“Radiation inside the reactor 2 containment vessel at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant has reached a lethal 73 sieverts per hour and any attempt to send robots in to accurately gauge the situation will require them to have greater resistance than currently available, experts said Wednesday.
Exposure to 73 sieverts for a minute would cause nausea and seven minutes would cause death within a month, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said.
The experts said the high radiation level is due to the shallow level of coolant water — 60 cm — in the containment vessel, which Tepco said in January was believed to be 4 meters deep. Tepco has only peeked inside the reactor 2 containment vessel. It has few clues as to the status of reactors 1 and 3, which also suffered meltdowns, because there is no access to their insides.
The utility said the radiation level in the reactor 2 containment vessel is too high for robots, endoscopes and other devices to function properly.”
I am not questioning the severity of the damaged Fukushima nuclear facility, just the sensationalism of folks here in the U.S.A. claiming radiation from that facility is killing Americans and poisoning food.
There is more than a whiff of anti-nuke hysteria at SHTF.com, and this particular article is no way near the worst. The following is from the posted article:
“When news of the disaster first emerged we warned, contrary to mainstream experts, that it could be much worse than the Chernobyl accident of the 1980s, that no containment would be possible for at least a few years, and radiation levels across North America would sky rocket. A year on, we are seeing adverse impacts on ocean water throughout the Pacific, and ground levels of radioactive contaminants are well beyond safety thresholds for potable water, food, and soil.”
The following is from another article at SHTF.com - http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/the-radiation-warnings-you-wont-get-from-the-mainstream-propaganda-machine_04022012
“Infant mortality rates across the United States have increased by more than 35% since the nuclear disaster, according to a court statement by Dr. with independent scientist Leuren Moret, MA, PhD. A study published in The International Journal of Medicine indicates that more than 20,000 deaths right here in North America can be directly attributed to the release of radioactive material from Fukushima.”
“20,ooo deaths right here in North America...” what unmitigated bee-ess!
Three Mile Island resulted in ZERO deaths. There were 57 deaths directly attributable to the incident at Chernobyl, with an estimated 4,000 deaths due to cancer in the future caused by radioactive fallout from Chernobyl. I haven’t noticed any increase in infant mortality rates in my community, and we’re in southwest Washington State just 50 miles from the Pacific Ocean.