I did read it. I’m curious what the real fun stuff is and what effect a week over the ocean would have on it.
Anyone know?
The half life of Iodine-131 is 8 days, so it would be at about half of its initial strength after 8 days. It has had a few days to decay anyway, since the earthquake occurred on March 11. And if it’s coming from the spent fuel pool, then it has had more time to decay, since whenever it was originally removed from the core. Iodine-131 goes right to the thyroid gland, and it’s a beta emitter, so it does localized damage if it gets in there. If you take potassium iodide and “fill up” the thyroid so it can’t store any more Iodine, then the radioactive Iodine can’t get in. KI has side effects, though, so it’s not to be taken unless necessary.
Cesium-137 is another important fission product with a half life of 30 years. It is water soluble. I would think that since the release is occurring at a fairly low level, nothing will be able to get into the upper atmosphere/jet stream, so the dispersal wouldn’t be as severe as Chernobyl or an above-ground nuclear test. But I’m not a meteorologist, just a guy who knows something about radiation.