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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAmerica in 'huge trouble,' says nuclear expert
http://www.naturalnews.com/035731_Fukushima_radiation_America.html#ixzz1td0U7I6FDuring a recent Congressional delegation trip to Japan, Oregon Senator Ron Wyden witnessed with his own eyes the horrific aftermath of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, which we have heard very little about from the media in recent months. The damage situation was apparently so severe, according to his account, that he has now written a letter to Ichiro Fujisaki, Ambassador of Japan, petitioning for more to be done, and offering any additional support and assistance that might help contain and resolve the situation as quickly as possible.
..."[S]itting at the top of [Reactor 4], in a pool that is cracked, leaking, and precarious even without an earthquake, are 1,565 fuel rods (give or take a few), some of them 'fresh fuel' that was ready to go into the reactor on the morning of March 11 when the earthquake and tsunami hit," writes Consolo. "If they are MOX fuel, containing six percent plutonium, one fuel rod has the potential to kill 2.89 billion people."
Sen. Wyden is also asking U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Gregory Jaczko to assess how much additional assistance their agencies might be willing to provide to help Japan, and the entire world, avoid a nuclear catastrophe of Biblical proportions.
source
http://www.wyden.senate.gov/news/press-releases/after-tour-of-fukushima-nuclear-power-station-wyden-says-situation-worse-than-reported
KansDem
(28,498 posts)And there are 1,565 fuel rods??!!!
Motown_Johnny
(22,308 posts)so the other 1,562 don't count
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)in that wonderful plan called M.A.D. ( Mutual Assured Destruction)
"would you like to play a game?"
FiveGoodMen
(20,018 posts)One hell of a line at the end of that movie.
Motown_Johnny
(22,308 posts)Delphinus
(11,840 posts)(I remember that movie very fondly.)
jeff47
(26,549 posts)you can kill a lot of people.
Did you know all the water on Earth has the potential to kill several quadrillion people? Doesn't take much to drown.
RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)There were several explosions at Fukushima. One was said to have been carrying plutonium in its cloud since rods were vaporized. Traces of plutonium from Fukushima were found in Europe.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)Because your statement seems to say that explosions would distribute the plutonium all over the world. Those explosions happened, so we must all be dead.
OR, it might not work the way you're saying.
RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)Or breathe some plutonium?
If you did it may take as little as 6 months or as much as a few years before it kills you, if it does.
People who have bad immune systems are prone to become sick in 6 months. Children whose bodies are growing are very susceptible, females the most.
I figured you were smart enough to have done some research on this, but it doesn't seem you have? Anyway, best of luck to you and yours.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)Your model is explosions would spread tons of plutonium all over the world and kill vast swaths of people.
Explosions already happened. So if your model is correct, tons of plutonium were spread all around the world. You've now added to your model that it takes as little as 6 months for people to start dying.
It's been a year.
Where's the bodies?
Tikki
(14,559 posts)around at Hanford because nobody really knows how to permanently contain it.
The containers get compromised by age and nature.
So a scientist/engineer comes up with a containment plan and it sounds ever so
special until another scientist/engineer comes up with one that 'could be the one'
and the powers that be don't know jack what to really do, never have, didn't
from the very beginning.
So your tax payer money flows to this shit pile; more money, more money, more money.
For What?!!!!!
Tikki
and please don't tell me about how they have this plan to turn waste into...something.
They have had that plan for the same amount of time...it still just gets moved
around and around at the Hanford reservation.
appal_jack
(3,813 posts)We visited on an environmental science college field program in the early 1990's. I remember seeing the retired submarines cut in thirds before disposal: front and back thirds re low-level waste, center third with reactor was of course high-level.
Back then, the disposal technique that was going to make everything all right was 'in-situ vitrification:' just melt rock into glass all around the waste, and it would be stabilized. How did that work out?
Besides meeting with officials at Hanford and whatever corporate contractor they had at the time, we also met with some activists from the community and nearby farmers. The stories of secrecy and coverup and disease in the region were truly horrifying.
Anyone proposing new nuke development should be told to clean-up p,aces like Hanford first.
-app
TheWraith
(24,331 posts)No rods were "vaporized." Please read up a little on this stuff before you start repeating things you heard on somebody's conspiracy blog. Despite the scientifically illiterate fearmongering, neither you nor anyone else really is in danger from Fukushima.
RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)There was found plutonium particles in Europe that were known to be from Fukushima.
So how the fuck did plutonium get from Japan to Europe if it wasn't vaporized? Eh, smart guy?
And Senator Wyden sure does NOT agree with you. Hmmm, who do I trust? You or Wyden?
Zalatix
(8,994 posts)If Senator Wyden is right it's pretty much all over for all of us.
Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)For starters, most of the plutonium from Fukushima would fall out close to the source, that is, in Fukushima, and that particles that remained in the atmosphere would be carried by the prevailing winds toward North America, over the Pacific Ocean, rather than toward Europe, and thus there should be higher detectable amounts in North America.
Second, there are at least 30 reactors in Europe that use MOX fuel that contains plutonium (the same type that was used in Fukushima Unit 4), as well as several companies in Europe that produce it.
http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf29.html
http://archive.greenpeace.org/nuclear/transport/mox00/moxqcsweden.pdf
Really, I think it is a bit of a stretch to attribute plutonium in Europe to Daiichi when there are lots of local European users/makers of the same type of plutonium fuel that could be the actual source.
apocalypsehow
(12,751 posts)To coin a phrase.
Peace Patriot
(24,010 posts)But if that nuclear shit in Japan goes kapowie again--or any of the other gadzillions of nuclear shit here and around the world--we might well want to drown ourselves.
You do know it can go kapowie again, don't you? Sure you do. But that ain't half the story, and you know that as well. Or may be don't. This diversionary tactic--about us all drowning in the oceans--is about the dumbest remark I have ever read. Is it possible that you really believe it--that nuclear materials released into the atmosphere and the oceans is no more dangerous than all the water on earth, should we all fall into it and drown?
paulk
(11,586 posts)- Rick Santorum
hey, he could maybe give you some tips on really stupid analogies....
