This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Japan: Land Of The Rising Sun And The Irradiated Ground
Perhaps the reason why so far nobody has been too concerned about the radiation levels in and around Tokyo, some 140 miles southwest of Fukushima, be that everyone is looking for radiation in all the wrong places? As the following very disturbing video demonstrates, a quick trip down the street with your personal Geiger counter indicates, the radiation gradient between the air and the ground is orders of magnitude. It is unclear if the ground is such a more generous source of radiation due to radioactive rains seeping into the ground, due to irradiated water in the subsoil, or for some other reason. What is pretty certain, is that unless Japanese citizens have learned to fly and avoid the ground altogether, by walking each and every day, they absorb substantial abnormal amounts of radiation. How soon before we transition from videos of earless mutant bunnies to those of something far more tragic?
»
- 14040 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
This is a form of genocide. The media not reporting the truth is guilty of crimes against humanity.
My estimate is slacks under the asphalt. Those are always radio active.
They are already learning to fly: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/43245229/ns/today-today_people/t/wheeee-fl...
Cut the hysterical bullshit, you and Tyler.
This was 5 uSv/hr...there are probably natural alpha emitters like GRANITE in the freakin pavement.
His rad detector was showing .1uSv ambient, which is normal. IOW, Tokyo is not a smoldering radioactive wasteland. Certainly everyone there will not be "dead or evacuated" by April 2.
here we go again...........
It's like clockwork.
Explain the earless bunny rabbit then? Are rabbit ears a new Japanese delicacy?
Birth deformaties happen all the time. Literally, all the time. Considering evolution is based off of "random" mutations, which weren't caused by failing nuclear power plants.
Also, if I'm not mistaken the rabbits were significantly closer to the plant.
As a commenter pointed out in a previous entry here about Fukushima, earless rabbits are not unheard of. The fact that *one* happened to show up in an area near Fukushima doesn't signify much. We'd need to see a statistically unusual rise in earless bunnies in the area before we can say this was anything other than a coincidence.
Check out this 2009 forum from the UK about earless rabbits: http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?t=194355
they are definitely unheard of to that rabbit!
Hah! Good one.
I agree. This is about as sensational as it gets.
Some amateur guy walking around with a geiger counter who doesn't know two shits about radioactivity.
There is trace radioactive particles all over the globes soil. In fact one might want to check here in Virginia where there is a serious problem with edit: (Radon) gas produced by uranium soil...
(I doubt it was granite considering Japan is mafic rich island)
Background is about .07 micros. .10 may indicate you've got some particles in the wind. A huge slab of granite produces .11.
6 micros is a somewhat, dangerous amount for everyday exposure. If exposed continuously, this would give you 2.5 the limit of the dose limit for a nuclear worker is (20 milli per year). That's 365 x 24 x 6 = 52 millis. Criterion for relocation at Chernobyl was 350 millis per lifetime. So after 7 years you'd need to move.
But the severity is just one aspect. It assumes the level is constant. Sine the winds have only just started blowing onto Tokyo, with dinges and the arrival of typhoon season, we can expect levels to increase.
More importantly, the difference between the two areas shows that our current ways of measuring threat are so wrong it's laughable (e.g. Radnet).
But these things are known by those who have lived through Chernobyl.
No one seems to notice the trend--the radiation dose is increasing as he gets closer to the storm drain, where some radioactive particles have settled. What about the levels in the water supply? The levels around that drain were 50x ambient. What happens when levels in the bottom of the water supply are 50x THAT?
That is the important thing here, as that is the thing that will eventually force a broad based evacuation. If non-radiated water is not available, people will leave by any means necessary, even if it means diaspora.
"His rad detector was showing .1uSv ambient, which is normal."
Correct. Even 0.2 uSv/hr would be normal in the US as background radiation. There were some radiation in the stone dust on the pavement there, but that could be due to granite, shale, etc. The fact that the background radiation is 0.10 shows that there is no excessive radiation in the air at the present time.
wrong.
hot particles. atoms wont register on geiger counters, plumes will.
gunderson says seattle residents breathed in 5 per day in april. 10 per day for tose in tokyo.
denial --> anger --> ... get to acceptance already.
Hot particles do show up as a spike that recedes, if you have the right type of dosimeter (some may average over a very long period, making spikes go away).
Also, you can hear lots of beeps (decays) despite the measurement being only slightly elevated.
A really hot particle will set off the alarm on my dosimeter.
.2 in boulder CO maybe.
You are smoking crack if you think 6 micros is due to granite.
Numbers and facts matter.
I love how you continuously misquote me in every realm of discourse.
