Government View Live Feed of Southern California Radiation Levels as Japan's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Crisis Worsens

As U.S. Environmental Protection Agency scientists have identified in Southern California from the earthquake and tsunami damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan, environmental journalist Michael Collins has setup a live video stream of radiation monitoring equipment stationed in Santa Monica, CA.

According to Collins’ EnviroReporter blog, the levels observed by the monitoring equipment thus far are mostly in line with normal background radiation levels present before the Japanese disaster began.

Responding to the question “When should I be worried?” in the Frequently Asked Question section beneath his live Ustream video feed, Collins says,

 “A range of normal background radiation at this location at this time over several days has been determined to be between 40 to 46 CPM.

“Should radiation measured by the Inspector begin to rise to double background, we will be concerned. If the measurements go to triple background and above for a sustained period of time in the next few days, we might deduce that this may be coming from the Japan nuclear disaster.”

The New York Times reported Wednesday that “seawater near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant shows significantly higher levels of radioactive iodine than in recent days.”

The article also states that the Tokyo Electric Power Company has said it will completely scrap four of the plant’s six reactors in an emergency effort to contain the disaster.

Furthermore, Russian television news network Russia Today is reporting that Japanese officials are now considering building a containment dome around the ailing plant, and called the incident the worst atomic crisis since Chernobyl.