Panic and madness in a radiophobic world
March 18th, 2011
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There’s no doubt that the situation at the Fukushima Nuclear plant is serious, although efforts to stabilize the situation are continuing to progress. As time goes on, the level of decay heat produced by the reactor cores diminishes and active cooling becomes less critical. At the same time, short-lived radioisotopes continue to decay away, reducing the severity of potential core discharges. Local radiation continues to spike due to venting of the cores and problems with keeping water in the spent fuel pools.
Still, the worst case scenario for the plant would be limited to a relatively localized event. Even if all of the reactors at the plant experienced a complete failure of all levels of containment and all spent fuels experienced fires, there would still be zero danger of acute radiation sickness to anyone who was not in the immediate area of the plant.
For those who live miles away, the worst danger would be the possibility of exposure to iodine-131. Although levels would not be enough to cause any acute symptoms, it can increase the probability of developing thyroid cancer. This danger too is reduced with time. With a half-life of about eight days, iodine 131 does not persist in the enviornment. As of this posting we are already coming up on one half-life since the reactor shutdown. In about two weeks the levels of iodine-131 in the reactor cores will be less than 15% what they were when the reactors shut down. Most of the iodine-131 has already decayed away from the spent fuel in storage.
Even in the worst case, where all material is discharged, there is zero danger of any dangerous radiation levels to areas beyond Northern Japan. The United States, Europe, Australia and elsewhere simply cannot be effected to any substantial level by any breach at any Japanese reactor, or even if every singe Japanese reactor simultaneously experienced a complete meltdown and core breach. It’s impossible.
Despite these undeniable facts, there remains a persistent myth, largely encouraged by the media and politicians, that a nuclear accident can constitute a truly global crisis. Nuclear accidents are portrayed as being some kind of doomsday event which can undermine human civilization and leave whole regions of the earth uninhabitable, causing the deaths of millions or billions and endangering every man, woman and child in every location on earth.
This ridiculous belief has lead to panic and madness gripping the world, with individuals from China to the United States responding to reports of radiation with a kind of fear normally reserved for the demons and curses of religion.
Worldwide: Runs on potassium iodine
Around the world people are buying potassium iodine. There are many misconceptions about potassium iodine, but perhaps the single biggest one is that it is some kind of general purpose treatment for radiation exposure or offers protection from ionizing radiation. It does neither.
Potassium iodine is simply an iodine salt which is used as an iodine supplement. The reason potassium iodine tablets are provided in areas which may be subject to nuclear fallout is that it helps prevent the body from absorbing environmental iodine, which, in the case of a nuclear accident, may include iodine-131. Iodine-131 is a short-lived fission byproduct that is mobile in the enviornment and easily absorbed. It accumulates in the thyroid, which, as it happens, is a very radiation-sensitive organ. Iodine-131 is responsible for the increase in thyroid cancer that was associated with the Chernobyl incident.
Taking potassium iodine effectively “blocks” absorption of iodine-131 by filling the thyroid to capacity with iodine and leaving the body with a surplus of iodine. The body will thus excrete, rather than absorb iodine. It ca be useful if it is administered before or shortly after exposure to iodine-131, but offers no other radiation protection.
DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT TAKE POTASSIUM IODINE.
While potassium iodine may offer protection from iodine-131 absorption, it also can cause an iodine overload, which is something you do not want to risk happening if you’re not in danger of radioactive iodine to begin with.
At present, only relatively small amounts of iodine-131 have been released by the venting of cores at the Fukushima Nuclear plant. Areas around the plant may test positive for low levels of iodine-131, but at any distance the concentration will be very close to zero. Iodine is reactive and tends to bind to chemicals in the local enviornment before traveling very far. If any did make it to the US or beyond it would be very very dilute. Furthermore, iodine-131 has a half-life of eight days. It’s all but gone from the spent fuel pools and within a period of a couple of weeks the levels will be only a small fraction of what they were in the reactor cores.
Potassium iodine should only be taken if recommended because iodine-131 has been detected in the enviornment or a release is considered eminent.
China: Panic buying of salt
This is even more disturbing than the craze for potassium iodine, although it is based on the same misconceptions. While China may be reasonably close to Japan, at present there is no reason to believe that there is any danger at all of significant levels of iodine-131 reaching populations in China.