EOTE
(13,409 posts)The point is, the little quip about one of those fuel rods being able to kill billions of people is a ridiculous bit of fear mongering. It's just as apt to say that one swimming pool could kill millions of people. Sure, it COULD happen, but it won't.
paulk
(11,586 posts)this time from Japan's former ambassador to Switzerland
http://www.readersupportednews.org/opinion2/303-211/10896-fate-of-japan-and-the-whole-world-depends-on-no-4-reactor
EOTE
(13,409 posts)Must be that that particular comment was a bit of sensationalistic bullshit.
paulk
(11,586 posts)isn't going to make one fucking bit of difference.
the end result will be the same - pretty much the end of civilization as we know it
EOTE
(13,409 posts)It's because if the media isn't ignoring it, people and websites are spreading absolutely insane misinformation about it. Being extremely ignorant on this matter and fear mongering isn't helping anything.
paulk
(11,586 posts)Fukushima Daiichi site: Cesium-137 is 85 times greater than at Chernobyl accident.
"Japans former Ambassador to Switzerland, Mr. Mitsuhei Murata, was invited to speak at the Public Hearing of the Budgetary Committee of the House of Councilors on March 22, 2012, on the Fukushima nuclear power plants accident. Before the Committee, Ambassador Murata strongly stated that if the crippled building of reactor unit 4 - with 1,535 fuel rods in the spent fuel pool 100 feet (30 meters) above the ground - collapses, not only will it cause a shutdown of all six reactors but will also affect the common spent fuel pool containing 6,375 fuel rods, located some 50 meters from reactor 4. In both cases the radioactive rods are not protected by a containment vessel; dangerously, they are open to the air. This would certainly cause a global catastrophe like we have never before experienced. He stressed that the responsibility of Japan to the rest of the world is immeasurable. Such a catastrophe would affect us all for centuries. Ambassador Murata informed us that the total numbers of the spent fuel rods at the Fukushima Daiichi site excluding the rods in the pressure vessel is 11,421 (396+615+566+1,535+994+940+6375).
I asked top spent-fuel pools expert Mr. Robert Alvarez, former Senior Policy Adviser to the Secretary and Deputy Assistant Secretary for National Security and the Environment at the U.S. Department of Energy, for an explanation of the potential impact of the 11,421 rods.
I received an astounding response from Mr. Alvarez [updated 4/5/12]:
In recent times, more information about the spent fuel situation at the Fukushima-Dai-Ichi site has become known. It is my understanding that of the 1,532 spent fuel assemblies in reactor No. 304 assemblies are fresh and unirradiated. This then leaves 1,231 irradiated spent fuel rods in pool No. 4, which contain roughly 37 million curies (~1.4E+18 Becquerel) of long-lived radioactivity. The No. 4 pool is about 100 feet above ground, is structurally damaged and is exposed to the open elements. If an earthquake or other event were to cause this pool to drain this could result in a catastrophic radiological fire involving nearly 10 times the amount of Cs-137 released by the Chernobyl accident.
The infrastructure to safely remove this material was destroyed as it was at the other three reactors. Spent reactor fuel cannot be simply lifted into the air by a crane as if it were routine cargo. In order to prevent severe radiation exposures, fires and possible explosions, it must be transferred at all times in water and heavily shielded structures into dry casks.. As this has never been done before, the removal of the spent fuel from the pools at the damaged Fukushima-Dai-Ichi reactors will require a major and time-consuming re-construction effort and will be charting in unknown waters. Despite the enormous destruction cased at the Da-Ichi site, dry casks holding a smaller amount of spent fuel appear to be unscathed.
Based on U.S. Energy Department data, assuming a total of 11,138 spent fuel assemblies are being stored at the Dai-Ichi site, nearly all, which is in pools. They contain roughly 336 million curies (~1.2 E+19 Bq) of long-lived radioactivity. About 134 million curies is Cesium-137 - roughly 85 times the amount of Cs-137 released at the Chernobyl accident as estimated by the U.S. National Council on Radiation Protection (NCRP). The total spent reactor fuel inventory at the Fukushima-Daichi site contains nearly half of the total amount of Cs-137 estimated by the NCRP to have been released by all atmospheric nuclear weapons testing, Chernobyl, and world-wide reprocessing plants (~270 million curies or ~9.9 E+18 Becquerel).
It is important for the public to understand that reactors that have been operating for decades, such as those at the Fukushima-Dai-Ichi site have generated some of the largest concentrations of radioactivity on the planet."
------------------------------
Is it fear mongering to wonder, irregardless of the loss of life now and for the next 30 years or so, what the collapse of the Japanese economy (not to mention the rest of SE Asia and surrounding areas), would do to the world economy?
Perhaps the story doesn't get decent coverage because the 13 million people living in or around Tokyo who would be immediately affected by this might want to leave, and there's really no place to put them.
EOTE
(13,409 posts)Binary thinking is a sign of a very, very simple mind indeed.
paulk
(11,586 posts)is a sign of what?
EOTE
(13,409 posts)Geez, this really isn't terribly difficult. Try and keep up.
paulk
(11,586 posts)and I really have better things to do than to come on to this website and be insulted by some anonymous asshole.
EOTE
(13,409 posts)and then spread fear mongering bullshit to all the other anonymous assholes. You do that and your time will be well spent.
Cleita
(75,480 posts)I have been told the above right here at DU and that I shouldn't be trying to scare people.
Turbineguy
(37,365 posts)Teabaggers in charge of this.
Palin can see it from her back yard ...
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)I assume something has been deleted.
