Fukushima Fate

[liveonearth]

Nuclear power sounds like a good idea, until something like this happens. The cleanup process at the Fukushima reactors is slow going and high stakes. Humans must in essence give their lives to save the lives of others, and while this sounds glorious in some military venues I don't think many of us would volunteer. The fuel rods need to be

Comments

[ford_prefect42]

Do you know how many people are dead from radioactive effects in Fukushima? Zero. Do you know how many are sick? Zero. Do you know how many are ultimately predicted to get sick? Zero.

Everything in that article is pie-in-the sky, "might", "If", and "under the wrong conditions". none of it has any real world probability of ever claiming a single life.

[liveonearth]

My goodness! While I agree that the fearmongering is often exaggerated, your "zero" tally for injuries, illness, death and predictions of these is ludicrous. How do you derive your real world probabilities? Or do you think that radiation is good for us?

[ford_prefect42]

Okay, some people were killed during the incident. They weren't killed by radiation, or anything else nuclear. They were killed by conventional chemical based explosions.

As for radiation deaths since then, 49 of the fukushima 50 (the people that stayed inside for the entire incident are still alive, and the one that's dead is dead of a pre-existing cancer. Nothing to do with the reactor.

As for the predictions of future deaths, how is the WHO as a source?
http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/05/world-health-organization-weighs-in-on-fukushima.html

There is literally zero evidence that the Fukushima Daichi reactor incident has or ever will kill even a single person due to radiation exposure.

[liveonearth]

WHO is lukewarm as a source, and they admit that their predictions are based on models and I might add on the assumption that we don't have a meltdown. The freakout is about the difficulty of cleanup and the chance of meltdown, which is only a chance. IF that meltdown did occur it would blow all previous meltdowns out of the water with regard to toxic release. IF it does not happen then what, me worry? I'm not a worrier anyway, but I find it interesting that people's attitudes range from frantically packing their belongings (as a bunch just did from this town, admittedly guided by visions or god or somesuch) to you who is certain that it is overblown and harmless. I think the truth is in between the extremes.