None the less, the Chinese are rushing to buy huge quantities of salt because it contains iodine.
China, like much of Asia, has been gripped by fear and misinformation on the situation in Japan. False claims of danger have resulted in panics, while inaccurate information on the value of iodized salt has resulted in mob-like scenes and shortages.
Chinese hoard salt out of radiation fears
BEIJING – China is in the midst of a salt rush.Despite the Chinese government’s effort to educate the population and reassure them they will not be exposed to radiation from the nuclear plant in northern Japan, many fearful Chinese have come to believe baseless rumors that the iodine in salt could save them from radiation sickness – so they are hoarding iodized salt.
The frantic buying has left grocery shelves empty of salt in China’s coastal provinces, just across the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea from Japan. But the panic is spreading quickly westwards to the country’s inland where salt sales are catching up at a crazy speed.
“April Gourmet,” a chain supermarket frequented by Beijing’s expatriate community, told NBC News that its salt supply was sold out as of Thursday morning. “I’m not sure when we’ll have salt again because our suppliers’ stocks have been sold out, too and now the price is higher. Even the soy sauce is sold out by customers who worry they won’t have salt for cooking,” Ms. Zhao, a public relations manager for the store said in a phone interview.
“Merry Mart,” another big Chinese supermarket chain favored by older Beijingers, also reported that all the salt was sold out.
The spike in demand may be due to the misunderstanding of reports that note the thyroid gland is susceptible to radioactive iodine – just one of several types of radiation that could be produced by the crippled reactors – and that potassium iodide tablets can block the radioactive iodine if taken before exposure.
Most table salt does indeed contain iodine, added as a means of assuring that this important trace nutrient is provided in the diets of those who consume it. However, the levels present in iodized salt is not sufficient to provide the kind of iodine-blocking effect that potassium iodine tablets can.
According to the Health Physics Society:
The daily dose of potassium iodide (KI) for thyroid blocking is 130 mg per day for up to two weeks. This equates to 96 mg of iodine (I). Iodized salt contains about 0.085 mg of KI per gram of salt (according to the Morton Salt Company). To get the I equivalent of a 130 mg KI pill would require the ingestion of 1,529 grams of salt which would most likely be fatal.
Indeed, it is a very very bad idea to intentionally ingest high amounts of salt based on the belief that it will reduce radiation risks or provide enough iodine to block environmental absorption. Ingesting large amounts of salt can cause electrolyte imbalances, dehydration, kidney failure and death.
DO NOT START DOWNING IODIZED SALT OUT OF A BELIEF THAT IT WILL PROTECT FROM RADIATION!
Australia: Australians in Japan think they have radiation poisoning
Emily Peck receives the award for self-absorbed drama queen.
Aussie survivor fears radiation poisoning
THE agony continues for an Australian teacher who may have radiation poisoning from a Japanese nuclear plant explosion, despite her safe arrival back home yesterday.Hospital tests performed on 27-year-old Emily Peck have not yet revealed whether she was exposed to the fallout from the Fukushima reactor. She may have to be referred to a nuclear radiation specialist in Brisbane.
…
Terrified, Ms Peck took to Twitter to plead for help and was whisked to safety by colleagues just before the nuclear plant exploded. “I was in Koriyama, which is 70km away from the plant, so I’m just hoping there wasn’t any (radiation) leak before the explosion . . . but I just don’t know for sure.”
After just three hours’ sleep in the past three days, Ms Peck spent about six hours at Tweed Heads Hospital yesterday awaiting blood tests. “The doctors don’t know yet; they’re going to call me back,” she said. “They said if it’s low radiation exposure, it sometimes doesn’t show up for years. It could be that I wasn’t exposed at all — which I hope is the case.
“I’m going to stick around (on the Gold Coast) for a few days because there’s apparently a nuclear radiation specialist in Brisbane I might have to see if there are any concerns with the tests.”
First of all, there’s absolutely no evidence that anyone who was not on the grounds of the plant had any chance of being exposed to even remotely dangerous levels of radiation, much less someone who is 70 km away. That said, Ms. Peck was exposed to radiation( unless she was living in a lead lined cave and eating only specially formulated, isotropically-separated food, free of carbon-14 and potassium-40) because everyone is exposed to some level of radiation.