I never said Tokyo would be dead or evacuated due to radiation. THE FUCKING WATER WAS OFF AND THERE WAS NO BOTTLED WATER.
This is why you have no fucking credibility, it's because you fucking lie at every opportunity, like the sociopath that you are.
Go castrate a gibbon and leave the discussion to the adults.
This feels like the GOM all over again. Months and months go by with little or no mention of the event in the MSM, which then means that the general populace doesn't think about it. Outta sight, outta mind...
About the GOM... One year later, the clean up crews are dying.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CKuJ8eqY6M
Give it another year or so and see how they explain dozens of Japanese coming down with 'golf war syndrome'.
Governments seem happy to poison their citizens when it comes to radiation... it's just too scary and too expensive to clean up, better to leave it for the future...
Have you seen the exsiting russian mutate human bunnies? Well, I don't wanna see it again.
How scary is that?
This is not funny, this is a Snagglepuss "Exit, stage left" moment
Disturbing.
Go long balloons.
Since we've been told we're safe from radiation spewed into the sea because it settles to the bottom of the ocean, likewise how much radiation will settle to the bottom of a glass of milk?
according to gunderson, many of the plutonium fuel rods that were in reactor 3 , wound up on the ocean , after the explosion there. what do hot plutonium fuel rods do to fish and the oceanic waters? maybe no one really wants to know about this? very scarey stuff.
Get outta dodge, bitchez.....as in, Sayonara Nippon
The gov was saying low rads, 18 meters from the ground. If you get on stilts, you are all set.
It would match will with colorful circus tents.
Maybe the epa and fda should go over there and give the masterful smell tests, like they did with gulf shrimp.
My congressman who even 2 weeks after the tsunami was still advocating for new nuke energy in our district, has now STFU on the topic.
Which nuke-owned dickhead was that?
Gibson still supports nuclear power plant
Despite situation in Japan, congressman wants plant in district
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
http://www.timesunion.com/default/article/Gibson-still-supports-nuclear-...
Why not nuclear? Because you're scared? You being scared doesn't change facts.
What happened in japan is a travesty, but could have been avoided...hello...where did they build it? Ok. Somehow anti-nuclear idiots forget that key point. Location. Location. Location.
The alternative until fusion is nothing. (and since we have energy crunches now...just wait a few decades...)
Wind/solar are complete horseshit, and there is not enough oil. Natural gas is a pipe dream but of course we can increase usuage by a bit. That said, if there is a 30-50 year lead time WITH a Manhattan style fusion project...(and right now we're without such a program)...can anyone forecast what the energy shortfall will mean? Billions of deaths unless nuclear is there to BRIDGE the gap. That's it...not a forever situation...just a few decades.
The only way is nuclear until fusion. Then when we get fusion, we start retiring the nuke plants. To say that today's plants are the same as those built in Japan is asinine. Last I checked there are plenty of places in this country that aren't in a fukushima situation, AND are still running just fine. You already aren't safe, you might as well have enough energy to live.
The alternative is perhaps a few billion people dying from lack of energy. IN REALITY, as sad as it is, as much as I DON"T want nuclear, is the fact that WE NEED nuclear. Or we can die without it. Real death is assured without nuclear. Only given fuckups are some people exposed. There won't be billions of deaths from fukushima. There will be without nuclear. So unless someone can show me that billions of deaths will occur with fukushima, and I see those many people dropping dead, then Nuclear still is better decision than no-nuclear.
If you want to shorten the timeframe we need it, fund fusion up the ass. There is no other alternative.
Nuclear until fusion, and there is nothing else except death. We must risk death, in order to not actually have death. Sad, but true. No way to get around it, and I'm not going to advocate everyone dying from lack of energy (yes they would) because some people are too scared of it.
Nuclear tip #1...don't put it next to the sea
Nuclear tip #2....don't put it next to a fault line
Nuclear tip #3....use a better design (pebble bed...or different like thorium)
Nuclear tip #4....federally fund it....without bankster loans so you can shut it down whenever you need to, because there is no bankster calling for his loan payments.
We need nuclear, and you just have to accept that, or else are you going to sacrifice yourself FIRST when the world doesn't have the energy (needlessly) to feed you?
People are fucking stupid. There's risk in everything, and until fusion, unless you want guaranteed genocide over the coming decades, we need nuclear.
Germany just screwed itself because the same idiocy that let Nazi-ism rise, that same part of the brain activated then, has been activated again, by them, by you, and that's letting ones insane emotions override reality. Billion die without nuclear. Billions won't die from multiple nuclear disasters....and we can certainly control the situation better than fukushima to ENSURE billions or even millions won't die because they'll use better reactors in safer locations.
