War. War never changes.

The end of the world occurred pretty much as we had predicted. Too many humans, not enough space or resources to go around. The details are trivial and pointless, the reasons, as always, purely human ones…

The earth was nearly wiped clean of life. A great cleansing, an atomic spark struck by human hands, quickly raged out of control. Spears of nuclear fire rained from the skies. Continents were swallowed in flames and fell beneath the boiling oceans. Humanity was almost extinguished, their spirits becoming part of the background radiation that blanketed the earth.

A quiet darkness fell across the planet, lasting many years. Few survived the devastation…

I was always fascinated with ‘Fallout: A Post Apocalyptic Nuclear Role Playing Game’ and its successors. The game pitted you against a desolate and dangerous world, once familiar yet now barely recognizable –  the remnants of a world-wise nuclear cataclysm. Roaming the wastelands crushing mutated rad-scorpions and harassing two-headed brahmin was a blast; yet however dangerous the denizens of the nuclear tundra might have been, the land itself was your deadliest opponent – a silent killer – and survival was far from guaranteed.  Luckily, your PiP-BoY 2000 (Personal Information Processor) had a handy Geiger Counter attachment, emitting a clicking sound that would grow in frequency and intensity as its sensors picked up more and more atmospheric radiation.

OK so no world wide nuclear showdown yet, but we do have the  Fukushima disaster continuing unmitigated:

Japanese experts say that Fukushima is currently releasing up to 93 billion becquerels of radioactive cesium into the ocean each day.To put in better perspective,  here it is straight from the horse’s mouth: “says Tepco’s general manager for research and development of Fukushima Daiichi decommissioning, Shunichi Suzuki, adding that “Every day we have approximately 400 metric tons of groundwater.” Some of the nuclear isotopes that are being emitted at Fukushima have half lives that span thousands of years. The projected clean up could take centuries.

No big deal right? Won’t affect us, right?

Radioactive fish are also being found off the West Coast. Alaskan seals are showing up with illnesses highly suspected of being caused by radiation poisoning (hair falling off, lesions of the skin, etc.)

Radioactive debris is starting to wash up on the Pacific Coast.

There has been a spike in infant deaths and birth defects along the west coast of America shortly following the Fukushima disaster.

A new study published in the peer-reviewed journal International Journal of Health Services alleges that 14,000 people have already died in the United States due to Fukushima.

But the government will save us, right?!

American and Canadian authorities have virtually stopped monitoring airborne radiation, and are not testing fish for radiation. (Indeed, the EPA reacted to Fukushima by raising “acceptable” radiation levels.)

Based on environmental data, here is a projection of radiation spreading from Fukushima over the next decade, which by some estimates could end up releasing 15,000 times the radiation from the Hiroshima bombing:

So!

Are you sold yet? Because the way things are going,  I think a personal Geiger counter could be the hottest must-have accessory for the next millennium. I was excited to find this one for the Arduino (the world-conscious guys who made it shipped their first batch free to Japan!)

http://www.cooking-hacks.com/documentation/tutorials/geiger-counter-arduino-radiation-sensor-board

Here is a description of how the Geiger tube (rad sensor) works:

A Geiger–Müller tube consists of a tube filled with a low-pressure (~0.1 Atm) inert gas such as helium, neon or argon (usually neon), in some cases in a Penning mixture, and an organic vapor or a halogen gas. The tube contains electrodes, between which there is a potential difference of several hundred volts (~500V), but no current flowing. The walls of the tube are either entirely metal or have their inside surface coated with a conductor to form the cathode while the anode is a wire passing up the center of the tube.

When ionizing radiation passes through the tube, some of the gas molecules are ionized, creating positively charged ions, and electrons. The strong electric field created by the tube’s electrodes accelerates the ions towards the cathode and the electrons towards the anode. The ion pairs gain sufficient energy to ionize further gas molecules through collisions on the way, creating an avalanche of charged particles.

This results in a short, intense pulse of current which passes (or cascades) from the negative electrode to the positive electrode and is measured or counted.

Connecting it seems fairly easy:

If the board is connected to Arduino, the power is taken from the 5V pin. The pulses can be counted using the interruption 0 (digital pin 2).

The LED bar is connected to these digital pins:

• LED green 0 => Digital pin 9
• LED green 1 => Digital pin 13
• LED green 2 => Digital pin 12
• LED red 0 => Digital pin 11
• LED red 1 => Digital pin 10

.

Might want to pass on the Sushi for a couple of centuries?