Unclear News

[pigshitpoet]

Japan at Nature's Edge: The Nuclear Context of an Unclear Power

You know that smell in the air, where everyone says, "Whodunnit?" but nobody will own up to it. Well it seems Japan is in denial about Unclear waste from Nuclear power... and now America has signs of the disease. - Peter Barakan (journalist at large)

Comments

[donkeyjon]

Michio Kaku is actually a pretty well-respected physicist. So this is a lot more reputable. Though it does come from several years ago (March 2011), and the points he's making are essentially "This could be very bad if something more happens before cold shutdown". Well, they are now in full cold shutdown, so those concerns aren't a problem.

He does, however, point out how shitty TEPCO was on disseminating info, and how much misinformation they were spreading. THIS is a huge concern, as I mentioned above. TEPCO is likely not a company that should have nuclear plants.

To give you some idea of the levels we're talking about, here are the reports of radiation they've found on the west coast of North America:
http://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/tech/science/environment/2016/12/07/fukushima-radiation-has-reached-us-shores/95045692/
They have found levels of cesium-134, but they are still considerably lower than any level that we would be concerned about. A quote from below sums it up:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/12/09/should-we-worried-fukushima-radiation/95196156/
"To put it in context, if you were to swim everyday for six hours a day in those waters for a year, that additional radiation from the addressed cesium from Japan ... is 1000 times smaller than one dental x-ray," Buesseler said in a phone interview.

It is important to note that the meltdown had 4 victims, if I remember, due to chemical burns of staff while trying to fix the problem at the time. The staff who were on site at the time and who will be involved in the cleanup will have slightly elevated chances of cancer, but their survival rate is actually higher than the general population because they will receive regular checks for the rest of their lives. So, they will likely live longer than they would have before the accident. Unfortunately, due to the evacuation, most of which was unnecessary and driven by fear, at least 1500 people have died (mostly the old and very ill, who were forced to moved out of hospitals).

So, the current score is: Plant Disaster: 4 Fear and Misunderstanding: 1500

[pigshitpoet]

thanks for your clarity and information. i just started out making fun of a disaster that i have little control over and feel a lot of anxiety about, and learned something in the process! thanks for the updates man!

you are a good sot.

peace and understanding
; )

[yes_justice]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/robots-fukushima-nuclear-disaster-dying-probe-clean-up-tepco-toshiba-reactor-nuclear-radiation-a7612396.html

"The robot was supposed to be able to cope with 73 sieverts of radiation, but the radiation level inside the reactor was recently recorded at 530 sieverts."

That is roughly 50 times a lethal dose.

[donkeyjon]

Yes. Inside the reactor vessel. It's going to absolutely suck to do the cleanup. That's what happens inside the reactor.

[pigshitpoet]

you would think that we would have found a way to atomically implode the matter or anti-matter to completely eliminate the radioactive toxins. there must be something to counter nuclear waste.. rock paper scissors!

[yes_justice]

"It's going to absolutely suck to do the cleanup"

No one knows HOW to clean it up. And that is a problem for the long term sustainability of nuclear.

[pigshitpoet]

i can't conceive of how anyone, robot or human can do a safe cleanup..

it's sci-fi scary

[pigshitpoet]

holy shite! really?

now there's a good idea for a ski fi movie - dead robots!

i like that

and it's going to take atomic fallout to kill them

but hey, it's worth it to save the planet

i'm starting to write the script as we speak

brilliant!

[yes_justice]

"most of which was unnecessary and driven by fear,"

Listen to you. They found plenty of hot spots in the evac zone and cleaned them up, and had people not be evac'd, that would have hurt people. They were also evac'ing for worst case scenarios which for some reason very smart people thought were close enough to possible to risk the evac. And, oh yeah, there was that Tsunami they were digging out from while all this was going down.

Don't see how anyone can wag the finger at Tepco and the evac unless you can specifically say how it could have handled it better.

[yes_justice]

Before this, Japan's nuke program was hailed a success story for the nuke industry worldwide and for the government of Japan. It was promoted as futuristic and environmental. The Japanese people were assured a Chernobyl could never happen and they would have clean, safe, cheap, environmental power.

Now there isn't a robot on the planet that can get close to it and it will kill any man merely too close instantly.

Could the nuclear industry just clean up their own fucking dirty room before they go out an brag more?

[donkeyjon]

You keep citing the conditions inside the reactor. The inside of a reactor after a meltdown is very bad. And cleaning it up will take many, many years. If your problem with nuclear power is that the inside of the reactors is a really bad place, then sure.

But that's like saying that steel mills are terrible because the inside of the blast furnace is deadly to humans.

If your issue is that nuclear plants are deadly inside for decades afterward, then yes. That is true. And they're still better for the environment than coal or oil burning power plants. And they kill significantly less people.

[pigshitpoet]

thanks

yes, i hear you. one needs to discern where the pollution ends up affecting. the environmental issue was from dumping waste into the ocean to prevent the reactors from melting down. that's how it ended up in the ocean from leakage for prevention. so yes the mess is in the core. the trick is to keep it contained, which seems near impossible at some point as things escalate. after fukushima germany closed a good number of old nuclear plants maybe realizing that if this occurred it wouldn't be safe? or what i don't know. public pressure? hmmm...

[yes_justice]

But that's like saying that steel mills are terrible because the inside of the blast furnace is deadly to humans.

We cannot even turn off the blast furnace. And its leaking into the stream.

If your issue is that nuclear plants are deadly inside for decades afterward, then yes. That is true. And they're still better for the environment than

Can you stop stay better and start saying different? Been brown so long it looks like green to me. And I guarantee you that the C02 and other gg output of building and maintaining a plant (you have to mine the raw materials for example) is consistently poorly and under estimated. And that coastline area where the plant lives is fucking (or rather was fucking) beautiful. No one can go there anymore. I know, not your home, but sheet man.

they kill significantly less people.

At our current scale. By why fuck around with that when we have a nuclear furnace in space that produces 1400 watts per square meter? We just need to improve efficiency.

[pigshitpoet]

nuclear furnace in space. better get that checked annually for fuel leaks..

i never heard of a nuclear furnace in space. where in space? you mean the sun?

[yes_justice]

Yes, el Sol.

[pigshitpoet]

so the safest place at the moment is pluto..

; ))