Posted on 03/30/2011 11:33:58 PM PDT by Razzz42
Gundersen describes the Fukushima plant as stable, but precarious. In this update, he discusses the high levels of radiation (2 Million disintegrations/second being found on the ground as far as 25 miles from the plant site.) He also addresses a New York Times report of hundreds of tons of water being put into the reactors each day. Gundersen points out that all of the water going in to the reactors is being irradiated, leaking out, and polluting the Ocean. He concludes by discussing the differences between the accident scenarios that the nuclear industry previously planned for and what has actually happened.
About Arnie Gundersen: Is an energy adviser with 39-years of nuclear power engineering experience. A former nuclear industry senior vice president, he earned his Bachelor's and Master's Degrees in nuclear engineering, holds a nuclear safety patent, and was a licensed reactor operator. During his nuclear industry career, Arnie managed and coordinated projects at 70-nuclear power plants around the country. He currently speaks on television, radio, and at public meetings on the need for a new paradigm in energy production. An independent nuclear engineering and safety expert, Arnie provides testimony on nuclear operations, reliability, safety, and radiation issues to the NRC, Congressional and State Legislatures, blah, blah, blah...
Video also at... http://vimeo.com/21731200
I suppose this relates to Roentgens. 1 Roentgen is 2 billion ionizing events in 1 cc of air, so 2e6 events ( per cc ) per second would be a milliroentgen per second. Maybe that's where the 2 came from. The linked article states, "An exposure of 500 roentgens in five hours is usually lethal for human beings" and 1 milliroentgen per second is 3.6 roentgens per hour, so that's getting up there, if my interpretaion of this number is correct.
That's about 54 mSV isn't it? If that is true, that is VERY high! You would experience radiation sickness in less than 24 hours of exposure?
BTT
What a mess.
Beats me. Units of measure keep changing and the type of measure seems incomplete i.e. sometimes you need a core depth to relate it to some reading and they don’t bother to tell you the depth of the sample taken.
Otherwise, it looks like the evacuation zone should be larger due to these random higher reading showing up further away from ground 0.
No question. On the bright side :-( if we want to assume that the cited figure is for some extreme situation in the area, we might assume that this refers to geiger counter readings, and that these readings reflect radioactivity of materials on the ground. A lot of this radiation ( alpha emission ) is short range ( a few centimeters,) so a reading like this might refer to a geiger counter reading along the ground in some relatively isolated "hot spot", due to fallout from a release event.
Well, very much a sickening situation, but that being so, it's still important to maintain a rational perspective.
Everyone, please chill and lay off the caffeine for now...
1625 local
Oh, I forgot. US personnel aren't allowed within an 80 mile radius ...
Consider it done! ;-)
You might as well say, “Cheer up, we only lost the northern third of Japan.” In other words, granting that the radioactive contamination is limited, how extensive is it, exactly?
Would be nice to know if they are measuring Alpha, Beta or Gamma radiation and the energy levels of the particular type of radiation.
I dont know. Ask CNN. That is the kind of headline they would run.
Weather Model - North Pacific Jet Stream Wind and 250 mb Pressure
Good for you AIT.
Man am I sick of the gIbBeRiNg InSaNiTy from the media.
Ye gods, man. Japan had two nuclear weapons detonated on its soil, eliminating two cities. Are those areas "lost" today??
Think!!! At least TRY to get some perspective on the issue.
he discusses the high levels of radiation (2 Million disintegrations/second being found on the ground as far as 25 miles from the plant site.)
That’s about 54 mSV isn’t it? If that is true, that is VERY high! You would experience radiation sickness in less than 24 hours of exposure?
I used to work in radiological controls for the U.S. Navy. 2 million dps is not a measure of radiation levels, it’s not even an accurate measure of radioactive contamination, without an associated surface area. One Curie (Ci) is 37 billion dps, so we’re talking about 2*10E+6/37*10E+9 = 54 uCi. But there is no mention of surface area, 54 uCi/?, m^2? Let’s assume 54 uCi/m^2*(1*10E+6 pCi/uCi)*(1 cpm/450 pCi/m^2) = 120,000 cpm, or 1,200X normal background. There is no easy conversion from cpm to dose rate, but using an average rule-of-thumb, 1,000 cpm/mRem/h, we have a dose rate of 120 mRem/h. Now 1 mSv/h = 100 mRem/h, so we have 1.2 mSv/h. In 24-h, whole body exposure would be 2.4 Rem, it takes 100 Rem for the onset of radiation sickness. I would extend the exclusion zone for civilians back to dose rates below 1 mRem/h (10 uSv/h). A dose rate of 120 mRem/h is not low but it’s not life threatening either.
“One Curie (Ci) is 37 billion dps, so we’re talking about 2*10E+6/37*10E+9 = 54 uCi. But there is no mention of surface area, 54 uCi/?, m^2?”
My guess is that 2 millions dps is a peak value. If that’s the case, then my estimated dose rate of 120 mRem/h is way too high. I’m assuming 54 uCi/m^2. If the 54 uCi is a peak measurement, that’s the highest surface contamination found 25 miles away, as measured directly over the detector. Then the average dose rate in the area is most likely very low, <1mRem/h. Sounds like an exaggeration to scare people, typical hype in the media.
“One Curie (Ci) is 37 billion dps, so we’re talking about 2*10E+6/37*10E+9 = 54 uCi. But there is no mention of surface area, 54 uCi/?, m^2?”
OK, was finally able to watch the video, it was 54 uCi/m^2. My estimate of 120 mRem/h is very generous. The dose rate is most likely much lower, 120 mRem/h is an upper limit. Using 10,000 cpm/mRem/h gives 1.2 mRem/h, depends on the isotopes. I used a very rough estimate.
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