Japan Earthquake

Japan Earthquake | Page 1797

@Diane_NJ I say good riddance to them both!
by bo 6/30/2011 12:58:49 PM

@bo - Ditto!
by Diane_NJ 6/30/2011 12:59:43 PM

Ditto! The weapons reactors are true death machines.
by bojack54 6/30/2011 1:01:39 PM

Geiger counter station in Tehachapi CA is about double the ongoing readings since Fuku. Their background radiation level was about 6-12. They had been running in the high teens. Today steady readings between 30-39.
by lillymunster 6/30/2011 1:02:07 PM

www.tepco.co.jp TEPCO removing damaged oil tank near #1
by lillymunster via Tepco.co.jp 6/30/2011 1:05:46 PM

METI water testing in Fukushima results (in Japanese) www.mhlw.go.jp
by lillymunster 6/30/2011 1:08:03 PM

@Peter Melzer : i think this is one of the not yet discovered elements ? only theoretical.
by Edano 6/30/2011 1:08:32 PM

The mega float is still on site and being used. translate.google.com
by lillymunster 6/30/2011 1:10:06 PM

@M.I.A. Thanks. Still hmm, I'm afraid. Did you see the vid Salu posted on the other side about three hours ago - concerning #6, water & the megafloat?
by es 6/30/2011 1:10:48 PM

tellurium is a strong poison anyway no matter the isotope.
by Edano 6/30/2011 1:11:04 PM

Good morning everyone. Can I get a mod someone to log out, so I can log in to mod the "unmod" board :) All licenses in use.
by deb 6/30/2011 1:13:51 PM

Circulation cooling system hits another snag

The newly installed reactor-cooling system at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has suffered another problem, as its water treatment equipment has stopped.

The system that decontaminates and re-uses radioactive water from the facilities is believed to be the key to the stable cooling of the reactors.

But Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, says the decontamination equipment stopped automatically on Thursday afternoon when the alarm went off.

TEPCO says the problem turned out to be a malfunction of a gas exhaust on a French-made device that removes radioactive material from the water.

The utility says the device was undergoing engineering work to prevent gases from flowing backward, when the alarm set off.

It is looking into the cause of the malfunction, including a possible link to the engineering work.

TEPCO says it has continued injecting circulated water into the reactors, as it has already treated about 2,000 tons of water to be used for cooling.

Since its start on Monday, the cooling system has experienced a series of problems, including leaky piping.

Thursday, June 30, 2011 20:03 +0900 (JST)
www3.nhk.or.jp
by Edano 6/30/2011 1:17:05 PM

@Deb - logging out.
by lillymunster 6/30/2011 1:18:02 PM

TEPCO moves low level contaminated water

Workers at TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant have started moving low level contaminated water to a giant steel barge for storage.

The transfer from the plant's make-shift tanks started on Thursday afternoon to the barge called the "mega float." The barge is attached to a quay on the plant's premises.

The make-shift tanks have been almost full since Wednesday with low-level radioactive water pumped from the basement of the reactor Number 6 turbine building. The water is threatening to damage equipment and gauges and thus hamper cooling efforts.

TEPCO says the water is treated to lower the level of contamination before it is transferred to the barge. The utility also says it will do everything to ensure the stored water doesn't leak into the sea. The utility aims to pump around 8,000 tons of the water into the giant barge over three or four months.

The barge, 136 meters long and 46 meters wide, can hold a maximum of 10,000 tons of water.

But the company says it has no final plan to dispose of the water stored in the barge.

Thursday, June 30, 2011 17:51 +0900 (JST)
www3.nhk.or.jp
by Edano 6/30/2011 1:18:44 PM

@lillymunster thank you :)
by deb 6/30/2011 1:19:06 PM

Back as nonmod
by Nancy 6/30/2011 1:19:24 PM

I signed out of mod too, since now the Europeans and Americans are all awake.
by bo 6/30/2011 1:31:31 PM

@ Peter,, I had to step away.. it is interesting on the stability ,, it's like it approches steady state but not quite...
by dean 6/30/2011 1:40:08 PM

Did a daily news update on the group web. After I get my work for the day done I was going to go back on the MOX inspection research and working on the new web site template. Is there something else I should hit first instead?
by Nancy 6/30/2011 1:43:21 PM

@Peter, no, I don't mean clearance, I was quoting a source and it's correct.
by Ian 6/30/2011 1:52:09 PM

@Peter, here's the MedLine definition of biological half-life : "the time that a living body requires to eliminate one half the quantity of an administered substance (as a radioisotope) through its normal channels of elimination." It's half the quantity (or concentration), not half the clearance.
by Ian 6/30/2011 1:54:39 PM

