Citizen Scientists Track Radiation in Ukraine's War Zones
Citizen science, where volunteers with or without scientific training contribute to science-based projects, energizes thousands of ongoing operations world-wide. Volunteers might report bird sightings to track biodiversity or use their personal computers to help classify galaxies. Few of these efforts are directly related to emergency situations. But the Safecast citizen science group was born in response to a major nuclear crisis in Japan—the 2011 disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Safecast is now bringing its expertise in radiation monitoring to Ukraine in partnership with SaveDnipro, a Ukrainian non-profit that disseminates environmental data. They hope to provide warnings if the Russian invasion of Ukraine triggers similar catastrophes.In March 2011 a tsunami severely damaged Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant, which released radioactive materials that forced the evacuation of more than 100,000 people. Safecast soon formed to build portable radiation sensors and to do its own data collecting about radiation levels; the group hoped to provide independent information sources for an anxious populace. Safecast’s Azby Brown, a designer and academic who was born in the United States but has long been based in Japan, experienced the Fukushima event. “I was scared,” he recalls, “I had a small child and wife.” He stresses the lack of reliable information even six months later. This uncertain situation led him to join Safecast, and he has since become its lead researcher. Now, with military activity threatening Ukraine’s nuclear power plants, Safecast and SaveDnipro volunteers have established a radiation monitoring network. One worrisome location is the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ), the essentially uninhabited 2,600-square-kilometer site of history’s worst nuclear accident, the Chernobyl reactor explosion of 1986. Ukraine also has four operating nuclear plants including Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP), Europe’s biggest. Russian troops took over the CEZ immediately after they invaded in February 2022, then later occupied ZNPP. The risk of a radioactive release as a result of military action at these sites has alarmed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), especially after a fire and a nearby drone strike at ZNPP in recent weeks—fortunately without the release of radiation. Aware of these nuclear concerns, Safecast contacted SaveDnipro soon after the Russian invasion. SaveDnipro’s technical director, Pavlo Tkachenko, says he first learned of Safecast through a Twitter message from Azby Brown. Apprehensive about the CEZ and ZNPP, Tkachenko requested mobile radiation monitors from Safecast to gather the first data after Russian troops left the CEZ in March 2022 (findings that showed no increased radiation). This collaboration inspired plans for a full network with 100 new units permanently monitoring radiation in real time throughout Ukraine.
A Radnote radiation detector keeps watch in Lviv, Ukraine. Azby Brown/Safecast In May 2024, Azby Brown and several collaborators arrived in Ukraine to install the first batch of Safecast’s Radnote sensors. Two of the team members, Ray and Neil Ozzie, are leaders of a company called Blues Inc. that specializes in internet-of-things connectivity and that provided the assembled Radnote sensors. Safecast lead engineer Joe Moross, who has long worked in radiation monitoring through a family business and through Safecast’s Fukushima effort, tells Spectrum in an email that the device is a weather-proof, book-sized unit weighing less than a kilogram (1.9 pounds). Its solar panel, power cell, and rechargeable batteries provide reliable stand-alone power for a Geiger counter even under emergency conditions. The radiation data goes to a power-efficient Blues Notecard, which uploads it in real time at intervals that can be adjusted to either conserve power or track fast-changing radiation levels. After testing the units for eight months, Moross believes they’ll last for ten years or more.On August 5, 2024, Safecast and SaveDnipro announced the installation and activation of the first 25 detectors at varied locations, shown at SaveDnipro’s site SaveEcoBot. The effort overcame the challenges of working during wartime, in poor weather, and during air raid alerts. Moross tells Spectrum that “it is impossible to overstate the importance of SaveDnipro and Pavlo Tkachenko” in finding sensor sites, managing logistics, and gaining local cooperation. Tkachenko says that personal contacts with officials and ordinary Ukrainians made it possible to install the sensors in record time, and also built “the main thing…trust from the community.” Brown also emphasizes the importance of individual interactions to smooth the path for independent citizen-based organizations. “It takes one person inside the [government] agency who ‘gets it’ to make things happen,” he says, adding that “often it’s not going to be the top decision maker but a technical person who understands.” From his experience with Safecast, Brown says, he has learned that “there’s a tremendous amount of good will on the part of citizens who want to participate.” He says this energy should be tapped by educating citizens and giving them tasks “that they feel are meaningful and will be valued.”
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