Meltdown Likely Under Way At Japan Nuclear Reactor

[bust]

IAEA monitoring of gamma dose rates and beta-gamma contamination has continued over the last 24 hours. This has been carried out together with the Japanese authorities to facilitate the comparison of results.

 

The IAEA took measurements at additional locations between 35 to 68 km from the Fukushima plant. The dose-rate results ranged from 0.8 to 9.1 microsieverts per hour. The beta-gamma contamination measurements ranged from 0.08 to 0.9 MBq per square metre. More precise interpretation of the results will be possible based on measurements to be made of the composition of the radioactive material that has been released.

 

In the coming days the IAEA will have two monitoring teams in Japan. One team will be in the Fukushima area and a separate team will undertake monitoring in Tokyo and the surrounding area.

 

The Agency continues to receive data confirming high levels of radioactivity in food, notably spinach, in samples taken from 37 locations in the vicinity of five cities south of the Fukishima site. This indicates that in four Prefectures some food products are above permissible levels. High levels of both Iodine-131 and Caesium-137 have been measured by the Japanese authorities in spinach and some other fresh vegetables, together with Iodine-131 in milk. However, as reported yesterday, distribution of food from the areas affected has been restricted. The Japanese authorities are monitoring the situation in the rest of the country. Further monitoring data will be provided by Japan to the IAEA/FAO on an ongoing basis.

 

Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) has announced that contamination has been found in sea water samples taken close to the outlet of the Fukushima Daiichi plant. We have been informed by NISA about plans to monitor the marine environment.

[ozpharlap]

STRONG aftershocks hit near the troubled nuclear power plant at the center of Japan's radiation crisis.

 

The agency said there was no fear of a tsunami following the two quakes, whose magnitudes were recorded at 6.0 and 5.8.

 

Public broadcaster NHK said there were no immediate reports of further damage to nuclear power plants in Fukushima, including the Fukushima Daiichi facility, which was crippled by March 11's 9.0-magnitude quake.

 

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[Bangkoktraveler]

]

 

There is the rub! Nuclear power is NOT cheap! Natural gas and coal power plants provide cheaper electric power.

 

Now there is going to be spent billions of dollars to sequester these 4 radioactive husks. Plus billions in compensation to evacuees' date=' farmers, fishermen, and businesses shut down by the radioactive contamination. [/quote']

 

Totally disagree

 

How many fatalities can be directly linked to Nuclear power, Chernobyl the worlds worst only had 50 fatalities. compared to organic and fossil fuels that is nothing.

 

I personally knew more than 50 people who perished on Piper Alpha, on Middle East Projects if we can keep fatalities below 10 it is classed as a success.

 

We read about mining disasters 2-3 time a year where as Nuke incidents occur maybe once every 20 years It would be interesting to compare this incident to Deep Sea Horizion and its fiscal / enviromental impact .

 

 

 

I guess if you look at things in balanced view, I would say you are right.

 

A lot of people nuclear because of Hiroshima but the fire bombings of Tokyo killed a lot more civilians. I never have heard of somebody bitching about the firebombs.

[Bangkoktraveler]

STRONG aftershocks hit near the troubled nuclear power plant at the center of Japan's radiation crisis.

 

The agency said there was no fear of a tsunami following the two quakes, whose magnitudes were recorded at 6.0 and 5.8.

 

Public broadcaster NHK said there were no immediate reports of further damage to nuclear power plants in Fukushima, including the Fukushima Daiichi facility, which was crippled by March 11's 9.0-magnitude quake.

 

Link

 

 

Japan got some 6.8's.

[ThaiHome]

Back on the topic a bit. WNN had another informative piece on the workers:

 

Casualties among power plant workers

•Two Tepco employees have minor injuries.

•Two contractors were injured when the quake struck and were taken to hospital, one suffering two broken legs.

•A Tepco worker was taken to hospital after collapsing and experiencing chest pains.

•A subcontract worker at an "important earthquake-proof building" was found unconscious and was taken to hospital.

•Two Tepco workers felt ill whilst working in the control rooms of Fukushima Daiichi units 1 and 2 and were taken to the medical centre at Fukushima Daini.

•Four workers were injured in the hydrogen explosion at Fukushima Daiichi 1. They were all taken to hospital.

•Eleven workers (four Tepco workers, three subcontract workers and four members of Self Defence Force) were hurt following a similar explosion at Fukushima Daiichi 3. They were transferred to the Fukushima Daini plant. One of the Tepco employees, complaining of pain in his side, was later transferred to hospital.

•The whereabouts of two Tepco workers, who had been in the turbine building of Fukushima Daiichi unit 4, is unknown.

•Only one casualty has been reported at the Fukushima Daini plant. A worker in the crane operating console of the exhaust stack was seriously injured when the earthquake struck. He subsequently died.

Contamination and radiation cases

•One Tepco worker working within the reactor building of Fukushima Daiichi unit 3 during "vent work" was taken to hospital after receiving radiation exposure exceeding 100 mSv, a level deemed acceptable in emergency situations by some national nuclear safety regulators.

•Another six Tepco workers have since received radiation doses in excess of the usual 100 mSv emergency allowance. One has received more than 150 mSv.

•Nine Tepco employees and eight subcontractors suffered facial exposure to low levels of radiation. They did not require hospital treatment.

•Two policemen were decontaminated.

•An unspecified number of firemen who were exposed to radiation are under investigation.

 

[ThaiHome]

I spent about 5 years as a radiation worker at two different sites, one of them a new power generation station (it was a long time ago). During that time, we had one job that involved exposure to high levels but had to done and done quickly. The only way to minimize the exposure was to limit the time, so we each worked about 10 minutes on a job that took all day. You cannot imagine the stress of being in full PC’s and respirator while HP is counting down the time behind you, you have a dosimeter taped to your hard hat that is beeping every millrem you are getting, sweating your ass off, while trying to get all you can done in 10 minutes.

