Workshop focuses on radiation in Southern Utah

Thursday, May 19, 2005 | 9:55 a.m.

Southern Utah residents interested in learning more about radiation and how it is monitored can attend a free workshop presented by the Desert Research Institute.

The workshop will feature a morning session from 10 a.m. until noon on Saturday at Dixie High School in St. George and an afternoon session from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Both sessions are open to the public and include refreshments.

In the morning, researchers will discuss the "ABCs of Radiation" and monitoring that is done on the Nevada Test Site. The afternoon session will focus on DRI's Community Environmental Monitoring Program, called CEMP. The community program has a Web site with real-time data on radiation levels and more information. CEMP is one of the major programs measuring radiation off the Test Site.

The first CEMP stations went up in 1981, helping to give residents living in areas surrounding the Test Site an active role in understanding and protecting their own health. Similar to a citizen-based program in Pennsylvania that began after the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor accident in 1979, CEMP was designed to help build public confidence through community involvement.

Funded by the Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration, CEMP enlists local residents at 26 sites,including St. George, Cedar City, Milford and Delta, all in Utah, to supervise and maintain an instrument package that provides visible and real-time status reports on radiation levels and weather conditions.

For more information about CEMP, go to cemp.dri.edu/.