Or is the headline misleading?
lovuian
(19,362 posts)New Interview: Fukushima poses lethal risk to US West Coast, says Senator Another bomb waiting to go off Extreme nuclear vulnerability, especially in Reactor No. 4
Wyden walked through the ruined Fukushima Dai-ichi complex and saw what few from the West have seen: another bomb waiting to go off.
The senator is not typically alarmist. But his field notes, followed by letters to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Energy Secretary Steven Chu, signal alarm. They paint a picture of extreme nuclear vulnerability, especially in Reactor No. 4 [...]
Senator Wyden lives in OREGON ...recipient of the Fukishima Tsunami debris ...yes America is in HUGE TROUBLE
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)Much more frightening than the whole terrorism scare.
No wonder they have temporarily closed San Onofre. If that went too, we would be dead down here in even shorter time.
Lawlbringer
(550 posts)I consider them to be almost as bad as InfoWars or PrisonPlanet.
Fearmongering to get more page views...
lovuian
(19,362 posts)The Oregan Live news
http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2012/04/ron_wydens_nuclear_field_trip.html
Wyden completed his tour by asking Japan, with written urgings for help from Clinton and Chu, to sharply speed up a cleanup expected to take 10 more years. His fear is that another big seismic event will trigger another disaster before the cleanup is completed -- exposing Oregon and the West Coast to potentially lethal risk.
"What we learned the first time is that radioactivity leaks out quickly," he told The Oregonian Friday. "If (No. 4) ruptures now, it gets into the air, and that's very troubling to us in Oregon. This must not happen."
Prevailing winds pushed insignificant quantities of radioactive iodine-131 from Japan across the Pacific to the United States following the March 11, 2011, quake and tsunami. The delivery capacities of the ocean have been efficient as well, as The Oregonian's Charles Pope reported a California researcher discovering radioactive iodine in sea kelp reaching the U.S. coast after the incident.
alfredo
(60,075 posts)jeff47
(26,549 posts)*blink* Arbitrary Units?
Either:
1) We've done an even more awful job teaching science than I feared or
2) You forgot a sarcasm tag.
alfredo
(60,075 posts)but spread of the plume. I know it will be greatly diluted, but then there is no minimum safe level of plutonium.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)Otherwise, you're just drawing pictures to go OOOOO!!! SCARY!!!!!!!
mother earth
(6,002 posts)in MSM (what a shock) and consequently is not being dealt with the way it should be.
Not to mention the fact that the fall-out will be washing up along west coast shores sometime this summer, recalling from what I've read online thus far.
This is nuclear waste/fall-out...Chernobyl style, but worst...and zilch reported in that "liberal" MSM.
There will be an onslaught of cancer, this stuff just gets absorbed into the environment and the food supply. Are we even capable of predicting what this will encompass. It's clearly the worst disaster.
It's shocking that this is just swept aside as acceptable.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)Approximately 83 billion Americans are now dead, and the entire western half of the nation is an irradiated wasteland utterly devoid of life. There might be some slight inaccuracies in their reporting.
Also, ocean currents don't work the way you think they do.
mother earth
(6,002 posts)scientist. I have not read anywhere about claims of 83 billion dead, but won't hold you to it, nor would I ever believe such a claim since that certainly would warrant MSM's attention, no matter how bad they are. But I do know and fully understand, this worst ever environmental disaster will have consequences that we do not fully encompass right now, and it is not getting the attention it deserves, and hasn't gotten that attention from the get go.
This should have warranted a team of global scientists acting on behalf of all of us.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)Which is not to say everything is hunky-dory either. But the danger is consistently overstated, so adding up all the claims of the doomsayers results in a ridiculous overstatement. Kinda like the people claiming Deepwater Horizon would result in the Gulf becoming completely oil-filled - literally, as in there would be no water.
It's a problem, yes. It's going to require extensive use of robotics to solve, since humans can't clean it up. Fortunately, the Japanese are as good or better at robotics than anyone else on the planet. A team of "global scientists" isn't going to be able to do much. What's needed are excellent engineers, and again Japan has a large supply.
Response to jeff47 (Reply #81)
Post removed
jeff47
(26,549 posts)Let's see...where's the nuke loving part.....oh wait, there isn't any "nuke loving" there.
Almost like you're doing a hysterical doom-n-gloom statement.
Politicalboi
(15,189 posts)We should have been helping from the get go. The UN should have put this as a top priority. And I'm sure we still don't know the whole entire truth.
lovuian
(19,362 posts)WSJ: Very dangerous situation at Fukushima Daiichi says Senator Taking years to remove fuel carries extraordinary and continuing risk No comment from Tepco, Japan govt Quake could send buildings tumbling down, resulting in an even greater release of radiation
Fukushima Daiichis Achilles Heel: Unit 4?s Spent Fuel?
http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2012/04/17/fukushima-daiichis-achilles-heel-unit-4s-spent-fuel/
Mr. Wydens warning touches on what some experts think is the biggest problem at the Fukushima plant: another earthquake or tsunami that exposes the least protected of its nuclear fuel to outside air.
Mr. Wyden points out, though, that the schedule allows up to ten years to get all the spent fuel in all the Fukushima reactor pools out something he says is too risky.
This schedule carries extraordinary and continuing risk if further severe seismic events were to occur, he wrote in his letter to Ambassador Fujisaki. The true earthquake risk for the site was seriously underestimated and remains unresolved.
alfredo
(60,075 posts)There were six Sunday. Three were 5.8. The region is still active.
Rex
(65,616 posts)is in huge trouble?