A blanket...we can't use nuclear...is akin to nazi non-thought. Seriously. Use your head and quit pandering to emotions. They're allowing you to make a genocidal deicison (and think you're right) when in reality, the situation in your head, is nothing like what it's really like. Sorry that you may let billions die. I won't.
If you think billions will die from Fukushima, I'm sure Goldman Sachs has some sub-prime 'shitty deal' products to sell you.
If your congressmen sucks, do it on real reasons like they support wall street bailouts or don't support Glass-Steagall. Don't blame your senator for wanting in this one case to provide power to be part of the makeup of power that doesn't allow for billions to die needlessly.
I'm being realistic, and I'm not scared. But in reality burying our head in the sand, will allow everything to rot around us, and billions would die. That's reality. Quit acting like a scaredy cat.
Glass-Steagall
I'm with you but Nuclear has its disadvantages as well. As right now the "storage" issue is FAR from solved. Nuclear waste material is stored well over its capacity in temporary locations at the various Nuclear Plant sites. (If anything happens to this stuff, big time local environment problems happen).
Everybody likes to quote Yucca mountain. Which is closed, and not going to open anytime soon. I talked to a geologist who was working the Yucca Mountain deal, and due to politics (and politics alone) it was closed. The political opponents want things such as millions of years guarrantee for storage, which will never happen.
Also, people like to quote Fusion which is total and complete bullshit. I'm not saying to stop research, but you're making the VERY bold leap that cold fusion that can be used to create power WILL (or can) be created. You even have a timeline. (really? 30-50 years? Since when did major technological breakthroughs ever have a timescale behind them? In fact its WELL known that major technological breakthroughs are happening at a dramatically slower, and slowing pace. Claiming that "this will be the future" before its even created, is dangerous and recklass.)
It seems like you might want to check your assumptions, definitives, and strongly held beliefs before you label everyone who might be skeptical or critical as stupid. Its not nearly as simple and cut and dry as you make it sound.
Nuclear tip #5....Don't put it anywhere near scarce agri cropping land and other food sources
Rational assessment of a hazard.
I like that.
But Japan does not have any spare cropping land that it can just risk on nuclear fallout. It's population really is pushing up against what the country can physically support, and something like 3x somewhat unconfined 100% melted reactor cores is just making that a whole LOT more of a problem. And not just for Japan.
Also, if we are going to take this rational choice that we don't mind enhanced death rates and shortened lives, as long as we have affordable electrickery always that make our life much nicer, but for a shorter period, then you can justify almost any policy with that sort of argument (and not saying it is wrong - for you).
Just saying, because this goes against almost everything medicine, health-&-safety Nazis, and almost all societies stand for, and definitely expect, otherwise we would not have hospitals full of sick and old people, who's life is less than pleasant - we could just rationalise them all away (please don't take this as a shallow straw-man to defeat your rational argument - just saying - but mostly I agree, people have been trained to be "fucking stupid").
For my grandchildren I have deep concerns; for me, not so much. I am tempted to buy a geiger counter and check out the veggie and dairy sections at my local supermarket. but I just know that I'll be arrested for distrubing the peace or some such. The EPA site screams "don't worry, be happy", but I'm more than skeptical.
Not likely... but you could certainly get asked to leave (if you cause a scene, then maybe). Further, if it is a supermarket you frequent, you might risk getting permanently banned (walmart does this) and they might have facial recognition software and active monitoring of their clientele... (i.e. you get booted asap upon entrance and get slapped with trespassing charges).
My suggestion would be to go to a supermarket in your general area that has the same produce as the place you usually shop (same brand, etc.) and try there... you might also ask a smaller store to test their produce during off peak hours... and then you could report to them the findings... they might care...
If you're going to go to a big supermarket without permission, go when there are a shit ton of people there...
Better than average chance no one is gonna care/notice you and it would seem there is significant public policy to do what you're doing.
Using a Geiger counter to measure food and liquids doesn't work. Most of the radiation emitted is alpha and beta, which cannot penetrate into the air for the geiger to detect emissions. The small amount of Gamma radiation emitted is also difficult to detect because gieger-mueller tubes are not very sensitive to gamma radiation. Radiation detection in food and liquids is measured using specialize process and expensive equipment.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-12/geiger-counters-to-find-radiati...
