Posted on 01/14/2014 11:48:26 AM PST by dirtboy
In March of 2011, an undersea earthquake sent tsunamis thundering across Japan, killing nearly 20,000 people and creating the most expensive natural disaster in history. Among the casualities was the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, which was almost completely submerged by the tsunamis; an unprecedented event. Power was lost (obviously), cooling systems stopped, and the net result was a complete meltdown of three of the plant's reactor cores. It was a perfect storm of worst case scenarios. And now, even years afterward, some are calling it a worldwide radiation disaster, worse than even Chernobyl, that will produce a staggering death count for decades or even centuries. Today we're going to evaluate these assertions and see if we can separate fact from fiction.
With the shocking end-of-the-world-scenario headlines — such as "Your Days of Eating Pacific Ocean Fish Are Over" and "28 Signs That The West Coast Is Being Absolutely Fried With Nuclear Radiation From Fukushima" — either Fukushima was the worst environmental disaster ever, or some of the worst misinformation ever is being trumpeted. To find out which, we'll put it into context with the two other best known nuclear disasters: the 1986 explosion of a reactor at the Chernobyl plant in the Ukraine, and the 1979 partial meltdown of a reactor at the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania.
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Our planet's entropy has, long ago, already rid itself of any credible threat from the Fukushima radiation, outside of the immediate evacuation zone. Fishing has long been suspended from Daiichi's vicinity, so there is no way that eating a legally caught fish can give you any significant Fukushima radiation.
The Fukushima disaster will probably end up being the most expensive industrial accident and cleanup in history, but it has certainly not been among the most dangerous, thanks largely to Japan's prompt action. The newest World Health Organization assessment concludes:
...No discernible increase in health risks from the Fukushima event is expected outside Japan. With respect to Japan, this assessment estimates that the lifetime risk for some cancers may be somewhat elevated above baseline rates in certain age and sex groups that were in the areas most affected.
Clearly it wasn't good, but if you want to be able to develop proper response plans, you have to understand the correct facts about the situation. Absurdly exaggerated and sensationalized reports do not help anyone; rather they increase confusion, and decrease our ability to respond to such events appropriately.
The article badly mischaracterizes the Three-Mile Island accident, treating it as steam generator tube rupture, when it was actually a small-break LOCA, in effect.
LOL!!
You’ve never been in a neutral position on the nuclear power question, at least not on Free Republic.
Firstly, Fukushima’s nuclear operations successfully shutdown post-earthquake. What happened after that, being destroyed by a tsunami, was not the fault of the plant’s operators and is not a nuclear accident.
The coolant systems were destroyed. Nuclear fuel gets very hot unless it is cooled, usually by water. However, after a period of time (I believe it is two or three years) the fuel can be set out in plain air and cooled in that manner. That is how spent fuel is stored at decomisioned Nuclear Plants like the former Trojan Nuclear facility at Goble, Oregon.
Was there a meltdown? Big f****** deal. I don’t care. The fuel isn’t going anywhere.
“But, but,...there is a big plume of radiation coming out of Fukushima and killing tens of thousands of people on the west coast of the US!!!”
I remember reading that here on Free Republic and responded very calmly — no. There haven’t been deaths in the US due to radiation from Fukushima. It is not happening.
I eat clams from Willapa Bay in southwest Washington State. I also eat wild salmon caught at sea off the northwest’s coastline as well as from the Columbia River. I have the means to test for the presence of radioactivity, and the seafood I just mentioned is not dangerous to eat.
Note: all seafood has a level of radioactivity. It is normal and States periodically check for it.
The report I read stated that the reactor at Chernobyl was graphite cooled.
So, it was the graphite that caught fire. The photos from that time are very graphic, showing flames leaping in the shattered reactor vessel.
The greatest harm experienced as a consequence of the TMI incident was the mental angst engendered by overblown, semi-hysterical press accounts.
TMI had a failure of the pilot-operated relief valve on the pressurizer along with the associated instrumentation which showed the valve had closed.
http://www.threemileisland.org/science/what_went_wrong/
There was one operating successfully for several years at Oak Ridge in the 1960s.
The thorium approach was abandoned because it didn’t produce materials for nuclear weapons.
I agree. The failure of the pilot-operated relief valve to close was effectively a small-break Loss of Coolant Accident.
For what it is worth, I spent about eight hours the Sunday following the accident (which occurred the previous Wednesday) analyzing data from the TMI site.
No, actually I suspect that the U-233 bred in a thorium reactor would make a dandy weapons pit.
That may be; I don’t know a whole lot about thorium reactors.
It’s my understanding that they were considered to be less compatible with the US nuclear weapons programs than were uranium-based and plutonium-based reactors.
Safer than Fission wrt radiation.
Good point. Fusion has certainly had a lot of opportunity and money already.
I was referring to radiation.
Just so the rest of you know, prior to the radiation leak... “justa-hairyape” had a comb over. : )
Really? Then explain why the United States never used Light Water reactors to produce weapons materials.
You said there was no explosion. There was and without a containment vessel, radioactive material was vented. Over 1 million people have died from this. I don’t use Wikipedia.
If you are talking about Chernobyl, I’ve already explained how the reactor was breached. The nuclear fuel did not explode.
The number who have died due to Chernobyl: 31 so far.
I don’t know the details.
The explanation I’ve heard for the discontinuation of the US government thorium reactor program was that it was somehow inconsistent with the rest of the uranium/plutonium activities, which were oriented towards weapon production.
Wow. Only 5 lies in your response. Early on in the Fukushima accident, within a week or two, I stated here on Freerepublic what my position was, neutral. And I stated that how the nuclear industry responds to this accident would determine what side off the fence I would end up on. Can dig up the post for you if you like. The reason I am now anti-nuke, is because of responses just like yours. You do not even care if it melted down. That is criminal behavior coming from a nuclear shill. Hope to god you are not currently working at a nuke plant.
We know now that the earthquake caused mortal damage to the Fukushima reactors. That damage busted the cooling piping that the fire engine cooling hoses were trying to use. Yes the tsunami took out the generators, but the earthquake damage was the mortal blow.
And of course you are lying about not caring about a meltdown. You are required by law to care.
And another lie is no deaths in US. It is impossible to know that.
Oh and while you are eating your salmon and clams, you probably should at least be aware that China has banned all shell fish from the northeastern Pacific. First time ever. And there are currently bans on certain species of shell fish from that region. Bans by the US and Canadian governments.
Next time read the tag line.
You are full of crapola. How sad!
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