Posted on 03/14/2011 7:11:48 PM PDT by TennTuxedo
This was originally posted as a comment on Japan Death Toll Climbs Astronomically As Nuclear Crisis Spreads.
UPDATE: We have learned that this was written by Dr. Josef Oehmen, a research scientist at MIT. It was originally posted here.
I repeat, there was and will *not* be any significant release of radioactivity from the damaged Japanese reactors.
By "significant" I mean a level of radiation of more than what you would receive on - say - a long distance flight, or drinking a glass of beer that comes from certain areas with high levels of natural background radiation.
I have been reading every news release on the incident since the earthquake. There has not been one single report that was accurate and free of errors (and part of that problem is also a weakness in the Japanese crisis communication). By “not free of errors” I do not refer to tendentious anti-nuclear journalism – that is quite normal these days. By “not free of errors” I mean blatant errors regarding physics and natural law, as well as gross misinterpretation of facts, due to an obvious lack of fundamental and basic understanding of the way nuclear reactors are build and operated. I have read a 3 page report on CNN where every single paragraph contained an error.
We will have to cover some fundamentals, before we get into what is going on.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/japan-reactors-pose-no-risk-2011-3-1#ixzz1Gd5cH32J
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
OK, I admit that I haven’t read the whole article. But, I will say that I am not about to “stop worrying”. This is a bad situation and we’re in some uncharted waters here.
Just as a note - my understanding (as related to me by a college prof 30 years ago) is that significant amounts of radiation are released by burning coal - I believe it was because there were trace radioactive elements in all of our major coal beds. Anyone else here this or is it malarkey?
That's a pretty ignorant insult you are throwing at one in eight Americans.
Don't forget, the very site you are posting it is based in Fresno.
Thank you...from a So Cal Conservative~
Give me a break... Every one knows Kalarforina is a leftists wonderland...
BTW, I’m in Idaho so we will get it too.
Yeah...it took a cat 9.0 earthquake and a Tsunami to do this to 40+ year old nuclear power plant tech. As freaked out as people are, the plant won't be as bad as the Tsunami that caused the issue. Though with TMI, the media scaremongering caused more health damage than the radiation release.
One of the key things here is what is meant by "meltdown". "Melting" is not the same as meltdown, and "meltdown" is a whole range of things. Which one do you mean?
Yes, there are trace radioactive elements in almost everything natural. If nothing else, a carbon source such as coal will contain some C13 and C14.
My FRiend... There are many good people here. Yes, the Leftists have established a stronghold. But, just like Michael Savage who lives in Marin County (As left as you can get), I refuse to abdicate this fantastic place to them. I am fighting on.
You should have appreciation for the many conservatives in California. We're the ones on the front lines. You are back safe in ID where it's easy to find people who agree with you.
What he said is about right.
Contamination and Exposure are not the same thing. I’ve stood at many a rad check-point while a tech works to find that darn hot particle still tripping the monitor.
Guess what they use to get off....duct tape!
http://www.bt.cdc.gov/radiation/contamination.asp
“Just as a note - my understanding (as related to me by a college prof 30 years ago) is that significant amounts of radiation are released by burning coal - I believe it was because there were trace radioactive elements in all of our major coal beds. Anyone else here this or is it malarkey”
Yes but its natural background radiation which occurs in a lot of things. Anyway the scrubbers take most everything out of the coal nowadays.
There are many sources of naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM), including coal, cuttings from oil/gas well drilling, and even gypsum. Just because something is radioactive doesn;t make it dangerous - it depends on the type and level of radiation.
Here's a company which has extracted yellow cake from coal ash:
Wow, half a pound of yellowcake uranium per tonne of coal fly ash! Interesting!
That certainly puts the TVA Kingston spill into perspective - 300 acres and a riverbed inundated with fly ash slurry. About 2.6 million cubic yards of ash, or about 6,910 tons of ash, so, ~1.5 tons of uranium spilled from a coal power plant? Talk about radioactive contamination, wow.
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