Full Core Meltdown In Japan Will Send Radiation Over United States

[DeSwiss]

Run time: 03:17 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7CA0etEwyI   Posted on YouTube: March 13, 2011 By YouTube Member: DrRonPaul2012 Views on YouTube: 36715   Posted on DU: April 17, 2011 By DU Member: DeSwiss Views on DU: 8201

 
- I have heard some ask the question: "Is this worst than Chernobyl?" And the answer is: "Yes, much worse."

What we should realize is that the nuclear energy plant at Fukushima Dai-ichi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_I_Nuclear_Power_Plant#Reactor_data">began it's first operations in 1967! Forty-four years ago. So where do you think all those spent fuel rods they've used in those 44 years are located? http://www.thenation.com/article/159234/fukushimas-spent-fuel-rods-pose-grave-danger">In the cooling pools scattered all over the plant property, that's where. That's the major long-range problem with all this in a nutshell folks. They can't maintain the necessary cooling temperatures needed for even the low-level spent-fuel rod radiation, let alone the reactors.

That because the radioactivity being spewed out from these out-of-control reactors that are in various stages of meltdown, won't allow for more than 10 or 15 minutes of exposure by the workers. And they're not even sure of that since in many locations at the plant there are no operable radiation monitors. And so once these workers have had their fifteen minutes in, they're done for a year. Not unless they're what is being referred to as the new samurai -- those who are willing to give their lives to save their country.

The governments of Japan (and the U.S. with its broken-down, non-functioning West coast radioactivity monitors) have been lying about this catastrophe (via commission and omission) since the start -- and with the existing technology that we have at our disposal, this meltdown cannot be contained. And now the Dark Lord of Capitalism, U.S. Chamber of Commerce president Tom Donohue is http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/17_07.html">traveling to Japan with our Secretary of State to try and hold the line before the entire world forcibly rejects the continued use of these poisons they so love.

If you didn't believe it before, you must surely know by now that we're on our own......

[flamingdem]

1. On our own is right!

;):nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke:

(4 in total though one is a SFP spent fuel pool)

:scared:

[DeSwiss]

5. This is an EXTREMELY SERIOUS......

...situation that is hardly under anyone's control and is only going to get worse. And yet little factual information is heard coming from the American MSM and they're not demanding anymore from the government either. It's as though they'd rather not know. That should give everyone a clue right there.

And I continue to hear and see people who are worried about 200,000 to 400,000 cases of cancer being caused by all this (a ridiculously low Chernobyl-like estimate), when what we should be talking about is not only the cancers but the deaths this has already and is going to cause. We'll never know the truth if we leave it to our governments to tell us anything because they've been lying from the beginning.

- And they're still LYING........

[flamingdem]

6. Yes it's low level radiation as well, EPA needs to warn for pregnant women + kids

The French did as much for their population and they estimated we got 8x as much on the coast.

[jwirr]

16. My daughter and her family were with the military in Germany when

Chernobyl happened. The families were told to stay inside but the soldiers had to go on duty. My sil has a thyroid problem and he wonders if that may have caused it. They were just another guinea pig group of soldiers.

[Downwinder]

25. They have been lying since Eisenhower.

[cui bono]

10. A NUCLEAR WASTE pool. Spent fuel is NUCLEAR WASTE.

Let's not use their sanitized term for it.

[LAGC]

2. My understanding is that the main problem right now is the leaking radioactive water.

It's flooded the tunnels below the reactors that house the cooling systems.

If they can just plug the leak by injecting concrete, they might be able to get those cooling systems back online and turn this thing around.

I'm still optimistically hoping for relatively safe containment and positive outcome from this whole mess.

The workers are definitely heroes though, some of them may lose their lives from this fight. But its a fight that must be waged, for everyone else's sake.

[flamingdem]

4. Agree, it's a lake down there and that is surely bad if corium gets through

but they say no barge for removal until the end of May???

I worry incompetence and lack of throwing all possible assets will endanger the ecosystem greatly

[szatmar666]

3. the reasonable thing to do would be to use geothermal energy

in a region prone to geothermal activity...one would think...