Put this in your pipe and smoke it:
Nowhere to Run: Hot radioactive particles in Seattle at 50 percent of levels seen in Tokyo — Latches onto lung tissue (VIDEO)
http://enenews.com/run-hot-radioactive-particles-seattle-50-percent-levels-tokyo-latches-lung-tissue-video
radiation is the gift that keeps on giving and never goes away. south america anyone?
makes aluminum look transitory. who knows what the real situ is? well, the japanese & the nuclear peeps and other engineering types must be studying it. so, if this is what tyler presents from "the press" then slewie would assume not quite the worst, but close, which is, here, not good.
i'll bet tyler could raise the money for zH to send tmosely & trav to do some research and report back thru bob_d. hahaha. [trying to piss everybody off @ once dept]
human sacrifice, BiCheZ!
Time to leave the earth and go to the moon. Sadly, I even don't believe in a moon landing...
Can we send you to the moons of Saturn?
Fly me to the moons of Saturn
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxXa9pxwzoY
LOL!
There is far-far more radiation on the Moon than virtually anywhere on Earth. Mars also has more radiation (cosmic rays) than Earth.
well, that totally explains why everyone keeps showing up here...
good man ;)
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2005/08sep_radioact...
Governments lie to survive.
Politicians lie for power.
Bankers lie for money.
Lawyers destroy anything and everything just to lie.
and
Accountants unkowingly lie.
People knowingly believe lies until the lies no longer suit their purpose...then they rebel.
It is possible our own government (through too many lies) is slowly awaking the sleeping giant of freedom...believe it.
Did anyone else notice that the reading is taken near a drain? Maybe it's the water that's the problem.
However - for balance, I do recall that natural radiation is greater at ground level.....but I'm not sure this level is expected.
Well to be honest its an extremely simple thing to understand. The density of the ground is significantly larger than the air (obviously). Therefore more radioactive particles can exist there.
Its not uncommon to have trace radioactive elements on the ground.
To me the video really isn't that "chilling." Positive radioactive tests of consumables would be much more meaningful.
Any minute now [holding my breath], Doug Kass is going to reconsider his opinion that Japan represents a "generational buying opportunity." Specifically, he made this call because he loosely determined that the Fukushima problem was "under control." Of course, for most people here on ZH, it has been clear for weeks/months that no such thing as "control" is now nor shall be related to the word "Fukushima" anytime soon.
So as Godzilla stirs in the deep and prepares to emerge as an even more immediately pressing problem for Japan, so too shall Doug's large intellect reform itself and emerge in an attempt to help folk NOT grossly misallocate capital to a place where radiation is on the dinner menu.
As for things more tragic than earless bunnies...I suspect it is only a matter of time now until those tragedies appear.
And these criminal syndicate Wall Street guys are supposed to be the creme of our crop. This is "the smart money."
Good grief [and by that I mean...less fluoride, please]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKcA5BLnpZo
it may not effect them for a while but the effects will become more and moe evident with the birth of their children at this point. look at what is happening in iraq with the depleted uranium poisoning. i was listening to rense the other night and he was speculating on these brand new empty cities being built in china and what their purpose may become. i was thinking the same thing. maybe one day soon, we shall see a mass migration of japanese people to mongolia proper. perhaps they shall make some kind of economic deal with the chinese government and then pick up where they left off with their cars and etc.....it is obvious , they cannot live in any areas in japan that have been effected by this. it is my understanding they are finding high levels in osaka as well. radiation poisoning at this point, is permanent. there is no known antidote. and let us not even talk about what may happen on the west coast of the united states. God forbid.
High Plains Drifter
"he was speculating on these brand new empty cities being built in china and what their purpose may become."
About six months ago one of the ZH posters claimed to be a frequent traveller in China.
He stated that he watched previously unoccupied cities, the one we are talking about, fill up in three to four months. Meaning he visited empty cities then revisited them months later and they were full or filling with citizens.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFAhfHnc5L0
these cities are being used? i wonder....
GS to issue some death derivatives for Japanese market
Gs to start selling radiation credits. Ratio of carbon:radiation credits to mirror Ag:Au.
What's the measurement of this mirco or mili Sv/hr?
http://www.eastpdxnews.com/ktmllite/images/uploads/070726/4-09-WOODFEST-StiltMan2.jpg
It's MicroSieverts per hour. It's not really that high. You get around 5 in a commercial airplane.
Do we fly aiplanes 24/7/365? Nope. But if you did, you would like a dried potato.
Tell that to pilots that might spend at least half or more of their day in the air.
pilots don't die from radioactivity, they die from std's
Radiaton exposure != Radioactive contamination
Well there is a big difference. The radiation in Japan is coming from radioactive particles, which can easily be ingested or inhaled and remain inside of your body for years or decades.
