Preventative Measures and Why We Have Them

[maradydd]

Something that's been annoying me on Twitter lately is the cries of horror and outrage that 200,000 people have been evacuated from the area around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors and that iodine tablets have been distributed. This isn't something I can address effectively in 140-character splurts, so I'll talk about it here

Comments

[whimsywanderer]

Very incisive breakdown. Agree completely.

[cinsangel]

THANK YOU!
I have been getting annoyed with people here in Ca pretty much thinking that its already curtains for anyone here on the coast. I do believe I will show them this post in order to stop them from spreading the panic.

[maradydd]

Oh good grief. The only death in California that can be chalked up to anything even associated with this earthquake is that dumbshit in Santa Cruz who went out to take pictures of the tsunami against official advice and got himself drowned. Please, feel free to spread far and wide.

[proteuskim]

Thanks. I was a bit worried about the whole situation based on all the panic phone calls from the states.

[puellavulnerata]

Regarding the widely circulated statement that pumping in seawater and boric acid is a last resort measure, no one seems to have noticed that, at least if Wikipedia's article on the plant from before the earthquake is to be believed, the no. 1 reactor was scheduled to be decomissioned on the 26th anyway.

Also, yes, the engineers did an awesome job. Even in a worst-case natural disaster in a 40-year-old plant, they avoided widespread release of radioactive materials. That strikes me as anything but a failure, and the degree to which the media have hyperfocused on this one thing amid a huge earthquake with a five-figure body count seems like yet another rather depressing instance of nuclear hysteria.

[aethera21]

This is exactly what I've been saying, except more concisely and expertly written. I've not surprised by by the lack of message coming out of Japan concerning their preparedness - they're too busy keeping us updated on conditions and taking care of their people. But I am saddened by the lack of amazement about what these reactors were able to withstand. I hope once things settle down they get some PR going. I'm quite sure this is going to set nuclear back in the US just when we were getting back into it...sigh.

I was cheering for the plants when they withstood the quake, and for the Japanese and their handling of evacuation, information, medicine distribution, etc. Compared to how we handled Katrina, they're doing brilliantly.