Get News & Views Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
Japanese Nuclear Workers Enter Fukushima Reactor
Ventilation equipment being connected to try to absorb radiation in Japanese power plant damaged by earthquake and tsunami
Workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant have entered one of the damaged reactor buildings for the first time since it was hit by an explosion days after a devastating earthquake, Japan's nuclear safety agency said.
High radiation levels inside the Fukushima Daiichi plant had kept workers out until Thursday's re-entry (Reuters)
The plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), said workers were connecting ventilation equipment in Unit 1 to try to absorb radiation from the air inside the building. The work is expected to take about four or five days.
Radiation levels inside the reactor must be lowered before a cooling system can be installed. The previous cooling system was damaged by the 11 March quake and subsequent tsunami that left more than 25,000 people dead or missing along Japan's north-east coast.
Workers have not been able to enter the reactor buildings at the plant, about 140 miles north-east of Tokyo, since the first days after the tsunami. Hydrogen explosions in four of the buildings at the six-reactor complex in the first few days destroyed some of their roofs and walls and scattered radioactive debris.
In mid-April, a robot recorded radioactivity levels of about 50 millisieverts an hour inside Unit 1's reactor building – a level too high for workers to safely enter.
The decision to send in the workers on Thursday was made after robots collected fresh data last Friday that showed radiation levels had fallen in some areas of the reactor, said Taisuke Tomikawa, a spokesman for Tepco.
Two workers entered the building at around 11.30am (3.30am BST). Due to the high radioactivity, teams were expected to go into the building on rotation for short periods, Tomikawa said.
"This is an effort to improve the environment inside the reactor building," he said.
Since the crisis Japanese authorities more than doubled the legal limit of radiation exposure for nuclear workers to 250 millisieverts a year. Workers in the US nuclear industry are allowed an upper limit of 50 millisieverts per year. Doctors say radiation sickness sets in at 1,000 millisieverts and leads to nausea and vomiting.
Radiation leaking from the Fukushima plant has forced 80,000 people living within a 12-mile (20km) radius to leave their homes. Many are living in gymnasiums and community centres.
Comments
Note: Disqus 2012 is best viewed on an up to date browser. Click here for information. Instructions for how to sign up to comment can be viewed here. Our Comment Policy can be viewed here. Please follow the guidelines. Note to Readers: Spam Filter May Capture Legitimate Comments...
44 Comments so far
Show AllProgress? Radiation levels have fallen "in some areas" of the building.
Sacrificing health of workers paid off knowing the incredible risks - let some of the experts that claim this is safe do the work and see if any amount of money could convince them. Chernobyl deaths from these "heros" are on the record. Kinda like the "heros" in wars sent to their deaths by corporate powers for profit not honor.
Jeez....
How many TEPCO executives are working in the reactor buildings?
The US has 104 nuclear reactors and 104 "effective" disaster plans.
So, why can't one of the owners of a US reactor take their "effective" disaster plan to Fukushima and implement it - saving Japan & demonstrating that their disaster plan is truly effective?
In WW-II, Kamikaze pilots were sent out to die for their Emperor in an attempt to stop the relentless attacks of the American and allied fleets. The attempt was futile, but did a lot of damage until they ran out of planes.
Now, TEPCO is sending Kamikaze's to die for TEPCO in a futile effort to control the melted down reactors. I fear that their efforts will be no more than cosmetic. Those that live through this will die within a few years, many from rather nasty cancers. Many of their children will be stillborn, or born with horrible birth defects, mental and physical.
Unfortunately, the Nuclear Dragon lives, and it is much more destructive than Godzilla ever was.
Mini, am I correct in assuming that the 1,000 ms/hr is basically the lethal dosage?
As many scientists state their is no safe dosare of radiation especially when it is permantly inhale or ingested.
I guess the handful of trolls are back to their regular Nuke industry jobs, as the media has buried Fukushima under Libya, Fed budget and Now the super fascist OBL murder.