Consider a Plane trip like quickly moving your hand past an open candle flame. Consider Radioactivity from fall out like holding your hand over the flame for minutes or hours.
I just wonder why the news media is suppressing stories about hot containers being refused in Belgium and Holland. From what I understand this problem is becoming more pervasive as Japan is trying to sneak those hot exports out of their country. If you've ever wondered what will happen when the northern 1/3 of Japan is evacuated and it becomes a 2nd world economic power, you're about to find out.
i hope the people in these harbors that are checking these containers are wearing suits. how do you decontaminate a shipping container?
dump it in the marianas trench
You bury it for 400 years.
This gray swan is turning blacker all the time.
The hit to Japanese and Global GDP isn't evident (yet) because no one really wants to look.
Assuming that there is not some anomalous effect by grounding the detector this is really disturbing. This implies alpha emitters down on the ground, since these are most rapidly attenuated in air. I notice it was by a road drain and it looked a little damp - in fact it should be rainy season in Japan about now - so maybe the rainwater is the culprit. Your gonads may be safe 1 metre above ground, but if rainwater is that radioactive there must be alpha emitters working through the entire food chain, and that is the worst kind to ingest.
That's cold comfort to those of us with sub-1-meter inseams!
Well, let's face it the REAL problem that the lying scum will see with this video is the fact that the geiger counter is accurate. I would think that soon here in the USA all geiger counters manufactured will, by law, have to be adjusted to indicate no radiation at all even if you're standing in the Fukushima reactor itself. This will alleviate any possible panic that one might experience if they were to actually KNOW the truth.
i would like to see mutated playboy bunnies with boobs on their backs! great for those slow dances!
"with boobs on their backs"
three feet tall, flat head (place to set the beer), ears like handlebars ...
I don't care who you are, that's funny.
MotoGP riders have appointed an expertize to check the risk of radiations at Motegi (around 150 miles from Fukushima) in order to decide if run or not
If they will not run ........
IRL is set to race there in September... would also be interested if they have similar concerns.
Dark humour: I guess they'll be ok with lead slipers, definitely an investment opportunity there.
PS: I was on a very long distance flight recently, and wondering how much radioctive stuff gets pushed and stuck in the upper layers of the atmosphere? Anyone has any data about long-haul pilots exposure to radiations since Fukushima?
Gundersen was interviewed by John King, very interesting!, and scary. I would link it, by not sure how.
I have no experience with Radiation, What is a dangerous level on this device? What is this level equivalent to?
TEPCO solves the homeless problem in Tokyo.
the good is that most of this "ground radiation" will get washed away with the next rain.
the bad is that sicne reactors are still leaking, radioactive elements will accumulate on the ground again
the ugly is that while radiation won't sink into asphalt, it will sink into the soil, which will infect the ground water and everything that grows in that soil or uses that water
whatever happend about the tent idea tepco was talking about, you know installing a big tent over the whole thing to contain the radioactive smoke and emissions, he said oh sure, that will work.....duh? the trouble is, human beings cannot work anywhere near that place. only robots and even they can only take it so long before they malfunction.
Just waiting for #4 to collapse to see if the government and TEPCO still hold to the "no problem" party line.
BTW: Japanese people, just because you think you have nowhere to go, does not mean you should stay.
I think that was a little drain or sewer he has holding it against, god knows what the reading is like inside it. TAXI!!
ground truth. how much more do they have to admit?
Somebody beat me to the punch on "GODZIRRA!!!!". And that is just insensitive anyway. I know nothing about radioactivity, but if I lived anywhere near the fallout (or whatever the proper scientific terminology for the radioactive shit hitting then fan) I would be very concerned about the food and water my small children were consuming. I have no doubt that governments will lie to people about the dangers, including our own. I might want to get one of those gadgets for the supermarket produce/diary isle as well.
pupton
http://www.rense.com/general94/gund.htm
Gunderson - Seattle Residents Breathed
Ten 'Hot' Particles A Day
http://aviationknowledge.wikidot.com/aviation:in-flight-health-cabin-radiation
"For passengers, the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) recommends a limit of 1 mSv per year. This equates to about 200 hours flying per year on subsonic trans-equatorial routes." since the video shows similar radiation to flying over the Atlantic, just dont stand on the ground for more than about 8days a year.....
http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/03/deaths-per-twh-by-energy-source.html
All forms of energy have risks associated with them. We need to stop the scare crap and have an adult discussion about the risks of each form of energy. Yes radiation is one of the scariest because it is invisible to the naked eye and it causes cancer.
The world still needs energy. Our entire way of life depends on it. The Japanese plants were 40 years old.
