Japan Earthquake

Japan Earthquake | Page 150

This article says that they found a dead body 5 kilometers from the plant, but the body was too radioactive to be safely dealt with. :-S www3.nhk.or.jp
by borrrden 3/28/2011 1:55:45 PM

friend Marie, I really wish you would stop posting like 500mS(uS) as if milliSieverts and microSieverts are equal units. This is driving me nuts because of the confusion it could cause. 500 milliSieverts (mS) is 0.5 Sievert is 500,000 microSievert (uS). There is no equivalence of milli (1/1000) and micro (1/million). The difference is 3 orders of magnitude. OK, point made. I just felt it was important to correct something that was posted hours ago since this blog may be archived and may be referenced by news organizations. We engineers use milli and micro all the time and it is impossible to confuse these units.
by Sky 3/28/2011 1:56:11 PM

I don't know if you guys have this link, it's recorded press conference videos of the Chief Cabinet Secretary of Japan including question and answer sessions nettv.gov-online.go.jp
by Sin 3/28/2011 1:56:13 PM

As someone said: Nuclear power, not too cheap to meter but too costly to matter. Times article "Why No Nukes? The Real Cost of U.S. Nuclear Power" - www.time.com (Is this OK to post here? Not off-topic?)
by Cup 3/28/2011 1:56:53 PM

@Sky, only a physicist could have come up with these units. Rem used to be a much wieldier dimension!
by Peter Melzer 3/28/2011 2:03:37 PM

@Sin It is in the sticky up top
by NHK Listener 3/28/2011 2:04:04 PM

I wonder how radioactive the bodies of the two workers are in reactor #4. According to the TEPCO releases, they are still listed as missing. Does anyone know if they ever said anything else about them?
by Sin 3/28/2011 2:04:51 PM

Thanks NHK listener.
by Sin 3/28/2011 2:05:12 PM

Is there any record of the resulting radiation exposure across the US and the world following above ground nuclear bomb testing in the 1950's, or was this not a consideration at the time?
by Brad 3/28/2011 2:05:40 PM

CNN - Status report: Reactor-by-reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi plant www.cnn.com
by Brad 3/28/2011 2:05:47 PM

www.ic.unicamp.br
by Scillak 3/28/2011 2:05:51 PM

I have been watching a discussion site called physics forum.com. Someone posted this link that has reactor data plotted over time - temps, pressures. I can't vouch for the source.
by Scillak 3/28/2011 2:05:55 PM

@Salu - Reactor #4 Spent Fuel Pool (SPF) is exposed to the outside air, just like a swimming pool. The roof of the building was blown away by a hydrogen explosion, so there is no containment of radiation, smoke, steam, etc.
by Brad 3/28/2011 2:05:57 PM

@es, I anticipate greater amounts will be detected in food come Sept. I do not believe it will a major health hazard like in Japan. But I'd keep an eye on it.
by Peter Melzer 3/28/2011 2:07:04 PM

Brad there are records of the testing in the 50's but until recently it was considered classified. www.defense.gov
by Sin 3/28/2011 2:09:17 PM

Hi @all I posted this last night but I don't think anybody saw it: I found the reading from last night for the I-134 in reactor 2 was 2.9 x 10e9Bq/cm3 . The highest radiation reported so far. THREE orders of magnitude higher than any of the others. Remember that I-134 has a half-life of 53 minutes. www.nisa.meti.go.jp
by Jim Carver 3/28/2011 2:11:21 PM

@Jim Carver Those readings have been called into question by NISA, and they are redoing the test.
by borrrden 3/28/2011 2:13:00 PM

they = TEPCO I mean
by borrrden 3/28/2011 2:13:17 PM

@borrrden These are the new ones.
by Jim Carver 3/28/2011 2:13:54 PM

@Peter Melzer At tis stage I'm not over concerned about levels in food outside of Japan. I anticipate we'll all need to revise our ideas of what is dangerous and what isn't.
by es 3/28/2011 2:14:16 PM

have not seen any reports that they located the two employees listed as "missing", are the ones these the one reported missing the 1st day or do they have two additional missing.
by fitter 3/28/2011 2:14:42 PM