[gateley]

7. I think it's already here. nt

[szatmar666]

8. naah, people have geiger counters

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/live-radiation-monitoring-from-west-la#utm_campaigne=synclickback&source=http://www.enviroreporter.com/2011/03/enviroreporter-coms-radiation-station/&medium=7558036

[The Wielding Truth]

15. It says it is an inside count. Is that useful for monitoring a passing plume?

[axollot]

39. Geiger counters only register certain radiation material but the most

lethal materials - like plutonium emits alpha particles and cannot be registered on the Geiger counters.
:scared:
cheers
Sandy

[flamingdem]

9. Oops just noticed this is from March

so you're right essentially we got the biggest plumes.

There is a chance of more if explosions occur during the meltdown process according to Michio Kaku. I didn't think so until now when I see they really don't have it under control and it's essentially flooding due to all the water used there.

[Mnemosyne]

11. K&R for more visibility. n/t

[defendandprotect]

12. Didn't know the spent fuel rods also have to be COOLED---???!!!!

And Obama is still pushing more nuclear garbage for the USA!!!

:nuke:

[DeSwiss]

17. Yes, cooled.....

...contained and neutralized.

- Most people don't realize that once a nuclear reactor has reached it's maximum point of usability, it takes decades to decommission them. They are simply one of the stupidest ideas mankind has ever come up with to make it off the drawing board.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spent_nuclear_fuel">Spent nuclear fuel



Spent fuel decay heat

When a nuclear reactor has been shut down and the nuclear fission chain reaction has ceased, a significant amout of heat will still be produced in the fuel due to the beta decay of fission products. For this reason, at the moment of reactor shutdown, decay heat will be about 7% of the previous core power if the reactor has had a long, and steady power history. About 1 hour after shutdown, the decay heat will be about 1.5% of the previous core power. After a day, the decay heat falls to 0.4%, and after a week it will be 0.2%. The decay heat production rate will continue to slowly decrease over time.

Spent fuel that has been removed from a reactor is ordinarily stored in a water-filled spent fuel pool for a year or more in order to cool it and provide shielding from its radioactivity. Practical spent fuel pool designs generally do not rely on passive cooling but rather require that the water be actively pumped through heat exchangers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spent_nuclear_fuel">MORE

[defendandprotect]

20. Amazingly insane -- !!!

Thanks -- and I've saved the info --

"Decades to decommission them..." -- ????

Knew it took something like 6 months to properly shut down a nuclear reactor --

probably based on old ones.

Therefore, we need hurricanes and earthquakes to give us six months' notice!!


:nuke:

[axollot]

41. Scary isnt it? (see my post below)

[axollot]

40. Exactly, the danger here all along has been the exposed

spent fuel pools and no cooling system - hell the pools in at least 2 of the reactors have had no water and cannot hold water due to damage. (visible in videos/pictures racks in open air). Spent fuel is a lot more dangerous than the reactors themselves. Worse - even if all reactors had been decommissioned since we have no where to move the spent fuel for the thousands of years they require for storage - the spent fuel pools is it. So it would have remained on site.

The only reason we ever created nuclear reactors was to create plutonium required in the nuclear warheads. Without the process we couldn't have such lethal nukes.
Cheers
Sandy

[JJW]

13. Junk Shot

Have they tried a junk shot yet? If that doesn't work, the US is really good at blowing things up.

[DeSwiss]

18. Yes, they've tried a junkshot....

...of some type of http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42402150/ns/world_news-asiapacific/">diaper absorbent.

- I suppose blowing it up won't be necessary. We seem to be heading in that direction as it is.....

[grahamhgreen]

14. Obama needs to dump nukes - wind is cheaper, faster, and the cost of wind is always ZERO!

[DeSwiss]

19. Yeah....

...if he only had some kind of power.