It is (1,000) millisievents a (*year*) when radiation sickness begins, (not an hour). It does get confusing sometimes when they alter the amount and types of radiation readings so often.
And those cloth or paper masks they are wearning in that picture will not filter out microscopic isotopes of radioactive particles like the dealdy for life cesiam-137 which are smaller than 10 microns. .
Troll "Bill" will probably show up, he always has an answer for any facts that go against his nuclear agenda.
WayneWR wrote:
'It is (1,000) millisievents a (*year*) when radiation sickness begins, (not an hour). It does get confusing sometimes when they alter the amount and types of radiation readings so often.'
Equivalent dose (in sieverts or rems) should not be confused with equivalent dose rate (in sieverts or rems per unit time). Although the health hazards are somewhat dose-rate dependent, whether the dose is absorbed over a period of a week or a year isn't all that important.
'And those cloth or paper masks they are wearning in that picture will not filter out microscopic isotopes of radioactive particles like the dealdy for life cesiam-137 which are smaller than 10 microns. .'
But filtering out larger particles is certainly beneficial. And when Cesium-137 is inhaled, the biological half-life of 70 days is at odds with a claim that the nuclide is deadly for life.
John
>//<
>//<
Cut and pasted from ths article... ("Workers in the US nuclear industry are allowed an upper limit of 50 millisieverts per year. Doctors say radiation sickness sets in at 1,000 millisieverts and leads to nausea and vomiting.")...Unquote.
That is a 1,000 in a year. For example; a worker goes into the plat for 30 minutes and comes out, he goes back in later for another 30 minutes and comes out. The radiation for both trips is (added). Radiaton exposure builds up in a human body.
JOHN here is a closet troll, he loves to disagree with me and often does. His purpose here at CD is an attempt to discredit me. He has posted the same thing about biological half life on other threads here during the past few days. He is repeating the nuker gangs mis-information.
As I posted here, ('It is (1,000) millisievents a (*year*) when radiation sickness begins, (not an hour"). That information is (*exactly*) correct and what is stated in the article here and by the AEC an more than 5,000 highly qualified medical doctors.
(*Biological half life*) of (70) days is ONLY if the isoptess are (eaten or consumed), NOT any which are (*INHALED*).
Now for the really silly part. Yes John, the paper or cloth masks will filter larger particles of most anything, that won't help one from inhaling deadly isotopes of cesium-137. Your entire post is sensless an only written in an attempt to show I was wrong about all I had posted. It is you who is wrong and I do believe I have well established that fact.
WayneWR wrote:
'Cut and pasted from ths article... ("Workers in the US nuclear industry are allowed an upper limit of 50 millisieverts per year. Doctors say radiation sickness sets in at 1,000 millisieverts and leads to nausea and vomiting.")...Unquote.
.That is a 1,000 in a year. For example; a worker goes into the plat for 30 minutes and comes out, he goes back in later for another 30 minutes and comes out. The radiation for both trips is (added). Radiaton exposure builds up in a human body.'
No indeed! The "1,000 mSv" figure is NOT for any particular length of time. In a comment posted by Bill in this thread regarding the hazards of various radiation levels, he didn't (I believe) mention the time involved.
'As I posted here, ('It is (1,000) millisievents a (*year*) when radiation sickness begins, (not an hour"). That information is (*exactly*) correct and what is stated in the article here and by the AEC an more than 5,000 highly qualified medical doctors.'
Nosiree!
'(*Biological half life*) of (70) days is ONLY if the isoptess are (eaten or consumed), NOT any which are (*INHALED*).'
That is absurd. Biological half-life applies to radioisotopes that are ingested, that are inhaled, and that enter the body through breaks in the skin.
'Now for the really silly part. Yes John, the paper or cloth masks will filter larger particles of most anything, that won't help one from inhaling deadly isotopes of cesium-137.'
