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/

[donkeyjon]

I'm certain that we both agree that the end goal is to go completely with clean, renewable energy sources. The problem is Japan is a long way from that right now. Their current goal is to be up to 24% renewable energy by 2030. So, what's the end result of NOT using nuclear power in Japan? Coal or oil. Which both kill more people than nuclear.

If your argument is "nuclear power has serious problems compared to renewable energy," I agree. We need to be working full-bore on getting everyone transferred to a renewable grid. But if your argument is "We shouldn't use nuclear because it is dangerous," then you can't logically fall back on coal and oil. We need to use nuclear power as a bridge until we an go full renewable.

[donkeyjon]

Also:

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.

Completely incorrect. You could swim in the ocean off of Fukushima right now, and the chances of you dying due to drowning are higher than the chances of you dying from cancer due to the radiation. That coastline is fine. But we're all crazy with fear and so the government keeps people out of there and drums up further fear.

[yes_justice]

So here is where I ask for your credentials as you seem to wave away other credentialed officials as fear mongers.

[pigshitpoet]

short version, badges? we don't need no stinking badges, just to have an opinion..

the system is broken. it's a mess.

i'm more from the detective side that works with a hunch and gut feeling.

" believe no one, suspect everything " - inspector jacques clousseau of the sortie )))

sorry, i grew up on pink panther, not the news hour

; )

[donkeyjon]

Don't take my word for it. But, for instance, Ken Buesseler at WHOI is an expert in this area who is certainly NOT pro-nuclear power:

http://www.whoi.edu/page.do?pid=127297

About halfway down:

Is radiation exposure from the ocean and beach a concern?I stood on the deck of a ship l2 miles from the Fukushima reactors in June 2011 and was about one-half mile away as recently as October 2015 and the radiation detectors I was carrying showed little or no increase above background levels. Even the samples I collected (water, sediment, plants, and animals) from these locations are safe to handle without any precautions. In fact, our biggest problem is blocking interference from background radiation in our samples so we can isolate the trace levels of cesium and other radionuclides that we know came from Fukushima

[pigshitpoet]

thanks for the information. my original point is the mainstream is paid what not to tell the public

[pigshitpoet]

it's all so sad to me that we have even chosen to live like this

what you suggest, that would be like asking psychopathic vampires to act human..

not sure if that's even possible

nuclear vampires, like nuclear empire, like i'm going to smote them.. god loves sodom and sodom loves gomorra

; )))

[donkeyjon]

The hot spots in the evac zone, even those right next to the plant in the path of the airborne radioactive material, was enough to give someone a slightly higher risk of thyroid cancer. Keep in mind that we have solid data from Chernobyl, where considerably more radiation was released to the surrounding area, and the results there, after decades, are an increase in thyroid cancer rates from 0.7 per 100,000 to 11 per 100,000. They estimate that there has been about 4000 extra cases of thyroid cancer due to Chernobyl, and 9 deaths due to it. This is because the people in the affected area are screened carefully and often to catch it early. And that was with orders of magnitude MORE radiation released

[pigshitpoet]

you seem like you follow science closely. i admire that. poets rarely pay attention to fact. sorry, that's my achilles heel..

anyway, have you seen a documentary outlining how humans face extreme condition to survive in desolate and toxic environments, for instance there were a group of people who mined sulphur from toxic pools wearing nothing by cloth scarves over their face to block the fumes. some of them died from it, but they still keep doing it because that's the default environment..

amazing

[yes_justice]

People don't understand radiation, `tis true. We can measure very tiny amounts of it, and we hate dying of cancer. You also are projecting numbers from a limited perception, but hey, no other choice, but they are likely to be flawed numbers.

Another issue is that people don't understand C02 and how it behaves with light.

Anyway, clean your room if you want my support.

[pigshitpoet]

yes cleaning our room is the first step to environmental change..

i love it!

i cleaned my room..

; )

[yes_justice]

Did you clean up the radioactive boars?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/09/world/asia/radioactive-boars-in-fukushima-thwart-residents-plans-to-return-home.html

[pigshitpoet]

not the boars but my sock were pretty smelly

radioactive boars. it makes my heart sink to think we caused the creatures of nature to suffer from this, as a species we seem pretty egocentric.

imagine being a duck migrating and landing in an oil spill in the gulf of mexico, plastered in muck.

saved by caring humans from other stupid humans

[pigshitpoet]

how do they clean up radiation? it's not like oil spills is it?