I think your right on there
lovuian
(19,362 posts)The visit to Japan some twenty days after the catastrophic earthquake, horrific tsunami and resulting nuclear accidents at the Fukushima Daiichi site by French president Nicolas Sarkozy is described as having been focused on the continued sale of deadly MOX (a "dirty" mixture of Plutonium and Depleted Uranium). In the article, the claim is made that the French are now seen in Japan as "chi no shonin" or merchants of death. The false assertion that the French team arrived in Japan to show solidarity with those who had so greatly suffered is a joke. This is about a powerful nuclear industry protecting its own, and reaping profits from not only the sale of radioactive materials, but also winning extraordinarily lucrative contracts for the cleanup and disposal of the nuclear waste and what is left of the reactors at Fukushima. In other words, as in the oil industry where companies such as Halliburton make money off the building, operating and selling of materials to the oil industry, when disaster strikes, they also make billions off the cleanup. It's called a vertical monopoly. In other words, even disasters are lucrative. Just take a look at all of the funds investing on the negative outcomes of our common future if you want to see how the wealthiest are hedging their bets by betting on the worst of the worst kinds of outcomes for humanity and our planet.
We know that a Japan Chemical plant that went on Fire
Housed Depleted Uranium
Downwinder
(12,869 posts)of the cosmos. Is it too much to ask for a radiation map of earth?
jeff47
(26,549 posts)There's low levels of radiation everywhere on Earth. Not because of nukes, but because there's radioactive stuff all around us. Those "Radon Test Kits" in the hardware store aren't due to nuclear power, for example.
The reason nobody's bothered producing such a map using any data from Fukushima is the radiation outside the immediate area is lost in that background.
That could theoretically change if there was some sort of large, long-burning fire at the plant. Say the Japanese decided to not fight the fire for a week. But where that radiation goes will depend on the current weather, so such a map can't be drawn yet.
RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)There were many maps of the radiation plume within weeks of the event. All those maps have been scrubbed from the web servers.
So you are talking out your ass, when you claim: "..nobody's bothered producing such a map using any data from Fukushima"
bhikkhu
(10,724 posts)...before you go on about how all those maps have been scrubbed. Something like 65k hits.
RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)I was thinking of the animated maps, especially one from a Norway site that was scrubbed. It showed the concentrations and directions of the plume for about two weeks then was scrubbed. I'll do the google again soon. Thanks
jeff47
(26,549 posts)You know is accurate, because they made up their own units.
Here, I'll draw a map with equal care:
.
Oh, it didn't spread anywhere. We're all perfectly safe. Hey, it's on the Internet with arbitrary units, so it must be accurate.
PCIntern
(25,583 posts)"great"to see your posts again...
Generic Other
(28,979 posts)Yeah. I remember him swinging through the threads with his smiley faces.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)Because until this moment, I never mentioned bananas.
Generic Other
(28,979 posts)I am mixing you up with another nuke shill.
alittlelark
(18,890 posts)jeff47
(26,549 posts)Otherwise, you're just fearmongering.
Great job keeping these old plants around, btw. NIMBY over the fearmongering meant these old plants weren't replaced like planned. We're SOOOO much safer now.
Ghost Dog
(16,881 posts)Profound angst.
Shit.
redqueen
(115,103 posts)felix_numinous
(5,198 posts)Before they erupt--I hope that we decommission our nuclear power plants one by one, and transition to green energy sources in the next 15 years. We really have no choice. The big companies would like us to think this is hyperbole--but they are addicted to the myth that they must survive at all costs--and this myth is what has to be destroyed in order for us to live.
kenny blankenship
(15,689 posts)Steal a few trillion out of the Treasury and Fed and laugh in our faces.
We can't even admit they are problems.
DearAbby
(12,461 posts)surprised this isn't hovering at the top.
DLevine
(1,788 posts)tularetom
(23,664 posts)From the tone of the articles the damage has already been done, there's no possible way to undo it, and the potential exists for more of the same only worse. And there isn't very much we can do to prevent future occurrences.
So humanity is fucking doomed anyway. No use getting upset over it, it's a done deal.
RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)A great deal of damage has been done so we need to be prepared to deal with that. Health care measures chief among those preparations. Protecting the children, etc.
And we must do what we can to prevent future occurrences. But if just a few are educated and informed and the rest look the other way, it will get worse and humans as we know them along with many other species may become extinct. Do you want that on your Karma list?
SunSeeker
(51,697 posts)valerief
(53,235 posts)Why do anything reasonable like try to save the earth?
marble falls
(57,204 posts)L0oniX
(31,493 posts)Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)The problem with excessive hyperbole- and yes, "2.9 billion people... Wur all gonna DIEEEEEEE" is hyperbole- is that it causes people to take none of it seriously.
I am very concerned about Fukushima, but that doesn't mean I'm going to tart listening to every Alex Jones/Russia times conspiracy gibberish blathering "journalist" that comes along.
This OP would be far more persuasive if it didn't have "naturalnews" as a source up there with Ron Wyden.
Occulus
(20,599 posts)The Senator's press release says nothing of the kind.
lovuian
(19,362 posts)Ok take out the fuel rod claim of 1565 and number of people from Natural news
but you are not denying that
that Senator Wyden
said this
Wyden completed his tour by asking Japan, with written urgings for help from Clinton and Chu, to sharply speed up a cleanup expected to take 10 more years. His fear is that another big seismic event will trigger another disaster before the cleanup is completed -- exposing Oregon and the West Coast to potentially lethal risk
It exposes and Oregon to potentially lethal risk
that is from Reuters Wall Street Journal Huffington Post and Oregon Live News
THE WEST COAST of America has MILLIONS OF PEOPLE
and it doesn't matter how many rods ...one or two will do the job nicely
It has a potential lethal risk ...this came from a Senator who just toured the facility and realized we were not being told the truth
http://enenews.com/just-in-senator-fears-us-west-coast-at-lethal-risk-from-fukushima-extreme-nuclear-vulnerability-especially-in-reactor-no-4
The Oregan Live news
http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2012/04/ron_wydens_nuclear_field_trip.html
Wyden completed his tour by asking Japan, with written urgings for help from Clinton and Chu, to sharply speed up a cleanup expected to take 10 more years. His fear is that another big seismic event will trigger another disaster before the cleanup is completed -- exposing Oregon and the West Coast to potentially lethal risk.
