Conn. radiation expert helped after Japan meltdown

COLCHESTER, Conn. (AP) - One of his radiation detection gadgets made a cameo appearance on "CSI Miami," but Paul Steinmeyer's work also played a key real-life role after last year's deadly tsunami in Japan.

Working from the small Hebron business started by his father, Steinmeyer — a self-described nerd with a passion for math, software programming and electronics — developed specialized equipment to help locate contamination in the aftermath of the meltdowns and radiation releases at Japan's Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant after the earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011.

Steinmeyer, of Colchester, is a health physicist with Radiation Safety Associates.

Health physics is "the science of protecting people from the effects of radiation," he said.

Steinmeyer learned almost immediately after the tsunami that his skills were needed.

"The whole physics community is fairly small," he said. "When something like this happens, the phone starts ringing."

He started hearing from companies that had people at the site of the reactors that had purchased radiation detection gear prior to the accident.

"Now they need to actually understand them. 'I've got this number, what does it mean? Does it mean I should evacuate, or not worry about it?'" he said.

Berkeley Nucleonics Corp. of California, a company that makes precision test and measurement devices, has a large customer base in Japan.

"They had people pretty quickly on the spot," he said. "I wrote software for them for their instrument, which was an identifier, and made it possible to test soil and food samples."

Another company, Chesapeake Nuclear Services, asked Steinmeyer to design a specialized scanner to detect radiation quickly in large soil samples and bulk material.

"The Sunday that Fukushima hit, they sold the entire inventory," he said. "They had back orders of 10,000 within a couple of weeks."

Steinmeyer put the radiation release into context with the larger tragedy of the tsunami, which killed thousands and wiped out whole villages.

"No one died from the radiation," he said. "A few people got burns from not using safety equipment and walking through puddles."

Still, he recognizes the scope of the disaster and its effect on people living near it.

"They evacuated towns within about a 10-kilometer radius," he said. "They'll be tracking this population for a long time to come. The Japanese utility has committed to screening them for the rest of their lives."

A year later, Steinmeyer remains connected to what he said will probably be a decade of cleanup.

"Within my group, it's absolutely active, and it's going to be for a long time," he said.

It will take time for the reactor to cool, Steinmeyer said.

"They're going to have to address the area around it. There's going to have to be cleanup done," he said.

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Information from: Norwich Bulletin