@Jim Carver www.nisa.meti.go.jp
by NHK Listener 3/28/2011 2:15:12 PM

@Jim Carver Then why is it dated yesterday? :-S
by borrrden 3/28/2011 2:15:30 PM

@fitter, good point!
by Peter Melzer 3/28/2011 2:16:56 PM

@es dangerous is pertainent to your own status... my dad can not drink our tap water due to chemo treatment... this comes direct from the utilites... We do and should have the right to know where our food comes from, so we can make the decision... i do not eat seafood from certain countries due to the lack of EPA reg's and water pollution.. what endagers me may be fine for you
by fitter 3/28/2011 2:18:41 PM

@Scillak Thank you! Such good stuff. And goodmorning to all
by marie rich 3/28/2011 2:18:47 PM

@borrrden just read that article on the dead body 5km out - I think that is shocking, and I cannot for the life me understand why it is all kept so quiet. Well I do but....
by fiona 3/28/2011 2:19:11 PM

@fiona It is a very new article, it probably hasn't been translated yet :-S.
by borrrden 3/28/2011 2:19:47 PM

The CNN status-of-each-reactor report posted a few minutes ago seems to me inaccurate in several respects. It describes a melt-down as a breach of steel containment and concrete, without differentiating a partial melt of fuel. Then in a few places where it describes radiation levels as "above normal for that locale" it fails to convey the magnitude. Nevertheless, I thank CNN for giving it some coverage. This topic must be quite difficult for regular reporters to write about and express all the quantitative nuances and their implications.
by Sky 3/28/2011 2:20:49 PM

@borrrden That link doesn't work
by Jim Carver 3/28/2011 2:21:13 PM

@Jim Carver Which link?
by borrrden 3/28/2011 2:21:40 PM

@Brad Here's a site I found in response to your question about US nuclear bomb testing and the resultant fallout. Lots of graphs, links and sources: en.wikipedia.org
by James Ward 3/28/2011 2:21:55 PM

@fitter Agree. It's extremely important that this information re food source is available and transparent for precisely the reason you mention - we are all different. I don't eat any animals.
by es 3/28/2011 2:22:06 PM

what about this report from TEPCO:
www.tepco.co.jp
The exponents look like minusses... Is this a mess or what?
by petra 3/28/2011 2:22:38 PM

@fiona: It is not kept quiet, it's just not translated to English because there is no "interest", Libya is more important, hell, there's ten other topics that are more "interesting" at the moment. News that lasts for three weeks isn't news anymore, sadly.
by Jeff 3/28/2011 2:22:42 PM

@borrrden The link in www.nisa.meti.go.jp
by Jim Carver 3/28/2011 2:23:28 PM

@Jim Carver I didn't post that link :-S but I just clicked on the link you sent and it works for me.
by borrrden 3/28/2011 2:24:06 PM

@borrrden Sorry, but the link inside that page.
by Jim Carver 3/28/2011 2:24:46 PM

@Jeff - I agree totally - BBC cannot hardly be bothered
by fiona 3/28/2011 2:24:51 PM

@Jim Carver You mean this one? www.tepco.co.jp It works well for me :)
by borrrden 3/28/2011 2:26:08 PM

@fiona: And we also have to understand that sharing all the technical details might be interesting for us, but there's not really a reason for them to do so. One thing that can most certainly be criticized though is the lack of proper measurements, that is really terrible. But since the US is surely monitoring the situation very closely (they have troops in Japan), and they are not increasing the evacuation zone or issuing alerts, I think the situation is mostly contained to within the plant. I'm sure the US would act if they though the situation was deteriorating.
by Jeff 3/28/2011 2:30:16 PM

@Jeff & Fiona...yes, even NHK isn't covering it like they did. They were my go to for info, but now this forum is all that is left really current and topical. Too bad about the bodies...but I'm wondering if they got "radioactive" from contact with ocean water rather than from the plant itself.
by MaryMary 3/28/2011 2:31:11 PM

@borrrden K Got it translated. That's garbage. Talk about a whitewash.
by Jim Carver 3/28/2011 2:31:46 PM

@fitter I assume the 2 workers are the two listed as missing from the first day, they are still listed as missing on all the NISA updates.
by Sin 3/28/2011 2:31:58 PM

@es, I am not really worried either. But fitter made a good point. Some may have to. The releases at Chernobyl were certainly of greater dimension. However, yesterday someone from Wales posted that his sheep were still contaminated. In Scandinavia, Cs is still found in reindeer meet today. I remember mushrooms love Cs. People there love to collect them in the late summer and fall. Nobody in Western Europe was supposed to eat them that year. Thus, keeping a detector on the food chain can only be prudent.
by Peter Melzer 3/28/2011 2:32:00 PM