A new bird on the Vineyard? No, just a radiation detector
The next time you hear a pleasant chirping sound while relaxing on Martha's Vineyard, it may not be coming from a bird.
Each of the island's 59 full-time police officers have begun sporting a NukAlert (pronounced ''nuke-alert"), a key chain-sized device that chirps when it detects dangerous levels of radiation.
Law enforcement authorities on the Vineyard say there is no immediate threat of radiation to residents or the visitors who flock to the Vineyard for its soft sands, breathtaking views, and upper-crust bistros.
But police say radiation from a mainland disaster could drift downwind, for example if something happened at the Pilgrim nuclear power plant in Plymouth.
Another reason for the device, which resembles a car alarm clicker, is to stop panic if a real catastrophe occurs. ''It's best to have something to tell them that nothing is going on," said Beth Toomey, West Tisbury's police chief. ''We don't think anything negative is going to happen, but anything could happen anywhere, and this is our way of reassuring people."
Many police and fire departments have similar gadgets to detect radiation in case of a dirty bomb. Boston Emergency Medical Services has equipped all its ambulances with detectors and will soon give personal detectors to each of its 300 emergency-medical technicians and paramedics. The Boston Fire Department has ordered 200 Canberra Mini-Radiac monitors, Captain Edward Anderson said. The devices are about the size of a pack of cigarettes.
Anderson said he has heard of the NukAlerts and does not disapprove of Martha's Vineyard officers carrying them. ''This is a big concern," he said of a dirty bomb explosion.
Rick Avery, president of the the New England branch of Securitas Security Services USA, said the Vineyard isn't an obvious place for NukAlerts.
''In the normal course of police and security duties, it does come in handy," said Avery, whose firm has helped plan security for the World Series and corporate shareholder meetings. ''But given the circumstances, without some type of threat, it's not necessary."
A Chappaquiddick resident, George Gostenhofer, donated the money for the detectors, in use for a month by the island's six police departments.
Stephen Jones, a Chappaquiddick summer resident and a former nuclear arms technician for the US Navy, helped spread the word among Vineyard police chiefs about the devices. They were purchased, at $160 each, through the Arizona-based Physicians for Civil Defense, a group that advocates security. ''It sounds just like a bird," said Jones, 54.
And Jones said that can raise the question: ''Is it a bird outside, or is it my NukAlert going off?"
Jones was a consultant for KI4U Inc., the Texas company that invented the device.
Sometimes the NukAlert beeps when Toomey exits her air-conditioned car, because it notices a temperature change. ''It's a really pleasant sound," she said. ''It's like, 'I'm here; I'm just letting you know I'm working.' "
But if the sound escalated to 10 chirps in a row, that would not be pleasant. That would mean radiation exposure was imminent within a couple of hours, Jones said.
Nantucket does not have the NukAlerts. Fire Chief Everett Pierce said Nantucket is safe with early-warning systems instituted by the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, which notifies communities of threats. ''I think it's one of those things that are nice to have," Pierce said of NukAlerts. ''But there are so many things today that are nice to have."