"What we learned the first time is that radioactivity leaks out quickly," he told The Oregonian Friday. "If (No. 4) ruptures now, it gets into the air, and that's very troubling to us in Oregon. This must not happen."
Prevailing winds pushed insignificant quantities of radioactive iodine-131 from Japan across the Pacific to the United States following the March 11, 2011, quake and tsunami. The delivery capacities of the ocean have been efficient as well, as The Oregonian's Charles Pope reported a California researcher discovering radioactive iodine in sea kelp reaching the U.S. coast after the incident.
SidDithers
(44,228 posts)Sid
lovuian
(19,362 posts)Wall Street Journal, Oregon Live News, ENE News
Huffington Post
the other sources is up there
SidDithers
(44,228 posts)why did you include naturalnews?
Sid
EX500rider
(10,856 posts)She's a "biomedical photographer"! lol
However, what the Senator said though sounded fairly reasonable :
(from his webpage)
"Washington, D.C. After an onsite tour of what remains of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facilities decimated by last years earthquake and subsequent tsunami, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) a senior member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, sent a letter to Japanese Ambassador Ichiro Fujisaki looking for ways to advance and support clean-up and recovery efforts. Wydens principal concern is the relocation of spent fuel rods currently being stored in unsound structures immediately adjacent to the ocean. He strongly urged the Ambassador to accept international help to prevent dangerous nuclear material from being released into the environment."
That's a far cry from the worlds is ending though. And chances of another earthquake and tidal wave hitting the exact same spot in a short time frame are very slim but indeed possible though improbable. Lets hope they finish the clean up before that happens!
An example what a real scientific article about the event looks is more like this: (notice all the footnotes and graphs) http://www.pnas.org/content/109/16/5984.full.pdf+html
Peace Patriot
(24,010 posts)------------------
"...hitting the exact same spot in a short time frame."
Your lifetime, are you thinking? The lifetimes of everybody currently alive? Do you know how long some of the nuclear materials in these fuel rods can kill?
"Lets hope they finish the clean up before that happens!"
The clean up. Right. How do you clean this up? They don't know. And they still have one reactor in danger of more fires and explosions. If the fuel rods remain in the worst earthquake/tsunami zone on earth (their present location), another 9.0 can easily occur within the "life" of these materials. If they are moved--aside from, say, shooting them to Mars (or even that)--what happens along the way? How do you handle such "hot" materials--and, even more important, who wants them? Moving them is probably as absurd as anything else, in this situation, so most likely these immensely lethal, exposed fuel rods are going to stay there, in the most active earthquake zone in the world. The next 9.0 may not happen soon and may not happen in your lifetime, but it will happen. What then, for those alive in the future?
This is an on-going disaster for which there are really no solutions.
We need to do A LOT more than a "clean up" of that site, if that is even possible. That site could release enough nuclear material to kill millions if not billions of people, as well as poisoning masses of land and sea and other critters, even without another earthquake.
The bigger problem is this massive, immensely lethal danger in so many places on earth, including other earthquake and tsunami zones. There is NO safety system commensurate with the potential danger. To be commensurate with the potential danger, a safety system would have to GUARANTEE that certain things will NEVER happen. And we cannot rely on the nuclear industry or its shills in government to tell the truth about this. They have not done so up to now and they never will.
How do you think it came to pass that not just one but a complex of nuclear power plants, all packed closely together, were installed in the worst earthquake/tsunami zone on earth?
The nuclear industry is a "Mobius Strip" of immense private profit, which starts with billions of taxpayer and ratepayer dollars to build these immensely lethally dangerous plants, makes a few people immensely rich, and ends with the same or related transglobal corporations raking in billions from taxpayers and ratepayers for cleaning up the immense messes they make and also LYING that they can store spent fuel rods and other lethal products SAFELY. One end of this twisted loop connects with the other (as a poster upthread pointed out) and the public interest is nowhere to be found in that loop. We don't count. We pay for it. And we get to die from it, when the inevitable happens, like Fukushima--built to withstand a certain level of earthquake/tsunami but not the one that happened.
Nuclear power must be ENDED (along with nuclear weapons). It is TOO DANGEROUS. It can, with only a few mistakes or only a few unlucky events, end all life on earth. The gamble is too great. Individuals may want to gamble their lives, in various ways, for gain or for glory. NO ONE has the right to gamble with the entire human race and the fragile ecosystem on which the human race and all life depends.
The Titanic probably went down, according to recent research, because the iceberg scraped its side rather than the ship running into it, head on. If it had been hit head on, it probably would have stayed afloat. Instead, the iceberg scraped the side and caused the collapse of a series of bulkheads. There were then other mishaps. One nearby ship didn't get the "SOS." There weren't enough lifeboats and life jackets, etc.
So how much bad luck can happen at once--to sink an "unsinkable" ship and kill the majority of its passengers? Enough bad luck can happen, for that to happen.
We, as the human race, and our planet, are not immune to a run of bad luck, like that which sank the Titanic and killed most of its people. One more nuclear plant failure. Two more. Three more. And will we be saying, "What a weird coincidence?" or will we be crying lamentably, "Why didn't we stop this when we could?" The San Andreas Fault blows, the San Onofre nuclear plant blows and California and parts of Mexico become a waste land; meanwhile, Fukushima blows again, and swaths of the Pacific become a wasteland and radiation starts spreading across the U.S. Or, an accidental nuclear missile launch. Two of them. Three. The Pentagon shoots down one of the accidentally launched nuclear missiles, but, oops, there is a computer glitch caused by solar flare activity and they can't find the other two. Some other nuclear power thinks they are under attack and launch their own nukes. How many things can go wrong at once--from human error, mechanical failure and fate?