[defendandprotect]

21. Bravo -- !!

[trud]

23. unless you're living near wind turbines

In which case your life is hell. And the thousands of migratory birds and bats they take out, and the blades spinning off in high winds, well that's nothing,

[grahamhgreen]

29. FAIL. In the US, one turbine kills an average of 4.27 birds per year, 57 million killed by cars,

97.5 million killed by collisions with plate glass, and hundreds of millions killed by cats.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:kd8oWPlefbQJ:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:AlexH555/Environmental_effects_of_wind_power+birds+killed+by+wind+turbines+compared+to+birds+killed+by+cars&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a&source=www.google.com


As for noise:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsYiC2aF6cU


Fact is, wind is fractionally as damaging to the environment as nuclear or coal, and cheaper.

[Shireling]

52. There are ways to

protect the blades from birds, bats, etc. A good screen, for example.

The noise??? I haven't seend any homes near wind turbines.

[Devil_Fish]

60. +1. good job. NT

[liberation]

70. I always have a hard time figuring out who that talking point assumes is more stupid;

the birds who can't see a 100 ft windmill or the people who believe it.

A wind turbine kills single digits of birds per year in the WORST studied case, and they rotate so slowly that if your "life is hell" due to the "noise" you need to be referred to a specialist stat, since there is obviously some neurological problem with your auditive system.

[Fuddnik]

24. That's why it won't happen. It doesn't cost anything.

It reminds me of an article I read years ago in The Nation. "The secret history of lead". The only reason lead was in gasoline was because GM and DuPont had a patent on it, even though alcohol accomplished the same result. But, nobody could patent or profit from alcohol in gas.

[valerief]

26. That's the problem. The rich don't get richer with zero. nt

[axollot]

42. And Solar even cheaper!! n/t

[trud]

22. The asteroid that's going to crash into the US will take out out first.

Or maybe the dinosaurs on their way down from the hills.

That's right after Obama admits he was born in Kenya and pledges to work for liberal policies.

[Taft_Bathtub]

27. How is this worse than Chernobyl?

Chernobyl killed a lot of people, both in the explosion and the immediate, completely irresponsible Soviet response.

Fukushima's deaths: ZERO

Chernobyl's reactor did not even have a containment structure. The reactor itself exploded and burned the graphite rods protecting the fuel, sending plumes of radioactive smoke into the air. Fukushima did no such thing.

Fukushima has maintained temperatures at the spent fuel rod pools, you can see the water for yourself. Here's a video of TEPCO lowering a crane into the water for testing: http://martynwilliams.posterous.com/spent-fuel-pools-at-fukushima-daiichi

I know a lot of DUers hate nuclear power, but most of the stuff you posted isn't accurate at all.

[Name removed]

30. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Taft_Bathtub]

34. Same exact thing was said about Chernobyl

Yet it killed 64 people according to the United Nations as of 2008.

Also it's incredibly offensive to accuse me of being on someone's payroll.

[axollot]

44. The numbers do not reflect all deaths related to Chernobyl

Turn on the sound and listen to and view this: http://inmotion.magnumphotos.com/essay/chernobyl It's about the children of Belarus who - *STILL TODAY* are coming in with birth defects like nothing ever seen before.

It's open and honest. Another site to check out is www.fairewinds.com/updates that link has some plain language information about Fukushima from a man who is licensed to run BWR like the 6 at Fukushima. Remember only 1 reactor had a problem in Chernobyl and many died years later - the numbers listed are "first responder" deaths. Yes the Japanese have kept things out of the media or they muddy the information by coming out with numbers than turning around and changing them and all along saying "nothing to see here" - at the fairewinds link start with the last video at the bottom of the page and work your way up. It will help build an emerging picture of this disaster unfolding before our eyes. It's much worse than they want folks to think and clearly it's working!

