What is the real threat of Fukushima?

[Bern80]

Anyone? I keep seeing these articles pop up from time to time and one recently claiming that on 12/28 one of the reactors was in iminent threat of meltdown. You hear other stories of radiation coming to America.

Please no politics here. Just curious.

 

[Moonglow]

leaking cooling towers are a major concern.

 

[skookerasbil]

Lots of evidence of radiation just off the west coast......many, many marine life creatures have been effected >>>>

Radiation? Seals, Sea Lions, Polar Bears, Bald Eagles, Sea Stars, Turtles, King and Sockeye Salmon, Herring, Anchovies and Sardines In The Western Part of North America All Suffering Mysterious Diseases At the Same Time Washington's Blog

 

[flacaltenn]

The real problem is that cleanup in the true sense is near impossible because of the water loss and ground contamination.. They will have to build long term storage on site and entomb the damaged equipment in place... Probably be a 10 mile exclusion zone for the foreseeable future.

im sure you could detect minute amounts of radiation across the pacific. But its background level..
Folks dont realize that a reactor at Chernobyl continued to be staffed and operated after the accident. Or that Hiroshima and Nagasaki are large thriving cities today. That disaster was just monstrous in dimension.. And bodies and towns are still drifting across the pacific.. Fukushima is an ugly scar, but not
a fatal wound.

 

[skookerasbil]

What is fascinating about this thread is the stark lack of interest on an ENVIRONMENT forum. All of these people who make billion posts a day about "global warming" look at this thread and utter, "meh"!!

Just cements for me what I have known for 2 decades: "global warming" has nothing at all to do with the environment. It is a political agenda. It is the single most important vehicle for promoting wealth redistribution.......use of the fraud science.

Meanwhile, real environmental disaster is going on right before our eyes and none of the board members supposedly concerned about the environment gives a rats ass.



Fucking phonies.......what a disgrace.

 

[flacaltenn]

Lots of evidence of radiation just off the west coast......many, many marine life creatures have been effected >>>>

Radiation? Seals, Sea Lions, Polar Bears, Bald Eagles, Sea Stars, Turtles, King and Sockeye Salmon, Herring, Anchovies and Sardines In The Western Part of North America All Suffering Mysterious Diseases At the Same Time Washington's Blog

Stay calm man... The evidence is not in and all of that is speculation.. in the case of the awful melting starfish -- its Known that its a communicable disease. PERHAPS enabled by a weakened immune response from radiation or other causes... But SURELY the media is gonna leap to the story that radiation from JAPAN id melting star fish in Seattle..

Actually, if the origin of all this illness WAS the Japan disaster, it would equally likely to be from ANY NUMBER of toxic sources drifting across the ocean in a waste field the size of Texas.. Also surprised the media didnt jumped to pin it all on Ocean Acidification from GW.. Time for a newer threat to scare folks??


If I get going mentally today after New Years , will look up the latest MEASUREMENTS of radiation background on our West coast....


and you are correct about this forum and how enviro issues get dissed.. Seems like if there isnt an obvious political handle on the topic -- folks dont waste the energy...

 

[skookerasbil]

Lots of evidence of radiation just off the west coast......many, many marine life creatures have been effected >>>>

Radiation? Seals, Sea Lions, Polar Bears, Bald Eagles, Sea Stars, Turtles, King and Sockeye Salmon, Herring, Anchovies and Sardines In The Western Part of North America All Suffering Mysterious Diseases At the Same Time Washington's Blog

Stay calm man... The evidence is not in and all of that is speculation.. in the case of the awful melting starfish -- its Known that its a communicable disease. PERHAPS enabled by a weakened immune response from radiation or other causes... But SURELY the media is gonna leap to the story that radiation from JAPAN id melting star fish in Seattle..

Actually, if the origin of all this illness WAS the Japan disaster, it would equally likely to be from ANY NUMBER of toxic sources drifting across the ocean in a waste field the size of Texas.. Also surprised the media didnt jumped to pin it all on Ocean Acidification from GW.. Time for a newer threat to scare folks??


If I get going mentally today after New Years , will look up the latest MEASUREMENTS of radiation background on our West coast....


and you are correct about this forum and how enviro issues get dissed.. Seems like if there isnt an obvious political handle on the topic -- folks dont waste the energy...

