From Dominica Vibes News

A new nuclear radiation monitoring station went online on 12 October 2015 in Dominica to monitor the levels of radiation on the island.

Members of the public can now view and follow most recently updated data from Dominica at the Nuclear Emergency Tracking Center (NETC) via its website www.netc.com.

The NETC station in Dominica is maintained as a public service by Dr. James Keene who has been residing for some 22 years in Glanvillia near Portsmouth.

“At the NETC web site, if you grab the map with your mouse, you can move it to display the Dominica site,” said Dr. Keene. “Then click on the icon over Dominica to see most recent data available.”

Speaking with Dominica Vibes on Tuesday 13 October 2015, Dr Keene said that with the high levels of radiation released in the air following the Fukushima disaster in Japan, it is prudent that Dominica monitors its radiation level.

“With the Fukushima disaster it’s of interest to see when radiation arrives here in Dominica…It arrives in two ways; in the rain coming down or in the ocean. The radiation has arrived to the west coast of the US and fishing animals are dying like crazy here,” Dr Keene said.

According to Keene, while Dominica may not suffer from high levels of radiation in years to come, radiation monitoring may be of interest from many points of view. The arrival of measurable radiation from the Fukushima disaster, he noted, might be identified.

“This historic pulse and continuing release of nuclear radiation may arrive in the Dominica area by travel of deadly particles in ocean currents or in rain fall,” Dr. Keene said.

Other sources of potentially deadly radiation, Dr Keene said, might be detected such as illegal dumping of nuclear waste in the sea near Dominica, or toxic radiation in imported items including food, as well as seafood.

Dr Keene noted that after testing rain water here it appears that “we are not getting a lot of ration in rain but the radiation from Fukushima has already circles the entire earth”.
He called on persons who may have concerns about the radiations levels of items being imported into Dominica to get into contact with him to test these items.

“Anyone who has suspicion that products, which are imported into Dominica may have radiation, they can contact me to check whether the products are radioactive. There are Japanese cars here that could be contaminated,” Dr Keene said.

“I am not sure if our government is checking food imports. In Fukushima they are producing radioactive rice for export. Our being a little island, some people may want to take advantage of us and dump the radioactive food here … for health reasons you don’t want to get radiation in your body and you can get it from breathing and by eating contaminated foods ,” Dr Keene added.

Dr Keene may be contacted via email address [email protected].

IMAGE: dominica_netc_station

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