(btw Arn Gundersen from Faire Winds has scooped the media weeks before on every 'revelation' - he knew this would go level 7 weeks before it became official, he knew about how the water was leaking and why again weeks before the media. So give him a shot - he doesnt cause folks to panic, he actually explains it all very well but you'll quickly understand this is much worse than they are letting on - mostly for the Japanese people and their closest neighbors)

Cheers
Sandy

[Taft_Bathtub]

46. I stopped at the Belarus link

According to the United Nations, which I believe way more than some website with photos on it, there's been no link between Chernobyl and birth defects, here you can see the report yourself:

http://www.unscear.org/unscear/en/chernobyl.html

Here is what peer-reviewed scientific analysis of Chernobyl over twenty years by the United Nations has determined:

"Apart from the dramatic increase in thyroid cancer incidence among those exposed at a young age, and some indication of an increased leukaemia and cataract incidence among the workers, there is no clearly demonstrated increase in the incidence of solid cancers or leukaemia due to radiation in the exposed populations. Neither is there any proof of other non-malignant disorders that are related to ionizing radiation. However, there were widespread psychological reactions to the accident, which were due to fear of the radiation, not to the actual radiation doses."

Your website is complete garbage and I'm sorry you saw it on Huffington Post and thought it was legitimate. The only tears caused by that website should be how someone exploited disabled children to demonize Nuclear Energy.

[sulphurdunn]

53. Thank god there was only

"... a dramatic increase in thyroid cancer incidence among those exposed at a young age, and some indication of an increased leukemia and cataract incidence among the workers..." And there is the minor matter of the entire city of Chernobyl being abandoned and the region around it still being uninhabitable. But hey! there was no clear evidence of an increase in solid cancers. That's fucking wonderful.

[Taft_Bathtub]

54. Whoa an industrial accident is harmful to the populace!?

This is clearly only something that happens from nuclear power plants!

[Devil_Fish]

64. Yes, your right to be sarcastic. Clearly the environmental damage from this industrial accident will...

be felt for thousands of years and render the surrounding area un-inhabitable:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOfHxINzGeo&feature

P.S. Welcome to my ignore list.

[sulphurdunn]

68. No. Not just nukes.

But catastrophic nuke failures are the radioactive gift that keeps on giving and giving and giving for so long that we can't even accurately measure the long term consequences on human health except with estimates of factors of 10.

[Taft_Bathtub]

74. Actually scientists have measured the impact on human

health, the link is in my post.

[Name removed]

59. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Taft_Bathtub]

62. Witty

It's fun to insult people you disagree with.

[franzia99]

33. The plant is still leaking. A TEPCO exec admitted to the press that there could be more radiation

released out of Fukushima than Chernobyl. To have that admission dragged out of TEPCO you know it's probably a done deal, but at the very least there's a decent possibility that it will happen.

Think, there are 3 leaking reactors here and 4 spent fuel pools. Everything's just coming out more slowly, which is why this has been called Chernobyl in slow motion.

[Taft_Bathtub]

35. Highly unlikely

The radiation levels directly surrounding Fukushima have been dropping, and in neighboring prefectures have reached normal background levels.

For example the IAEA reports:
Gamma dose rates are measured daily in all 47 prefectures. The values have tended to decrease over time. For Fukushima, on 14 April a dose rate of 2.0 µSv/h was reported. In the Ibaraki prefecture, a gamma dose rate of 0.14 µSv/h was reported. The gamma dose rates in all other prefectures were below 0.1 µSv/h.

The worst is hopefully behind Japan, barring another earthquake/tsunami :(

[franzia99]

36. Even if it's really dropping that doesn't make it highly unlikely

You should go to fairewinds.com and watch some of Gunderson's videos. Until they have this situation under control additional releases are likely. Gunderson mentions, among other things, the potential for additional explosions. Plus, they haven't plugged the leaks yet. "highly unlikely" isn't accurate.

[axollot]

45. *high 5* I just sent them the fairewinds link too LOL Before seeing your

post. Another site to see RE:Chernobyl and the long term effect of that disaster - beyond the sited first responder deaths people like to report is http://inmotion.magnumphotos.com/essay/chernobyl <---turn on the sound and have tissues handy. This is about the children of Belarus.

Cheers
Sandy

[Taft_Bathtub]

47. Which leaks are we talking about here?

The leak into the ocean? The pipe bursts that injured some workers? Both of those have been fixed.

Also the potential for explosions is being dealt with by injecting Nitrogen into the building.