The new uranium nuclear plants are designed with a gravity feed system. No generator is needed to keep them cooled.
The new thorium nuclear plants use salt as a coolant and require constant electricity to keep the reaction going.
http://theweek.com/article/index/213611/could-thorium-make-nuclear-power...
the thorium idea has been around since the 60's no? why are they still using uranium?
From my understanding thorium is not used because it can not be turned into bombs. The governments at the time wanted the bombs and chose uranium for that reason.
OK, my degree is not in nuclear science and I may have missed this on the news, but Thorium has been around for 50 years and we haven't used it because it doesn't create a thermonuclear bomb?
Gods what fools these mortals be
I guess I need to brush up on Thorium reactors. Is there any downside to such a reactor other than it doesn't create bomb material?
1. Its possible to create Bombs from Thorium using U233 as fissible material. Its just a lot more difficult.
2. Thorium isn't used because of U232 daughters which is created in a Thorium reaction. U232 emits very high energy gamma radiation which is extremely difficult to shield. U232 Gamma radation requires about 1/2 meter of lead or about 3 meters of concrete for shielding
3. A Thorium reactor breach would be much worse that Uranium Fueled reactor breach because of U232 daughters.
"All forms of energy have risks associated with them."
But only one form has side-effects that last 24,000 years.
If you read the article you will see that thorium reactors can burn the waste from uranium reactors. it is no longer waste it is fuel.
casey, i have no doubt that the tech exists now to make nukes much more safe than 40 years ago. but aye, here's the rub: what happens when shit happens? more obsfucation which just compounds the problem expontentially?
until human society is willing to embrace an overall ethic of being realistic about risk, rewarding responsibility and refusing to tolerate selfish, careless & greedy behavior, personally i'd rather stick with the poisons we know than the poisons we don't know.
I've watched enough Anime to know all Japanese know how to fly. Most of them just hide their powers.
The Japs have a special cultural protection - they leave their shoes outside.
Wasn't Hiroshima and Nagasaki irratiated?
Quit the fear mongering, Tyler you pussy
Fear mongering is not necessary.
Reality is scary enough.
Not on a continuing basis.
This is worse than that, because things have the possibility of getting a LOT worse.
This event has absolutely DESTROYED the third largest economy in the world. The consequences of this will be farther reaching than most people realize. It may not pose an immediate health risk to Americans, but the economic risk more than makes up for that.
On a side note US coal contains thorium. If the thorium were extracted and burnt in a reactor and the electricity produced were used to turn the rest of the coal into gasoline the US could end its dependency on foreign oil.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/261334-let-s-talk-about-a-realistic-ener...
"How soon before we transition from videos of earless mutant bunnies to those of something far more tragic?"
About nine months.
Like I've been saying for a couple of weeks, they have no clue what the situation on the ground really is. They are just beginning a new systematic soil sampling program all over Fukushima Prefecture but the results won't be in until August.
It is a real issue; the French nuclear safety institute was there by invitation a week or so ago and found levels above the current evacuation limit in several areas outside the current zone, including in Fukushima City itself. This poses a significant problem for two reasons: there are a quarter million people there, and the main highway to northern Japan runs there. Big, big problems if that turns out to be a 'no live' zone.
This whole mess is just getting started.
hi, Jim
do you have a take on the Aveda (sic?) water treatment system that is being put in place at Fuk?
Aveda's the hair care stuff. Areva's the nuclear stuff. (Aveda was founded in MN).
I have said that it would be lucky if the decontamination system could treat even a tenth of the water on site in a year. I'll take a look at the biggest such projects in the world, but my slightly dated recollection is that this is far and away the most ambitious such effort ever undertaken, and will have to overcome a series of challenges to scale up.
Obviously it would be best if it all went without a hitch! Another unknown, just seems like it will take a long time to design, demo and 'go large' even under perfect conditions. And then...assuming it all goes perfect...thousands of tons of radioactive sludge. Voila! Beats having all that cesium and strontium airborne by a long shot.
Here's a nice summary from Nature:
http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110607/full/474135a.html
thanks, I suspected I had it wrong but was too lazy to look it up.
I was surprised by photos presented last week on ex-skf which appeared to show they had made substantial progress on getting the thing built, although the picture of the control room was underwhelming. Given the usual 'trip and stumble' impression that I get from TEPCO's activity, the photos were at least encouraging.
http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/06/fukushima-i-nuke-plant-arevas-water.html
It is called Kurion and they are installing it currently...
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=coal-ash-is-more-radioa...
Coal contains thorium and uranium which remains in the fly ash.
