We have a Live Thread in Breaking News for the events in Japan. Please post information such as this on that thread so we can keep track of all updates in one place while things are happening so rapidly. A separate thread for each news item tends to get quickly buried. Your cooperation is greatly appreciated.
Live Thread
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2689114/posts?q=1&;page=1
We can all agree that Hiroshima & Nagasaki were real nuclear, (nucular for some of you), disasters. Check them out today
Check out these photos
http://www.funonthenet.in/articles/hiroshima-nagasaki-today.html
How much worse can it be than the nuclear testing that we and the Soviets did in the 50’s and 60’s? Japan survived Hiroshima and Nagasaki and they and we will survive this. Even still I pray that their suffering is shortened, they’ve been dealt a couple of really horrendous blows.
“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
“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?
Radiation doesn’t leak, contamination does.
Weesa all gonna die.
Time to start burying this crapper and pouring concrete mixed with graphite over it.They need to git ‘er done.Put the heavy equiment operators in rad suits with indepedent oxygen supply and line their cabs with lead, GIT ‘ER DONE!
OK IAEA, .... Now where’s the Effective Downwind message (NBC-2) and the Effective Downwind Contamination Overlay? What’s the Yield Size? The Radiation count for the Contamination Overlay Zone? If you aren’t providing that you’re only sowing panic.
From Reuters again :
Radiation poses only slight risk to nervous Tokyo: U.S. experts
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/15/us-japan-quake-health-idUSTRE72E9DL20110315
EXCERPT
Dozens of workers battling to control radiation at Japan’s stricken reactors face a far greater risk of developing cancer than normal, but Tokyo residents are within the safe range for exposure, U.S. nuclear experts said.
Radiation levels in Tokyo, one of the world’s most populous cities, rose 10 times above average Tuesday evening, spreading fear among many of the 33 million residents in the metropolitan area.
The best advice experts could give them was to stay indoors, close the windows and avoid breathing bad air — steps very similar to those for handling a smog alert or avoiding influenza.
While these steps may sound inconsequential, experts said the danger in Tokyo, while worrisome, is slight - at least for now.
“Everything I’ve seen so far suggests there have been nominal amounts of material released. Therefore, the risks are generally low to the population,” Jerrold Bushberg, who directs programs in health physics at the University of California at Davis, said in a telephone interview.
“There may be more significant risks for emergency workers on site. They are dealing with the occupational exposure, but not for the population at large.”
Fresh explosions Tuesday at the Fukushima plant, 180 miles north of Tokyo, released low levels of radiation, escalating a crisis triggered by last week’s massive earthquake and tsunami. With cooling systems knocked out, the fear is more blasts within the reactors at the complex could eventually cause a major radiation leak.
The levels measured around Tokyo at one point were 40 times above normal but have receded to 10 times. That amounts to roughly the same dose as a chest or abdominal CT scan.
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Oh NOES!!! Radiation is being emitted into the AIR!1!!111!!!
We’z all gunna DIE!!!
Geez, people, it’s radiation... NOT FALLOUT! Light is radiation. X-rays are radiation. The point is that it doesn’t linger and doesn’t spread.
Fallout, however, is radioactive particles. IE: dust, soot, ash, whatever... that has become radioactive. That sticks around.
So until I start hearing about fallout... it ain’t a concern. Well, until we decide to import the crippled reactors and place them on my front lawn point into my house.