[Name removed]

38. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Taft_Bathtub]

48. How much does the Coal lobby pay you?

[liberation]

73. What, no "coal kills more people than nuclear" talking point?

Slooooooppy!

[sulphurdunn]

55. No. The worst will not be behind them

until the Japanese authorities entomb these plants. Drops in radiation levels cannot be directly correlated with radiation levels at the plants. Furthermore, your analysis does not include sea water contamination, or radiation level changes in Asia and the US. The whole "don't worry everything is under control" meme is unsupported by any facts coming from the ruined reactors themselves.

[Taft_Bathtub]

57. What will entombing do?

Please explain how entombing is necessary in this situation.

[sulphurdunn]

67. Entombing will encase

the reactors (top and bottom) in heavy concrete, sand and boron. Not only is this facility in the process of melting down, it also contain tons of spent fuel rods that are emitting radiation. These reactors have the potential to emit between 50 and 100 times the radiation released at Chernobyl. Burying them will be hugely expensive, but there is no alternative because there is no way this facility can be salvaged. Continuing to pour water on it is silly and criminally negligent.

[Taft_Bathtub]

72. Nope it won't

If it's hot enough to burn through its containment vessel it'll burn through your concrete, sand, and boron.

It's much better to cool off the rods, prevent them from further melting, lower the temperature and then decommission the reactor.

But then again that's what the experts say, what do a bunch of scientists and engineers know?

[axollot]

43. Did you listen to video? People are dieing - radiation poisoning

isnt something you recover from. Remember the soviet in the UK who had a drink spiked with some sort of radioactive material and how he died over a few weeks - BRUTALLY?

This is no joke and no one is getting worked up for nothing. Do some research and come back - start with www.fairewinds.com/updates start w/1st video and work up to most recent.

That's the best site for honest plain language information about this now listed officially as a LEVEL 7 (Chernobyl was a level 7) nuclear disaster.
(is it as bad as nuclear war? Only for the people of Japan)
Cheers
Sandy

http://inmotion.magnumphotos.com/essay/chernobyl put on the sound - Chernobyl area birth defects still going on to this day. Incredible and heart-wrenching photo essay.

[Taft_Bathtub]

49. Litvinenko has nothing to do with this

First off the murder of Alexander Litvinenko is nothing like being exposed to radiation released in the air. It's quite clear to me that your knowledge of science is incredibly limited which is why it's funny you're telling me to do some research. There's an enormous difference between ingesting a lethal amount of heavy metal into your body and being exposed to radiation in the air equivalent to an x-ray (which is what the levels are 20km from Fukushima right now according to the IAEA).

Also the nuclear ratings levels are quite curious. Fukushima and Chernobyl, according to these alert levels, are more serious an accident than Kyshtym which killed 8,000 people. And no, it's not as bad as nuclear war. An atomic bomb explosion is magnitudes different from a reactor meltdown.

[truedelphi]

51. For one thing the immediate area around these reactors

Is much more heavily populated than the areas around the Chernobyl, Ukraine Reactor.

So the long term effects will be the deaths and illnesses of many more people due to cancers.

A lot of people like to point to the immediate deaths. Which even for Chernobyl was less than fifteen people.

However, look at this ENS release:

ENS Newswire
Thursday, March 17, 2011 (FLASHBACK)

NEW YORK, New York, – Nearly one million people around the world died from exposure to radiation released by the 1986 nuclear disaster at the Chernobyl reactor, finds a new book from the New York Academy of Sciences published today on the 24th anniversary of the meltdown at the Soviet facility.

The book, “Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment,” was compiled by authors Alexey Yablokov of the Center for Russian Environmental Policy in Moscow, and Vassily Nesterenko and Alexey Nesterenko of the Institute of Radiation Safety, in Minsk, Belarus.

The authors examined more than 5,000 published articles and studies, most written in Slavic languages and never before available in English.

