Fukushima

[Raymond Fries]

If you think this is over...

...think again.

We have been following this ever since the disaster. Thousands of gallons of waste have been pouring into the ocean every day and it has now reached the west coast.

And now this:

http://www.occupycorporatism.com/tep...3-melting-now/

Hope the wind shifts and it stays over the ocean...

I do not understand why this disaster has been ignored.

Thoughts?

[Todd Burch]

I suppose TEPCO has been lying about the criticality of this, and reports about the true devastation that will become of this have been suppressed.

When I read "it will fry North America", that's a bit vague. Surely it's already "frying" Japan, whatever that means.

I mean, though, it's not like we can say "Excuse me - can you stop the planet - I would like to get off now." What can be done?

I say, if a government, or mankind, can't take responsibility for controlling a technology, they ought not be allowed to use it.

What were they thinking? "Let's put a nuclear reactor right on the edge of the Pacific Rim and hope we never have a earthquake."

Will future generations forgive us?

[David Weaver]

I can't figure out what's right and what's fiction in that, mostly because it's hard to dodge all of the advertisements and attempts to generate ad revenue (what I'm saying is it appears to be sensationalized to a fairly significant degree).

It also looks like the picture that they use at the top of the article is not representative of what fukushima looks like right now, but you wouldn't put an honest picture on an article that was sensationalized.

I would personally wait a little bit before deciding that there's going to be a killing fallout is worth worrying about.

TEPCO has not been forthright about information, and the result has been worse than they suggested, as michio kaku suggested right away, but I'd like to see fanatical blog entries substantiated a little better.

[Mark Bolton]

If you do a bit of reading it seems that there is a very high likelihood that this is bunk. Even TEPCO has a live video feed from the site (which of course could be faked but Im not a tin-foil hatter). It seems most of the videos and data posts pertaining to this are years old and its cobbled together.

It sure seems to me like its a bit suspicious (the claim). That said, we (the world) are still dealing with the fact that there have been three confirmed meltdowns there. Far from a good situation.

[Jim Matthews]

I'm no radiologist, but the poison is in the dose.

The amount of fissile or gamma emitting material involved compared to the Pacific ocean is vast.
The concentration falls with the square of the distance.

It's bad, that's true. It's not so clear that the current conditions threaten life and limb in the US.

This likely means the end of light water plants that relied on backup cooling systems located below flood levels.

I can't see what the Japanese could have done differently, as they followed the state of the art when commissioning these plants.

They're a proven GE design, which is very reliable.

It bears mentioning that Plutonium was used in concentrations of 6% in the latest fuel rods, and it's unknown how much of that has escaped.

It would be revealing to known how much the standard daylight exposure to radiation is, from sunlight as compared to this source.

I would hazard a guess that airline pilots are exposed to more radiation in a year of flying than most of us will attribute to
this exposure, over a natural lifetime. But that's just a SWAG.

[Raymond Fries]

I agree that the article may be sensationalized. Most media do that as they want the biggest reaction as possible. I doubt this is bunk. I have read post after post from other sources about thousands of gallons of waste dumped into the ocean every day since the disaster happened. I saw a video several days ago with a guy on the beach in San Francisco with a geiger counter. The device picked up radation levels that told him to get away. I have read posts of radioactive fish from the Pacific. It is real and it is pretty bad in my opinion. Hopefully, the ocean and the distance from Japan will protect us from something horrible. If 89 tons of fuel rods melt, it will cause a pretty bad blow to the environment.

[Dave Sheldrake]

A lot of fear comes from a lack of understanding of Nuclear Physics,

Imagine three sources

Uranium - 238 with a half life of 4.46 BILLION years

Bismuth - 209 with a half life of 1 BILLION x the estimated age of the universe

Iodine - 131 with a half life of 8 days

which one is more immediately dangerous?

cheers

Dave

[Pat Barry]

A lot of fear comes from a lack of understanding of Nuclear Physics,

Imagine three sources

Uranium - 238 with a half life of 4.46 BILLION years

Bismuth - 209 with a half life of 1 BILLION x the estimated age of the universe

Iodine - 131 with a half life of 8 days

which one is more immediately dangerous?

cheers

Dave

Gee Dave, don't leave us hanging. Please enlighten us.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

It really depends on a lot of variables....type of radiation.......half-life.....amount.......distance......the materials between you and the source........the length of time you are exposed to it.......a lot of variables....

I would suggest TRN isn't known for unbiased reporting.......a lot of things reported today are written to sensationalize the incident because it garners more attention. More attention means more advertising dollars.