Cesium is a solid metal at normal temperature; it is not a gas. If the Cesium particles are large enough (and porous plastic and fibrous filters can filter out particles as small as 10 nanometers), significant protection is afforded.
John
Stop it JOHN,
Its' a 1,000 Svs a year when radiatin sickness begins. If a person is expoed to 100 during a day and a 100 the next day and so on, after ten days they have recieved 1,000.
OMG, an (isotope) of cesium 137 is microscopic, tiny, itsy bitsy, liken to an isotope of oxygen or helium or DU, invisible, gaseious. If you inhale any of the isotopes they will stay in your body and radiate cells until you die. They do not stop radiating after 70 days. To say they do is stupidity.
Coal is a semi-solid rock formation which was billions of years ago plant life, sequester Co2 in those plants. When coal is burned the result is the Co2 is released, Co2 is GAS, The isotopes are a greenhouse gas. When cesium-137 is released from fissioned, heated, or "burned" uranium, as a reactor melts down the urnanium becomes molten lava like, or it is burning. The released isotopes of every element there is gas. Do you understand it yet John? Read a college science text book, or a Jr. high school one, same info as a college text book.
LOL, you are funny JOHN and less credible than Bush Jr or Rush Limb-baw.
Duolicate posting. Sorry!
John
• Xenon 137, with a half-life of 3.9 minutes, converts almost immediately to the notoriously dangerous cesium 137 with a half-life of thirty years.
• Krypton 90, half-life of 33 seconds, decays to rubidium 90, half-life of 2.9 minutes, then to the medically toxic strontium 90, half-life of twenty-eight years.
• Xenon 135 decays to cesium 135 with an incredibly long half-life of 3 million years.
• Large amounts of xenon 133 are released at operating reactors, and although it has a relatively short half-life of 5.3 days, it remains radioactive for 106 days.
• Krypton 85, which has a half-life of 10.4 years, is a powerful gamma radiation emitter.
• Argon 39 has a 265-year half-life.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/PrintArticle.php?articleId=23764
-------------
Per above: "cesium 137 with a half-life of thirty years"
Don't know about "inhaled". But I've notice when people say "half-life" they omit to mention that depending on the substance it can turns into something else with a half life of sometimes millions of years and more dangerous than what it was in the previous half life stage.
Hi Sundome, thank your for your post..
(Inhaling) it is by far the most dangerous aspect. Once it enters the lung it is absorbed into the blood stream and will then travel to any part of the body and lodge in the brain, liver, bone marrow, etc and then continually radiate cells until they become cancerous.
Some of the cancerous cells in the body often then break off and travel to other organs in the body and set up another cancer factory. Cesium-137 isotopes are microscopic, just as oxygen is, it is absorbed into the blood stream. It takes awhile to kill us.
Sundome wrote:
'Don't know about "inhaled". But I've notice when people say "half-life" they omit to mention that depending on the substance it can turns into something else with a half life of sometimes millions of years and more dangerous than what it was in the previous half life stage.'
If a radioisotope decays to an isotope with a half-life 100 times that of the parent, the daughter's activity will be only 1% that of the parent's. And if the daughter's half-life is 1% that of the parent's, the total activity will be twice that of the parent's.
John
Wayne,
In my nuclear worker training, a short term dose of 10Sv (10,000 mSv) is close to 100% fatal. 5Sv (5,000mSv) is 50% fatal unless you get intense medical care (and you are going to be one sick puppy for a long time). 2Sv (2,000mSv) you are going to have nausea and vomiting, profound blood changes and you will be out of action for an extended period of time but probably ultimately recover. 1Sv (1,000mSv) you will have detectable blood changes and probably transient nausea.
The above speaks only to short term effects and about adults. At 1Sv or above, an adult has an increased lifetime risk of cancer. The above also only speaks to external, whole body gamma/neutron dose.
The technicians that went into the plant today were not just wearing filter masks. They were wearing self contained breathing equipment; kinda like scuba gear.