Nuclear materials are basically forever--so "probabilities" are not the right way to think about them. And you really can't trust even the most iron-clad, highly regulated, open and aboveboard safety guarantees because the consequences of failure are too great. We don't have any such iron-clad system--not even close--but even if we did, it wouldn't be enough. THAT is the problem--not how to "clean up" one on-going nuclear disaster that "only" affects Japan (jeez) and a few other unfortunate random individuals along that radiation path. The problem is that these materials are too dangerous for failure.
It is insanity that we even have to talk about this. But that is what we have done to ourselves--allowed our democracy to become so corrupt, and, indeed, in many respects, so non-existent, that our rulers blithely gamble with the fate of all life on earth for the profit of a few--not even to "defend" us against fancied "enemies," but merely for profit. They have inured us--with non-stop and very intense propaganda--to live with the threat of nuclear weapons and have meanwhile added this second nuclear threat, also amidst intense lies and propaganda.
One other thing: Even if a nuclear disaster "only" destroys Japan or the Pacific Ocean or the West Coast, and "only" kills a million people, or ten million, or 2 billion, what are we doing this for? We have a choice (if we restore our democracy). WHY put so many people and such swaths of the earth at such risk? (--not to mention how the rest of the planet may fair if widespread radiation poisons a big portion of it). This is NOT as difficult a problem as global warming. This is ONE industry and ONE set of profiteers. And it is by far the most lethal industry on earth because of the persistence of the materials and their impact on the web of life that sustains us all. Why do it?
We have a choice. Why choose to write off a million people, or even a thousand, or the grey whales, for profit? Frankly, I think the Bush Junta has made us all so crazy that we can think in these terms--that maybe a "small" nuclear disaster, now and then, ain't so bad. We are choosing this. It WILL happen. It HAS happened! And, believe me, this one is not "small" and it is not over.
EX500rider
(10,856 posts)....thanks to the huge amounts of boric acid that have been poured into the reactor.
lovuian
(19,362 posts)The Oregan Live news
http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2012/04/ron_wydens_nuclear_field_trip.html
Wyden completed his tour by asking Japan, with written urgings for help from Clinton and Chu, to sharply speed up a cleanup expected to take 10 more years. His fear is that another big seismic event will trigger another disaster before the cleanup is completed -- exposing Oregon and the West Coast to potentially lethal risk.
"What we learned the first time is that radioactivity leaks out quickly," he told The Oregonian Friday. "If (No. 4) ruptures now, it gets into the air, and that's very troubling to us in Oregon. This must not happen."
Prevailing winds pushed insignificant quantities of radioactive iodine-131 from Japan across the Pacific to the United States following the March 11, 2011, quake and tsunami. The delivery capacities of the ocean have been efficient as well, as The Oregonian's Charles Pope reported a California researcher discovering radioactive iodine in sea kelp reaching the U.S. coast after the incident.
EX500rider
(10,856 posts)Or are we quoting the "biomedical photographer"?
ErikJ
(6,335 posts)The southern hemisphere would be a lot safer.
BeHereNow
(17,162 posts)One more big quake and the shit is going to hit the fan- NO question or doubt about it.
The "experts" have NO idea how to un fuck this mess.
Enjoy life while you can because there is NOTHING that can be done at this point.
SO many tried for years to warn us of this fuckery, but the masters of war and profit
were making way too much money to listen or care.
Sorry to bring it up, but hey, the indigenous prophecies are looking more
and more accurate.
The Kogi have gone completely silent.
That should tell us something, but what do one of the oldest cultures on earth know anyway?
I guess it is just a coincidence that the Hopi and Kogi prophecies are the same?
Even though they only VERY recently had contact, considering human history?
BHN
lovuian
(19,362 posts)when they don't even understand that Wyden is telling us that the 4th Reactor
is like a ticking time bomb when a earthquake exposes the rods to the air
and you know the area is going to have a earth quake within 10 years of this clean up
and once this happens nobody is even going to be able to get NExt to the plant
and Hawaii and West Coast of America is right there
and yet ...they still want to build Nuclear Plants in America
when all over the world
they are deciding to get rid of them
redqueen
(115,103 posts)with discussions of risk factors. That's how you get people to ignore you. Sometimes I wonder who is behind the woo wooing of certain subjects. It's an effective way to give people an out to keep ignoring something lke this.
BeHereNow
(17,162 posts)You know so very little about these cultures as you have aptly revealed
by your judgement of their history and way of life.
I have studied them for a great many years.
There is nothing "woo-woo" about the Hopi or the Kogi.
You insult them both because you are ignorant of their history and way of life.
They have resisted the destructive ways of the world and choose rather to
live in harmony with the earth. Yeah, that's real "out there thinking" eh?
What does your bigoted statement about them, say about you?
BHN
redqueen
(115,103 posts)Apologies if you find the term 'woo' to be hurtful, but my comment was not about those cultures or their beliefs in particular.
If you'll notice, what I actually said was that discussing serious issues and tying those issues to prophecy nonsense is counterproductive. Most who care about the issue will tune out in favor of less nonsensical discussion. Those who prefer not to think about it too much to begin with will likely find such nonsense a convenient out, enabling them to comfort themselves that there's no need for them to think about it, because of the appearance of such information coming from people who believe in prophecies.
The only exception seems to be the Abrahamic prophecies. Those are very popular with lots of people and while such associations would still drive away critical thinkers, it would be a draw for plenty of others.
BeHereNow
(17,162 posts)You know, LEARN something about something which you know nothing about?
I saw this doc in the late eighties/early nineties- changed my life.
Maybe it can change yours, for the better.
If you want to REALLY understand, visit the website for the Kogi-
http://www.taironatrust.org
Read it ALL, and then perhaps you will understand, ALL of their practices, beliefs and
why and what they have been trying to warn us of for decades.
Nothing woo-woo or prophetic, simply centuries of knowing what the planet is telling THEM.
Will it hurt you to consider the information?