[Mark Bolton]

My statement about bunk wasnt to minimize the scope of the disaster, becsuse it is in fact a disaster, and likely to get worse. The bunk part is if there is even steam at present, along with all the other bogus info thats already been re-posted here.

The simple fact is there are three confrirmed and acknowledged melt downs. There is a high likleihood of it getting even worse. The cores were cooled with salt water (what other choice) and dumped to the ocean, and so on. Its a bad situation. Its been well published that the release is at the very least 20+ times hiroshima.

Anyone trying to trivialize it, or trivialize what we are guaranteed to see with regards to the known impacts, science or not, is also bunk.

But while an attempt to minimize three confirmed melt downs is pretty bad, attempting to propagandize information to forment fear is simply disgusting.

[Dave Sheldrake]

Gee Dave, don't leave us hanging. Please enlighten us.

Bismuth is used in many indigestion remedies so I wouldn't be worried too much about that one.

Uranium 238 decays with emission of Alpha particles or it can Double - Beta decay (not it's primary but possible) it doesn't support chain reactions as is (no bombs here) Alpha particles are blocked by something as simple as day to day clothing so you can hold a lump of 238 metal in your hand with no real danger to you short term.

Iodine 131 is a hard Gamma emitter, not nice at all, 131 is used in medicine to detect and treat some forms of cancer but it's inane ability to destroy the thyroid is well known.

In general the news media loves to tell people about huge half lives and how many million years something will be radioactive for when in real terms the short half life sources are usually far more dangerous. Caesium 134 and Caesium 137 were also spewed out by the Fukushima plants and again are hard hard Gamma emitters with relatively short half lives.

I'd rather take my chances with the Plutonium / Uranium family to be honest....

cheers

Dave

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I suggest that a large population of nuclear physicists would be up in arms if the matter was as dire as trying to be depicted here.
After all, they have to live on this earth too and.....they have families and loved ones who they would want to protect.

While some may say trivializing the situation is bunk, I suggest that overdramatizing it is just as morally wrong.

Remember those folks who reacted after 9/11 and wrapped their houses when the thought of "dirty bombs" was first introduced?

Again.....a lot of knowledgeable folks would be up in arms if the situation was truly dire. I haven't witnessed it yet.

[Mark Bolton]

I suggest that a large population of nuclear physicists would be up in arms if the matter was as dire as trying to be depicted here.
After all, they have to live on this earth too and.....they have families and loved ones who they would want to protect.

While some may say trivializing the situation is bunk, I suggest that overdramatizing it is just as morally wrong.

Remember those folks who reacted after 9/11 and wrapped their houses when the thought of "dirty bombs" was first introduced?

Again.....a lot of knowledgeable folks would be up in arms if the situation was truly dire. I haven't witnessed it yet.

Protect where? They have some bunker or secret planet to escape to and a ship? Im in no way insinuating a conspiracy but you can listen to every interview and bit of coverage I have. Its all streamable on google from the weeks after the event. Three reactors have been completeky breached and the remaining spent fuel is tenuous at best. The report that started the thread questionable at best but the fact that there really just isnt anything substantial that can humanly be done about the situation likely puts even the most concerned in a place of simply realizing it is what it is.

[Kelly Craig]

Actually, that may not be wholly true. As I was pointing out to someone the other day, just take some moments out and wander the history of governments. That would include a review of the experiments they have done on their own people, the times they knowingly ignored danger and so forth.

When I worked at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, in Bremerton, Washington, I found myself working near laggers (the insulation boys) tearing out insulation. Often, they had little more than a nuisance dust mask and a six inch air, suction hose to deal with the crap they were throwing in the air. Those of us next to them had nothing. The government knew the dangers of asbestos decades earlier, but still took no precautions.

Sailors often suffered lead poisoning chipping off the paint from the sides of ships. They've known about lead for a long time too.

Some of the danger comes from ignorance at the lower levels and on up. Some comes from greed (keep costs down). Here, we could have all kinds of "let's not panic the public" or "what will it do to foreign relations" crap going on. From years of dealing in administrative law, I've learned government is often out for its [artificial] self. Except for the FDA, which could never be influenced by drug companies, or the IRS, or ..........

In short, we don't know what's going on. It'd be interesting to know a few someones with Geiger counters, or whatever they are using these days, on the West Coast.

[Jim Matthews]

it's inane ability to destroy... Dave

Hey, you're talking about my periodic family, there.
Consider us the Beta (ray) testers for breakables...