Funny how that article has been flagged with an asterisk and changed by the editors as misleading.
Should read: an UNCONTROLLED coal plant releases more radiation than a COMPLETELY CONTROLLED nuclear plant.
Which is of very little practical interest.
I had some moron tell me the very same thing re: coal being much more dangerous.
Then I asked him whether he'd rather live downwind 20 mi. from a from a nuclear plant with four bad reactors or a coal plant that had exploded.
He shut the fuck up pretty quick.
Exactly. When is the last time an accident at a coal-fired power station led to the indefinite evacuation of of everyone within a 50km radius of the plant.
One of the most cliched propaganda points of nuclear industry shills is that more folks die in accidents at coal-fired plants than at nuclear plants. That may be the case - but SO WHAT. It's totally irrelevant. The longterm disruption/dislocation caused by acccidents at nuclear sites like Fukushima are on a whole other level of magnitude.
@trav777
that geiger is 99% certain a gamma only geiger counter. radiation, like magnetism, has an exponentially increasing power as distance decreases. while no internal organs are near the foot, peripheral blood cells circulate there, and can become mutagenic.
the granite hypothesis is very good, and i would have liked him to walk a few blocks, but rainwater would collect there, and fallout is in the rain water.
either way, 5usv/hr is a very high reading to get from granite in my inchoate inexpert opinion.
alpha particles, picked up by higher end models like the inspector (sold out and now going for a couple thousand dollars on ebay), are very difficult to pick up.
global geiger run.
(hepa. reverse osmosis. polimaster pm1208/terra mks05.)
"Now with an adjustable alert, the Inspector+ is a small, handheld, microprocessor-based instrument which offers excellent sensitivity to low levels of alpha, beta, gamma, and x-rays."
Here's the scoop on the detector used in that video. Chinese and selling for around $800.
"Dp802i dosimeters is a hommization instrument which mainly used to monitor X/γ and βrays,its widely used in nuclear power plant,electron accelcrator,isotope application and industrial X/γcrack detection and many other occasions.
Dp802i adopt new SCM techniques and equips a energy compensating GM detector,it has wide measuring range and good energy respond,it has self detecting and overload alarm function"
http://www.yushi-instruments.com/sdp/1297325/4/pd-5677396/7963757-226536...
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110608a6.html
Chocobos Bitchez!!!
If this was America, well, we'd just roll out the biggest cookie dough and let it bake up all that nasty radiation into some tasty Tollhouse goodness! Then we'd have a radibake-tion sale and pool the money together to buy razors to chew on and give our children guns to shoot other kids with.
Wind. Empty streets. Kicking the gate open. Footsteps. Sole car. It's like a zombie movie with that counter being like the Jaws theme.
I'm no nuclear expert, but I have studied the subject for survival purposes after an incident. A lot of posts above seem to suggest people do not understand the basics. For example, water and air are not radioactive. The particles in the air and water are. This is why the ground in areas where water concentrates after rain fall will be far more dangerous since the particles will accumulate there. Since it is somewhat related, another thing I have always read is that small children should be carried after such an event. They are far more vulnerable to the particles than we are as fully grown adults. What will only make us sick will kill children in other words.
In a second video he measures radiation in the garden http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Mir-HZWdl4&feature=related and the third video shows measurements on the roof of the house http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcBoCpeXqBk&NR=1. The measurements are consistent with the one on the street as shown above. That hints to radioactive particles washed out by the rain and accumulating on the ground.
Reactor #4 is a big issue.
http://www.chrismartenson.com/martensonreport/part-2-arnie-gundersen-interview-protecting-yourself-if-situation-worsens
If collapses under the wrong set of circumstances--well, the worst could yet be to come.
Rainwater runoff would contain particulate contamination removed from the air. On open ground, much of this particulate would be directly deposited where it falls. In the paved portions of cities, that runoff would be directed into the storm drains. The particulates in the runoff would settle or interact with dirt and debris at the mouth of the drain, exactly as shown, due to chemical and mechanical interactions with the dirt and debris and flow oddities there. That this surprises most, and makes for great youtube, is not a surprise to me.
I'm not saying this is OK; but please, point the detector at exposed ground, at the road itself, at the stairs the guy went down...then we'll talk again.
Edited to clarify
So with a Inspector+ detector, current indoor background where I am is .007 microsieverts/hr. Putting the detector within a millimeter of a stack of an orange glazed depression era Fiestaware bowl (Uranium dioxide glaze) runs it up to about 7 microsieverts [should have been "millisiverts" which equals 70 microsieverts]. If you put the sound on it is a constant squawk at that level.
