ScribbleLive

acute radiation syndrome: www.examiner.com
What is often referred to as radiation poisoning or radiation sickness is actually called “Acute Radiation Syndrome” or “ARS” for short. Acute Radiation Syndrome indicates that someone has been exposed to a high level of radiation in a short period of time. This is opposed to chronic radiation exposure which would mean that someone has become sick as exposure to low levels of radiation over a longer period of time

With ionizing radiation, the frequency waves are higher and can break down chemical bonds. Ionizing radiation is composed of extremely short wavelengths that can break electrons (or charged molecules) from an atom, creating two ions (charged particles). This creates one positively charged molecule and a free electron. There are three forms of ionizing radiation and these are alpha, beta and gamma. When the human body is exposed to ionizing radiation, changes occur at the cellular level.

Ionizing radiation causes cells to break down and the free electrons that are released during the process have been identified as carcinogenic. The impact exposure to ionizing radiation will have on the human body depends upon the length and intensity the person was subjected to the radiation. On March 14, 2011, 17 U.S. Navy crew members responded to the crisis in Japan and were exposed to radiation in the atmosphere. The crew members thoroughly washed themselves with soap and hot water to reduce contamination. At this point, no illnesses have been reported. If they were to become sick they would have suffered vomiting, diarrhea and possibly skin rashes immediately following contact.

There are two types of radiation sickness (chronic and acute); and these are referred to as stochastic and non-stochastic. Stochastic effects are associated with chronic radiation exposure and non-stochastic effects are the result of high level radiation exposure in a short amount of time. There is no doubt that the impact of radiation is directly related to the length and level of radiation exposure.

It’s important to realize that radiotherapy, such as chemotherapy, is composed of ionizing radiation. Those undergoing chemotherapy experience the same symptoms experienced by those with Acute Radiation Syndrome, however, those experiencing chemotherapy are under a doctor’s care; are monitored for adverse reactions and exposure to the treatment is on a scheduled basis. Symptoms of Acute Radiation Syndrome are as follow:

x = mr acute lukemia symptoms
x 1. Changes in Blood Chemistry
x 2. Nausea
x 3. Fatigue
x 4. Vomiting
? 5. Hair Loss
? 6. Diarrhea
?7. Destruction of the Intestinal Lining
?8. Internal Bleeding
?9. Central Nervous System Damage
x10. Loss of Consciousness
x11. Death

Each symptom is associated with the level of exposure; the list is measured from the smallest to greatest amount of rems (the increments by which ionizing radiation is measured). The symptoms of Acute Radiation Syndrome were accurately determined by monitoring the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There is no question that ionizing radiation causes cancer and disrupts the molecular components of cellular activity.

What would happen if we put together a simple case to prove the deaths are likely attributable to acute radiation poisoning, that TEPCO and the doctor are likely negligent, lying or worse, and get a big petition of people who are willing to stand by the conclusion vs Tepco and Japanese government, and demand to release the names of the victims so that their families can be contacted? If publicized in the japanese press or blogosphere, the families could come forward and be encourage to file a lawsuit, but Japanese do not have the litigation culture in the US.

Did we ever determine why unit 1 failed so fast? Was it the IC valve issue?
There was smoke out of the stack for unit 1. It was the oldest unit, so whatever pipes were going to break were most vulnerable in unit 1. IC was turned off at first, the other units have steam turbine driven units that still faileded after batteries conked out. The crack in the ground may be indication it had some seismic issues that other units did not have. Nobody had a clue as to even how to vent the thing when the power went out, they had to look at paper plans with a flashlight to figure stuff out. If they plans were computerized, they would even be able to do this. No contingency plans for such an event, they had to wing it. They should have had a hotline to GE / Hitachi to people like Apollo 13 had a hotline to the people who designed the command and lunar modules to figure out ways to fix things offsite. Even a crowd sourced board like this might have been a help then, and probably could help now but obviously they don't monitor this board. No doubt no such hotline exists even today.

Eventually found this cryptic info in their update to IAEA p II-80: "The main steam isolation valve (MSIV) closed, causing an increase in pressure in the reactor pressure vessel (RPV); and at 14:52 on March 11, the IC automatically started up. Thereafter, in accordance with the operating manual for the IC, to ensure that the RPV temperature does not fall at a rate greater than 55 degrees/h, the IC was manually shut down at 15:03 on March 11. In addition, during the period from 15:10 to 15:30 on March 11, only A train of the IC was manually operated three times, and reactor pressure fluctuated up and down." See, "automatically started up" does not necessarily mean that they acutally did. Only the A train actually worked.

Hi@all, there was a 2.6 earthquake in Virginia today. 9 km (6 miles) S (169°) from Louisa, VA
10 km (6 miles) SW (221°) from Mineral, VA

Portugal is as of 2010 the second biggest producer of wind power in the world, rating at over 9TWh. On the top of the list comes another European country, Denmark. en.wikipedia.org

@lillymunster It can be. Here in the south the total wind power installed capacity is 75MWh. As of December 2010 the total capacity in the whole mainland was nearly 4 GWh (4,000 MWh) but there are still ongoing projects that haven't made the statistics. We've been investing a lot in renewable energy. Fortunately, our governments are not very fond of nuclear energy after all the problems we've had, throughout the years, with contamination (of rivers) originating in Spanish nuclear power plants near our border. There are also geothermal and tidal wave energy projects on the go as we speak.