These days......I don't trust the government reports worth a damn. They will ALWAYS downplay the threat.......fucking reality manufacturing company aided every inch of the way these days by the msm.

 

[mamooth]

The number of people dead from the Fukushima meltdown is ... zero. Eventually there will be a few cancer deaths, but it won't be statistically detectable. The evacuation, much of it unnecessary, caused more deaths than the meltdown.

Contamination in the Pacific is now below detectability thresholds. Even inside the lagoon of the Fukushima breakwall, contamination is within a factor of 10 of US standards for drinking water.

The reactors are cold. The spent fuel in pool 4 is being moved to ground level without incident (about 10% done now). Contaminated water still leaks into the Pacific, but ... it's an ocean. It dilutes to insignificance. There was a finite amount of radionucleides produced, and when they're gone, they're gone. The iodine has all decayed. The caesium 134 and 137 doesn't bioaccumlate much. Eventually, all the caesium cycles through organisms and drops to the ocean floor. Strontium-90 bioaccumulates much more, but strontium didn't go airborne like caesuim or iodine, and is purely a local Fukushima problem.

So, except for the area immediately around the plant, it's over. Almost nobody in Japan needs to be kept out of their homes for health reasons. That's just done for politics now. Like politics says we have to keep ever growing amounts of water with tritium in it in storage. For decades, given that tritium can't be removed from water on a large scale, since tritium is chemically one of the H's in the H2O. The sensible response would be to pump in into the ocean where the tritium won't hurt anything as it decays, but politics prevents that. Keep it on land, where it can expose people when it leaks.

The real threat? Closing nuke plants and burning more coal and fossil fuels as baseline power. Renewables can't cover it all. Coal burning causes thousands of deaths from pollution every year, releases vast amounts of radiation in the smoke and ash, and adds to global warming.

 

[Gracie]

Lots of evidence of radiation just off the west coast......many, many marine life creatures have been effected >>>>

Radiation? Seals, Sea Lions, Polar Bears, Bald Eagles, Sea Stars, Turtles, King and Sockeye Salmon, Herring, Anchovies and Sardines In The Western Part of North America All Suffering Mysterious Diseases At the Same Time Washington's Blog

This ^

 

[Gracie]

Tuna, caught off the coast of California, show signs of radiation poisoning.

 

[mamooth]

Um ... no. That's just a fish. The traces of radiation in the Pacific can not cause radiation poisoning, in anything, period. That's simply not how radiation works. Extended exposure to low levels of radiation can cause cancer, but that expresses only over decades, not over months.

Oh, this is another hazard of Fukushima. People are auto-blaming things on the radiation that doesn't exist, and so they stop looking for the actual causes. So the disease doesn't get found, or the polluters get away with murder.

 

[Gracie]

Um...no. Sorry. That looks like radiation poisoning to me. But, I guess we will have to agree to disagree.

 

[Gracie]

Found this during my wanderings:

Petition by
Carol Wolman
Oakland, CA

TO:
Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.)
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D- CA)
Senator Ron Wyden (D- OR) Senator Jeff Merkley (D- OR)
Senator Maria Cantwell (D - WA) Senator Patty Murray (D- WA)
Senator Mark Begich (D- AK) Senator Lisa Murkowski (R- AK)
Senator Mazie Hirono (D- HI) Senator Brian Schatz (D- HI)

US Senate switchboard:
1-866-220-0044

Dear West Coast Senators:
We the undersigned are deeply concerned about the radiation danger from the ongoing disaster at the Japanese nuclear complex at Fukushima-Daiichi. We are asking you to conduct a thorough investigation of the continuing damage to West Coast states, and the potential danger of another catastrophe.
This would include a detailed inspection of the facility by a team of experts who are independent of the nuclear industry, as well as ongoing monitoring of West Coast and Hawaii water, air and food for radiation. We are especially concerned about making sure the site is safe in case of another huge earthquake, which is not unlikely.
Another big concern is pollution of the Pacific Ocean from ongoing discharge of radioactive water from the plant. Already, radioactive fish are migrating to the West Coast. Mammals at the top of the oceanic food chain are exhibiting strange symptoms, such as the epidemic of sea lion strandings in California.