It’s even more ridiculous that doctors, who really should know better, would even entertain her delusions by offering radiation “tests.” Any symptoms of acute radiation poisoning would show up within less than a day, and unless the exposure was quite severe, would last less than a couple of days.
ONCE AGAIN: SIMPLY BEING IN JAPAN AT THE TIME OF THE QUAKE DOES NOT MEAN YOU ARE IN DANGER OF RADIATION POISONING.
Just be happy you didn’t drown or die from a structure collapse or fire and stop playing victim!
United States: a Run on Kelp
Radiation fears drive sales of kelp on West Coast
Meanwhile, consumers are turning to more health-friendly sources of iodine, with kelp tablets high on the list and suppliers running out, health store owners and managers along the West Coast told Reuters.Seaweed snacks and blue-green algae liquid are also popular items, and one Washington State homeopath is even recommending miso soup and brown rice, because of an anecdote that it helped a Japanese doctor protect against radiation decades ago.
Jenny Rask, 39, a Los Angeles stay-at-home mother, has been giving her three children seaweed in their lunches.
“Luckily they love it,” she told Reuters. “And we are eating sushi tonight. Sounds a little cuckoo. But eating veggies can help, I hope.”
Willow Follett, 66, the owner of Willow’s Naturally on Bainbridge Island in Washington State, said that she quickly sold out of kelp tablets after the disaster in Japan.
She said that while iodine can saturate the thyroid gland and prevent the absorption of radioactive iodine from a nuclear disaster, it has to be taken in high doses to be effective.
For all the reasons listed above, it’s completely unnecessary to consume large amounts of iodine. I’m also not so sure that kelp actually contains a high enough concentration to be effective anyway, but at least it’s probably safer than taking the tablets.
If eating seaweed is your dig, knock yourself out, but don’t do it out of fears of radiation.
US, Europe, India and elsewhere: Radiation Screening of Passengers on Japanese Flights
Did I not mention that there has been no release of radioactive material from the plant significant enough to actually endanger the general public? The levels of radiation in the area of the plant are being monitored closely. While fission byproducts have been detected in Tokyo, the levels have been very very low. These levels are far too low to pose a threat to the general public from direct exposure, much less contamination.
One would think that the governments of major countries would not be so stupid as to think that just because someone is coming from Japan there is a good chance that they are covered with dangerous levels of fallout or radioactive contamination. Most of the workers at the plants themselves are not even exposed to enough material to cause such concerns. On top of that, most of what is being vented is in the form of inert gasses and will not cling to clothing.
None the less, in a show of scaremongering and extreme stupidity, the US, India, Germany and elsewhere are screening passengers, cargo and aircraft with radiation detectors. (No word on whether those using them actually have the slightest gumption how to use them.)
It should be noted that a geiger counter will register some level of radiation no matter where you take it, and all human beings are slightly radioactive to begin with. Reports have indicated that a few passengers have set off alarms after being determined to be slightly more radioactive than the average.
Such passengers are being “decontaminated” and generally treated like some kind of a danger to society. However, the fact that they measure higher in radioactivity does not actually mean they were exposed to contamination from the reactors.
Some reasons why someone might have higher than average levels of radioactivity:
- They have been to an area with high concentrations of uranium and/or thorium in the soil and have dust on their clothes or shoes
- They like Brazil Nuts
- Their clothing was stored in a building with high radon concentrations
- They stayed in a building with high radon concentrations
- They have high potassium levels
- There is a banana in their pocket
The US, Canada, Europe, Australia, China and elsewhere: As Public panics officials send mixed messages, reassuring while making alarmist statements
Across the world, officials are trying to convince the public that there is no danger of radioactivity from the Fukushima Nuclear plant. In the US, President Barak Obama assured the public that “We do not expect harmful levels of radiation to reach the United States, whether it’s the West Coast, Hawaii, Alaska or U.S. territories.” While I’m glad he went on the record with this statement, he really should have said “it’s impossible” rather than “we do not expect,” since that would seem to leave the door open to the possibility.