The authors said, “For the past 23 years, it has been clear that there is a danger greater than nuclear weapons concealed within nuclear power. Emissions from this one reactor exceeded a hundred-fold the radioactive contamination of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”

“No citizen of any country can be assured that he or she can be protected from radioactive contamination. One nuclear reactor can pollute half the globe,” they said. “Chernobyl fallout covers the entire Northern Hemisphere.”
Harmless? Chernobyl Radiation Killed Nearly One Million People

Their findings are in contrast to estimates by the World Health Organization and the International Atomic Energy Agency that initially said only 31 people had died among the “liquidators,” those approximately 830,000 people who were in charge of extinguishing the fire at the Chernobyl reactor and deactivation and cleanup of the site.

The book finds that by 2005, between 112,000 and 125,000 liquidators had died.

“On this 24th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, we now realize that the consequences were far worse than many researchers had believed,” says Janette Sherman, MD, the physician and toxicologist who edited the book.

Drawing upon extensive data, the authors estimate the number of deaths worldwide due to Chernobyl fallout from 1986 through 2004 was 985,000, a number that has since increased.

By contrast, WHO and the IAEA estimated 9,000 deaths and some 200,000 people sickened in 2005.

On April 26, 1986, two explosions occurred at reactor number four at the Chernobyl plant which tore the top from the reactor and its building and exposed the reactor core. The resulting fire sent a plume of radioactive fallout into the atmosphere and over large parts of the western Soviet Union, Europe and across the Northern Hemisphere. Large areas in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia had to be evacuated.

Yablokov and his co-authors find that radioactive emissions from the stricken reactor, once believed to be 50 million curies, may have been as great as 10 billion curies, or 200 times greater than the initial estimate, and hundreds of times larger than the fallout from the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Nations outside the former Soviet Union received high doses of radioactive fallout, most notably Norway, Sweden, Finland, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Austria, Romania, Greece, and parts of the United Kingdom and Germany.
Harmless? Chernobyl Radiation Killed Nearly One Million People 20100426

Disabled children from Belarus visiting the UK during Easter 2010 sponsored by the charity Medicine Chernobyl Belarus Special Aid Group. (Photo by Matthew and Heather)

About 550 million Europeans, and 150 to 230 million others in the Northern Hemisphere received notable contamination. Fallout reached the United States and Canada nine days after the disaster.

The proportion of children considered healthy born to irradiated parents in Belarus, the Ukraine, and European Russia considered healthy fell from about 80 percent to less than 20 percent since 1986.

Numerous reports reviewed for this book document elevated disease rates in the Chernobyl area. These include increased fetal and infant deaths, birth defects, and diseases of the respiratory, digestive, musculoskeletal, nervous, endocrine, reproductive, hematological, urological, cardiovascular, genetic, immune, and other systems, as well as cancers and non-cancerous tumors.

In addition to adverse effects in humans, numerous other species have been contaminated, based upon studies of livestock, voles, birds, fish, plants, trees, bacteria, viruses, and other species.

Foods produced in highly contaminated areas in the former Soviet Union were shipped, and consumed worldwide, affecting persons in many other nations. Some, but not all, contamination was detected and contaminated foods not shipped.

The authors warn that the soil, foliage, and water in highly contaminated areas still contain substantial levels of radioactive chemicals, and will continue to harm humans for decades to come.

The book explores effects of Chernobyl fallout that arrived above the United States nine days after the disaster. Fallout entered the U.S. environment and food chain through rainfall. Levels of iodine-131 in milk, for example, were seven to 28 times above normal in May and June 1986. The authors found that the highest U.S. radiation levels were recorded in the Pacific Northwest.

Americans also consumed contaminated food imported from nations affected by the disaster. Four years later, 25 percent of imported food was found to be still contaminated.

Little research on Chernobyl health effects in the United States has been conducted, the authors found, but one study by the Radiation and Public Health Project found that in the early 1990s, a few years after the meltdown, thyroid cancer in Connecticut children had nearly doubled.

This occurred at the same time that childhood thyroid cancer rates in the former Soviet Union were surging, as the thyroid gland is highly sensitive to radioactive iodine exposures.

The world now has 435 nuclear reactors and of these, 104 are in the United States.

