Vancouver Island readings 2011 - 2015 jump

Today, I accessed the Health Canada radiation monitoring site. They list the total air KERMA (Kenetic Energy Released in Matter) for each month.
Took their data from 2011 & 2015 for an area 60 kilometres south of me on Vancouver Island, Metchosin, near Victoria.
The listed data showed a total air KERMA above 8,000 in 2011. Now, for 2015, it is over 16,000.
People should check out this site and see the typical "don't worry, be happy" comments they posted for 2011, regarding the Fukishima disaster. They show no Iodine-131, yet Simon Fraser University in Vancouver measured large increases of 131I in seaweed only weeks after the first melt-down.
Don't you just love government information?


I do believe this is a significant increase, yes?adjoining

For anybody interested in checking the "Health Canada" radiation numbers, here is the humungus link to the "Canadian Radiological Monitoring Network".
My location, Duncan, is halfway between Nanaimo and Victoria.
Curiously, their background (KERMA) averages for Victoria are much lower than those posted for Victoria by TRIUMF, (Tri University Meson Facility) at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver.

www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ewh-semt/contaminants/radiation/crmn-rcsr/index-eng.php

Hope somebody can make better sense out of the data...

Their external Gamma dose (Kerma ) readings are made at the rate of once every 3 months per site. Rain samples are collected monthly and are analyzed for radioactivity "when required". Air filter samples at least are all analyzed, either daily or weekly depending on the site. Publishing all this the data however is only quarterly from what I can find. This site shows the latest data (and 'quarterly' seems to be a bit loosely defined as there is no 2016 data yet).

Interestingly, in 2015 the values for Argon-41, Xenon-133 and Xenon-135 are remarkably higher than everywhere else at the 2 sites in the Ottawa Valley closest to the Chalk River Laboratories where medical isotopes are made (Deep River and Sheenboro). Same every year going back to August 2010. Makes me want to find out what changed then.

Yes, I just love government.

Post-submission addendum: I found out what occurred in August 2010; the research reactor was re-started after a lengthy overhaul.

I used Google and got this Wikipedia article. 2009 onwards.
In mid-May 2009 the heavy water leak at the base of the NRU reactor vessel, first detected in 2008, returned at a greater rate and prompted another temporary shutdown that lasted until August 2010. The lengthy shutdown was necessary to first completely defuel the entire reactor, then ascertain the full extent of the corrosion to the vessel, and finally to effect the repairs — all with remote and restricted access from a minimum distance of 8 metres due to the residual radioactive fields in the reactor vessel. The 2009 shutdown occurred at a time when only one of the other four worldwide regular medical isotope sourcing reactors was producing, resulting in a worldwide shortage.
Defueling a reactor? Would explain a spike, but the prolonged high readings over years?

When I copy the KERMA data, I get 12 averages for each Vancouver Island city or location, one for each month. As I understand, the readings are continuous, averaged each month, then posted each quarter. The January to March won't be up until some time in April.

I've been comparing government dose data from various resources. The Health Canada CRMN statistics, Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) , Natural Resources Canada, and the TRIUMF UBC web page. Few if any of their numbers agree. Some differences are significant. These are for average cosmic radiation in mSv/A (millisieverts per year), radon mSv/A, and Terrestrial mSv/A. I pulled the values into Excel for Vancouver and Victoria B.C to compare them. Cosmic radiation for Vancouver and Victoria should be nearly identical, since both cities are at sea level, but not so according to different tables.

For radon, the CNSC table shows Victoria having 0.9 mSv/A radon, while Natural Resources shows 0.61 mSv/A.

Like the CRMN KERMA numbers, who can tell? No wonder amateurs can get confusing results with widely varying pieces of equipment. Expensive government commissions, departments and ministries don't even agree.

As a follow-up to the Canadian Government's published radiation measurement data, the cross-Canada measurements from the first quarter of 2016 (January to March) are still not published. I hope someday they move to a near-real-time system like USA and EU (not holding my breath).