Meanwhile, the Canadian government is trying to convince its citizens of the same thing, yet is also setting up additional monitoring stations, as if to somehow validate the fear that such a thing is even a remote possibility. Canada has not begun screening of passengers or cargo from Japan, though some are calling for such measures.
In Australia, the government has issued a series of warnings to citizens to avoid Japan because of radiation concerns, which is, of course totally unfounded. Despite the fact that no levels even remotely dangerous have been detected in Tokyo, the Australian government is urging citizens to leave the city.
Such statements by Australia are inexcusable given the current situation in Japan following the earthquake and tsunami. Australian expats and others who live in Tokyo should not be encouraged to flea or to travel unnecessarily. The transport systems of Japan are in shambles and creating a panicked exodus is only going to add to the problem. Right now, airline seats and airport capacity is sorely needed for humanitarian reasons. Injured persons from outside Japan need to get home. Search and rescue personnel need to get in. Displaced victims need to be transported to shelters. If you are safe and comfortable living in Japan, stay put and don’t add to the logistical and transportation nightmare!
In the UK officials have been making equally boneheaded statements. While the primary message of the British government has been that radiation levels are not anticipated to reach anywhere near danger levels, the public continues to panic, with demand for potassium iodine and other supplies skyrocketing as it has elsewhere. It has been widely reported in the UK that radiation is expected to reach the British Isles in “A fortnight.“
In Taiwan, where the government is also trying to keep radiation fears in check, a German cyclist has quit a major road race over fears of radiation. Like Australia, Germany has urged citizens to leave the area around the nuclear plants, but has not made such sweeping statements urging Germans to evacuate the whole country of Japan.
German airline Lufthansa has been restricting flights into Tokyo to avoid overnight crew layovers. Swiss Air followed suit along with a few other European airlines, again adding to the chaos that has overtaken Japanese airports. Singapore Airlines has also imposed restrictions on aircraft time in Tokyo, despite no measurements of dangerous radiation levels.
Meanwhile, Geiger counters are selling out from Germany to the United States to Greece to Finland, Russia and Sweden. Those who buy such instruments may be alarmed to see that the needle jumps and the speaker clicks and beeps when the unit is turned on. That’s normal, and unless you have some idea what the typical background levels are and what the units on the counter’s meter mean, then a geiger counter really isn’t going to tell you anything.
Reports also indicate gas masks, decontamination kits and a variety of other supplies are selling out in the US and elsewhere.
Worldwide: Radiation Detected, and people think it’s a big deal
In the coming weeks we can expect to hear that radioactivity from the Fukushima Nuclear plants has been detected damn near everywhere it’s looked for. This should be no surprise. Some of the materials released are very short lived and therefore are not normally found in any quantity in the enviornment. Since they can be measured down to the most minuscule levels, even the tiniest traces will show up. Also, expect the press to go nuts over this.
Rational Advice for those In Japan:
If you are actually in the area devastated by the quake and tsunami, then unless you’re a rescue worker or some other necessary personnel then you obviously want to get out to some place that is safer and more stable. If you have family outside Japan that might be the best place to go. But in any case, don’t panic and flea over fears of radiation. If you live in the area near the plant that was evacuated, you should have left already. Staying in that area is not recommended, if only because the evacuation means you are unlikely to get any services such as water or other supplies.
If you are a foreigner visiting Japan, you probably want to get home. Again, don’t panic and desperately try to get out as soon as possible. If your airline tells you that it will be a couple of days before you can leave, then just accept it and don’t start frantically looking for other flights out. There are others who need to leave more urgently than you do and there is no reason to make the situation at the airport more frantic.
If you live in Tokyo or some other metropolitan are or if you are visiting for an extended period of time and you have good consolidations, then there’s no reason to flea. Also, don’t start hoarding bottled water or dust masks or anything like that. There are other parts of Japan that desperately need those supplies.
