed on the overly cautious and conservative side. I thought well maybe that's okay because UCS didn't want to be wrong and it takes awhile to gather information and write it up. They have their own political agenda, which is to protect the integrity of their reports in another areas they monitor such as global warming.
Almost all the information here in the US seems pretty suspect. The Japanese disaster interconnects a lot of social, political and economic interests that are more concerned about covering up the consequences than serving the public interest. That same institutional system innerconect is even more concerned in the US about covering up bad news about nuclear power, the environment, and global warming.
The article in Science went on to say that academic scientists and citizen groups were petitioning the university system to provide correct information and post detailed studies to the public. They make mention of understandable explanations about the effects low dose radiation.
I had to laugh a little about petitioning the (Japanese) university. Here UCB closed their biophysics dept back in 1991-2 during Wilson's budget cuts. So the very people who could produce solid and hopefully clear information are not around anymore. The other potential source of information is Lawrence Berkeley Lab which, when it wants, can produce really good graphics. That lab was founded to develop nuclear weapons. Then that division was split off to Lawrence Livermore. LBL converted to `peaceful' uses like nuclear power. So their science is probably compromised.
Other problems. Looking around there seems to be a lot of information on the Fukushima plants and what is and isn't happening. At the moment it sounds to me like they have the China Syndrome---or should I say the California Syndrome? I can't quite construct the 3-D world solid and draw straight lines through it....But there is very little on what all that information means for the people
CG