The authors of the study say not enough attention has been paid to Eastern European research studies on the effects of Chernobyl at a time when corporations in several nations, including the United States, are attempting to build more nuclear reactors and to extend the years of operation of aging reactors.

The authors said in a statement, “Official discussions from the International Atomic Energy Agency and associated United Nations’ agencies (e.g. the Chernobyl Forum reports) have largely downplayed or ignored many of the findings reported in the Eastern European scientific literature and consequently have erred by not including these assessments.”

[Taft_Bathtub]

56. Radiation went out to sea

so no, you're not going to have radiation hitting major centers. Toyko radiation levels are already normal, and the evacuation zone remains empty of people who would be exposed to very low levels of radiation.

I have not read the NYAS book so I can't really comment on it, it does seem quite puzzling it would blame such a high number of deaths on Chernobyl when the UN can't envision more than 4,000 total.

[truedelphi]

66. If Vermont officials posted last week that they found Cesium 137 in

Milk or drinking water, then it is not true that the radiation "went out to sea."

Just as in the late seventies, the top notch group of Norwegian scientists discovered smelting material chems from Michigan, in the reindeer on the tundra, and particles from Los Angeles traffic jams, and chems from our steel mills, all in Artic animals, so too does the entire population of the globe now have the chance of getting some remnant of radioactive particles inside their bodies. Be the body that of a man, womam, child, penguin or artic hare.

The radiation alerts were raised just over the weekend, in terms of number two reactor now facing huge difficulties. So it is not as though the possibility of further radioactive contamination are stopping.

If you don't think that the UN and its agency people can be corrupted, you have a lot more confidence in officialdom than I have.

[Taft_Bathtub]

76. Radiation in Vermont Milk

Here you go:

http://healthvermont.gov/news/2011/040911_epa_vtmilk.aspx

I'm guessing the EPA and Vermont is also in on the conspiracy to hide radiation then? Seriously, you guys sound like Freepers re: Global Warming, it's absolutely pathetic.

[truedelphi]

77. You do understand the reason that Obama is being hit on by GE

And other nuke industry big shots is that if the Federal government doesn't loan the nuke industry the 38 billion bucks that is now in the works for nuke expansion, the nuke industry could be dead in the water.

Wall Street and other usual money sources don't wanna touch the nuke industry with a fifteen hundred foot pole. Far too much liability for any sane group of people. (Not that Wall Street is all that sane, but still, they are about protecting their interests.)

[Veronica.Franco]

79. UCB Food Chain Sampling Results

http://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/node/2525

for accurate testing ...

[Devil_Fish]

61. Do you have a better link to the video then a blog??? NT

[Taft_Bathtub]

63. Sorry I don't

I googled for others and could not find any =/

[liberation]

71. You do realize most of the Chernobyl death's happened after the fact

and that in that incident only 1 reactor was involved, whereas here we have all the reactors in the plant compromised in some way or another.

You're comparing the aftermath of an event years after, with one which is still developing.


BTW. You're cherry picking the numbers which fit your narrative. The UN report, represents a lowballed estimate. Numbers from other organizations, esp Ukrainian ones, are significantly higher ranging from thousands to tens of thousands of people whose deaths are correlated with the disaster, as well as orders of magnitude more people whose health has been compromised in one way or another. Yes, some cancers are manageable... but it seems odd how people who pride in their level of knowledge can think that is an acceptable risk to produce energy, when other forms of energy are readily available with none of the associated risks and dire effects in people's quality of life.

So now the $64K question: will you be willing to take a swim near the Fukushima plant to demonstrate us the lack of risk associated with this clear non-event?

[Taft_Bathtub]

75. That would weaken your argument

Since Fukushima killed zero people immediately. In addition Fukushima has released only 10% of the radiation of Chernobyl. In addition the problems affecting Chernobyl, where the reactor was exposed to the atmosphere and the water table, is no way comparable to Fukushima.

Also not all reactors at Fukushima are compromised.