This entry was posted on Friday, March 18th, 2011 at 9:09 pm and is filed under Bad Science, Culture, Good Science, Just LAME, Misc, Not Even Wrong, Nuclear, Politics, Quackery, media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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March 18th, 2011 at 10:20 pm
As some of you may know I work in the environmental regulatory field in California. I – and my staff -have spent most of this week (thousands of dollars of staff time) hand-holding selfish people who are worried about being poisoned by Japanese radiation. Every once an a while I have causally said something about the 500,000 Japanese who are homeless, hungry, cold, lacking fresh water or sanitation and I have always been met with blank stares. They think the world is all about them and their needs.
Some folks have been calling wanting us to tell them how to build their own radiation detectors because they think the government detectors (which we help run) are part of the cover up.
We had a couple of teachers tell a school full of kids that they were going to get radiation poisoning if they did not take their iodine pills (I vote they get fired).
I will share my tip for watching CNN with the world – if they continue to have commercials it is NOT important. When they stop trying to sell ads something important has happened.
High point of the week was telling my ex’s pre-teen boys who had been scared by a teacher that they should go outside and play in the radiation so they could mutate into supervillains (they did it).
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March 18th, 2011 at 10:44 pm
There are some over reacting for sure, but there have been others showing restraint. Interviews done with people living near U.S and Canadian nuclear plants show that there is not an elevated level of concern. Also the Ontario energy minister has said that the government will not be calling for a halt to plans to build new NPP in that Provence.
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March 18th, 2011 at 11:12 pm
Yeah, it’s totally ridiculous to be screening people from Tokyo for contamination, warning people to not stay in Tokyo and surrounding areas and so on when it is clear and beyond doubt that that region is absolutely NOT seeing any kind of significant elevation in radiation.
Potassium iodine is usually not dangerous, key word being usually, when it is taken as directed. The thing is you are supposed to take it as directed, which is like one pill and no more for a few days and I can easily see some of these idiots taking one a day or two or something. That could be harmful for sure. Taken as directed, the risk is probably slight, but still more than it should be for zero benefit.
I don’t think people in japan (except maybe plant workers) have even been directed to take potassium iodine.
But the salt situation in China. Yeah, that’s crazy. if people start downing spoonfuls of salt to try to get enough iodine then they will be in the hospital for sure and possibly dead.\
And finally, you give good rational advice to those who are in Japan. Regardless if Australia or someone else tells you to leave, don’t start panicking and get in the way of those who really need air travel right away.
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March 18th, 2011 at 11:25 pm
We’re going to be seeing almost every hypochondriaic and attention whore there is on TV soon (it’s already started).
I wouldn’t be surprised if more people die from a KI overdose or salt overdose than the radiation (of course given that the radiation likely won’t kill anyone…).
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March 18th, 2011 at 11:37 pm
It’s like some kind of competition to see who can make the stupidest, most panic-inducing baseless pronouncement or directive.
Fascinating in a major pile-up sort of way. But really a tragic commentary on the state of misinformation on this topic.
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March 18th, 2011 at 11:47 pm
I am sure right now Japan is in no state to handle casual travelers, but in the near future they will have to reestablish tourism and foreigners coming for business and investing in Japan. I wonder how this will all play out.
I have definitely seen the kind of panic in my area (Southern British Columbia, which also gets plenty of radio and television from the US side.) There was a report on the local 11 o’clock news where some media whore was talking about radiation poisoning and what signs to look for like hair falling out, bleeding gums, skin ulcers, vomiting, headache and so on. Absolute bull**** that anyone this side of the Pacific would have even the slightest risk of such a thing, as I’m sure even most in Japan are safe.
I’ve seen headlines in the newspaper that are good at that sensationalized mixed-message “North America Safe from Radiation for Now”
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March 19th, 2011 at 1:59 am
I’m glad there are some sites such as this one where there are attempts to inform people. I’d like to share a few others:
http://bravenewclimate.com/
Lecture on radiation and the Japanese Nuclear Reactor:
http://online.itp.ucsb.edu/online/plecture/bmonreal11/rm/flashtv.html
Video with the professor who runs bravenewclimate.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFs_-8DtZvo
We have a week or so to try to educate people. The lecture video is quite good, it tells people to get informed over radiation and choose the level of radiation risk they wish to take, in living high the mountains, or taking a trip, and compares and explains these radiation levels to those involving nuclear.
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March 19th, 2011 at 6:25 am
Is that a banana in your pocket…
…or are you radioactive?
