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Highly efficient meaning that only 60% of the U-235 or Plutonium gets converted to energy. The rest? Vaporized, and spread by wind and wave as highly radioactive fallout

Highly efficient meaning that most of the energy escapes as a flood of neutrons that converts the surrounding elements into radioactive isotopes. Which are then vaporized by the heat and spread far and wide by wind and ocean currents as intensely radioactive fallout.

Oh, and when you blast coral with neutrons, you preferentially generate precisely those isotopes that the body takes up easily, sodium, potassium, calcium, phosphorus, oxygen, carbon iodine and the bone seekers cesium and strontium.

Also, that 40% efficiency number? That’s for a well designed and fully optimized (within the limits of modern technology) modern bomb, the pit on the Hiroshima bomb weighed a couple pounds, of which less than the weight of one thin dime was converted to energy. The rest? Down wind as vapor and black rain.

We, that is the Unites state, Soviet Union, China, France and Britain, set off large numbers of above ground nuclear test weapons (and two in an actual shootin’ war) creating vastly more fallout than has escaped from Fukishima.

By your reckoning the downwinders in Nevada, Utah and throughout the Southwest should have all died slow or not so slow horrible deaths by now.

But by all means, don’t let facts interfere with your panic and fear-mongering...

Sadly - downwinders in NV have been lied to and have indeed died off. A FReeper posted to one of his threads that his wife was a downwinder and was about 62 years of age and that she was the last surviving member of her highschool graduating class.

The tactic the US and other countries successfully use is to suppress and deny all culpability until decades later. Then, quietly admit error and pay the much fewer survivors.

Re Downwinders, here’s the US “apology” and settlement for those remaining souls alive to collect settlement money.

I’ll put an excerpt and link below:
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The United States conducted nearly 200 atmospheric nuclear weapons development tests from 1945 t0 1962. Essential to the nation’s nuclear weapons development was uranium mining and processing, which was carried out by tens of thousands of workers. Following the tests’ cessation in 1962 many of these workers filed class action lawsuits alleging exposure to known radiation hazards. These suits were dismissed by the appellate courts. Congress responded by devising a program allowing partial restitution to individuals who developed serious illnesses after exposure to radiation released during the atmospheric nuclear tests or after employment in the uranium industry: the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA, or the Act), 42 U.S.C. § 2210 note (2006), was passed on October 5, 1990. The Act’s scope of coverage was broadened in 2000.

The Act presents an apology and monetary compensation to individuals who contracted certain cancers and other serious diseases:

following their exposure to radiation released during the atmospheric nuclear weapons tests, or
following their occupational exposure to radiation while employed in the uranium industry during the Cold War arsenal buildup.

http://www.justice.gov/civil/common/reca.html

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Officials told people in Chernobyl that nothing was wrong so they held an outdoor parade in the shadow of the smoldering reactor. They told the populace all was well even while hundreds of people reported to the hospitals around Chernobyl every day. They made it illegal to report deaths as having resulted from radiation for 3 years following the disaster. They said that the fear of radiation was making people ill, not radiation. They tried to repopulate heavily irradiated zones but that didn’t work out well because people sickened “too quickly” from radiation exposure. Many people remaining living in contaminated today zones because there is no where else to live. They raise their children and their grandchildren in zones which cause leukemia and other illnesses. Their children, their grandchildren and following generations will live in this area with high levels of illnesses and immune system suppression (the body is kept busy repairing damage from radiation and can’t fight other illnesses so people die from or suffer with other diseases more often).

When Japan said it has learned “The lessons of Chernobyl” it was, at that time, in the news for forbidding local physicians to treat Fukushima residents without permission. Japan’s officials have prevented children from bringing their own lunches to schools (their parents were obtaining clean sources of food) and compelled them to eat what other children eat. The system of food testing is weak to nonexistent so regrettably the school children were served beef contaminated with very high levels of radioactive cesium. One of their health officials told pregnant women not to worry because those who don’t worry are unharmed by radioactive waste. I’d say Japan HAS learned the lessons of Chernobyl.

5 months after Chernobyl, Wood’s Hole researchers in San Diego sampled 13 tuna and all 13 had traces of radioactive waste from Fukushima in their tissues. It’s been a few years of continuous dumping from Fukushima. Seaweed and animals that eat seaweed are accumulating higher levels of contaminants. Currently there’s alot more Strontium in the waste being dumped into the ocean. That’s bad. According to National Geographic:

“However, the higher concentration of strontium-90 that is now in the outflow poses a trickier problem, because it is a bone-seeking isotope. “Cesium is like salt—it goes in and out of your body quickly,” he explains. “Strontium gets into your bones.” http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2013/08/130807-fukushima-radioactive-water-leak/

There’s a reason why no insurer will insure an nuke plant in the US. Actually paying for the damage resulting from one failed reactor would bankrupt it. The US is the insurer and as such, does everything it can to deny and delay ever compensating anyone for as long as possible. It’s amazing anyone has ever collected. Japan and other countries are the same way. Yes the people of Japan are being harmed but reports are suppressed. But time will tell because the Japanese are human like everyone else and medical science has proven that even low level radiation is harmful.

The BEIR VII report builds on many years of state of the art research proving that low levels of radiation are harmful. There is no “safe” limit. Low levels increase illness risks too. http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=030909156X

Let me guess, you were one of those claiming no meltdown for weeks ?

To begin with, Fukushima has been dumping radioactive contamination into the ocean for about 880 days non stop. Japan has not exactly admitted that it has been occurring for that long, only that is has been occurring for awhile and probably since March 2011. The reason, 1,000 tons of groundwater passes under the plant and into the ocean every day. The basements of all the buildings are flooded by this ground water due to earthquake cracks in the foundations. The Japanese government admitted that 300 tons of contaminated water per day was being released. Tepco however claims 400 tons released into the harbor every day but wont admit its contamination. The Japanese government claims 300 tons bypasses the contamination and enters the ocean every day uncontaminated.

This ground water is highly contaminated and recent contamination levels have more then doubled and are rising very quickly. And there is about 20,000 tons of extremely contaminated water on the plant that exists in their drainage canals and tunnels. That water is slowly leaking into the ground water that is leaking out of the plant. The water in that drainage system in some spots is so highly contaminated you get close to 1 Sv/hour just by standing near it. That stuff has been leaking for 880 days. Tepco itself admits that water exists and claims it has been aware of the problem but was unable to do anything about the problem. Tepco told everyone they had stopped that leak early on. You probably remember that leak story with the mysterious hole that looked like someone used a hammer to open.

That is what is happening. So what are the levels of the contamination ? Historically you simply could not trust Tepco or Japan because thier numbers were about a factor of 10 too low. They are now becoming more honest about the situation. Will follow this up with the recent contamination numbers and also address the nuclear bomb issue in more detail later. Got work to do.