June 18 Program: Fukushima, Radiation and Our Public Health
Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, Fukushima Daiichi. Though Three Mile Island was significantly smaller, all three locations have become synonymous with nuclear events. Wednesday, June 18, Ralph Smith will introduce CSU Assistant Professor of Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences, Dr. Alex Brandt, to discuss the short and long-term radiological impacts observed and expected in the Fukushima area, and potential public health impacts in the United States. He will also touch on Chernobyl, and the effects of nuclear weapons testing in the western US...
The March 2011 magnitude 9.0 earthquake moved Honshu, Japan’s main island, almost 8 feet east, and caused a tsunami with waves up to 40m (133 feet). The tsunami flooded large areas of Honshu’s coastal regions, triggering a series of events at Fukushima Daiichi that destroyed three of the six reactor buildings, damaged three of the six reactors, and released significant amounts of radioactive materials. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident has been rated 7 (the highest level, termed “major accident”) on the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) International Nuclear Event Scale (INES).
Alex Brandl was born and raised in Austria, and swam for the Austrian team at the 1992 Olympics. There he was recruited to swim for the University of New Mexico and completed his BS, MS and Ph.D. degrees in physics from the UNM. Since 2010 he has taught Radiological Physics and Dosimetry (the calculation and assessment of radiation received by the human body), and Radiation Public Health at CSU. Between UNM and CSU, Dr. Brandl worked for the Austrian Research Center and was head of the Operational Safety Department at ARC’s Nuclear Engineering Seibersdorf. He has served on advisory panels for the Austrian government and the European Commission, and has been on IAEA international nuclear safety assessment missions. His research focuses on issues related to dosimetry, radioactivity measurements, environmental monitoring, and radionuclide dispersion and transport in the environment, and emergency response. He and his American-born wife Kathrine live in Fort Collins.