Fukushima - Anyone else thought it was not that big of a problem anymore?

[Corny]

Up until recently i was just thinking of what the hell has been going on in this world and suddenly i recalled the Fukushima event a while back. So out of pure curiosity i thought i would search the net to see what the hell's been actually happening.I couldn't even find much, so that made me more keen to find something. Cause honestly, i couldn't believe taking care of fukushima is a walk in the park. (To be honest, i thought this whole thing was in good hands.. or...had been taken care of).

Either way, i discovered two websites which seem to keep people informed, since i don't remember the last time i saw something about it on TV or any other news outlet.

One known as ENENEWS.com and the other, which i just discovered about half an hour ago
http://fukushima-diary.com/ .

According to what i've read so far, there are enough plumes for the whole world being spewed daily :-/

and more radiation seems to be getting to the U.S than one would think:

"Nuclear Expert: Radiation plume has now hit Hawaii — In a year it’ll probably reach U.S. West Coast (VIDEO)"
http://enenews.com/nuclear-expert-ra...st-coast-video

or things like:
"Professor finds ‘black dust’ at 4 locations in Koriyama, up to 9 microSv/h — Only measuring gamma radiation"

That's just nasty :-/. Considering the fact we are not being told about a lot of things this does get a person worried.


So, mhm! What's your take on this whole Fukushima thing? - Are we screwed?

One thing i'm sure of though: Chernobyl is a joke in comparison.

[Feloidea]

Hardly that catastrophic as some people made it out to be, hardly as harmless as others want to believe. It's simply your everyday catastrophy, with all that it implies.

That said, it is hardly over anytime soon.

[Commander_McNash]

I know its pointless but... how in this world is that one of the few nations which actually produce stuff I care about (anime) has suffered such disaster? D:

Let's hope nothing happens with UK, I still have a lot of WH40K miniatures to buy.

[Commander32]

Lets just say that people overreacted...

[FRISH]

I know its pointless but... how in this world is that one of the few nations which actually produce stuff I care about (anime) has suffered such disaster? D:

Let's hope nothing happens with UK, I still have a lot of WH40K miniatures to buy.

We dont really get earthquakes or tsunamis.

[CnC_Fin]

You guys should've seen Finland when we first heard about the accident. People went to every single pharmacy to buy zillions iodine pills even though it's not recommended to use until told so. It was almost more chaotic than the actual tsunami or nuclear reactor accident.

[Borreh]

I know its pointless but... how in this world is that one of the few nations which actually produce stuff I care about (anime) has suffered such disaster? D:

Let's hope nothing happens with UK, I still have a lot of WH40K miniatures to buy.

And they say I am a "selfish prick" ...

[Klandri]

One thing i'm sure of though: Chernobyl is a joke in comparison.

And I'm sure you're wrong.

The lowest limit that has clearly been linked to increased cancer rates is 100msv/year. What people don't realize is that radiation while dangerous isn't going to kill the majority of people unless they've been working on repairing the reactor itself. For example in Chernobyl about 50 people have died directly because of it, almost all of which were workers working in extremely close vicinity to the reactor. About 2200 more deaths are expected to happen during their lifetimes, which although horrible, isn't the end of the world in the grand scheme of things. Especially when you consider that there were about 200.000 workers. That means that the death rates of the people that got the worst dosage was just a little bit over 1%. There was a huge report by the World Health Organization in 2005 that assessed the situation. About 4000 people, mostly children, got thyroid cancer among the millions living in the, and in the vicinity of, the city with around 1% mortality rate. Again: Bad, but not catastrophic.

Now consider that the Fukushima isn't as catastrophic as Chernobyl, ie. less radiation was released. So while awful it probably, in the grand scheme of things, isn't that bad. The earthquake + tsunami has already claimed about 16.000 lives which is probably way more than Fukushima will ever.

Sources:

http://xkcd.com/radiation/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_T%...ke_and_tsunami
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Fukushima7.png
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/.../en/index.html

[Corny]

And I'm sure you're wrong.

The lowest limit that has clearly been linked to increased cancer rates is 100msv/year. What people don't realize is that radiation while dangerous isn't going to kill the majority of people unless they've been working on repairing the reactor itself. For example in Chernobyl about 50 people have died directly because of it, almost all of which were workers working in extremely close vicinity to the reactor. About 2200 more deaths are expected to happen during their lifetimes, which although horrible, isn't the end of the world in the grand scheme of things. Especially when you consider that there were about 200.000 workers. That means that the death rates of the people that got the worst dosage was just a little bit over 1%. There was a huge report by the World Health Organization in 2005 that assessed the situation. About 4000 people, mostly children, got thyroid cancer among the millions living in the, and in the vicinity of, the city with around 1% mortality rate. Again: Bad, but not catastrophic.

Now consider that the Fukushima isn't as catastrophic as Chernobyl, ie. less radiation was released. So while awful it probably, in the grand scheme of things, isn't that bad. The earthquake + tsunami has already claimed about 16.000 lives which is probably way more than Fukushima will ever.