A difference is, unlike the first source (wikipedia) the second more-reliable source implies whole-body clearance, not merely blood plasma clearance.
by Ian 6/30/2011 1:57:35 PM

Mock attackers 'strike' 24 nuclear plants, 'breach' two www.cnn.com
by bo 6/30/2011 2:05:11 PM

Here's some data on cesium-137 bio-half-life : "Approximately 10% of Cesium is eliminated rapidly with a biological half-life of 2 days, and 90% is eliminated more slowly, with a biological half-life of 110 days. Less than 1% of the Cesium was retained with a longer biological half-life of about 500 days." orise.orau.gov
by Ian 6/30/2011 2:07:52 PM

@Ian , where I worked clearance was expressed in half-lives. in quality control, we needed to meet certain criteria for specific organs for the badge of product to be released. The clearance depended on the radioactive decay half-life of the isotope and the biological half-life of the chemical compound it was bound to.
by Peter Melzer 6/30/2011 2:23:30 PM

@dean , nuclear stability seems to depend on MAGIC NUMBERS of z.
by Peter Melzer 6/30/2011 2:25:21 PM

@Peter, no doubt that's true, but I was quoting from the first google return for "biological half-life." I didn't mistakenly quote a definition of another term.
by Ian 6/30/2011 2:28:50 PM

Morning all! Hopefully this hasn't been posted yet.....................Radiation detected in Fukushima children's urine
A group of Japanese citizens says radioactive materials have been detected in urine of 10 children in Fukushima Prefecture, where the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is located.

The Fukushima Network for Saving Children from Radiation collected urine samples from 10 elementary to high school students in the prefecture's capital Fukushima City. The samples were analyzed by a French research organization.

The group said at a news conference in Tokyo on Thursday that radioactive cesium was found in all of the samples, and that one from an 8-year-old girl contained 1.13 becquerels of cesium-134 per liter.

The group added that the children are thought to have taken in radioactive materials released from the Fukushima Daiichi plant. www3.nhk.or.jp
by LM 6/30/2011 2:30:04 PM

@Edano , the problem with transition elements is that they possess a high toxicity already because of their chemical properties. If a radioisotope of such element has got a half-life of hundreds of thousands of years, the radioactivity may be low, but the isotope will still be very, very toxic.
by Peter Melzer 6/30/2011 2:30:38 PM

News from Australia radiation detected in childrens urine www.news.com.au
by standbybarry edited by elainekirk 6/30/2011 2:31:49 PM

@Ian , I just wanted to explain what my comment was based on. It is very helpful to discuss such principles here. Such discussions are part of our learning experience.
by Peter Melzer 6/30/2011 2:32:38 PM

@Peter Melzer : that's what i said before. tellurium is very toxic, apart from the type of isotope.
by Edano 6/30/2011 2:34:08 PM

@Lilly out at the moment I will check yr tweets when back and retweet
by elainekirk 6/30/2011 2:36:48 PM

@Edano , sorry I missed that, but that is why you were correct in stating that one need not care what isotope of the element in question it is.
by Peter Melzer 6/30/2011 2:37:12 PM

@Peter Melzer : well, if you survive the poison, it still causes cancer 20 years after ... ;(
by Edano 6/30/2011 2:40:33 PM

very mean.
by Edano 6/30/2011 2:40:48 PM

@Peter Melzer @Ian : i cannot understand this quote:

"Approximately 10% of Cesium is eliminated rapidly with a biological half-life of 2 days, and 90% is eliminated more slowly, with a biological half-life of 110 days. Less than 1% of the Cesium was retained with a longer biological half-life of about 500 days." orise.orau.gov

the term "half life" implicates already, that some amount is egested rapidly, while some of the drug will stay in the body for nearly ever .......

for me, you cannot say : "part of cesium has a different half life than the other". that makes no sense at all.
by Edano edited by Edano 6/30/2011 2:43:38 PM

@Ian True Effective half-life is determined by 1/ Effective HalfLife = 1/biological halflife + 1/ radioactive halflife. Effective half-life in the body is always less than the biological half-life OR the radioactive half-life. But it doesn't make you healthy.
by RBeaner 6/30/2011 2:49:34 PM

overall, it depends on the dose and the saturation of the body and lots of other parameters. biological half life is an average term.
by Edano edited by Edano 6/30/2011 2:49:59 PM

People with liver or kidney disease will have longer biological half-lives for each isotope than average.
by Bobby1 6/30/2011 2:53:37 PM

@all Anyone hear anything about the Iatan Nuclear Power Plant in Missouri? They mentioned on NBC just now that some workers had been sent home because of the rising water. I hadn't heard about this plant before.
by LM 6/30/2011 2:59:52 PM