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In reply to the discussion: TEPCO: 950 million becquerels of radioactive cesium per liter of water detected near No. 2 reactor [View all]FBaggins
(28,705 posts)23. Even the millions/billions listed here isn't really all that much.
Many people don't realize it... but they may very well work in office buildings with scores of objects that each can contain in excess of a trillion becquerels.

Or that those glow-in-the-dark wrist watches can contain almost a million becquerels
The real problem is bad localized hot spots, which is worrisome enough, without the "OMG!!! TEH HOLE PLANIT W1LL BEE DEESTRYOD!!1111!!1' hyperbole some people want to engage in.
Exactly. Chernobyl was far worse...and since we're talking about the impact on the pacific ocean, there were loads of nuclear tests that each put far more contamination into the Pacific. That doesn't make it a good thing... but it argues against the nonsensical paranoia.
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TEPCO: 950 million becquerels of radioactive cesium per liter of water detected near No. 2 reactor [View all]
The Straight Story
Jul 2013
OP
I have two grandsons, and possibly three more, and a teenaged granddaughter, soon. I try to teach
Mnemosyne
Aug 2013
#11
"Not with a bang, but with a whimper." Or as another DUer wrote here, "with a becquerel.".
Mnemosyne
Aug 2013
#13
The planet will thrive again once it chews us up and spits us out. The creatures suffer because of
Mnemosyne
Aug 2013
#26
I wish I didn't understand that at times. Life would be so much less worry if I had been ignorant.
Mnemosyne
Aug 2013
#21
It is still so much worse than they have admitted, more comes out all the time and
Mnemosyne
Aug 2013
#25
I redid my math. A swimming pool's worth has enough activity to severely injure 50+ people...
Gravitycollapse
Aug 2013
#19
If there ''isn't really all that much,'' why is it still a radioactive catastrophe 2.5 years on?
Octafish
Aug 2013
#29
I also said "The real problem is bad localized hot spots, which is worrisome enough".
Silent3
Aug 2013
#38
Because of Fukushima there are *parts of the Pacific* that are currently very bad...
Silent3
Aug 2013
#34