No. If anything, it will make your life richer, deepen your awareness that you are connected
to EVERYTHING, and perhaps, like me, make you a hellacious gardener. They follow very distinct
practices in their relationships with nature, plants, animals- I have followed their instructions
to the best of my ability and my life is better for it.
My dream? To spend a year, at minimum with them, to learn more.
As I have followed what I learned about their relationships with plants, nature etc...
and the results have been magnificent. All very simple and logical ways of doing things
on a daily basis, in relation to "Aluna" which you will have to watch the video and read the teachings to understand.
All they ask is that some of us listen, practice their practices in what ever way we can- (my backyard)
be open to their message, which has never been more important to our collective survival.
Respectfully-
BHN
EmeraldCityGrl
(4,310 posts)more and more people are becoming aware. While this awareness originates from different sources
there are threads that are all explaining the same truths. Those threads/truths are creating a tapestry
that is like a map to a future we would all want to be a part of.
I'd like to learn more about their reference of the Sun and it's relationship to "Mother" which I read more and
more often from different sources.
While I only glanced at the add'l material about the trust or foundation, I was uncomfortable that there
was a christian missionary group involved with that.
The film is fascinating. They are a beautiful, highly evolved spiritual people.
SidDithers
(44,228 posts)and completely meaningless too.
Sid
NickB79
(19,258 posts)It was called open-air nuclear testing, and the force of the explosions created truly vaporized, stratospheric plutonium, not the dust and fragments that the hydrogen gas explosions created at Fukushima. This should have killed billions if the same metric used in the OP were to be applied and believed.
And millions of people right here in the US have died from cancers since then. Who knows how many the rest of the world over, maybe billions.
Wait, you aren't suggesting that plutonium is not deadly? Or are you?
NickB79
(19,258 posts)You can't seriously argue that hundreds of millions to a billion additional deaths have resulted from the open-air testing of nuclear weapons in the past 60 years (unless you are trying to argue that ALL cancers are the result of nuclear contamination). Such a spike in global cancer deaths would have been impossible to ignore from a statistical standpoint; it would have had cancer researchers screaming bloody murder from one end of the globe to the other. Instead, the cancer rate has shown a rather bumpy curve, with a slow increase through much of the 20th century that can be largely accredited to longer lifespans and the widespread adoption of smoking. In the past decade, the US has seen a steady DROP in the rate of cancer cases, which has now been largely attributed to a largescale decline in smoking.
Plutonium is indeed deadly when administered in the proper dosage and in the proper form, but so far the empirical evidence from decades of nuclear bomb testing has not shown that even adding pounds and pounds of it to the atmosphere in vaporized form is enough to cause widespread cancer and death from low-level exposure.
ladjf
(17,320 posts)MattBaggins
(7,904 posts)Who in the article is the expert?
mick063
(2,424 posts)I am currently working on the decommissioning and demolition of Plutonium Finishing Plant at Hanford Site in Washington State. I can' t enlighten you much more about the facility due to potential personal liability for releasing potentially restricted information, but there is plenty of public information available online that has been officially cleared for release through the Department of Energy.
I will say this. Plutonium is not naturally occurring. It is entirely man made. If it is found outside the bounds of a radiological boundary, there is a serious problem. The problem is inhalation. Unlike typical mitigation of external dose through time, distance, and shielding, there is no mitigation for internal ingestion. Plutonium is "bone seeking" and if countermeasures are not quickly taken after initial exposure, victims are destined to take a never ending dose for potentially the remainder of there lives. It stays with you forever. It will damage cells forever.
One little invisible " flea" that will never be detected unless you undergo a bioassay from a specialized facility performed by skilled professionals. Access to such facilities are extremely limited. There is potential for affected individuals that will never know the cause for adverse health effects.
RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)If I were anti-human i would be downplaying this event and trying to get people to ignore the problem. I'm not saying that those on this thread who are downplaying and trying to get people to ignore this problem are anti-human.... but they can speak for themselves.
What I want to see is health centers set up so people can go and find out how much plutonium is in their body. As your bottom line says:
"Access to such facilities are extremely limited. There is potential for affected individuals that will never know the cause for adverse health effects. "
How can we allow this to continue and not even attempt to take care of the innocents?
bigtree
(86,005 posts)good insight, good info
RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)How do we get DU to demand health care for this most dangerous element that has been unleashed in our environment?
Any ideas?
apocalypsehow
(12,751 posts)Starfleet Command!
mick063
(2,424 posts)The embedded video is what I do, and what I wrote is 100% correct.
Besides PFP, I also worked at K-Basins, T-Plant, and WSCF facilitys at Hanford site. I am, perhaps, more qualified to speak on radiological induced health effects than anyone in this thread.
If there is one portion of my post that is misleading, it would be the part where I used the adjective "potentially" when describing a lifetime of ill effect from Pu. If you don't get a DTPA shot shortly after exposure, "potential" is a poor descripter. PU will stay in your body for the remainder of your life.
mick063
(2,424 posts)From the link in my previous post:
Facts About DTPA
What is DTPA?
DTPA is a kind of medicine called a chelating agent. Chelating agents work by binding and holding on to radioactive materials or poisons that get into the body. Once bound to a radioactive material or poison, the chelating agent is then passed from the body in the urine. Chelating agents help decrease the amount of time it takes to get a poison out of the body. This fact sheet from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) gives you some basic information about DTPA.
What does DTPA do?
When radioactive materials get into the body through breathing, eating, drinking, or through open wounds, we say that internal contamination has occurred. Over the past 50 years, almost all cases of internal contamination have happened in people who use radioactive materials in their work. Since the 1960s, doctors have used DTPA as a chelating agent to treat internal contamination from radioactive materials such as americium, plutonium, californium, curium, and berkelium. Currently, DTPA is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for chelation of only three radioactive materials: plutonium, americium, and curium.
