WHO/IAEA: Japan nuclear accident no worse

[Bonobo]

REUTERS

2011/04/14

GENEVA/VIENNA--An increase in the severity level of Japan's nuclear accident does not mean the public health risk is any worse or that the disaster resembles Chernobyl in 1986, global expert bodies said on Tuesday.

"Our public health assessment is the same today as it was yesterday," World Health Organization spokesman Gregory Hartl told Reuters, explaining that the higher rating was the result of combining the amounts of radiation leaking from three reactors and counting them as a single incident. "At the moment there is very little public health risk outside the 30-km (evacuation) zone."

Separately, the International Atomic Energy Agency said the decision to raise the severity level at Fukushima to the highest rating of 7 from 5 previously did not mean the disaster was comparable to Chernobyl -- the worst nuclear power accident in history -- which was also a 7.

"The Fukushima accident and Chernobyl are very different. Chernobyl had a reactor in power. It was a huge explosion, a power explosion, and then you had a huge graphite fire for a number of days," Deputy Director General Denis Flory told a news conference. "Also (Chernobyl had) the power to move all this radioactivity in the high atmosphere and then spread it all around the earth."

http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201104130187.html

[Zoeisright]

1. Yeah. At Chernobyl, there was an explosion and it started decreasing.

Japan is a ticking time bomb that will only get WORSE over time.


Christ. Can't people learn?

[Bonobo]

3. As I predicted.

Outrage when anything is posted that does not predict the destruction of all of Japan. Sick.

Another thing: This is from an expert. You, umm, are not.

[uppityperson]

5. Patience grasshopper. It may eventually be bad enough to make everyone happy

[Chris_Texas]

7. no shit huh?

[Bonobo]

8. What does the WHO and the IAE know compared with a DU poster?

Nothing I guess.

[hayu_lol]

2. Chernobyl also had NO containment vessel...

they applied a concrete overcoat to that burning reactor.

[Warren DeMontague]

16. The value of the Mark I containment structures, here, is debateable.

And of course, the spent fuel is outside of containment, and there's as much nuclear material in the pools as in the cores, if not more.

I think, more important than the containment which seems to have proven at least partially inadequate (in the case of #2, particularly) is the difference between a water and a graphite moderated reactor. With Chernobyl, once the graphite started burning, things were severely fucked.

[uppityperson]

4. k&r, hopefully it won't get worse. Thanks Bonobo

[Bonobo]

6. It saddens me so much...

That this will be unrecced to hell and if I had just posted that there would be half a million deaths in Japan, it would go through the roof with recs.

What is wrong with DU?

This is not from Joe Blow, it is from an IAE expert. I can't see anything wrong with what he says.

Why is this received with such poor grace here?

[CJvR]

14. Well, I suspect...

...that after watching with increasing frustration how CO2 and time have put Nuclear power generation back on the political agenda in a positive way some people have just lost their head at the prospect of "winning" their long war against the demon. In order to "win" they need as big a body count as possible so that is probably a source of this Stranglovian wait for the Fukushima Doomsday device to go off kill a few million Japanese in various gruesom manners. Anything that contradicts this hoped for outcome is rejected and anything confirming it, no matter how crazy the source, is gospel defended with Inquisatorial zeal.

[Urban Prairie]

17. Can't speak for anyone but myself here on DU, but I certainly hope for the best possible outcome,

and do not want to learn that half a million deaths have occurred, but due to the NATURE of this grave crisis, being that many if any deaths and/or illnesses as a result of being exposed to high levels of radiation internally or externally, may take weeks, months, years, or even decades, from the (possibly lingering) effects in the air, food, water, and earth, to manifest themselves, and from past experience, such as the emergency responders being reassured that there was no danger in breathing in the air unprotected, during and after the Twin Towers burned and collapsed on 9/11, or that ALL of the crude oil from last spring/summer's gusher in the GOM has somehow magically "disappeared", it is likely that many here are quite understandably very suspicious and apprehensive of any reassurances being made by TEPCO or those from any other organization or government for that matter, and probably will continue to be, since this ongoing catastrophe which has continued for over a month now has gradually worsened, some crucial/critical information involving the true condition of the reactors appears to have been withheld and/or too slowly revealed to the public, and that this "deadly" serious crisis obviously cannot be quickly resolved.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

9. what about the people living around the reactors in Japan?

[Bonobo]

10. Not good but it has been mostly evacuated. nt

[Warren DeMontague]

11. It is a different accident. It is a bad accident.

Let's hope further releases of highly radioactive material are minimized, and containment and cleanup, such as is possible, progresses without any more major hitches.

[Bonobo]

12. It is bad indeed.

At least it is good news, slightly, that it seems not to have spread as widely as Chernobyl (at this point).

[Warren DeMontague]

15. No, and it's worth noting that the different reactor design seems to have had a lot to do with that.

My major concern re: "Chernobyl" and comparisons has had to do with the fact that the sheer tonnage of nuclear material at the entire fukushima complex is something like 25 times that at Chernobyl. That doesn't mean all of it could, or would, be lofted into the stratosphere like major amounts were at Chernobyl, but it's still important to keep in mind.

I don't know who the genius was who thought of keeping the spent fuel in pools next to the reactors but outside of containment, too. That's gotta go down as one of the most idiotic decisions made by anyone, ever.

[uppityperson]

13. kicking for "not worse"

[BeFree]

18. This would make me happy

IAEA said today that all similar plants in the world are being shutdown.

And the IAEA apologized for letting such plants as the Fukushima stay running for so long.

************

Thing is: We are all in danger and it is because orgs like the IAEA have allowed this to happen, so, no, this news is not enough to make me feel better. I fear the worst given the track record of the regulators and officialdom.

I just hope for the people of Japan, and the world, that this nightmare ends soon and we learn our lessons well.