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March 19th, 2011 at 7:47 am
If the Potassium Iodide pills supplied by the government it will be helpful for the Japanese people
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March 19th, 2011 at 8:19 am
Regarding the points you had on screening passengers for higher levels of radiation, you are dead on. I work at a nuclear power plant, and many of my co-workers have spent time in non-radiologically controlled areas (locations that are entirely separated from any and all sources of radiation from the reactor and related systems) only to have their jackets taken away from them when they try to pass through the detectors when leaving the site. Radon gas loves to cause problems for us.
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March 19th, 2011 at 8:56 am
I would like to apologise to those people who I, with empirical conviction, thought on average was dumber than my own country men/women. I was wrong in doing so and I am sincerely sorry for such gross generalisation;
Yesterday I read in the local tabloid rag that potassium iodide tablets had been sold out everywhere in Sweden, 3 years supply gone in a week. I blame the media and the radiation protection authority who stated; “the fall out cloud will reach Sweden in about 2 weeks” [my rough translation]. 2 weeks eh? That means less than 12% of the original amount of I-131 which was already very dilute and of insignificant total amount. They did state that it will barely be measureable, over leaf of course.
I am seriously starting to loose hope for humanity…
From now on everybody is stupid until prooven otherwise!
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March 19th, 2011 at 10:21 am
DV82XL said:
Sadly, I read that Tepco has (not surprisingly) had to pull funding from the planned new reactors in Texas. I can’t blame them, but I would be sorely disappointed if that kills the project for the foreseeable future.
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March 19th, 2011 at 10:36 am
Now the Moon is attaching Japan —(from MSNBC)
“Food, water, medicine and heating fuel are in short supply and a Worm Moon, when the full moon is closest to Earth, could bring floods to devastated areas. “
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42164532/ns/world_news-asiapacific/
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March 19th, 2011 at 11:20 am
DrBuzz – thanks for this post. I haven’t been following the silliness, ande I just have to shake my head.
It seems to me that a lot of sociologists, psychologists, and anthropologists should be tracking the spread of stories, rumors, and all this FUD. As well as the slower counter-current of rationality and fact. The communication frenzy should be the grist of many a PhD thesis and scholarly article. We may even learn something from it, and apply what we learn to better teach skepticism and rational risk assessment.
And after a while, the conspiracy nuts will suggest the whole thing was created to sell commercial time – the way that some suggest that Hearst supposedly engineered the Spanish-American War to sell newspapers. Borjemoi!
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March 19th, 2011 at 12:52 pm
Can you please elaborate on the following or provide some backup link:
> Even in the worst case, where all material is discharged, there is zero danger of any
> dangerous radiation levels to areas beyond Northern Japan. The United States, Europe,
> Australia and elsewhere simply cannot be effected to any substantial level by any breach
> at any Japanese reactor, or even if every singe Japanese reactor simultaneously experienced
> a complete meltdown and core breach. It’s impossible.
I ask because of Chernobyl. “As of 2009, sheep farmed in some areas of the UK are still subject to inspection which may lead to them being prohibited from entering the human food chain because of contamination arising from the accident.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster_effects#Food_restrictions
Many other international effects of Chernobyl are detailed on that link.
Are the Japanese reactors made of different stuff? Is it because there is no graphite in the core? Or does the ocean filter all the dangerous particles? Would the geography really mean there would be no ill-effect even if “every single Japanese reactor simultaneously experienced a complete meltdown and core breach” ? It would be helpful to explain.
Thanks
Ted
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March 19th, 2011 at 12:53 pm
[...] [...]
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March 19th, 2011 at 2:53 pm
Okay, then I hope you will be importing radioactive spinach and milk from Japan. Just wait, this is going to get a whole lot worse.
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March 19th, 2011 at 2:57 pm
Healthy said:
You almost sound like you want it to get worse. Remember it is not about YOU.
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March 19th, 2011 at 3:02 pm
Ted Harvey said:
1.) No core containment structure in Russia.
2.) Reactor not shutdown – but was operating at full power.
3.) Explosion and fire in Russia involving core.
4.) Poor response to radiation in Russia (no evacuations)
5.) Wikipedia is NOT a scientific or academic source.
