Posted on 03/15/2011 12:56:34 PM PDT by Sprite518
Japan has told the U.N. nuclear watchdog radioactivity was being released "directly" into the atmosphere from the site of an earthquake-stricken reactor and that it had put out a fire at a spent fuel storage pond there.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
“The Japanese authorities have informed the IAEA that the following radiation dose rates have been observed on site at the main gate of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.
At 00:00 UTC on 15 March a dose rate of 11.9 millisieverts (mSv) per hour was observed. Six hours later, at 06:00 UTC on 15 March a dose rate of 0.6 millisieverts (mSv) per hour was observed.
These observations indicate that the level of radioactivity has been decreasing at the site.
As reported earlier, a 400 millisieverts (mSv) per hour radiation dose observed at Fukushima Daiichi occurred between Units 3 and 4. This is a high dose-level value, but it is a local value at a single location and at a certain point in time. The IAEA continues to confirm the evolution and value of this dose rate. It should be noted that because of this detected value, non-indispensible staff was evacuated from the plant, in line with the Emergency Response Plan, and that the population around the plant is already evacuated.”
http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/tsunamiupdate01.html
I have to agree. I would have to ask how many people in the West Coast of the U. S. died of radiatio poisoning after the TWO atomic bomb explosions in Japan?
That was worse because there was radioactive dust sent into the atomosphere. The radition from this is mostly local or out to see a couple hundred miles.
There hasn’t been huge amounts of dust sent into the atmosphere.
To put these numbers in perspective, using units that are used in teh US this would be 40 mRem / hr. The adminstrative control dose in a nuclear environment is 300mRem / year (so you are allowed 10 hrs at this exposure level). Radition workers are allowed 5 Rem /year (125 hrs at this level).
To put this in further perspective exposure of 50 Rem at one time have clearly observable health impacts (well short of death). This would require 125 hrs of exposure at this level.
So, these levels are serious, and need to be considered carefully in emergency management, but they are manageable.
The quote is wrong, the measured dose was 400 millisievert, Not 400 microsievert.
Barry will probably try to "save us" the "Green Way" by ordering all US wind turbines to face west.
Good point!!
“This ominous report from Reuters timestamped at 2:43 p.m. says Japanese officials admit that radiation is now being released directly into the air without saying precisely why. Presumably it’s due to the spent fuel rods and not a containment vessel rupture; either way, the leak is significant enough to drive radiation levels around the plant up to 400 millisievert per hour. For comparison purposes, cancer has been linked to levels of 100 millisievert per year. What that means for Tokyo, if those radiation levels don’t start to drop seen, I can’t begin to imagine.”
http://hotair.com/archives/2011/03/15/terrific-containment-vessels-used-at-japanese-plant-have-long-been-questioned-by-nuclear-experts/
Nothing wrong. Everything is under control. Lots of links in the hotair link.
The Japanese are doing the right thing by aggressively and proactively taking action in order to prepare for the worst, but nothing (substantial) has really happened and nothing will. the news media on the other hand is the antithesis. They live from the speculation and conflict, the fear in this case.
If you take out the media hype and speculation, what facts are we left with: massive earthquake, massive tsunami, older reactors in design, older reactors that are materially fatigued. Reactors damaged but nothing substantial has happened. Even a worst case scenario will simply have the core melt into the earth but not create a explosive disaster like in the Ukraine. What argument do the facts by themselves really make?
**** Is what happened in Japan really an argument against nuclear power or a testament to it’s safety?
“There will continue to be claims that this is not a big deal, unless large numbers of people start dying from radiation poisoning.”
Some in here would still say it`s no big deal and deny it was radiation poisoning.
Wish I had taken notes. An expert on Neil Cavuto was talking about Chernobyl which was x times greater. Hopefully another freeper was watching and retained all this. He said 1,000 people developed leukemia from the fallout from Chernobyl; 998 of those people were treated successfully for it!
Yesterday I was driving and heard another expert—perhaps on Michael Medved?—saying Napalm contains petroleum and so does petroleum jelly. The likelihood of petroleum jelly turning into napalm is about equal to this container becoming a nuclear explosion.
No doubt someone out there can translate all of this! :)
Per the World Nuclear Association: http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/IT-All_Fukushima_Daini_units_in_cold_shutdown-1503114.html
All Fukushima Daini units in cold shutdown
15 March 2011
“All four units at the Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant have now achieved cold shutdown - where coolant water is at less than 100ºC - with full operation of cooling systems, Tepco reported. All the reactors shut down automatically during last week’s earthquake and have remained safe.
While unit 3’s shutdown went as expected, damage to the emergency core cooling systems of units 1, 2 and 4 led to the announcement of emergency status. These three reactors were prepared for potential pressure release, but this was never required. Unit 1 announced cold shutdown at 1.24 am on 14 March and unit 2 followed at 3.52 am.
Tepco has now announced that unit 4 achieved cold shutdown at 7.15 pm on 15 March. Water levels are now stable in all four reactors and offsite power is available, the company said.”
Maybe the media needs hysteria for the money?
The sky is falling!
No really- global meltdown!!!!!!!
That core will melt to the center of the planet and then cause the Earth to explode into a billion pieces like the deathstar.....really!
Can we please use RAD and REM? I know we all want to sound important and use the SI system since that’s what the French use and we want to be more like them, but most here probably were at some point educated in school or trained in the DoD using REM and RAD and those numbers have a meaning to us.
However, even if this ends up being a major disaster, I won't feel stupid for telling people not to panic, because of...well, this, among other things.
I would also note that "released directly" could mean anything from a wide open containment vessel to the less-than-the-rads-from-eating-potassiom-isotopes-in-a-banana that we saw at Three Mile Island. The media keeps telling us multiple stories and using vague language to fill the 24 hour news cycle.
Concern...yes. Locally if I were there you might have to scrape me off the ceiling...fair enough. But...I am with you as far as significant effects to America. This stuff would need to really explode, not these minor h2 blasts, but explode to trigger my full panic mode.
Concern...it can happen if they have lost containment and the molten stuff hits ground water.
If, if, if...and that is just it. Nobody knows. I would wager the operators don’t even know ...
Good one! I just love to watch these FR "no it isn't, yes it is" arguments.
And the stupid lefties say we all think alike. Ha!
Now the conspiracy theories will circulate.
I bet, within days you will hear mumbeling about how the damage was more extensive in some way than initially reported etc...... LOL
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