What DTPA cannot do
Knowing what DTPA cannot do is also important. DTPA cannot bind all of the radioactive materials that might get into a persons body after a radiological or nuclear event, such as a terrorist attack with a dirty bomb. This medicine cannot prevent radioactive materials from entering the body. DTPA cannot reverse the health effects caused by radioactive materials once these materials have entered the body.
How does DTPA work?
DTPA comes in two forms: calcium (Ca-DTPA) and zinc (Zn-DTPA). Both forms work by tightly chelating (holding on to) plutonium, americium, and curium. These radioactive materials (bound to DTPA) are then passed from the body in the urine. When given within the first day after internal contamination has occurred, Ca-DTPA is about 10 times more effective than Zn-DTPA at chelating plutonium, americium, and curium. After 24 hours have passed, Ca-DTPA and Zn-DTPA are equally effective in chelating these radioactive materials.
How well does DTPA work?
Chelating agents work best when given shortly after radioactive materials or poisons have entered the body. The more quickly a radioactive material or poison is removed from the body, the fewer and less serious the health effects will be. After 24 hours, plutonium, americium, and curium are harder to chelate. However, DTPA can still work to remove these radioactive materials from the body several days or even weeks after a person has been internally contaminated.y.
Who should get DTPA?
Many people could be internally contaminated after a radiological or nuclear terrorist event. People contaminated with small amounts of radioactive materials might not need treatment with DTPA. Doctors and public health authorities will work together to decide who will likely benefit from DTPA treatment.
Infants (including breastfed infants) and children <12 years of age
Either Ca-DTPA or Zn-DTPA may be given to infants and children. The dosage of DTPA to be given should be based on the child s size and weight.
Young adults and adults
Young adults and adults internally contaminated with plutonium, americium, or curium should receive Ca-DTPA if treated within the first 24 hours after contamination. After 24 hours, if additional treatment is needed, adults should receive Zn-DTPA. If Zn-DTPA is not available, patients may receive Ca-DTPA together with a vitamin and mineral supplement that contains zinc.
Pregnant women
Unless a pregnant woman has very high levels of internal contamination with plutonium, americium, or curium, treatment should begin and continue with Zn-DTPA. Ca-DTPA should be used in pregnant women only to treat very high levels of internal radioactive contamination. In this case, doctors and public health authorities may prescribe a single dose of Ca-DTPA, together with a vitamin and mineral supplement that contains zinc, as the first treatment. However, after the first dose of Ca-DTPA, treatment should continue 24 hours later with a daily dose of Zn-DTPA, as needed.
Breastfeeding women
Radioactive materials canand doget into breast milk. For this reason, CDC recommends that women with internal contamination stop breastfeeding and feed the child baby formula or other food if it is available. If breast milk is the only food available for an infant, nursing should continue. Breastfeeding women who are internally contaminated with plutonium, americium, or curium should be treated with DTPA.
How should DTPA be given?
Currently, DTPA is only available by injection and is not available in an oral (by mouth) form. DTPA may be injected directly into a vein in the arm or dripped into a vein from a bag (intravenously [IV]). Injection and IV drip are good ways of treating people a) who might have been internally contaminated by eating, drinking, or inhaling radioactive materials or b) who have contaminated wounds.
Adults who have inhaled plutonium, americium, or curium can be treated with DTPA mist or spray that is breathed into the lungs. Inhaling DTPA might cause some people, especially those with asthma, to cough or wheeze. The safety and effectiveness of inhaled DTPA has not been shown in children.
How often will I need to get DTPA?
DTPA should be taken only as long as your doctor has determined you need it. In the past, most people who have needed treatment with DTPA have only needed one dose. However, internal contamination with very high levels of plutonium, americium, or curium may require treatment with DTPA every day for weeks or months. The length of treatment with DTPA will depend on a) the amount of radioactive material in your body and b) how well your body gets rid of the radioactive material. Doctors might collect samples of blood, urine, and feces during your treatment with DTPA. These samples can tell the doctors how much radioactivity you are passing and how much remains in your body.
Medical conditions that might make it harmful to receive DTPA
There are no medical reasons why a person who is internally contaminated with plutonium, americium, or curium should not be treated with Ca-DTPA or Zn-DTPA. However, keep the following guidelines in mind:
Because radioactive materials chelated to DTPA are passed out of the body in the urine, DTPA must be used carefully in people whose kidneys do not function properly.
Ca-DTPA should be used carefully in people who have a disease called hemochromatosis. (Hemochromatosis is a genetic disease that causes the body to absorb too much iron from foods and other sources, such as vitamins containing iron.)
Breathing treatments using DTPA may not be safe for some people with asthma. If a person with asthma requires treatment with DTPA, the drug should be injected.
DTPA should not be used to treat people who are internally contaminated with the radioactive materials uranium or neptunium.
What are the possible risks and side effects of DTPA?
DTPA does not build up in the body or cause long-term health effects. People who are given repeat doses of Ca-DTPA within a short period of time may have nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, chills, fever, itching, and muscle cramps. Other side effects may include headache, lightheadedness, chest pain, and a metallic taste in the mouth.
Ca-DTPA (and Zn-DTPA) can chelate certain important minerals that the body needs (zinc, magnesium, and manganese). For example, the body needs zinc to make red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. Therefore, DTPA treatment may interfere with the normal production of blood cells. As a precaution, patients receiving long-term treatment with DTPA should be given a vitamin and mineral supplement that contains zinc.
Where can I get DTPA?
CDC has included both Ca-DTPA and Zn-DTPA in the Strategic National Stockpile, a collection of medicines and medical supplies that CDC maintains for emergencies. During an emergency, these medicines and medical supplies are given to doctors and hospitals for treatment of patients.
apocalypsehow
(12,751 posts)raouldukelives
(5,178 posts)and starts to preach planet over profits. Luckily for Wall St investors the MSM won't pay much attention allowing them not to question what they support while they are watching Dancing with the Stars.
BeHereNow
(17,162 posts)BHN