A guide to radiation for the clueless...

1984ReturnsForReal_2

Generali wrote: »

I guess that water that has directly been used to cool the fuel and has run off would be expected to be extremely radioactive. The question then becomes, how hazardous is that in terms of the general environment? A few thousand gallons in the Pacific Ocean I would guess is neither here nor there. If it gets into a local reservoir then perhaps it's a very serious problem.

There are some interesting pieces on the first website you like to.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/03/24/134804037/how-risky-is-infant-formula-made-with-tokyo-tap-water



It seems that the Radioactive Water: Now is the time to PANIC headlines may be a little overdone.

Thats why I said "at the site" & "run off"


As for your reassuring quote from the Michigan Nuclear Engineer I suggest you have a re-read & see if you can spot the gigantic, massive, blatantly obvious black hole in her "argument"

Generali

1984ReturnsForReal wrote: »

Thats why I said "at the site" & "run off"

I don't dispute that. The problem, or not, appears to be where it has run off to.

1984ReturnsForReal wrote: »

As for your reassuring quote from the Michigan Nuclear Engineer I suggest you have a re-read & see if you can spot the gigantic, massive, blatantly obvious black hole in her "argument"

Do you mean the last paras where she talks about 'unknowns' several times? Otherwise you'll have to enlighten me.

1984ReturnsForReal_2

Generali wrote: »

Do you mean the last paras where she talks about 'unknowns' several times? Otherwise you'll have to enlighten me.

Keep watching the news over the next couple of days.

Also, you might want to have a think about how long it will take to make things safe................ 1 month 6 month 2 years...


You also might want to know rad levels in water are dropping in Tokyo but rising elsewhere.

Reminds me of some idiot MP forcing a burger into his kids mouth in the midst of BSE.

Generali

1984ReturnsForReal wrote: »

Keep watching the news over the next couple of days.

Also, you might want to have a think about how long it will take to make things safe................ 1 month 6 month 2 years...


You also might want to know rad levels in water are dropping in Tokyo but rising elsewhere.

I don't know how much of an expert you are on these things, I certainly am not an expert although I have some knowledge of physics so can understand what I read. I am happy to bow to your better knowledge but the more hysterical the writing, the less inclined I am to believe it.

1984ReturnsForReal wrote: »

Reminds me of some idiot MP forcing a burger into his kids mouth in the midst of BSE.

Me too.

http://www.economist.com/node/1606292

In 1998, Azra Ghani, Roy Anderson and their colleagues at Oxford University predicted that as many as 500,000 could die of vCJD by 2080. Now, things seem to have changed for the better. In the latest issue of the Proceedings of the Royal Society, the group, which has moved to Imperial College, London, has revised its projections to a maximum of 7,000 deaths by 2080, with 10-80 deaths occurring within the next two years.

I remember the 'hundreds of thousands of deaths' being plastered all over the papers in the 1990s. I don't recall the same papers screaming out the message that perhaps the panic was a little overdone.

FWIW, in the 1990s, butchers could sell you beef bones 'for the dog'. Handy if you wanted to make beef stock.

blueboy43

1984ReturnsForReal wrote: »

China also having radioactive people, planes & ships turning up.

Perhaps they had Readybrek for their breakfast.

Or

煙草金魚

as it is known in Japan.


*Not the nine o'clock news once broadcast a redubbed Ready Brek advertisement with the slogan "If you want your kids to glow in the dark... move to Windscale"*

Generali

blueboy43 wrote: »

*Not the nine o'clock news once broadcast a redubbed Ready Brek advertisement with the slogan "If you want your kids to glow in the dark... move to Windscale"*

I liked the 'Laid in Wales' spoof ad they did.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=not%EF%BB%BF+the+nine%EF%BB%BF+o+clock+new+episode+10&aq=f

5 mins in.

ninky_2

1984ReturnsForReal wrote: »

You would be even more terrified if there was no more bottled water left anywhere & you had no choice but to drink from the tap.

water is 80 percent of all living things. what are they watering their crops with or giving their livestock to drink?

ninky_2

it seems like there is this massive pressure to prove the accident is "not as bad as chernobyl". i think this is political rather than scientific. with chernobyl it could be blamed on the backward russians, absovling the west (and its nuclear industry) from responsibility. also because chernobyl has already happened and the world has continued to exist (albeit minus a few people and with a few health issues) it's a psychological comfort to think it's not as bad as something that has been survived.

if chernobyl had not happened i actually think the reaction to this incident would be even more panicked. each time an accident happens and time passes it becomes normalised. we get used to living with the threat and the impacts. our standards become a little lower.

ninky_2

Generali wrote: »

It seems that the Radioactive Water: Now is the time to PANIC headlines may be a little overdone.

yes but gen that's assuming contaminated water is your only source of radioactive dosing. however there will be cumulative dosing from food, air etc. if the children are being breastfed it's likely to be even higher as breastmilk concentrates radioactive isotopes.

1984ReturnsForReal_2

blueboy43 wrote: »

Perhaps they had Readybrek for their breakfast.

*Not the nine o'clock news once broadcast a redubbed Ready Brek advertisement with the slogan "If you want your kids to glow in the dark... move to Windscale"*

I remember that..........