I could go on but this is not my area of expertise.
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March 19th, 2011 at 3:19 pm
Ted Harvey said:
Here in Sweden where we got a lot more fallout from the 1986 event, there is no restrictions about eating stuff from the woods as far as I am aware…raindeer or mushrooms or berries.
Ted, do you know if the Welsh sheep are contaminated with Uranium or caesium? There is a bit of a distinction there. I am not saying you are wrong, but the company I used to work for had to do a very expensive examination of somebodys drive way close to the Welsh/UK border recently.
Guess what, the shale they had used as filler for the concrete came from a quarry not far from the house and it contained masses of Uranium and set off the geiger counters, but it was only about 20% above local background…so we didn’t do anything about it. The house owner was happy about it too as we told them what it would cost to deal with the crap!
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March 19th, 2011 at 4:02 pm
Healthy said:
ALL milk and spinach is radioactive.
But besides that, I’ve already started reading the reports on this one. I was going to try to get a post about it up later today.
This seems to be yet another example of how our ability to detect tiny traces of radiation has evolved faster than our society’s understanding of what it really means.
The actual amount of radioactivity in Japanese spinach and milk is so minuscule you would not even receive a significant dose if you ate nothing but the spinach and milk for an entire year. If from now until this time next year every day you ate the spinach and milk for breakfast, lunch and dinner every single day, you would get only about 6 microseviets of radiation exposure.
Of course, nobody would actually do that, so reasonably speaking, even if you ate a full plate of spinach once a week and had a glass of Japanese-produced milk every day you’d be getting less than one microseviet. That is not much, not much at all.
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March 19th, 2011 at 4:57 pm
[...] Depleted Cranium » Blog Archive » Panic and madness in a … [...]
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March 19th, 2011 at 7:40 pm
Radiation chart from http://blog.xkcd.com/2011/03/19/radiation-chart/
Chart: http://xkcd.com/radiation/
Sources: http://xkcd.com/radiation/sources.html
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March 19th, 2011 at 9:11 pm
http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2011/201103/news18/20110318-34ee.html
[i]All the outer walls of Reactors No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 burst and the containment vessels of Reactors No. 2 and 3 were damaged.[/i]
Looks like it’s worse than you guys thought.
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March 19th, 2011 at 9:41 pm
Bruce said:
So now we just make up the news?
Bruce how did Reactor 4 melt down when there was NO FUEL IN IT? How come there are “continuing explosions” that don’t show up on the media caremas pointed at the site 24/7? Why is your news source look like a website put together by an 11 year old playing with HTML software from 1999?
I love these people (or person) who keep wishing for a bigger disaster and more problems. This is NOT ABOUT YOU. It is about a really bad event that happened to the Japanese people.
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March 19th, 2011 at 9:48 pm
Chris said:
I’m not saying its about me. I’m not sure about the website, I found it linked on a anti-nuclear blog I think its some Japanese news source.
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March 19th, 2011 at 10:27 pm
Bruce said:
I don’t know what the source of that information is, but there are a number of items there that are simply false.
“Meltdown occurred at Reactors No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant causing radioactive substance leakage. This is leading to the destruction of the containment vessel. “
that is not true. There may have been partial fuel melting, although “meltdown” is not really a technical term. This has not lead to the destruction of the containment vessel nor does radioactive substance leakage itself damage the vessel.
“Meanwhile, the water temperature keeps rising at Reactors No. 5 and No. 6 due to the trouble in the cooling system. They had been under maintenance when the quake struck the area.”
Latest reports are that unit 5 and 6 are safe and stable. Also they are past the point where active cooling is considered necessary.
“All the outer walls of Reactors No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 burst”
The reactor does not have “walls” The rupture was the reactor building, but not the containment structure.
“and the containment vessels of Reactors No. 2 and 3 were damaged.”
May well have been damaged to some extent, at least superficially damaged, but not compromised.
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March 20th, 2011 at 1:08 am
You might like this:
http://xkcd.com/radiation/
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March 20th, 2011 at 4:51 am
Chris said:
Well, I’m not an expert, but that does sound pretty plausible. The moon’s gravity causes the tides, so it being closer than usual would produce a higher-than-normal tide. I dunno how significant the effect would be, though. Of course, the “full moon” part has nothing to do with it, that’s just a case of lighting.