Bill
Thank you for that info Bill..
I wondered if they went into the plant wearing just those paper masks. There is plenty of the deadly isotopes outside the plant, up to 50 miles away form it, so those maks don't really help.
Hell, it's arriving here every day, 8,000 miles from the plant. We aren't wearing any masks.
"In mid-April, a robot recorded radioactivity levels of about 50 millisieverts an hour inside Unit 1's reactor building – a level too high for workers to safely enter"
and in other areas the same robot measured over 1100mSv/hr:
==============================================
Radiation Readings in Fukushima Reactor Rise to Highest Since Crisis Began
Two robots sent into the reactor No. 1 building at the plant yesterday took readings as high as 1,120 millisierverts of radiation per hour, Junichi Matsumoto, a general manager at Tokyo Electric Power Co., said today. That’s more than four times the annual dose [every hour!] permitted to nuclear workers at the stricken plant."
[splitURL]
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-27/
tokyo-water-radiation-falls-to-zero-for-first-time-since-crisis.html
===============================================
don't make a wrong turn on the way out boys.
Nuke boosters... wake up! You've got work to do here.
""All the energy we can possibly ever use for free."
"There is no free lunch"
http://offgridsurvival.com/nuclearfalloutreachingamerica/
When I was in 4th grade in the 1950's, my teacher told us that when we grew up, our cars would come from the factory with a golf ball sized fuel tank filled with enough nuclear fuel for the life of the car. I wonder why that never happened?
I guess she was half right. Our cars that come from the factories in Japan will unintentially have nuclear fuel in them...
(Along with our rainwater in the northern hemisphere.)
Good one bystander.
The nuclear fuel is already arriving (daily) via the jet stream and it is (accumulating). We may be able to fuel our vehicles for a few years driving time with a cup full of dirt or cow's milk.
Perhaps she didn't see all the nuclear meltdowns with submarines coming in the future - which kind of ended the nuclear powered car concept - for practical reasons.
It is really hard to find information about the meltdown, even on the web. Is North America still being dumped on? What is really going on? Any good links?
"It is really hard to find information about the meltdown, even on the web. Is North America still being dumped on? What is really going on? Any good links?"
I'm not sure. My wife watches the weather channel. She said that they were giving a careful reading of the transpacific weather and wind patterns along with fallout readings, for about a week or so. Then nothing about it. We had reports of isotopes in rainwater, Cesium showing up in cow's milk, etc., all within government limits, of course. Now nothing.
Tell me, how many atoms of Strontium 90 finding its way to your bones is a safe amount? How many radioactive Iodine atoms in your thyroid is "safe"?
How many DU atoms are safe adhering to your lungs or other internal organs? (half life 4.5 Billion years)
Chernobyl was a global tragedy.
Fukushima is a global tragedy.
DU weapons use is a global tragedy.
The various leaks and exposures around our aging and disintegrating nuclear plants is a potential global tragedy and definitely a local tragedy.
The inability to safely store or get rid of nuclear waste and spent fuel is going to be a nearly eternal tragedy.
But, as long as there is a buck to be made, be assured it will go on, and the apologists will flourish.
There is no "safe" amount minitrue..
We have to live with natural radiation from rocks, soil, the sun. We now have to live with (man made) radiation and the sun doesn't emit the deadly radiation we receive from a melting down nuclear reactor, or three of them, like plutonium, cesium-137, strontium-90, and a melted down nucler fuel storage tank.
The microscopic radioactive isotopes arriving every single day build up and accumulate in the soil and water. Cesium 137 is absorbed in food plants just like potassium is. Spicy carrots, milk, spuds and spinach, to name a few.
"There is no "safe" amount minitrue.."
I know, I was just being rhetorical.
Okay. And thank you very much for mentioning DU, a favored "sore" subject with me. It is so hard to believe DU ammunition is allowed and American companies are selling that ammo to more than 15 countries.
