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Turning to the people: RDTN.org provides current radiation readings from people in Japan

they launched RDTN.org, a site that allows anyone in Japan to report radiation levels in their location.

Rick Turoczy on March 20, 2011

The world has been overwhelmed by the nuclear situation in Japan. Portland is no different. But getting accurate information about what’s actually happening has been difficult to say the least. That’s why we’ve been turning to citizen journalists like yokosonews.tv to get more insight into the story.

But what about radiation levels? What’s really happening there? Well, Uncorked Studios here in Portland thought that giving the people of Japan a way to report radiation levels seemed like the best way to answer that question. And 72 hours later, they launched RDTN.org, a site that allows anyone in Japan to report radiation levels at their location.

We too have been watching events unfold in Japan. We have created this site in an effort to display the reliable data readings as they become available. While we are careful to evaluate new data sources, we welcome new reliable data from those on the ground in this crisis.


How? Well, the folks at Mashable provide an explanation.

The site, RDTN.org, urges its visitors to purchase a radiation detection device, take readings in their area, and then post those readings to the site for all to see. To submit those readings, the site offers a form to enter which equipment was used, when the reading was taken, and the longitude and latitude of the location.

Then, the purveyors of the site plan to add that data to places on its map, coordinating it with readings from the government. They hope the result will be a more detailed and timely look at radiation levels throughout the country. Says the site, “With conflicting reports of radiation levels in affected areas, we wanted to build a way to report and see data in an unbiased format.”

For more information, visit RDTN.org or follow @rdtnorg on Twitter.

Published by Rick Turoczy

More than mildly obsessed with the Portland startup community. Founder and editor at Silicon Florist. Cofounder and general manager at PIE. Follow me on Twitter: @turoczy

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    […] you’ve tuned into Silicon Florist over the past couple of weeks, you’re likely familiar with RDTN.org. But where are they going from here? Uncorked Studios has learned many lessons from the differences […]

  2. There’s no such thing as bad press: Portland startups featured by Time Magazine, New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Jimmy Fallon « Silicon Florist March 25, 2011 at 11:34 am

    […] wasn’t monologue material. Following the crisis in Japan, led Time to RDTN.org, the weekend project designed to help the people of Japan measure and track radiation levels, which has gained international attention as being one of the few sources for information about the […]

  3. Jim March 21, 2011 at 11:14 am

    Here’s to hoping that this scare is just that! By all means, we should all be taking the proper precautions.

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