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March 20th, 2011 at 5:07 am
Bruce said:
“The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) is the state news agency of North Korea”
So the propaganda arm of the North Korea government are the only ones reporting this? Yeah we’ll believe that source.
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March 20th, 2011 at 5:23 am
Bruce said:
It may have a .jp extension, but as ddp pointed out it is North Korean propaganda.
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March 20th, 2011 at 5:27 am
North Korea does have a low per capita consumption of both energy and electricity so Bruce would probably think they’re doing pretty well.
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March 20th, 2011 at 7:01 am
Every village needs its idiot, and Bruce serves that purpose well here.
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March 20th, 2011 at 12:16 pm
Bruce said:
A selection of other articles dated March 18, 2011 (http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2011/201103/news18/20110318-07ee.html), which it took me all of 3 seconds to find:
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International Community Praises DPRK
Pyongyang, March 18 (KCNA) — The international community said with appreciation that the Korean people demonstrate their dignity as great and powerful people and the DPRK as a socialist land of Songun thanks to the treasured sword of single-minded unity.
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Iranian President Slams World Warmongers
Tehran, March 17 (KCNA) — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke strongly against the warmongering nations of the world, calling them devoid of care for humanity on March 12.
“The emptier their hearts are of affection, the more there are crime and war,” the Iranian
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New Seafood Store in Pyongyang
Pyongyang, March 18 (KCNA) — The Pothonggang Department Store in Pyongyang has an auxiliary building for seafood sale.
The seafood store sells sandfish, squid, shellfish and other marine products.
It also has large water tanks and aquariums for carp, snakehead, flatfish and other species of fish.
The store was built some time ago to provide fresh fish to citizens.
===
Congratulations, Bruce: you’ve accepted, without question, a North Korean propaganda site as an unbiased source. G-d, you *are* an idiot, aren’t you?
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March 20th, 2011 at 3:14 pm
Is there actually any data out there on what was released from the reactors and in what quantity? I keep hearing these vague reports of iodine-131 and cesium isotopes, but what I really want to know is how much of each isotope was released, and also if there is any info as to the dispersion of the radioisotopes released. It might also be nice to know what chemical form they are in, but really it’s the quantity that I’m curious about.
It seems without knowing that there’s no way to actually make a solid prediction as to the scale of the event.
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March 20th, 2011 at 9:55 pm
Seriously, shame on the media for their baseless scaremongering. Runs on supplies for legitimate emergencies (e.g. hurricanes) are bad enough; people get hurt in large panicky crowds. Just look at the crush of people in that picture in the China section. And all for nothing.
When all of this is said and done, there are going to be more mortalities and morbidities from overreaction by misinformed people than from the incident itself. Bad science kills.
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March 21st, 2011 at 12:45 am
Meredith L. Patterson said:
Making sure that the anti-nuclear movement gets the blame for any deaths from iodine overdoses and other such overreactions is going to be important.
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March 21st, 2011 at 4:30 pm
I saw a poster at a news site today argue that the news was lying about Iodine having a half life of 8 days because “Iodine 129 has a half life of FIVE MILLION YEARS YOU LYING BASTARDS!!!!!!!”
If it were only true that dangerous materials had monster half lives, we would never again need to refuel our power plants…
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March 21st, 2011 at 4:43 pm
Apparently Fukushima has changed George Monbiot’s mind about nuclear power, and he has stated so publicly.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/21/pro-nuclear-japan-fukushima
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March 22nd, 2011 at 5:48 am
ddp said:
I don’t think we should be so quick to dismiss this. Let’s see what Colonel Gaddafi has to say on the matter first.
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March 22nd, 2011 at 6:04 am
Arcanyn said:
Next time please use the <sarcasm> tag.
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March 22nd, 2011 at 8:18 am
Arcanyn said:
Actually I was holding out for Charlie Sheen. I understand his tiger blood protects him from radiation.
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March 22nd, 2011 at 9:52 am
Chris said:
Maybe we could get a quote from Baghdad Bob?
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