John here has written on another thread that it's rather harmless.
Wayne WR wrote:
'Okay. And thank you very much for mentioning DU, a favored "sore" subject with me. It is so hard to believe DU ammunition is allowed and American companies are selling that ammo to more than 15 countries.
'John here has written on another thread that it's rather harmless.'
Not quite! WayneWR wrote that DU is not particularly harmful unless it is burned. I replied that even without burning, precautions must be taken when the metal is worked to prevent inhalation of the small particles. DU has both radiotoxicity and chemical toxicity.
John
Nope JOHN, , that isn't what you wrote.
You replied to my post with a (cut and paste) of (my) commment, that DU is relatively harmless until it is (burned) and that it's dangerous when it (burns),,, and then you wrote, ("I don't thnk so") denying that burned DU is the issue, and of course it is the issue with DU.
But you were trying to show others, that I don't know what I'm talking about. I have several publshed very technical papers on the subject of DU. So you may stop now so you don't continue to make a fool of yourself.
Wayne,
One of the things that has puzzled me about the Fukushima accident is the lack of strontium-90. The daily reports from TEPCO give a couple of isotopes of iodine and a couple of isotopes of cesium. When they did the earthen samples, they reported plutonium isotopes, (most samples indicated that they were from weapons testing rather than the reactor but they did have some that were reactor sourced).
This is very different from the contamination at Chernobyl. The continuing radiation in the exclusion zone is about equally from strontium and cesium with a relatively minor contribution from plutonium. It may have to do with the temperature. The Fukushima contamination is from a very low temperature source whereas Chernobyl was a very intense and very hot fire.
Bill
Yes Bill, they are not giving us all of the facts. About three or four weeks ago the TEPCO and Japenese government officials said they had given faulty information ("because they didn't want to frighten anybody").
So many who should have been evacuated much sooner were put into great danger.
There has to be plutonium and strontium escaping into the atmosphere. Pu is heavier and won't travel as far I understand, unless it gets into the upper atmosphere.
What concerns me and I'm sure it concerns you, is the time factor and how much is escaping into the air. I believe it is a long ago lost cause from what we have been advised of and it should be concreted in asap.
Tragedy? Tragedy? Tragedy? - Crime! Crime! Crime against Humanity!
Prof. Jeffrey Patterson quotes Einstein (The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist, web-edition, 26th April 2011): "The splitting of the atom has changed everything save our mode of thinking. Thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophe." We could know all along it was coming to us, indeed, happening already - and most of us actually KNEW, and did we prevent it? WHY NOT - for God's sake?! And why not bring the criminals to justice?!
[splitURL]
http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/weather/news/fukushima?LANG=en&VAR=niluhemis131&HH=8
the animation is a bit buggy, but this shows the spread/dispersion of the radiation clouds on the way from Japan over north america.
click on the "loop" button. if it stalls hit refresh.
heres a better link:
split URL
http://transport.nilu.no/products/browser/
fpv_fuku?fpp=conccol_I-131_;region=NH
Hi speedtheplow. The links (Gotta get off the grid) posted above and below your post are very good information.
Like this article, the information that is currently being published is mostly bullshit. TEPCO is putting out mis-leading propaganda again.
As others have noted here, the radiation levels are far, far higher than TEPCO has stated in this current article. As TEPCO reps stated three weeks ago when the radiation in the building's wrere only 50 millisieverts an hour, it was too high for workers to enter the buildings. Last week they had soared up to 1,200 an hour. So if 50 was too high for the workers, how can1,200 be alright?
I'd love to know how filters can lower the radiation levels. They may trap some of the radioactive isotopes but those will continue to emit for years. That high of radiatin will also destroy motors or electrical machines in the rooms, even the robots are limited to how long they can function in there.
Unless those melted down cores are concreted in they will continue to ratiate deadly radioactive poisons into the soil beneath the plant and into the water table for many years and no guarantee a lot won't then seep out from craks in the soil and into the air. That is likely happening now.