And no, the UN data isn't cherrypicked. Seriously, read the UNSCEAR report, it spans twenty years and involves numerous international agencies. If you think they're cherrypicking and lowballing then you're pretty much no better than the Freepers who claim scientists around the world are cooking the books on Global Warming. Funny how when the science doesn't fit your narrative you deny the science. Freeper indeed.

[Mason Dixon]

28. I Challenge the DU Membership

Few humans live to witness real change in the course of Humanity.

We are those few.

Make no mistake; no one living today will ever know how many people die from this ongoing disaster.

I challenge the DU Membership to make Japan an issue for our 2012 local, state and national elections.

The Question: What are you going to do about Japan? What's your plan? No matter how little I know, or how big a lie you tell me, I already know this will change the course of humanity and America in particular.

The Fronts: Health, Cancer, Economics, Manufacturing, Collegiate Investment, Job Recruiting, Military Relations, China, Japan's Debt, Americans debt to Japan,

My Disclaimer: As an American I am absolutely crushed to see this disaster befall humanity, but furthermore to see it happen to one of our closest and friendliest nations makes it far more personal than observational. My only optimism is that the US is one of the partners that helps heal Japan. Our Candidates need not share my view, but we all must force them to have one. Questioning them is only way for the record to begin.

On a personal note
My wife and I watched the earthquake and tsunami news on television and then the nuclear meltdown begin 24 hours later. I said to her the next day, "This thing is happening about 6000 miles away from, but you and I standing here in New York will feel this one way or another."

[franzia99]

32. I'm in Hawaii and am quite worried. We're the canaries in the coalmine for the U.S.

The levels of cesium and iodine 131 found in our milk were quite scary. But don't worry, we've been told, "IT'S SAFE." Nothing to see here.

[truedelphi]

50. Par t of the big problem is how Americans are geographically

Challenged.

They may know that people in northern Sweden and Norway were affected by the fallout from Chernobyl.

What they don't understand is that the northern parts of those nations are three thousand miles from
their southern tips.

So the fallout from Chernobyl travelled at least 4,500 miles in order to reach the Swedes and Norwegians living in the more northern areas.

I live 5,100 miles from Tokyo. To listen to various American officials talk as though once the radiation goes across the sea, they seem to be saying that somehow different radiation that hits California will be different than when it hits the Marshall Islands -- and this is nonsense.

Radiation should be thought of as invisible cancer bullets. Although levels may have been "low" in terms of what has gotten into the atmosphere, this crisis is still ongoing.

And what is up in the atmosphere will fall down. Radiation particles are very attracted to moisture.

[caraher]

69. Nonsense

Don't sling accusations of geographic ignorance then give factually incorrect "information."

"What they don't understand is that the northern parts of those nations are three thousand miles from their southern tips"

Sweden and Norway are nowhere near 3000 miles in length. In fact, if you map a road trip (longer than "as the crow flies") from Pripyat (site of Chernobyl) to Tromso (about the northernmost town in Norway one can find on a map) the total distance reported by Google maps is 2650 km, or 1650 miles.

According to http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Europe/Norway-LOCATION-SIZE-AND-EXTENT.html">Encyclopedia of the Nations, "Extending 1,752 km (1,089 mi) NNE-SSW , Norway has the greatest length of any European country." That's 1/3 the value you claim, and even that length is not oriented along the direction of the shortest path between Chernobyl and anyplace in Norway.

[franzia99]

31. Jesus

[ElsewheresDaughter]

37. This link needs to be attached with the OP video.....Jet Stream Analysis ....

Jet Stream Analysis http://squall.sfsu.edu/crws/jetstream.html

this is updated every 6 hrs...click on all of the maps, you can animate them and put them on satelite loop....interesting.

[democracy1st]

58. kick

[neoralme]

65. We are on our own on everything, and have been for a long time. We

are a fascist State now, with the formations of fascist devices and regulatory agencies being formed as we ponder which of our reps to worthlessly contact.

[Veronica.Franco]

78. Dr. Helen Caldicott ~ Prescription for Survival

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/3/30/prescription_for_survival_a_debate_on

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ITrXVJMKeQ&feature=share

I have heard her videos are being kept off of the DU? ... why would that be? ...