Earthquake (8.9magnitude) & Tsunami hits Tokyo

ninky_2

lemonjelly wrote: »

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12756366

Cameron strikes again, & tries to blame everyone else rather than accept responsibility.

they really are making some major clangers....will they be the last to advise citizens to evacuate also...and then find there are no planes to do the job?

ninky_2

the poor workers tasked with clearing it up are making some massive sacrifices...

http://www.bellona.org/articles/articles_2011/temp_evac

50 nameless technicians who remained behind as Japan’s last hope against the worst, have struggled to keep hundreds of litres of seawater a minute flowing through temporary fire pumps into reactor Nos 1, 2 and 3.
The technicians are being asked to make escalating and life threatening sacrifices. Japan’s Health Ministry said Tuesday it was raising the legal limit on the amount of radiation to which each worker could be exposed, to 250 millisieverts from 100 millisieverts, five times the maximum exposure permitted for American nuclear plant workers, said the New York Times
The change means that workers can now remain on site longer, the ministry said. “It would be unthinkable to raise it further than that, considering the health of the workers,” the health minister, Yoko Komiyama, said at a news conference. There was also a suggestion on Wednesday that more workers may be brought to help save the power station, the paper reported.
TEPCO has reported increased injuries among these remaining 50 technicians.
Five workers have died since the quake and 22 more have been injured for various reasons, while two are missing, said TEPCO according to various reports. One worker was hospitalized after suddenly grasping his chest and finding himself unable to stand, and another needed treatment after receiving a blast of radiation near a damaged reactor. Eleven workers were injured in a hydrogen explosion at reactor No. 3.
The remaining technicians’ tasks grow more onerous and life threatening, according to interviews in Japanese media. They crawl through mazes of tortured equipment in the pitch black listening for periodic explosions as hydrogen escaping from the hobbled reactors ignites as it comes into contact with air.
Their gear consists of cumbersome respirators and heavy back mounted oxygen tanks. They wear white full –body jump suit with tightly fitting hoods that provide little protection from the invisible radiation inundating their bodies.
To add to their problems, a fire of unknown origin also broke out early Wednesday morning on the area of reactor No 4’s building. While it burned, radiation levels at the plant increased to about 167 times the average dose, the International Atomic Energy Agency said.
“What [the remaining technicians] are doing is pretty heroic, but the situation for them is not the same as at Chernobyl,” said Bøhmer. “At least here we have some system in place to evacuate and protect human life – perhaps they are even working in rotating shifts – but it’s pretty heroic.”

GDB2222

Their gear consists of cumbersome respirators and heavy back mounted oxygen tanks. They wear white full –body jump suit with tightly fitting hoods that provide little protection from the invisible radiation inundating their bodies.

No protection at all from the radiation (apart from beta radiation). What it does is it stops them inhaling radioactive particles that would continue to emit radiation inside their bodies.

To put the 250 mSv into perspective. The dosage from a CT/PET scan in hospital is around 30 mSv. So, 250 is a nasty additional risk, but not fatal in many cases at all. Still, they are being heroic.

Degenerate

GDB2222 wrote: »

No protection at all from the radiation (apart from beta radiation).

And alpha, which is the most damaging.

tomterm8

Well, personally, I think the 250 mSvis a headline figure... just what they're willing to publish. Still, I am not a nuclear scientist.

ninky_2

tomterm8 wrote: »

Well, personally, I think the 250 mSvis a headline figure... just what they're willing to publish. Still, I am not a nuclear scientist.

they have clearly been exposed to more at points also as with the worker who had to receive treatment for getting a blast of radiation.

there's no way i would do that job.

Generali

GDB2222 wrote: »

No protection at all from the radiation (apart from beta radiation). What it does is it stops them inhaling radioactive particles that would continue to emit radiation inside their bodies.

To put the 250 mSv into perspective. The dosage from a CT/PET scan in hospital is around 30 mSv. So, 250 is a nasty additional risk, but not fatal in many cases at all. Still, they are being heroic.

What dose does a resident of Edinburgh receive from living on/around granite? I believe it's a pretty radioactive place.

vivatifosi

I just heard that there's been an earthquake in Chile. Going away to google it (where would we be without google?) I found the link below. I can't believe how many big aftershocks have hit Japan since the 9.0 one. We've been so absorbed with the tsunami and the nuclear issue that its scary to see how active the earthquake problem still is.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_all.html#listtop

1984ReturnsForReal_2

Generali wrote: »

What dose does a resident of Edinburgh receive from living on/around granite? I believe it's a pretty radioactive place.

Just gave up googling but guessing from that between a 10th & 100th exposure per year. Too tired to read.

& leukemia rates are 25% higher than Scotlands average as a possible result?

StevieJ

vivatifosi wrote: »

I just heard that there's been an earthquake in Chile. Going away to google it (where would we be without google?) I found the link below. I can't believe how many big aftershocks have hit Japan since the 9.0 one. We've been so absorbed with the tsunami and the nuclear issue that its scary to see how active the earthquake problem still is.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_all.html#listtop

Unreal :eek: