Pacific Tsunami.

[Spunky]

Let me ask a couple of questions here.

The MIT nuclear physicists said no way could there be a meltdown or radiation leaks....wrong on both counts.
The US and Japanese governments said no radiation leaks reported....they lied.

If there was a radiation issue in the USA, how would you know?
Do you trust your government to warn you in advance?
If you were stuck in a radiation fallout area like the Japanese are, where would you get water and food that was safe?

Here is a web site for radiation monitoring that is non-governmental.

http://radiationnetwork.com/

If the internet is shut down, how would you monitor?

Build your own sensitive Geiger counter.

http://www.electronickitsbychaneyelectronics.com/

I have the digital readout version and it works perfectly.

 

[oldrockfan]

that would actually be a pretty fun little soldering project. If the kits were cheaper, I might go for one.

 

[Spunky]

It is going to get a lot worse folks..

http://www.naturalnews.com/031837_core_breach_Fukushima.html

 

[oldrockfan]

yep, was reading about the latest today and sounds like worst case scenario is happening now. Going to suck for alot of people and probably going to lead to some serious food shortages globally as they scramble to replace all the lost food production over there. Of course the increased cancer risk for folks in Japan is the worst news and I think today is the day folks will finally realize just how serious this is going to be.

 

[oldrockfan]

just another update on the crisis in Japan. It has gotten way worse over the weekend. Now they are reporting a direct leak from the radioactive fuel rod pool to the outside. Leaking water from the reactors is at least 100,000 times over the limit for exposure and means as they dump water in to keep the rods cool, that water just leaks right back out as highly toxic radioactive. They don't know how bad the leak is since the area is so radioactive that no crews can get anywhere near the area. The report this morning said 3 reactors are now at the brink of full meltdown mode. Nobody knows what the full impact of this will be if 3 reactors go into uncontrolled meltdown but needless to say it will be very bad.

They are now recording elevated radioactivity in many food items in Japan. They have also got elevated levels in groundwater around the plant as well as in the ocean. I don't think most people truely can imagine how bad this is going to be for the Japanese people. Just a horrible situation. Because of the location of the plants, it is going to be very difficult if not impossible to contain the radioactivity.

 

[John J]

I just saw a piece on ABC News this morning that they're looking for people to go into the closed to the public zone to monitor radiation levels before clean up workers go in. Pay is $5000 a day. For that kind of money I'd do it. At my age the cancer risk decades down the road isn't a problem, and there's no way I'm having any children at my age so the genetic thing isn't a problem either.
It's pretty much what I've been saying for years. If the pay is good enough, you can get people to do any job.

 

[oldrockfan]

I don't know John... that $5000 a day won't seem like much if it means you shorten your lifespan by a bunch of years. Plus all the medical costs to treat the issues that will likely crop up down the road. I think Japan is in for a huge problem trying to clean up the mess this time. The earthquake and tsunami are things you can deal with but the radiation is so difficult to clean up safely. Going to be a massive cost to get it done and who knows what the long term health issues are going to be. I just read about rad levels in the west coast USA showing spikes. Nothing high enough to be dangerous yet but they did have readings 20% of the limit for safe long term exposure. It is not beyond the possibility that those levels could go up if things get worse over there. If I lived on the west coast, I'd at least have myself a good dust respirator with a good particulate filter in case things get worse. It is fairly easy to wash off radioactive particulates that are on your skin or clothing but once they get in your lungs, its not good.

 

[John J]

I think you are right ORF. The Japanese are in for a huge clean up operation. They as a society are way more prepared for natural disasters such as the tsunami and earthquakes than those of us in the US. It just goes to show that the forces of nature are in the end more powerful than we as humans. We may think we can build things that will withstand any natural disaster only later to find out we were wrong.
I'd still go for the clean up though. I understand about the hazzards. I ended up in the hospital on Veterans Day 2002 with cancer. I was lucky. I will never forget that Veterans Day. Since then my outlook on life has changed alot. I don't look into the future much, not that I ever did. I take each day as another gift and try to enjoy it even though the last two and a half years have been kind of rough to do that. I'll be 60 later this year. I doubt I'll be around in another 20.

 

[oldrockfan]

didn't realize you were 60 John. I imagined you as around my age ie over 40 but still a long way from retirement. I could see a 60 year old accepting the risk for the reward I guess. My biggest concern would be the levels of radiation could very well turn out much higher than is reported. That plus the fact the radioactive iodine is bad but has a relatively short half life. It is the plutonium that really scares me. They have already confirmed it is also leaking and that stuff is just death. Crazy long half life and really can do horrible damage once it gets into the human body.

I guess on the bright side at $5k per day, even a couple months of work like that would build up some serious cash savings. I just worry that things are going to get even worse over there before they start to get better. I read they are getting elevated radiation readings in drinking water in Tokyo now and many farmers in the area are being forced to destroy their crops due to radiation contamination. Not a good situation at all.

 

[John J]

I saw on a local PBS station last night a documentary about the quake/tsunami in Japan. It didn't focus on the power plant just the devistation from the natural disaster. Wow. One of the places they were at was a small city of about 20,000. This place was 80 meters above sea level. It showed a fishing boat that was about 40' long sitting in what used to be the center of town. I was shocked.Apparently the town was on a small river that ran between/through a hilly area. They said the tsunami funneled it's energy from the hills to the river making it much bigger than if it were just a flat beach. From what I saw on that hour long doccumentary this makes Katrina look small. They said there's been more than 500 aftershocks since the big one. Something like a dozen over 7.0.

 

[dbb]

Our small town has a Japanese sister city; it was almost wiped out. The mayor had set up an emergency command post after the earthquake and it was totally destroyed in the following tsunami. Many if not most of the town's inhabitants are dead or missing.

If you want to donate to the relief effort, see:

http://www.otsuchi.org/