Radiaverse maps radiation readings from RadiaCode detector owners

Radiaverse (radiaverse.com) is a shared map of radiation measurements. According to its landing page, thousands of RadiaCode owners record dose rate wherever they walk, drive and fly, and Radiaverse turns those tracks into one map, with the places worth knowing about described by the people who found them.

The mechanics are simple. A RadiaCode detector in a pocket logs dose rate and location every second. The owner publishes the recording from the RadiaCode app, and the track joins the map, anonymously if the owner prefers. Its points feed the hexagon layer that everyone sees. Users can zoom from country coverage down to single measurements. Someone who finds something can outline it as an area, add photos and context, and discuss it with others. Coverage is counted by unique cells at street resolution, so driving the same road twice does not count twice. Everything on the map is public and free to browse; an account is needed only to publish.

The page also shows what the community has added. Charts track measurements and published tracks per week over the last six months, though the text carries no figures. There are rankings of what the community has measured in each country and who is doing it, by area covered; lists of areas with photos or videos from the last month; and a list of the most liked and discussed places. A live feed shows tracks, areas, comments and likes as they happen, for example a track published with a reading of 0.07 μSv/h or lower across 1,219 points, and likes on a place called "Avram Iancu mine".

Several user-written area descriptions appear as examples. One says Aiken Canyon is a wildlife preserve with a trail ending in the ruins of an old structure that shows levels of .35 to .47 microsieverts (the source gives no time unit). Another recounts that in 1987 two waste collectors found a radiotherapy machine in an abandoned clinic, the Instituto Goiano de Radioterapia, and sold it to a scrapyard. The Budapest Research Reactor is described as an important centre for nuclear science that houses a Soviet-designed reactor in operation since 1959. A further entry says 1950s excavation of Adit #10 looked for uranium after radioactive anomalies were found, but turned up only thorium and rare earth metals. Another covers the Juomasuo and Hangaslampi gold-cobalt deposits in Kuusamo, about 40 km north of the municipal centre and 3 to 4 km southeast of the village of Käylä. A "Thorium sand mix" entry says the spot has public access and the author noticed the detector going off while seeing reddish sand. Several of these descriptions are cut off in the source.

A large part of the page is about privacy and safeguards. Tracks stay private by default, and making one public takes a separate, explicit consent. Public tracks can hide who recorded them while the measurements still count, and profiles show a nickname, never a Google or Apple name. Public tracks are held back for a day so nobody can follow a contributor in real time. Users can request a copy of their data or delete their account, and accounts inactive for 36 months are removed after a warning. Measurements with GPS accuracy worse than 15 metres are left off the map, and measurements inside protected locations are removed from public view. Moderators review new areas and edits before they go public, comments pass automatic moderation checks, and signed-in users can report any track, area or comment. Public interfaces never hand out raw GPS tracks, and scraping is rate-limited and blocked.

The call to action is to get a real detector: every track, area and map discovery starts with one, and per the page, installing the RadiaCode app makes your first walk a contribution.

Key facts

• Radiaverse is a public map built from dose-rate tracks that RadiaCode owners publish from the RadiaCode app; browsing is free and an account is needed only to publish.
• A RadiaCode detector logs dose rate and location every second; coverage counts unique street-resolution cells, so repeating a road adds nothing.
• Tracks are private by default, can be published anonymously, and public tracks appear only after a 24-hour delay.
• Measurements with GPS accuracy worse than 15 metres are dropped, protected locations are hidden, and moderators review new areas and edits.
• Users describe notable places, from the Budapest Research Reactor (in operation since 1959 per its description) to a trail-end ruin in Aiken Canyon reading .35 to .47 microsieverts.

Why it matters

Radiaverse pools the pocket-detector recordings of many hobbyists into one browsable map, and pairs the numbers with descriptions, photos and discussion written by the people who visited. The result mixes raw coverage (country-level down to single measurements) with stories about specific places: mines, a reactor, an abandoned clinic, a thorium sand spot. The site presents it as a place where curiosity meets discovery.

Who it affects

Mainly RadiaCode owners, who can publish their tracks and add areas, and anyone curious about radiation levels near them or in places they might visit, since browsing is public and free. People thinking of contributing are also affected by the privacy design: private by default, optional anonymity, a one-day delay and export or deletion on request.

How to use it

Open the map at radiaverse.com and browse; no account is needed for that. To contribute you need a RadiaCode detector and the RadiaCode app: record a walk, drive or flight, then publish the recording from the app. Publishing requires an account and a separate, explicit consent, and you can choose to stay anonymous. If you find something notable, outline it as an area, add photos and context, and discuss it with others. The page names no prices for the detector or app.

How solid is it

The only source is Radiaverse's own landing page, so everything about how the service works is the site's description of itself. The page names no founder, company or team and gives no launch date. It gives no total of tracks, measurements, users or covered area, only "thousands of RadiaCode owners". Place descriptions are written by users, and the site says moderators review new areas and edits before they go public.

Risks and caveats

The map relies on the accuracy of consumer detectors and user-written text, and the page gives no health or safety assessment of any listed location. The Aiken Canyon figure of .35 to .47 microsieverts comes with no time unit and no comparison, so it cannot be read as a dose rate or judged on its own. Whether the map works with detectors other than RadiaCode is not stated. On privacy, the site relies on defaults and delays: the 24-hour hold, GPS accuracy filtering, hidden protected locations, and no raw GPS tracks through public interfaces, with scraping rate-limited and blocked.