Posted on 10/25/2011 9:12:14 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Radioactive second-hand cars dog Japan
by: Richard Lloyd Parry
From: The Times
October 26, 2011 10:24AM
RUSTING hulks disguised with new paint, and mileage clocks reset - the wiles of the second-hand car dealer are well known.
However, motorists in Japan are facing an unfamiliar peril. They are being offered used cars with low mileage, well-maintained engines and sound bodywork. The only flaw is that they are dangerously radioactive.
In the aftermath of the nuclear disaster, used-car dealerships have found themselves stuck with vehicles that have absorbed high levels of radiation from the meltdown of the reactors at the Fukushima nuclear plant.
/snip
A reporter for the Asahi tracked down the dealer who first bought the notoriously radioactive van for 1.43 million yen ($A18,100) at a wholesale auction, only to discover that it emitted radiation at a level of 110 microsieverts an hour.
He told the newspaper: "I decontaminated repeatedly after the test, and retested the filter of the air conditioner, the wipers and tyres, replacing them thoroughly, but the radiation level dropped only to 30 microsieverts per hour. I decided to sell the vehicle in Japan because I couldn't afford to lose the money."
The vehicle eventually sold at auction in Kobe, 370 miles from Fukushima, for 1.21 million yen.
(Excerpt) Read more at theaustralian.com.au ...
P!
P!
The only place it made any sense to check radiation levels is in the passenger compartment, unless of course you spend a lot of time outside your car admiring it.
How much time you spend in a radiation field matters just as much as does the radiation levels. If you have low levels of radiation such as described in the article you would have to spend weeks next to the car for 24 hours a day to accumulate enough dose to suffer even minor injury.
Spending a couple of hours a day in the car would produce no ill effects.
The only person that need be concerned is the mechanics who may work on the car. Even they need worry only if they swallowed or inhaled radioactive dirt from the car.
Do you park your car in your garage ? Next to all your tools ?
Are you worried about your tools getting radiation sickness?
Radioactive contamination (which is what makes the car radioactive) is not catching (once the car is thoroughly washed). Radioactive contamination is simply dirt that emits radiation.
The dealer spent a lot of time or money decontaminating the car (washing). He also changed the air filter and wipers which would have had contamination that couldn’t be washed away.
Having done those things he lowered the radioactive level of the car to 30 microsieverts which is a perfectly safe level. Driving around in that car you would get less radiation than a resident of Denver gets from cosmic radiation.
The only person that need be concerned is the mechanics who may work on the car. Even they need worry only if they swallowed or inhaled radioactive dirt from the car.
_______________________________________________________
Riding in the car, touching the exterior of the car, parking it in the garage, inhaling dust from the car are just some of the activities that transfer radioactive contaminants to owners, their families, their homes.
/johnny
Then wash and vacuum it.
Problem solved.
I've had NBC training just like lots of folks here.
I'd rather deal with alpha particles than biologicals or Sarin.
/johnny
The National Academy of Sciences BEIR VII report has once again proven that low level radiation is hazardous. Children are disproportionately sensitive to exposure. If the Japanese could remove the radiation by washing it, they would have. The radioactive contaminants permeate fabric and other porous materials in the car and irradiate...oh people who sit on the car seats or people whose heads are positioned near fabric head liners, fabric arm rests (children) etc. So they can be irradiated and, with time, inhale particles shaken loose by the vibrations of road travel. And it’s popular to test for Cesium but one must assume Strontium is present and wonder where the Plutonium came to rest. Obviously, transferring radioactive dust to tools that people handle is a bad idea.
You know that washing and vacuming cars has limited capacity to remove radioactive contaminants because it didn’t work that well for the Japanese. And vacuuming blows around contaminants so the person trying to clean the car is most likely to inhale some of this radioactive material.Problem is not solved. The nuclear industry keeps insisting that we get used to man made dispersals of radioactive materials while science tells us that it causes breast cancer in women along with numerous other illnesses detailed in the BEIR VII.
You are assuming here that after a thorough decontamination of the car that there is still radioactive contamination that is loose and can become airborne or could be removed by touching.
This loose contamination should have been removed by the efforts of the dealer who states that he repeatedly decontaminated the car.
Some of the radioactive contamination will have embedded it self in paint, rust and inaccessible areas of the car. This immovable contamination need not worry the owner operator because if you can not remove it you can not breathe or eat it.
Also if it is movable it would after the repeated decontamination efforts of the dealer be very, very small amounts, so as to be insignificant. And every time you wash or detail the car the amounts will become ever smaller. Time is also on your side. Radioactive decay (which is what cause the radiation) is continually reducing the amount of radioactive material on the car.
I personally would not worry about owning this car.
You don't seem to know that.
/johnny
Nor would I.
Folks that are scared of death waiting in the wings confound my little brain.
We all do it, eventually. It's what we do.
Sure, you don't rush up to embrace it, but you don't get skittish when the numbers start turning up near yours.
Faith in the Lord, real faith, calms lots of fears.
I find those that don't have faith don't really trust in God.
/johnny
You are assuming here that after a thorough decontamination of the car that there is still radioactive contamination that is loose and can become airborne or could be removed by touching.
___________________________________________________
And you have made assumptions as well. We don’t have the car so we make assumptions. You are assuming it’s safe. I am assuming it’s not because of scientific research that indicates physical proximity (embedded in upholstery for example) and inhalation (loosened from road vibration) are damaging to health. I wonder if they are even testing for Plutonium - most reports just list Cesium.
If it’s stuck to materials like upholstery and flesh rests against it then flesh is being irradiated. The decay rate of Cesium, Strontium, and Plutonium is so slow as to be irrelevant - these cars will still be radioactive in the scrap heap and probably made into other metal based materials by unwitting recyclers. Why import more radioactive contaminants? Why not let Japan keep it’s radioactive used cars?
I do know that I’m much more likely to be killed for being rude, than from radiation.
You don’t seem to know that.
________________________________________________
Well now that you told me that you are much more likely to be killed for rudeness, I do know it. Thanks for telling me....may I suggest you try being less rude and see if that increases your chances for survival? And what does your rude behavior have to do with radioactive cars in Japan?
Radioactive Wolves
Nature
What happens to nature after a nuclear accident? And how does wildlife deal with the world it inherits after human inhabitants have fled? Radioactive Wolves examines the state of wildlife populations in Chernobyl's exclusion zone, an area that, to this day, remains too radioactive for human ...
The Russians have turned the Chernobyl exclusion area in to a wild life reserve and are studying the effects of the radiation and contamination on the wild life. The documentary shows that except for the animals within a one mile radius of the plant the animals show no ill effects.
If you had a clue.... plutonium is heavier than lead. Cesium, on the other hand is more active, and much lighter than lead.
Get over your fears.
We all wind up dead in the end. Have a great day!
/johnny
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.