And I don't know how they will be able to concrete them in wthout covering the entire plant several feet deep in concrete. That would be like building Hoover Dam. This plant's reactor's most (inner) stainless steel contaiment vessels have not opened from explosions, it isn't anything like Chernoby where they could and did cover the melted core with sand and concrete and at the Fukushima one plant there are three of them melted down.
"And I don't know how they will be able to concrete them in "
unfortunately, WayneWR, neither does anyone else on the planet, including TEPCO. they are sending these vounteers in for 10 minute shifts. each person can do about 30 shifts before they max out for the year (assuming 50mSv/hr and 250mSv max).
so the typical shifts would be:
run in, pick up pipe, carry pipe over to where it is needed, put it down, run out.
the next guy would run in and make the connection, run out.
repeat with new people.
WayneWR wrote:
'I'd love to know how filters can lower the radiation levels. They may trap some of the radioactive isotopes but those will continue to emit for years. That high of radiatin will also destroy motors or electrical machines in the rooms, even the robots are limited to how long they can function in there.'
I didn't see anything in the article about filters, only ventilators. But by processing the air using porous filters, electrostatic precipitators, chemical reagents,
and perhaps other techniques, the radioisotopes can be separated and shielded.
The shielding will eliminate all alpha and beta radiation, and greatly attenuate gamma radiation.
John
Yes JOHN... I didn't see anything in the article about (filters) either, but I knew about them. And as YOU wrote, quote... ("But by processing the air using (porous filters), electrostatic precipitators, chemical reagents, and perhaps other techniques").. Unquote.
Did you mention (filters) John? LMA Off... What other techniques John?
Will the equipment stand up to those high radiation levels? Those very special robots designed to enter high radiation enviroments are limited to the time they can stay in it, which is not a very long time.
You mostly only reply to me John and often and you always cut and paste what I had written and then you "nicey, nicey", tell everyone why I am wrong. Why John?
I have already shot you down in flames here on a prior post and on other threads. Don't you have the brains needed to know when you are beat? Send a different shill, one who isn't an obtuse ignoramous.
I passed a bill board this morning that featured a character I hadn't seen, or thought about, in some time...
Smokey the Bear...
protector of the once vast forests of this denuded continent...
confronter of the ultimate, emotionless, agonizing and ferocious foe...
speaker of the unmitigable truth: 'Only you can prevent forest fires...'
I found myself flipping the letters in Fukushima around to get Shmuukifa...
Shmuukifa, the nuclear-fire-fighting bear...
Shmuukifa would view every existing nuke plant as a fire that needs to be extinguished, and would put her shovel to work...
Smokey has an advantage over Shmuukifa, as the fires Smokey battles are beyond doubt, as they rage across treetop and roof...a fire is a rapid thing, with both death and escape happening simultaneously...
Shmuukifa, on the other hand, battles a fire that is invisible, and carries no discernible weight or heat...
death comes not quickly, but slowly, and escape is nigh impossible...
the nuclear fire is global, however, and more dangerous than those we can see...it burns within our water and food, and then, within our very bodies...
it is time to reach for the shovel, and use it to bury these burning rods, rather than to bury our increasing dead...
One more ,hopefully the last one this thread, I have posted too many feeding the troll.
IF JOHN here is correct, which he is not. A nuclear worker could work in one of those buildings for 20 minutes and after being dosed with 1,200 Svs for 20 minutes leave and then an hour later return and continue that schedule indefinently.
Nope. 250 milliseverants a year max in Japan. It adds up. A 1,000 in a year and you start getting sick from radiation poisoning.
