Japan Earthquake

Japan Earthquake | Page 2501

ikrockhopperItsumi Kakefuda

The source of the high rad found in Setagaya ward, Tokyo, was not related the Fukushima. It was radium. Why radium? Not known yet.

2 hours ago
by M.I.A. 10/13/2011 12:56:51 PM

Could a bottle of radium emit that much radiation?
by lillymunster 10/13/2011 1:06:44 PM

Will be offline for a bit, getting a new cable modem
by lillymunster 10/13/2011 1:27:39 PM

@lillymunster All isotopes of Radium are highly radioactive, so yes.
by Pedro Jesus 10/13/2011 1:58:42 PM

@Pedro Jesus I wonder how long that has been there? That is a walking route for an elementary school
by lillymunster 10/13/2011 2:07:04 PM

@lillymunster Unfortunately, it is quite impossible to find out. It could have been there even before the March disaster. We will never know unless whoever put it there in the first place comes forward and admit it. What I can tell you is this hasn't been the first time it has happened. There has been some cases in Europe as well. I can also assure you that bottles containing radium surely didn't come from Fukushima-Daiichi. Whether or not this event is somehow related to the accident is one of the big questions now. I'm pretty sure there will be a wealth of conspiracy theories trying to relate this to the March disaster.
by Pedro Jesus 10/13/2011 2:11:34 PM

@Pedro Jesus I was assuming possibly old something from back when Radium was an acceptable treatment or elixer. The half life is over 1000 years.

Radium metal maintains itself at a higher temperature than its surroundings because of the radiation it emits – alpha particles, beta particles, and gamma rays. More specifically, the alpha particles are produced by the radium decay, whereas the beta particles and gamma rays are produced by relatively short-half-life elements further down the decay chain.
by lillymunster 10/13/2011 2:13:48 PM

Possibly something like this? www.orau.org
by lillymunster 10/13/2011 2:15:48 PM

Could have been used as marker paint on dials.
by Peter 10/13/2011 2:28:44 PM

@Peter Bottle of really old illuminating paint?
by lillymunster 10/13/2011 2:31:04 PM

@lillymunster , yes, the stuff they used on watch faces still back in the 1970s.
by Peter 10/13/2011 2:31:52 PM

@Peter yep like the radium girls
by lillymunster 10/13/2011 2:32:07 PM

I would love to see a picture of the bottle. I also wonder about the health of the residents in the home
by lillymunster 10/13/2011 2:32:58 PM

story about it now on JT search.japantimes.co.jp
by lillymunster 10/13/2011 2:34:57 PM

The BBC - your "banana equivalent" dose of radiation www.bbc.co.uk
by lillymunster 10/13/2011 2:44:57 PM

Here is my half baked theory on the radium bottles. Grandma-san or the homes previous owners left the bottles in the house. The current residents not knowing what they were flung the "water" on the fence to water the plants and chucked the box of bottles under the crawl space. Then it sat there unnoticed until now. Japan times is saying "bottles"
by lillymunster 10/13/2011 2:50:08 PM

back
by dean 10/13/2011 3:11:51 PM

Hi Dean!
by lillymunster 10/13/2011 3:22:05 PM

@lillymunster That theory sounds plausible. Lets wait and see what the official investigation comes up with.
by Pedro Jesus 10/13/2011 3:29:29 PM

@Lilly, Pedro.. hi
by dean 10/13/2011 3:31:18 PM

@lillymunster , or somebody painted the fence with the stuff, using it as a pesticide. How about that?
by Peter 10/13/2011 3:31:27 PM

@you ,...and like in this country, the left-overs ended up stored in the crawlspace.
by Peter 10/13/2011 3:33:04 PM

I hope one of the media outlets gets some more details. Quite the freak story.
by lillymunster 10/13/2011 3:39:59 PM

Today's stupid question, I can't find the answer online. Alpha radiation, can it penetrate? Or is it blocked by simple materials like paper or plastic? All I keep finding talks about internal contamination.
by lillymunster 10/13/2011 3:45:39 PM

Stumbled across this on radium wiki

In the U.S., nasal radium irradiation was also administered to children to prevent middle-ear problems or enlarged tonsils from the late 1940s through the early 1970s.[14]
by lillymunster 10/13/2011 3:50:28 PM