 

For those workers inside the plant doing that day in and day out for some 10 days now, I have the greatest admiration. Only someone that has done radiation work can fully appreciate what they are going through.

 

TH

[Coss]

 

What you said...

 

And I'm not taking the piss when I ask, have you had any cancers?

 

[ThaiHome]

^No. As I said, I only did it for 5 years and was only really exposed twice. When I left my lifetime dose was just over one rem, not anything to be concerned about.

 

The dosages these people are getting are high, but the standards are set such that even getting burned out does not increase your health risks that much. Your genetic propensity to cancer is probably much more a factor.

TH

 

[ThaiHome]

Reactor victims will benefit, studies show

 

Special To The National Post · Mar. 22, 2011 | Last Updated: Mar. 22, 2011 4:04 AM ET

 

The immense suffering that the Japanese are enduring in the aftermath of their earthquake and tsunami is now compounded by torment over radiation releases from the Fukushima nuclear plant.

 

While the torment is understandable, based on the reported amounts of radiation released, it is uncalled for. The evidence from Japan's populace -inadvertent guinea pigs in the largest radiation experiment ever, in the aftermath of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 -indicates that fears over radiation can be overblown.

 

Those who survived the immediate atomic blasts but were near Ground Zero died at a high rate from excess exposure to radiation. The tens of thousands more distant from Ground Zero, and who received lower exposures to radiation, did not die in droves. To the contrary, and surprisingly, they outlived their counterparts in the general population who received no exposure to radiation from the blasts.

 

These findings come from the Atomic Bomb Disease Institute of the Nagasaki University School of Medicine, which has been analyzing the medical records of survivors continuously since 1968. The voluminous records -based in part on the free twicea-year medical examinations that 83,050 registered Nagasaki survivors received -provided the researchers with a database of 2.5 million examination items to mine. To determine how the survivors fared, the researchers compared the survivors with Japanese men and women of the same age who had not been exposed to radiation.

 

"Among about 100,000 A-bomb survivors registered at Nagasaki University School of Medicine, male subjects exposed to 31-40 cGy [centigrays] showed significantly lower mortality from non-cancerous diseases than age-matched unexposed males," the researchers found. "And the death rate for exposed male and female was smaller than that for unexposed." The 31-40 cGy is a measure of radiation absorption higher than the general population in the vicinity of the plants is likely to have received.

 

The University of Nagasaki study, whose results were consistent with other studies done of the A-bomb survivors, found that high exposures to radiation kill while moderate exposures provide overall general health benefits. While some levels of low exposure did produce a small number of additional cancer deaths, these cancer deaths were more than offset by lower death rates from other causes, such as heart disease and circulatory ailments. The study's bottom line: "the low doses of A-bomb radiation increased lifespan of A-bomb survivors."

 

Other studies of A-bomb survivors, which sliced the data in different ways, have also found encouraging news. Those exposed to fewer than 20 cGy of radiation experienced fewer cancer deaths than the general population. The unborn -thought to be at especial risk -showed no adverse effects under 10 cGy. And no genetic defects were found among the 90,000 children and grandchildren of survivor parents who were exposed to average doses of 40 cGy to 60 cGy. Based on the information available to date, all these exposures exceed those the general population in the vicinity of the Fukushima plant is likely to have received.

 

The real-life studies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors indicate that radiation affects the human body much as arsenic, sodium and many other substances do -they are beneficial in small doses, but can be harmful in overdoses. Yet the conventional scientific wisdom rejects these studies, and a multitude of other real-life studies, in favour of what is known as the Linear No-Threshold Assumption. Under this assumption, all exposure to radiation, no matter how small, is harmful in direct proportion to the dose. It is called an assumption because there is no proof of its validity. In fact, the scientists who espouse it freely admit that no proof for their assumption can ever be had because the risk is too small to measure statistically. In the absence of proof, they say, the only safe course is to assume danger.

 

Yet assuming danger where none exists is in itself dangerous, particularly in a country with the culture of Japan. The atomic bomb survivors were known as hibakusha or "explosion-affected people"-a stigma connoting damaged goods that made them less marriageable, less worthy of association, and less worthy even in their own minds. Even if those recently irradiated by Fukushima escape this epithet, the burden of living in fear for their health and that of their offspring could be great.

 

Damage to the psyche aside, some 200,000 people have been evacuated from 10 towns in the vicinity of the nuclear plant, many of whom now find themselves in poorly heated makeshift shelters where they must make do without adequate food and water, and numerous others have been told to stay indoors. Worse, if the budding panic over radiation spreads, the region around Fukushima -one of Japan's most productive farming areas -may be tainted or even abandoned for agriculture. The Japanese government has already banned the sale of milk and spinach produced in the plant's environs, and consumers in other countries, fearing contamination, are shying away from all Japanese produce.

 

The only evidence that exists as to the health of humans who have been irradiated at low levels points to a benefit, not a harm. Difficult though it may be to overcome the fear of radiation that has been drubbed into us since childhood, there is no scientific proof whatsoever to view the radiation emitted from the Fukushima plant as dangerous to the Japanese population, and certainly no reason for the Japanese to view those living near the plant as damaged goods. In all likelihood, though, many will nevertheless be viewed as such. If so, that will be one more tragedy heaped among the others that the affected Japanese population will need to endure.

 

[Guest lazyphil]

my dad was a young sailor at christmas island on bomb tests.....might explain a few things about me!!!!!

 

on a serious note, my sister had hodgkins disease at 19 and was 'cured' until she died of breast cancer at 37