Sources:

http://xkcd.com/radiation/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_T%...ke_and_tsunami
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Fukushima7.png
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/.../en/index.html

Title: Japan’s disaster as bad as or worse than Chernobyl
Source: Xinhua
Date: 2012-03-12 14:30

The severity of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster may be as bad as or worse than Chernobyl, an American nuclear expert warned Sunday.

Arnold Gundersen, a former nuclear power industry executive, said it was clear to him within two days of the Japan earthquake and tsunami that “Fukushima was as bad as or worse than Chernobyl.” [...]

Gundersen, now chief engineer of the energy consulting company Fairewinds Associates, said he believed that Fukushima was 10 times worse than the 1986 Chernobyl meltdown [...]

Gundersen on Fukushima vs Chernobyl

Chernobyl was a single reactor running at about 7 percent capacity when ruptured
[Fukushima] had three reactors running at 100 percent capacity and seven other reactors with spent fuel pools that were crippled
Chernobyl stopped releasing radioactive material after about two weeks [...] this is not the case at Fukushima one year on
Gundersen on Cancers and Other Health Problems

Although there have been no deaths related to the Fukushima meltdown to date, over the next 20 years there would be about 1 million additional cancers and other health problems from the accident
“But even in Tokyo most people think it is over and they survived it. But with the latency periods of these cancers it’s going to pop up 20 years out and people will wonder where it came from”

Now in what i've quoted up there, alone the fact that chernobyl stopped releasing radioactive material after ~two weeks which is clearly not the case at fukushima proves to me that chernobyl couldn't have been worse. May not seem bad right now, but radioactivity is something you would wanna judge in the future.

. . . you cannot tell me you mean this:

"What people don't realize is that radiation while dangerous isn't going to kill the majority of people unless they've been working on repairing the reactor itself.:

...? That's like saying nuking a country will not have a long term effect. - ( considering we've taken the amount of people who are killed within the first few seconds of a nuclear explosion out of consideration, can't tell me it's not that bad?).


Here, the voice of the citizens, better than media spin off.

Voice of the streets 4/12/2012
Posted by Mochizuki on April 11th, 2012 · 3 Comments

最近、心臓が急にドッドッドって鼓動して、そのあとに、ちくーんって痛むことが多くなりました。20代の私 に対して、東大病院の医者は年だよって笑って言いました。“@kazukazu721: ついにきましたか。RT @panda_san1 【線量】有楽町付近は0.15μSv/hです。気温

— うちゃか。 (@sayakaiurani) April 11, 2012

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Recently, my heart often starts beating hard suddenly and have acute pain in the heart. Doctor of Tokyo University told me it’s because of age but I’m still 20s.

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@kdm311 @onodekita @totorisu10432うちの４歳。3・11以降今までにない鼻血です。愛知県。一年で二十回以上鼻 血出してます　おかしいよね

— とみちん (@tomiko425) April 11, 2012

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My 4 years old child has been having nosebleed since 311 worse than ever. We are in Aichi prefecture. had nosebleed more than 20 times a year.

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@toshie_s 昨日も知り合いの息子さんが去年の暮れに千葉駅で３５歳の男性が心筋梗塞で突然死したって言ってました。私 だけ放射能じゃないの？って言ったけど、他の全員がその話題をスルーしたのが異様でした・・・ 。

— masako11221 (@masako11221) April 11, 2012

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Yesterday, the son of my acquaintance said a 35 years old man died of cardiac infarct at Chiba station in the end of last year. It was only me who suspected the connection with radiation but everyone else passed the topic. It was strange..

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@masako11221 千葉でしたよねバス乗車中に座席で座ったまま亡くなる人が続出というのは。精査しているのだろうか。。死の 恐怖からも目をそらす事態がすでに始まっています。埼玉日高市の市長の例とか、あの一件でがれき広域処理な んて即刻辞めるべきなのに。

— ゆるキャラ作家 ＋漫画家 しばざきとしえ (@toshie_s) April 11, 2012

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I think it was Chiba, where a lot of people die in the bus seats. I wonder if anyone has investigated it.. People are already starting to avoid facing the truth. Like the death of the city mayor of Hidaka city..it was all enough to stop sharing debris.

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知らなかったRT @kerokazu: 【重要】 RT @yonezo_zo: 今日小金井公園サービスセンターで確認したところ植物が放射性物質を含むため都立公園からの落ち葉や種を含 む植物の持ち出しは禁止されたとのことこれって普通の都民は知っているのかな？決まったなら周 知しないと。

— 冨永愛 Ai Tominaga (@Ai_Tominaga) February 13, 2012

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Today I confirmed with Koganei park (in Tokyo) service center that it is prohibited to take out dead leaves or seeds from the park because it contains radionuclide. Has it been announced to all the Tokyo citizens ? If not, they must.

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↓ Koganei Park

. . . :-/ i guess time will tell

[Commander32]

Must've been harsh!!!!