I grew up eating off that stuff and orange was a favorite color. I once read that three meals a day off a full place setting of old orange Fiestaware would be equal to about twice the "normal" background radiation (of course what's normal depends on where you are -- but it gives an idea of the level of exposure). No big deal.
Of course, two things to remember: first it's a function of distance, alpha particles only go about an inch or so through the air, for instance; second, the emitting particles are bound in that glaze. So if you are sitting a foot away from the plate getting zero alpha while eating and very little beta and for a limited time. The real danger would arise if the plate cracked and some of the uranium oxide leached out and was ingested. Once you get the stuff inside it can be very damaging--not so much if it passes but if it ends up lodged in an organ it can cause damage.
If the drains outside were at the 5 millirems/hr [that would be] right around the level of a Fiestaware plate, that would mean the dirt (and dust) is hot and the chance of breathing in hot particles (dust) or of their concentrating in food is high. This is 140 miles south of Fukushima!!! There is a lot of farmland between that drain and the source!! This is the situation now and there is no solution in sight. NOT GOOD
[But I can't tell what units that detector is displaying. The Inspector does CPM (counts per minute) or it does millirems -- you multiply by 10 to get milliseiverts http://unit-converter.org/UnitConverter/convert?uc_class=28&uc_value=1&uc_sigdigits=5&uc_unit=539&uc_cat=all&commit=Convert ]
Since monsoon season has only just begun, Tokyo has been spared by the winds. No more.
From now until January expect a constant slow rise of accumulated radiation.
At what point do people start leaving though? There's a pretty high pain threshold and there may not be any "big events," just the slow burn.
All of you wind/solar investor friends of Leo have to realize that nuclear is part of our energy mix for the future. Stop whining and make sure that the current plants are up to date for safety. As for future plants, the technology is so far advanced from Fukashima that you would not even recognize it. If you are reading this on an ipad and have an IBM computer from the 70's you will know what I mean.
Those of you that have installed granite counter tops in your kitchens and bathrooms will die soon of radiation poisoning according to what is being shown in the vid above.
Nuclear energy may not be as dead as disaster area, but it is dying. Read this, understand the math and you will know: http://www.worldwatch.org/system/files/WorldNuclearIndustryStatusReport2...
Hint: If you scroll down the report you will find some pretty self explaining graphics.
Those of you that have installed granite counter tops in your kitchens and bathrooms will die soon of radiation poisoning according to what is being shown in the vid above.
Right because any amount of radiation is equal to any other amount of radiation. And it makes no difference whether it is free in the environment or bound in a stone countertop rock.
Here's an article about granite countertop radiation 20 microrems is measured or .2 microsieverts (vs the 5 microsieverts in the video -- or 50 microsieverts if the detector is displaying millirems). Any danger from the granite would come from radon gas which can be breathed in. The article estimates that the exposure to radon gas from typical granite countertops is less than 1/8 the average home exposure and about 3% of the EPA guidline.
http://hps.org/documents/Radiation_granite_countertops.pdf
I mentioned this somewhat above. I said Argon gas when I meant Radon. The biggest threat of radon gas comes from decaying uranium in rocks where a house is built. It gets trapped in basements and what not if not properly vented.
READ THE ENTIRE TRANSCRIPT OF ARNIE'S CNN INTERVIEW (sorry for the yelling but the content is a must read)
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1106/07/jkusa.01.html
ok & t.y.
OK.... the popcorn is popping and the previews to the feature attraction are almost over. Dim the lights and get comfy in your seats because the horror show you are about to see will disturb you. The wind of change is not only closing in on Tokyo with radiation, the Middle East with war, Europe with Austerity resistance but also here in America with bankruptcy as our Ponzi falls apart right before our very eyes. The Gulf is dead from the Corexit cover-up and now the Pacific Ocean is being used as a nuclear dumping ground. The wind of change is here and I recommend you prepare for times unlike we have ever seen in the past....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4RjJKxsamQ
I think this is more representation of what we can expect
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxHjd3g7zlY
DU and Birth Defects
In preparation for all out collapse I just watched the cult classic " A Boy and his Dog"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gu9fESAlGc4
Great movie...
I find this really helps you get the idea of the dynamics of ionizing radiation. You can see it in a cloud chamber -- note the high energy (alpha particle) emissions -- they only go about 1 1/2 inches but have lots of energy. You don't want this stuff lodged in your organs!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKfx4Rjf0BU
Here's another one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLiXgdymIYE&feature=related
Nuclear expert Arnie Gundersen talks to CNN's John King about the dangers of the radiation situation in Japan http://johnkingusa.blogs.cnn.com/