Radiation leaks from Fukushima now “harmful” ["levels of up to 400 units of radiation an hour"]

Euro News ^ | 15/ 03 /11

[PeteCat]

Remember Sunshine Units?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunshine_units

[RummyChick]

Last night NHK was giving the various things that happen with the 400 millisievert exposure.

For some reason I zoned out every time.

I remember the words infertility and lymph.

[GonzoGOP]

#3 has the MOX fuel.

Thanks for the correction that the 400 milisevert spike was at #3 not #2. MOX fuel is nasty stuff to clean up due to the high plutonium content. This mess is going to take years to clean up and is going to be mind blowing expensive. If they are careful it won't cost any lives. But the precautions that avoid the loss of life are also going to add to the cleanup costs.

[GonzoGOP]

It is important to remember that that chart is REMs per year. While the radiation measurements coming out last night was measured in per hour. And doses are cumulative. So while short exposures aren't dangerous you wouldn't want to work in a place where you were pulling 3 REM per hour.

[RummyChick]

Officials on now saying that the new earthquake has nothing to do with the big one last week.

English speaking news reporter using the word “DENIED” it has anything to do with the one last week.

Interesting choice of words.

They keep saying no damage in the area except cups falling from a cupboard. That is hilarious to me that this is the damage they are focusing on.

[gunsequalfreedom]

What are the health effects of exposure to these levels of radiation? I heard reports of liver damage, especially for those that already have liver problems.

[RummyChick]

Okay showing some guy at a store and you see goods on the floor and wine and bottles broken..

So more damage than just cups on the cupboard....

[GonzoII]

From the link to Daily Mail Post #6:

"Experts said the nightmare scenario at Fukushima was of a meltdown which triggers a massive build-up of pressure inside the containment unit. If the unit cracks, a plume of radioactive dust and gas would spill hundreds of miles into the air."

My question would be could we theoretically have enough radioactivity in such a plume that could be carried to the West Coast of the US by wind and cause any serious concerns or could is dispers?

Thanks.

[Scythian]

What are the health effects of exposure to these levels of radiation? I heard reports of liver damage, especially for those that already have liver problems.

25-100 Rem...some sickness, not disabling

100-200 Rem...nausea, vomiting, 1% reduction in life expectancy

200-300 Rem....probable recovery in 3 months

300-600 Rem...Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea in first few hours. After a latent period of a week, loss of hair, malaise, fever, progressing to hemorrhage and emaciation in the third week.

500 Rem, 50% die in 2 to 6 weeks.

600 Rem...Almost all those exposed die within weeks.

[bunkerhill7]

Chinese dirty a-bomb radioactive clouds have reached as far as New York State-

check it out October 16, 1964, 1968 NY Times

[GonzoGOP]

A BWR isn't likely to explode that way. They would do a controlled pressure release long before the containment vessel bursts. You wouldn't want to be within 20 km when they did that. However the west coast is 8000 km away. Even Chernobyl, a carbon core reactor that exploded and burned, only spread .1 REM of radiation 800 kilometers. A BWR can't throw particulate at nearly the same rate as a carbon core so that is worse than the worst case for these reactors.

Basically I wouldn't want to live close to the plant. I sure as heck wouldn't want to be one of the workers or firemen who are getting enough radiation to make them sick in only a few hours. But 8000 KM away in Los Angeles you are getting a lot more radiation from a day at the beach than you will get from this plant.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Chinese dirty a-bomb radioactive clouds have reached as far as New York State-

Yes, as a kid growing up in Pennsylvania, I remember my mom freaking out every time the Chinese announced a bomb test. She would not let us drink milk for some period of time, etc.

[RummyChick]

No one has answered - that I can find - what the defect is in the containment vessel of Reactor 2. So if the rods completely melt down and there is a crack - that is what you have to worry about.

To get to West Coast - I have seen various answers. Number 2 had been running at the time of the quake.

My big concern is with the one that has MOX fuel. You have surplus weapons grade plutonium used for fuel. It runs hotter. IIRC, it was running at the time of the quake.

I think there would be an issue on the West coast with reactor 3.

But you get a lot of people on this site that claim that the West Coast would have no problem even if they all blew up.

I don’t believe them.

[RummyChick]

Would the same be true if the Mox fuel reactor totally melted down and there was a crack.

[bvw]

If you could where and when did that happen? What were you wearing? What was the rad source? Do you get your blood tested regularly? Sorry to lay into you, but your situation is not at all common.

[mrsmith]

http://altjapan.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/03/should-i-stay-or-should-i-go.html
“...The peak releas at the plant of 400 milliseiverts (400,000 microseverts) was recorded in a single instant right next to the reactor.
The theory (corroborated by government sopkesperson Edano in his press conference) is that this reading came from a portion of the concrete outer building of the reactor that blew out from the explosion - it likely absorbed a much larger amount than anywhere else.

Fact remains that at MAX peak (approx 9:30 AM) the reading at the gate of the plant was 12 milliseverts (12,000 microseverts) at a location just tens of meters away from the reactor. These levels soon decreased (see Tepco graph http://c0013684.cdn1.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/x2_50402b0).
...
link shows the readings at the front gate of the plant, tens of meters from the reactor.
As we can see, the reading has dropped to 489.8 microseiverts/h (0.4898 milliseiverts/h) by 4:30 PM. [local time]

Even at these readings, you would have to stand in front of the plant for 14 hours to absorb enough radiation to equal 1 chest CT scan.”

[Professional]

Ok, I tapped into hourly press releases from Tokyo Electric, and here is what it states. Wtf?

Same message for all 4 plants.

Stable power, stable water levels, maintained temp at 100c, no coolant leakage.

http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/11031507-e.html

[VeniVidiVici]

But 8000 KM away in Los Angeles you are getting a lot more radiation from a day at the beach than you will get from this plant.

Sorry, but you're not playing correctly. We're going to have a nuke disaster here whether you like it or not.

Hurricanes, Chernobyl and Mad Cow have made me just a tad cynical.

[chimera]

MOX fuel isn't a bogeyman. It contains about 7% Pu, which is comparable, or less, than what is in conventional uranium fuel near the end of a fuel cycle.

What is important in a LWR accident is the source term, what is in the release and how much. One component of that is the fission product spectrum. While MOX has some minor differences in fission product spectrum, it is essentially the same as what you get from uranium. You get some noble gases (85Kr, 133Xe), some reactive elements like 137Cs and 131I, and a few other things. Of these, most likely to be in a downwind plume are the noble gases, since those aren't chemically reactive. Because of this, you get submersion dose more than internal dose (i.e., they don't accumulate in the body).

Iodine is low boiling point so it can vaporize and become an airborne contaminant. That is why KI pills are indicated in this kind of release. Cs and I and Sr are chemically active and can get into the food chain, which is the primary ingestion pathway. So you have to limit consumption of food products in the affected areas.

[GonzoGOP]

Would the same be true if the Mox fuel reactor totally melted down and there was a crack.

Yes, It would still be localized, but the damage in the contaminated area would be a whole lot worse. Plutonium takes thousands of years to break down and it is almost instantly lethal the whole time. Cleaning it up would be nearly impossible. They may just have to wall off the area.

It was the burning carbon core at Chernobyl that threw all the particulate up into the atmosphere. We just don't have that kind of combustibles available in a BWR plant. You end up with some very radioactive melted metal at the bottom of the plant, but not the plume that the wind can carry.

Now the storage pools can burn since they have no containment at all. But again no carbon to turn it into a blast furnace. If those go up property values in Tokyo 250 KM away might go down a bit. But LA is still quite safe.