In March 2014, the Radiation and Public Health Project organized a citizen radiation monitoring network near the Oyster Creek nuclear plant. The plant consists of a reactor 60 miles south of midtown Manhattan – the oldest of the 100 U.S. reactors. Local activist Janet Tauro developed the idea.
The network involves citizens recording airborne radiation levels, using hand-sized monitoring devices. RPHP purchased 6 of these devices (model CRM-100), and gave them to interested citizens near the plant, located at Brick, Lakehurst, LaVallette, Toms River, and Waretown. A 6th counter is located at Ocean City, which is considered unexposed because of distance /upwindth
direction from Oyster Creek.
Counters are hooked up to citizens’ computers, and they collect data by turning the counters on while the computer is running.
As of October 2014, the program had accumulated more than 500,000 minutes of data.