This keeps getting worse. These people need serious help — anything we can offer *before* they have to ask for it. It’s a national security issue now. I dont trust what the Japanese government is saying about this — Pacific Coast may already be at risk.
Did the Hiroshima and Nagasaki open air blasts cause the US to evacuate the West coast? Same for the open air pacific testing and the Nevada site open air testing. While some radiation may be coming out of the reactors just how much? So far the chicken little reaction seems parallel to their reaction to mercury release. Here in WDC a couple years ago the local government went apoplectic when a mercury thermometer was broken at a school. A PhD friend who is in the EPA division that deals with mercury said that by eating a can of tuna the kids got more mercury exposure. The government spend millions cleaning the school and cleaning kids homes. Heck, when I was a kid we played with mercury. I haven’t grown a third head or lost my liver...yet, I guess. People need to calm down and gain some perspective. The alternative is to stay in our basement, huddled and shivering because all the risks of living.
They apparently measure the radiation leakage at the front gate... That would seem to be highly dependent on which way the wind is blowing...
Lets not get carried away. In the post WWII era, the US did a lot of above-ground nuclear testing here in the US (Nevada and New Mexico) and we managed to live through that. The folks on the West Coast of the USA have nothing to worry about with the Japanese nuclear situation.
I have gone from the observing and interesting and horrible event to cautiously concerned. If spent fuel rod pools are boiling off and catching fire...this is not good.
Last night they sent 750 people home and have only a skeleton crew of 50 people there. I don’t know what to say to that.
So far though...most of what I’ve read keeps much of this as a localized event.
I have a trigger point in my head at which I will say the Pacific Coast comes into significant risk, but we’ve not reached it. A few days ago I would have said we wouldn’t reach it. Will it be reached...that is a true unknown at this point.
The overnight events, skeleton crew on-site etc. have now raised my concern level. Although everything happening there is still pretty much a localized event.
Two items some folks may wish to read, print-out, and consider. I leave it to the individual to decide what is right for them to do:
Emergency Preparedness and Response
Read this one first, it will help understand why they are telling people in Japan to stay indoors.
Understanding Contamination and Exposure
http://www.bt.cdc.gov/radiation/contamination.asp
How to shelter in place
http://www.bt.cdc.gov/radiation/shelter.asp