We appreciate Senator Wyden's visit to the site in April 2012, and his subsequent letter of concern to appropriate officials. Evidently there has been no followup. The danger is being ignored. Your investigation would bring much needed attention.
Although the initial meltdown of three reactors, from the earthquake/tsunami of March 11, 2011, occurred over 2 years ago, the complex is still highly unstable, and leaking radiation constantly into the air and water. The Pacific Ocean is more and more contaminated. West Coast marine mammals are dying by the thousands, and West Coast babies are sick. The FDA is not testing food for radiation, although many fish are contaminated, and there have been reports of milk, mushrooms, seaweed being radioactive. Nor is the air along the coast being checked by official agencies.
The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), which runs the facility, has admitted that the disaster was caused by negligence on their part, yet they continue to be in charge of the containment/cleanup process. There are serious mishaps almost daily: pipes break, rats chew through wires and cause power outages, pumps break, containment tanks leak radioactive water into the environment, huge beams fall into fuel pools, etc.
So far, they have been handled, but if any of these problems gets out of control, there will be another nuclear explosion, the facility will have to be abandoned altogether, and the reactor cores and spent fuel pools will emit so much radiation that the West Coast might have to be evacuated. Another 8.0-9.0 earthquake could have the same result, and there are many earthquakes in the region of magnitude 6.0 -7.0.
Meanwhile, TEPCO is secretive, severely limiting access to the complex by journalists and by any experts who are not beholden to the nuclear industry. TEPCO has been accused of doctoring photos and videos to hide cracks in the aging concrete buildings and containment tanks. The workers are overexposed to radiation, underpaid, and must be rotated out after a few months, to be replaced by others with little experience of the facility.
The Japanese government has been accused of lying about the radiation in the area and health problems, and seems more concerned with declaring “normalcy” and safeguarding the nuclear industry than with safeguarding the health and safety of the people.
The financial drain on TEPCO and the Japanese is huge. They are responding to emergencies, dealing with health problems, coping with radioactive fisheries and produce, compensating victims, and working on the daunting task of dismantling the spent fuel pools, which are the most vulnerable to radioactive fire and explosions.
This is an international problem. Many say it is THE most dangerous situation on the planet at this time. It especially affects the residents of West Coast states. Your investigation is urgently needed, to shed light, bring attention, and help find technical and financial solutions.
Thank you.

 

[Gracie]

Hawaii better be ready for contaminated Ahi Ahi.

 

[whitehall]

The reality show "River Monsters" with Jeremy Wade did an amazing show about fishing in the Chernobl pond. It was alleged that monsters lurked in the water source for the Russian Chernobl nuclear site that suffered a meltdown in the 80's and was shut down and abandoned. Wade wore a radiation badge and was able to fish for short periods of time. The fish were still alive and amazingly showed little effects from the disaster. President Truman authorized the forced removal of South Pacific natives from their homeland and the nuking of the beautiful Bikini Atoll after WW2 to prove that a freaking Atomic Bomb could sink a ship and it seems that the area not only recovered but suffered only limited problems. Apparently a species of shark has an extra fin and some type of root that the natives depended on was found to cause problems after the US allowed the Bikini natives to return.

 

[mamooth]

That looks like radiation poisoning to me.

Can you tell us what radiation poisoning in a fish specifically looks like, and how it can be differentiated from disease or injury on a fish?

It's good to know that radiation can be diagnosed with a quick look, instead of say, oh ... measuring the radiation with a geiger counter. We've clearly wasted time on that expensive scientific mumbo jumbo to get facts and data, since we could just say "Yep, that definitely looks like a fish with radiation poisioning."

 

[Gracie]

Factually? No. But if you want to argue it more, knock yourself out. Nothing you say will make me believe anything the government says, what you think, or what a tuna SHOULD look like.

 

[Againsheila]

Anyone? I keep seeing these articles pop up from time to time and one recently claiming that on 12/28 one of the reactors was in iminent threat of meltdown. You hear other stories of radiation coming to America.

Please no politics here. Just curious.

Well, I know our media is biased and I know our government just ordered a massive amount of iodide tablets to be delivered by Feb 1st.

http://www.darkpolitricks.com/2014/01/us-government-orders-14-million-doses-of-potassium-iodide/

 

[mamooth]

Radiation in the Pacific is now the same as it was pre-fukushima. No radiation is washing ashore in the USA. No creatures have radiation poisoning.

However, if someone wasn't reasoned into a position, it's not possible to reason them out of it. If they are dead set on being afraid of radiation that doesn't exist, it's not possible to stop them.

 

[JWBooth]