Experts work to measure effects of Japanese radiation

It happened halfway around the world, but Japan’s nuclear crisis could be raising radiation levels at UNC.

But students and researchers who found low levels of radiation in the air above Phillips Hall stressed there is no need for alarm.

A group from the physics and astronomy department detected the radiation March 19. Members of the team believe it might have drifted to the University from a damaged nuclear reactor in Japan.

In order to detect the radiation, researchers had to create extremely specialized equipment that could screen specifically for radioactive isotopes like Iodine-131 and Iodine-132 that a reactor would emit into the atmosphere.

“Natural radiation is in everything,” said Reyco Henning, one of the professors supervising the research team. “It has absolutely no medical implications whatsoever.

“You need very specialized equipment to detect the radiation. It would normally be lost in a sea of radioactivity.”

Henning and his colleagues are collaborating with researchers at universities across the nation to chart the way radiation from Japan is moving across the United States.

Members of the team hope to eventually publish a paper with their findings.

“People in Japan will definitely have long-term problems that they will have to deal with and the people on-site will be sick,” Henning said.

“But the amount of radiation drops off rapidly with distance. Here in the U.S., we don’t have anything to worry about.”

Fewer than 25 miles away from Chapel Hill, Progress Energy operates the Shearon Harris Nuclear Power Plant.

Plant spokeswoman Julia Milstead said the plant has operated without major incident since 1987 — but that doesn’t mean local residents are not prepared for the worst.

“We work hard to make sure that residents who live and work closest to the plant are aware of our safety protocol,” Milstead said.

In addition to distributing safety brochures, the plant tests its warning sirens every three months, and residents in the surrounding areas can hear the signal.

Though safety measures are in place, patients would likely be transported to UNC Hospitals in the event of an emergency, Milstead said.

“What happened in Japan could happen elsewhere. In theory, the catastrophic loss of coolant could happen at any nuclear power plant if the right factors were present,” said Dalton Sawyer, emergency preparedness coordinator for UNC Health Care.

He said the hospital has an emergency radiation protocol in place to treat and contain patients who enter with radiation poisoning.

Sawyer said stories in the media usually overemphasize detections of trace amounts of radiation without giving any context, which makes area residents unnecessarily worried.

He added that radiation is naturally found everywhere — it’s in the ground and our bodies produce it but that doesn’t mean it’s unhealthy.

“Everything with radiation is relative,” Sawyer said. “Radiation scares people because they can’t smell it, they can’t see it and, by and large, they can’t feel it.”

He said that while chemical agents in the air can be masked or mistaken for other compounds, elevated radiation levels are easily identifiable.

Sawyer said knowing that radiation has caused a patient’s symptoms makes it easier to treat them.

“From a disaster standpoint, once you detect it, you know it’s there. In that regard, it’s a lot easier to manage because there’s nothing else that it can be.”

Contact the University Editor at university@dailytarheel.com.