The ability to penetrate matter differs greatly among the various types of nuclear radiation. A sheet of paper, a layer of clothing, or an inch of air can stop relatively slow moving, heavy alpha particles. Thus, it is easy to shield against alpha radiation, unless the alpha-emitting substance enters the body. www.chemcases.com
by Liz 10/13/2011 4:11:40 PM

@Liz Thanks! That is exactly what I was looking for. My Google-fu is weak today. :-)
by lillymunster 10/13/2011 4:14:55 PM

eye glasses are often worn if alpha contamination is present to protect the eyes and then protectiveclothing
by dean 10/13/2011 4:18:02 PM

off for a bit
by dean 10/13/2011 4:20:48 PM

Note the Strontium comment buried in here. "Radiation hotspot in Tokyo linked to mystery bottles" www.reuters.com
by Panserbjorne9 10/13/2011 4:26:37 PM

@Panserbjorne9 I saw something about the Yokohama stronium yesterday. It being on a roof rather than in the soil makes it very hard to dismiss as old contamination.
by lillymunster 10/13/2011 4:31:53 PM

Did I post this yesterday? Indian Point had their containment steel buckle due to 300 F steam leak. This was in the 1970's www.ipsecinfo.org
by lillymunster 10/13/2011 4:35:29 PM

Does anyone have this New Yorker article yet? If not I will grab a copy at the store and scan it. www.newyorker.com
by lillymunster 10/13/2011 4:36:46 PM

This may explain the delay and reluctancy in testing for stronium

At the Institute, it costs 65,000 yen (US$847) (pre-tax) to test one sample for strontium-90 (no separate testing for strontium-89), and it takes one week. No volume discount, the webpage says.

ex-skf.blogspot.com
by lillymunster 10/13/2011 4:39:54 PM

More of the radiation air survey completed. ajw.asahi.com
by lillymunster 10/13/2011 5:08:25 PM

Lillimunster, re Indian Point. I lived next to Indian Point, in Peekskill and I worked the overnite shift at the local Diner there. We had the truckers from the plant come in at night. That’s when they did their tours. They said because there is less traffic at night. They were mostly driving tanker trucks with “dirty water” somewhere. The stories they told make your skin crawl. I never saw anything about it in the newspaper though. Once they had to remove parts of the pavement inside the plant because of contamination. And many stories about leaks into the Hudson River.
by Liz 10/13/2011 5:18:15 PM

@Liz Yikes! There were numerous spills into the river listed. I wonder what they do with that water they trucked off?
by lillymunster 10/13/2011 5:20:53 PM

I dont know where they took it. They didnt say.
by Liz 10/13/2011 5:24:15 PM

@Liz I find it so puzzling that so many in NY are against Indian Pt including the governor and they can't get it shut down.
by lillymunster 10/13/2011 5:25:32 PM

It produces 25% of the City and Westchester and they dont have alternatives. Yet.
by Liz 10/13/2011 5:27:59 PM

@Liz There was a report that said they couldn't evacuate NYC if there was a major accident at the plant, due to the massive size of the city.
by lillymunster 10/13/2011 5:29:25 PM

Lillimunster, of course they cant. All the bridges would be clogged up in no time and the people would have to go north too and thats where the plant is the other way is the ocean. And where to put all those people.
by Liz 10/13/2011 5:31:57 PM

@Liz Exactly. Indian Point is ancient and dangerous due to design and age. It is just a ridiculous situation. Omaha has no plan to replace Ft. Calhoun's power generation, as far as I know they don't even have a future plan for when the license extension ends. It is only 20% of their capacity according to OPPD. So either OPPD is lying, a possibility since they let slip they sell much of that power back to the market, or Omaha has no planning capability. Oh and OPPD is broke, they don't have the funds to fix the plant and are begging the federal government to give them FEMA money.
by lillymunster 10/13/2011 5:38:25 PM

@all. The Japan free plane tickets thing starts in April. You have to submit an application about where you would go etc. So what suggestions of things I should do if I get to take the trip?

I had thought maybe set up a rad detector to send messages to twitter or something to document readings everywhere I go? Specimens to collect? Places I should go?
by lillymunster 10/13/2011 5:40:19 PM