It is my understanding that the isotopes we are seeing over here are those that are water soluble or gaseous and are probably escaping with the steam. Cesium is chemically like Sodium and Potassium. Iodine is like chlorine hence we are getting salts of cesium iodide. Chemically similar to sodium chloride and potassium chloride and is transported in the body the same as salt. It's enough to make you sweat and cry. Xenon and Krypton are gases and just need a little boost to be airborne. Most of the other isotopes are heavier and need to be pulverized and given a strong boost by an explosion to get really airborne. Thankfully we haven't yet had that explosion, but it is still possible. That is probably why we haven't had reports of Strontium or any of the other heavy insoluble isotopes.
Good post .axkershaw
We are getting plenty of cesium-137 and it's very harmful if inhaled in the lungs or if inhaled in the nose it can bypass the ofliculary (sic) bulb and go directly to the brain and begin radiating brain cells with beta radiation and cause cancer of the brain.
In the lungs it will go to any part of the body through the blood stream and lodge in body organs and cause cancer.
One person here, JOHN, says it only radiates for 70 days in the body. He is incorrect, it will radiate for at least a 150+ years.
WayneWR wrote:
'One person here, JOHN, says it only radiates for 70 days in the body. He is incorrect, it will radiate for at least a 150+ years.'
No John never ever said that! I said that the biological half-life is 70 days. Each
elements has a biological half-life. For radioisotopes, that must be used in conjunction with the radiological half-life to determine the biological effects. In case readers are not clear on the meaning of the term "half-life" (whether radiological or biological), here's a brief explanation.
If the quantity of a substance decreases exponentially with time, the term "half-life" may be used. That is the time required for the quantity to decrease to half the original value, whatever that value may be. Sometimes the term "mean life" or "lifetime" is used (represented by the greek lowercase "tau"). That is simply the half-life divided by the natural log of 2 (0.6931...). So 1 kilogram of Cesium-137 (with a radiological half-life of 30 years) has an activity of 98,000 curies (98,000 Ci). After 30 years, the activity would be 49,000 Ci; after 60 years, 24,500 Ci, after 150 years, 3,063 Ci, and after 1,000 years, 9.1 µCi.
But every isotope of cesium (whether or not radioactive) has an approximate biological half-life of 70 days. So 1 gram in the body would reduce to about 500 mg after 70 days, to 250 mg after 140 days, to 27 mg after 1 year, and to 200 ag after 10 years. That last quantity is 200 attogram (0.000,000,000,000,000,2 g), and represents 905,564 atoms of cesium
John
So, if you ingest/inhale that gram of Cesium and your doctor is able to stay ahead of the cancers and other organ ailments from the internal radiation so you live long enough, the gram disappears in ten or twelve years. Nothing to worry about, eh?
How about inhaling or ingesting some DU. Half of it will be gone in 4.5 billion years and another half in 9 billion years.
There is no "safe" dosage of radiation. Much of the above seems to suggest that if you manage to keep below the constantly increasing allowable "safe" dose of radiation, everything will be all right. Take two aspirin and call me in the morning.
That isn't the way it works. I don't know what my exposure was, but I'll never forget the exhaustion, the sickness in my stomach, my bleeding gums and my hair coming out in clumps every time I combed it. I was horribly frightened at the time (I was just turning 18) and was so relieved when I began to recover. There used to be a site for atomic vets and I kept track of many people over the years, until the site went down. Believe me, there are not many of us left and the horror stories I got from families of shipmates I knew, of their battles with cancers and other diseases. For some, the greatest tragedy was the children. We've seen all that, now, through reporting on Chernobyl, Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia. The mental and physical defects are almost beyond belief.
That nightmare was 55 years ago. I've had a number of anomalous illnesses since then, but so far am still alive. So many aren't.
Remember, no nukes is good nukes.
"The plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), said workers were connecting ventilation equipment in Unit 1 to try to absorb radiation from the air inside the building."
Why didn't anybody tell TEPCO that the airborne particles, the vast majority of which are too heavy to make the trip from Japan to the US because they fall into the ocean (sic), won't be in the air, they'll have fallen to the floor. ;-)
They just need to send in a Roomba to sweep them up.