Fukushima

[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.

[Dave Sheldrake]

ome of the recommendations to mitigate damaging effect of radiation exposure include:• Keep up-to-date on developments via the Internet
• Buy Duct tape, masking tape and self-adhesive weather stripping

You must be kidding me!! some idiot got paid to write that up!

Fry North America

Absolute rubbish!

A meltdown in a spent fuel pond is very serious, make no mistake and could have long term effects we as yet are unaware of but this report is just scaremongering trash......inaccurate trash too. Duct tape and Tyvek to protect you from Hard Gamma emitters?? I think not somehow

cheers

Dave

[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...

[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.

[Dave Sheldrake]

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

I should be glowing in the dark by now with my history and love of Vaseline Glass collectables

cheers

Dave

[Ken Fitzgerald]

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.

Mark,

The internet is the largest source of unreliable, mistaken and invalid information in the world.

If the situation there was as dire as that article indicated, there would be a multitude of nuclear physicists voicing their concerns. Even if a few nuclear physicists voiced their concern, I wouldn't be upset. If a large number voiced their concern then so I would join them in their concern.

You just don't see that happening.

[John Coloccia]

The sources for these reports are the news equivalent of Cliff Clavin.

[Stephen Cherry]

One thing to remember is that the mainstream news leaves a lot to be desired. Basically, there is a little coverage of yurp, but nothing on South America, Africa, and Asia. This vacuum of information makes the referenced information seem more credible because nothing else is out there as a point of reference.

One easy source of information is the John Bachelor show, on podcasts. LOTS of world news. He covers the Japan story regularly.

[Mark Bolton]

Mark,

The internet is the largest source of unreliable, mistaken and invalid information in the world.

If the situation there was as dire as that article indicated, there would be a multitude of nuclear physicists voicing their concerns. Even if a few nuclear physicists voiced their concern, I wouldn't be upset. If a large number voiced their concern then so I would join them in their concern.

You just don't see that happening.

I wasn't talking about the internet. Merely stating that all the various news sources from The AP, US mainstream media, NPR, science reviews and podcasts, and the like. I don't listen or follow the kooky fear longer/ extremists.

All of this was well covered in the weeks and months after the event by numerous outlets. It's all still out there to listen to again if one chooses.

As I've said, in no way an end of the world event, but it's an extremely bad situation which is basically a massive tire fire that just has to burn itself out. I.e. It is what it is.

There simply isn't much that can be done.

[Larry Edgerton]

My big concern is, "Is my Tunafish sandwich safe?"

I have a motto that I live by, "Don't worry about what you can not change". This falls into that catagory. I keep up on it but there is not a darn thing I can do about it, except stop eating tuna maybe.

Larry

[David Weaver]

If you live downwind of a power plant, you can always purchase potassium iodide - it's cheap and it stores well and could keep you out of a bind to some extent.

I don't put much stock in the fukushima reports, nor the geiger counters near water, etc, because it only takes one dishonest or ignorant link in the chain of information to make a story totally false. For example, if the guy with the geiger counter is taking a reading off granite at a shoreline, it could very well be loaded with radium, he may know that or he may not. It could also be a white guy taking a reading a year ago and in japan, but fronted on a blog as recently occurring and in a different place. 10 reliable sources not knowing it's false could put it out.

If there is something very significant, like there was at the outset when Michio Kaku was saying there could be criticality in the reactors and that the situation had to be much worse than they were claiming, and that there was a good chance of meltdown (when claims were that everything was under control), then I'll gladly listen to those guys - like michio - and monitor the ground water, milk, and rain water reports that are made (i.e., readings that actually affect us).

Until then, there's plenty of real life problems to deal with. I wouldn't be surprised if there are people drinking well water loaded with radium and worrying only about fukushima.

[Dave Sheldrake]

A lot of the problem is the news reports of the isotopes being released, Strontium 90, carbon 16, Iodine 131, Xenon , Krypton, Argon, Radium etc etc yes these are extremely dangerous and have short half lives (ie: they are radioactively very *hot*) but when you consider the type of emitter they are and what blocks the emissions as well as the distribution over the planet they don't seem to be so much of a concern.
The press mentions the two Caesium isotopes and people run off to Wikipedia and scare themselves silly by reading up the properties of them both when in reality the rest of the information makes the release irrelevant.

"200 non naturally occurring isotopes produced by PWR's"

True, there are 200 non naturally existing isotopes produced by reactors, some are radioactively so dangerous that they make Plutonium look like cotton candy...but again what you don't get told is over 100 of those have a half life under TEN seconds and are Alpha emitters that cannot penetrate even 1 layer of skin.

Fear sells papers, more fear...more sales....

cheers

Dave

[Ken Fitzgerald]

A lot of the problem is the news reports of the isotopes being released, Strontium 90, carbon 16, Iodine 131, Xenon , Krypton, Argon, Radium etc etc yes these are extremely dangerous and have short half lives (ie: they are radioactively very *hot*) but when you consider the type of emitter they are and what blocks the emissions as well as the distribution over the planet they don't seem to be so much of a concern.
The press mentions the two Caesium isotopes and people run off to Wikipedia and scare themselves silly by reading up the properties of them both when in reality the rest of the information makes the release irrelevant.

"200 non naturally occurring isotopes produced by PWR's"

True, there are 200 non naturally existing isotopes produced by reactors, some are radioactively so dangerous that they make Plutonium look like cotton candy...but again what you don't get told is over 100 of those have a half life under TEN seconds and are Alpha emitters that cannot penetrate even 1 layer of skin.

Fear sells papers, more fear...more sales....

cheers

Dave

Bingo!

Dave....in the UK.....in elementary school......did they tell the fairy tale of "Chicken Little"? The sky is falling.....the sky is falling......... or the little boy who cried "Wolf"?


As I stated earlier....it's a complex issue.....type of radiation......amount.

Until I see a massive concern by a large number of nuclear physicists and engineers, I am not going to worry about it.

[Myk Rian]

So far, I have been unable to find a live webcam of the plant.

[David Weaver]

There is one, just google it. But it's a limited view of either reactor 1 or reactor 4. I think the picture at the bottom of the article posted has a chance of being live or at least more representative, but the one at the top is old stock.